In Beyond Grimm, illustrated short stories twist traditional fairy tales that over the years were sanitized by reducing the violence so they could be read to children. Some of the Beyond Grimm stories are simple, others more thought-provoking, but all of them restore for adults the fun of reading about fanciful characters who are demented, bloodsucking, and in the end get what they deserve. And the nursery rhymes you remember from childhood? Beyond Grimm inverts them, the promise of peaceful sleep becoming the sound of unease or maybe something a little darker-the melody of dread as you fear hearing whispers or a thin voice from inside your bedroom wall.
In Beyond Grimm, illustrated short stories twist traditional fairy tales that over the years were sanitized by reducing the violence so they could be read to children. Some of the Beyond Grimm stories are simple, others more thought-provoking, but all of them restore for adults the fun of reading about fanciful characters who are demented, bloodsucking, and in the end get what they deserve. And the nursery rhymes you remember from childhood? Beyond Grimm inverts them, the promise of peaceful sleep becoming the sound of unease or maybe something a little darker-the melody of dread as you fear hearing whispers or a thin voice from inside your bedroom wall.
She had other hoods. Every full moon she slipped off the raven one and danced naked in the woods.
The yellow hood’s brightness turned the slow-moving stream near her mother’s cottage into frothing, scalding water, boiling the fish alive and releasing a rainbow arc of pathogens from the decomposing fawn’s head stuck in streambed mud.
The red hood had its purpose. She wore it when angry.
While holding a skinned rabbit in one hand and a bloody butcher’s knife in the other, her mother again told her not to take a shortcut through the woods.
“You know it’s dangerous.”
Little Red put on her red hood, then slammed the cottage door behind her. Stomping through the dark forest of hanging spiders, gleefully squashing large slugs with her bare feet, she suddenly stopped.
“What’s in the basket, little girl?” the Wolf asked in a soft purring voice.
“Rolls. Freshly baked. Don’t they smell good! You can have one.”
“No wine or cake, too bad,” the Wolf sighed, adjusted his pink bowtie, and smiled, all fangs.
“I’m going to my grandmother’s house,” Little Red said. “She never gets out of bed, just sleeps and eats. Pieces of her would go down easy, you’d hardly have to chew, she’s as soft as butter. We’ll make a game of it. Gobble her up, put on her nightgown, and when I get there, I’ll pretend I don’t know it’s you. I’ll say, ‘Grandmother, what big eyes you have.’ Won’t that be fun. You won’t eat me because you’ll be full from eating her. She must weigh 200 pounds. You’ll have lots of leftover meat!”
“I like to snack,” the Wolf answered, and with a large bite swallowed Little Red.
A Woodsman saw what had happened and sliced the Wolf down the middle. When Little Red stepped out, he dropped his ax and ran.
Deformed by the Wolf’s stomach acid, her melted flesh dangling from bones nattily dressed in shreds of her red hood, Little Red waited in the forest for people to eat.
Her mother, out hunting rabbits, was the first.
The Woodsman found in Little Red something transcending physical appearance. He saw the beauty in her soul. In love with her, he brought her dinner by guiding mushroom hunters to where she was waiting.
Grandmother sewed the Wolf back up. They married, drank wine and ate cake together in bed. On Sundays, they played euchre with the Woodsman and Little Red.
Everyone, except those eaten, lived happily ever after.
As the sub-heading states, Beyond Grimm is a collection of short stories and rhymes from the dark corners of fairytale. These twisted and macabre versions of classic fairy tales and nursey rhymes are aimed at adults.
Alan S Kessler takes well-known tales and rhymes such as Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and Humpty Dumpty and gives them a nightmare-ish gothic makeover. Even knowing what to expect I was still surprised by how quickly the stories turned grizzly.
My favourite types of stories in the collection were the ones that offered an alternate explanation for the villain’s actions. For example ‘The Four Little Pigs’ asks: what if the wolf was working for a fourth pig who wanted to take out his competitors. Meanwhile ‘Shepherd Boy’ suggests that maybe the boy who cried wolf had a reason for summoning the beast.
The texts within this book range from single page rhymes, flash fiction and short stories. At less than 130 pages, the quick pace of the stories together with their easy to consume length means that Beyond Grimm is a fun, satisfying collection to read.
I have to take a moment to mention Kali Kahn and her amazing artwork. The black and white designs appear before each story and feature to either a character or scene from the upcoming tale. It is very difficult to choose but if I had to pick a favourite it would either be the adorable fluffy lamb that is tonally in complete opposition to the blood-soaked ‘Lamb Chop’ rhyme or ‘The Frog Prince’ image for the wonderful detail in the character’s outfits and the ornate furniture behind them.
Although it is the nature of a short story to be brief I did find that some of the stories ended quite abruptly. In tales such as ‘Little Red’ and ‘Hans and Gerta’ there was a good dramatic build up followed by a very sudden conclusion. While a lot of the stories allow the reader’s imagination to fill in what happens next there were some that I wished had painted in more detail during the final paragraphs.
While Beyond Grimm’s dark and gory retellings likely won’t appeal to every reader they nevertheless provide a hauntingly enjoyable look at what could have happened if our favourite fairy tale characters had chosen different, more bloody, paths.