Black-Winged Angels by Angela Slatter

I would like to thank PS Publishing for a copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – PS Publishing

Published – Out Now

Price – £14.99 paperback

With beautiful silhouette illustrations by the amazing multiple World Fantasy Award nominee Kathleen Jennings, Black-Winged Angels collects the nine reworked/reloaded fairytales for adult readers and the story “Flight” from the original 2014 Ticonderoga Publications edition. In addition, this edition includes “The Mer-Pearl” written specifically for the Dutch limited edition of the novel All the Murmuring Bones plus appendices including story notes, critical explanations or interpretations of the text and a bibliography

The concept of fairy tales is ever evolving. Growing up they are what we were told as we go to sleep or to watch various versions typically with song and dance numbers inserted. They seem bright and colourful entertainment. As we get older, we start to see some of the issues lurking behind the tales especially for young women and then as adults we have many revised versions to explore. It’s a rich field in fantasy from authors such as T Kingfisher, Terry Pratchett and more all playing with themes and social issues. Now Angela Slatter another author well known for their ability to play with folk tales has had a re-issued version of their 2014 limited edition collection Black-Winged Angels which combines nine revised tales with part of the original MA that these tales came from creating a really interesting mix of fiction and analysis.

The collection beautifully illustrated by Kathleen Jennings starts with ‘The Little Match Girl’ but this is not a tale of a poor girl everyone leaves in the snow. Here our main character is in prison, and the matches make us flash back to the events that brought her there. There is a sense of darker magic, a desire to survive and ultimately a woman not prepared to let society tell her what to do just based on her sex and social status. It has a powerful rawness and energy leading to a powerful final scene. AS some one who has never found the charm of the original tale, I’m all for this version staring the world down.

‘Red Skein’ tells us of Matilda whose mother does not want her hanging around in the woods with her grandmother, but Mathilda grows into being woman who very much wants to live her life leading to family conflict. Slatter here used Red Riding Hood with an approach of a woman growing into her own power, being comfortable with sex and independence and defying her parent. Its got moments of passion, horror and yet the emotional turmoil of the women’s relationships also hits home very well.

‘The Girl With No Hands’ is a fascinating story where the Devil decides to effectively break one girl’s entire life. One tragedy after another and her pureness of heart keeps her going. In some ways a classic tale format but the lengths the Devil goes to get examined in more adult terms with death, betrayal and disfigurement all brought to life. Not a tale where I was familiar with the origin story so this one did keep me guessing where it would eventually end up and it’s a fascinating battle of sin versus kindness.

‘Light as Mist, Heavy As Hope’ quickly tells us of a man boasting that his daughter can spin gold out of straw. This version of a classic tale though really focuses on poor Alice whose father and a definitely cruel king all start to inflict upon her. The solution here though has a touch of horror to it…no I won’t spoil the scene but love here can go beyond the grave so this very much is dark fairytale where ethe woman must rescue herself and her only daughter.

Pressina’s Daughters is a tale of family tragedy. A powerful goddess finds her children have acted to protect her and in anger she punishes each of them. We then get told their fates and how they are either doomed to repeat the curses laid down on them or their escapes are of a limited nature. It’s a melancholy set of tales all being played out no matter if their mother now has some regrets.

‘The Juniper Tree’ is a fascinating macabre tale of a stepmother, two sisters and a truly grisly murder. What makes it stand out is the exploration of relationships, the stepsisters actually getting on is a neat revision and even the villain we at least get to understand. Despite all the horror I the story it even has a (sort of) happy ending. I loved this one.

‘The Danger of Warmth’ tells us of the Snow Queen awaiting the heroine of the story to find and defeat her in order to get her brother back. Here though we have a decidedly adult version and Slatter makes us sympathize with the Queen who is finding companionship. A tale of loneliness, acceptance and yet Slatter in this quite familiar tale has a different and refreshing angle on what happens next.

‘Bluebeard’ is very much a tale with many versions of it and here Slatter’s short story unusually tells us of a the daughter of a woman that Bluebeard is seducing. There are familiar elements such as keys and searches, but Slatter’s tale also explores the casual sexism of a world that sees woman as prizes for their bodies not their minds and the finale here is gruesome and surprising that gives it much more of a feminist outlook. The gothic approach really works here.

‘The Bone Mother’ has a new version of Baba Yaga and one here who isn’t simply a wick ed witch but has a family and a sense of loss behind her. I really like the depth the story adds to a character I think now is getting a much-needed re-examination that she has never been quite as one note as versions in the 20th century were trying to tell us.

‘Flight’ is an impressive story of a young woman tricked into being changed into a bird and then Slatter deepens with the tale with a saga of two warring sisters. Here we get various familiar elements of fairy tales being played with and yet this very much feels something new and interesting and ultimately a tale of choosing your own direction not just what is being crafted for you. Perhaps the tale that very much feels like the novelist I’m most familiar with in the Sourdough tales.

The final tale is ‘The Mer-Pearl’, a very short tale of a young mermaid who is betrayed and imprisoned and her solution to escape is smart and has huge consequences for those who try to keep her A very nice dark finale to the tales.

There then follows a series of afterwards and parts of the original MA all exploring both the craft of writing these tales but also the tradition the stories same from and this was really interesting. We get the inspirations behind each for Slatter and discussions on the choices to vary the above tales but also we have a history of how the codified fairy tales we perhaps now know most were being adapted by men with all their own agendas on how women should act and perceive – the way women all lose their voices in the revised tales is a fascinating fact. This Slatter then explores with the revisionist work of Angela Carter and Emma Donoghue as 20th century feminist storytellers which Slatter explores the strengths and weakness of their work and then really interesting how Slatter found the stories she made in response to those two writers again and how some choices could be made differently and yet sometimes the format of the original tale still took her down a path she was trying to resist. For those of us who like criticism this is a really interesting mix of literary history but also exploring the creative process of mixing influences and then creating new stories in response that I found very engaging and informative.

Black-Winged Angels is a collection of stories and essays that while dealing with a subject that in many ways we are all familiar with at least one aspect should find much to enjoy  with plenty of new tales both in story and the analysis of how these stories work and have changed over time (and sometimes do not) that fans of revised fairy and folk tales should very much be looking for on their own shelves. Highly recommended!