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smalltimereads) wrote2021-05-01 07:17 pm
smalltimereads) wrote2021-05-01 07:17 pm
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Review: The Tangleroot Palace: Stories by Marjorie Liu
The Tangleroot Palace: Stories is published by Tachyon Publications. I received this advanced reader's copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. (Side note- may have gone a little nuts when I discovered Netgalley. Whoops. Going to review everything but need to remind myself that just because I can get something doesn't necessarily mean I should.)
The cover for The Tangleroot Palace immediately caught my eye- Sana Takeda is a wonderful artist- and when I saw that Marjorie Liu was the author, I knew I wanted to read this book. I haven't read as much Monstress as I'd like, but I've read enough to want more by Liu.
This collection of stories is a quick read, with the titular story, a novella, at the end. All the stories seemed to deal with loneliness, in some fashion- often loneliness alleviated by love, but not always. I'm not sure whether this was intentional, but it added a cohesiveness to the collection that I think worked. I would also like to thank Liu for the older protagonists in some of the stories- I love reading about older women, especially in fantasy. Another thing I really liked about the collection was her notes at the end of each story about why she wrote each one, and how she often side-stepped whatever the prompt was for those stories written for prompts.
"The Briar and the Rose" was a lovely take on the Sleeping Beauty story. I loved Briar (hot older lady!) and Rose's curse was really interesting and well done. The ending hinted at their future together in such a delightful way, too.
"Where the Heart Is" was also lovely. I'm a sucker for characters finding homes for themselves, and all the relationships were just so good. The idea of pining for a person so long they become an idea is also one that really interests me, and I would have loved to read more about Maude and Henry's time together.
The stand-out story, to me, was 'The Last Dignity of Man.' I've been a comics fan since high school, and so I loved that element of it, but the heart of the story- a man who is desperately lonely, who wants to be a super-villain but also tries to be good- broke my own heart. I want to wallpaper my house with copies of this story.
"The Tangleroot Palace" novella was charming, and really nailed a lot of standard fairy tale tropes. It didn't really turn any on their head, but that's more than fine- sometimes you just want a good fairy tale, and this delivered. Sally and Mickel were a cute couple, and I loved their ending.
All the stories in this collection were good, but the above were the ones I liked most. I'd love to read more from Liu (and I really should catch up on Monstress).
The cover for The Tangleroot Palace immediately caught my eye- Sana Takeda is a wonderful artist- and when I saw that Marjorie Liu was the author, I knew I wanted to read this book. I haven't read as much Monstress as I'd like, but I've read enough to want more by Liu.
This collection of stories is a quick read, with the titular story, a novella, at the end. All the stories seemed to deal with loneliness, in some fashion- often loneliness alleviated by love, but not always. I'm not sure whether this was intentional, but it added a cohesiveness to the collection that I think worked. I would also like to thank Liu for the older protagonists in some of the stories- I love reading about older women, especially in fantasy. Another thing I really liked about the collection was her notes at the end of each story about why she wrote each one, and how she often side-stepped whatever the prompt was for those stories written for prompts.
"The Briar and the Rose" was a lovely take on the Sleeping Beauty story. I loved Briar (hot older lady!) and Rose's curse was really interesting and well done. The ending hinted at their future together in such a delightful way, too.
"Where the Heart Is" was also lovely. I'm a sucker for characters finding homes for themselves, and all the relationships were just so good. The idea of pining for a person so long they become an idea is also one that really interests me, and I would have loved to read more about Maude and Henry's time together.
The stand-out story, to me, was 'The Last Dignity of Man.' I've been a comics fan since high school, and so I loved that element of it, but the heart of the story- a man who is desperately lonely, who wants to be a super-villain but also tries to be good- broke my own heart. I want to wallpaper my house with copies of this story.
"The Tangleroot Palace" novella was charming, and really nailed a lot of standard fairy tale tropes. It didn't really turn any on their head, but that's more than fine- sometimes you just want a good fairy tale, and this delivered. Sally and Mickel were a cute couple, and I loved their ending.
All the stories in this collection were good, but the above were the ones I liked most. I'd love to read more from Liu (and I really should catch up on Monstress).