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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rare and Powerful Stories, May 23, 2008
This review is from: Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand (Hardcover)
Lush, Buoyant, Terrifying, and Heartbreaking. What Hawes has accomplished with her new collection of stories, Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand, is nothing short of Brilliant! This is not just a retelling of the oldest and most cherished fairy tales you heard as a child, but a bold and breathtaking re-envisioning of such memorable stories as the Pied Piper, and Hansel and Gretel. Through Hawes' powerful imagination and stunning prose, these stories have "grown up," infused with a mature and wondrous new charm.
At first glance you won't recognize the names of the stories in the Table of Contents; Hawes has chosen to rename her tales. But for those of you intimately familiar with these unforgettable classics, you will not be far into Hawes' first story, "Dame Nigran's Tower," before you recognize the theme of Rapunzel. But what's different is that Hawes has chosen to tell the story from the witch's point of view, and not the horrible witch from the original tale who was so easy to hate and fear with her warts and pointy nose and bony hands, but a beautiful witch who risks her magical ability to fly for a chance to experience the power of human love. These are compassionate, sophisticated stories that will hold you spellbound for hours, long after you've put the book down.
But be warned: not everyone in these stories lives happily ever after. Through the vehicle of these re-imagined tales, Hawes' artfully exposes human nature in all its forms--at once raw and devastating, then beautiful and courageous--unwilling to take false paths for happier solutions. Hawes stays true to the story she's fashioned, committed to the characters she's shaped, faithfully following them through the dismal, dank forest if that's where they lead. But even at their darkest, these stories manage to lift you up with their boundless energy and daring, their genius and empathy, their unwavering heart and soul.
Hawes is known for her virtuosic writing and her ease of transitioning between genres, producing YA Novels, Middle Grade Novels and Picture Books, and several short fiction collections. Her work has garnered awards from the Children's Book Council, the Young Adult Library Services Association, the Center for Children's Books, the New York Public Library, and the International Reading Association. It is due to her amazing command of language and literary genius that Hawes is able to imbue these mature stories with fairy tale magic. Through the enchantment of Hawes' magnificent prose, I was transported back in time, not to my own childhood, but a realm where time has never existed, and yet, in terms of human spirit, not so different from today.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
lovely as petal, sharp as thorn, August 23, 2008
This review is from: Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand (Hardcover)
Once upon a time, there was a woman who was so caught up in a book that she did nothing all day but read it, from cover to cover.
_Black Pearls_ is a gem. Louise Hawes' dark, sensual fairy tale retellings and Rebecca Guay's evocative illustrations work perfectly together to form one of the best books of retold tales that I've ever read. I checked this out from the library, but I've resolved that I simply must have a copy of my own to treasure.
Hawes' prose is perfect for the genre. Her writing is beautiful without being heavy, and she has a talent for conveying visceral images in arch, elegant turns of phrase. She's also got a knack for metaphors. They're sometimes unexpected, sometimes familiar, and always perfectly fitting for the character who thinks them. (Rapunzel's witch compares hatred to poisonous mushrooms, Gretel notes that her angry stepmother is "set and stiff as beaten cream," and one of the seven dwarfs sees a bedraggled Snow White as a diamond that has not yet been cut.) My favorite metaphor in the book comes from the Snow White retelling as well: "watching the orange village at the bottom of the fire tumble into ruin".
My favorite among the tales is "Evelyn's Song," which tells the story of the golden singing harp from Jack and the Beanstalk. It's a haunting tale of servitude and freedom. The other stories, too, look at the old tales from new angles and explore the tangled emotions that lurk within the archetypes.
I would recommend this collection to anyone who enjoyed the Datlow/Windling fairy tale series, Tanith Lee's _Red as Blood_, and though Hawes sets her tales in "once upon a time" rather than our time, Francesca Lia Block's _The Rose and the Beast_.
...And she read happily ever after.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect Title for Story Gems, May 31, 2008
This review is from: Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand (Hardcover)
The intriguing title is perfect for this collection of "twisted" fairy tales. (The lustrous pearl, once considered the "Queen of Gemstones," was valued above the lives of enslaved divers - men whose lifespans were cut short by the dangers of the dive.) In this story collection, Hawes transforms seven fairy tales with her magical pen: Rapunzel; The Pied Piper; Hansel and Gretel; Cinderella; Jack and the Beanstalk; Snow White; Lady Godiva.
The reader enters the backdoor of the moldering palaces of our childhood, drawn by Hawes's evocative wording and dream-inspired characters. Behind overgrown hedges of blood-red blossoms and menacing thorns, we find complicated emotions - forbidden love, desperate longing, suicidal despair, wrenching guilt.
The richly-detailed, black-and-white illustrations are a fine complement to the luscious wording. This short story collection would be a fine addition to a classroom library for teens. It would make a splendid gift for an imaginative teen reader/writer. Leave an extra copy on the night-table of your guest bedroom.
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