Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses [Hardcover]

Ron Koertge (Author), Andrea Dezso (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: July 10, 2012

Writing in free verse honed to a wicked edge, the incomparable Ron Koertge brings dark and contemporary humor to twenty iconic fairy tales.

Once upon a time, there was a strung-out match girl who sold CDs to stoners. Twelve impetuous sisters escaped King Daddy’s clutches to jiggle and cavort and wear out their shoes. A fickle Thumbelina searched for a tiny husband, leaving bodies in her wake. And Little Red Riding Hood confessed that she kind of wanted to know what it’s like to be swallowed whole. From bloodied and blinded stepsisters (they were duped) to a chopped-off finger flying into a heroine’s cleavage, this is fairy tale world turned upside down. Ron Koertge knows what really happened to all those wolves and maidens, ogres and orphans, kings and piglets, and he knows about the Ever After. So come closer
— he wants to whisper in your ear.

Editorial Reviews

Review

With sardonic wit and a decidedly contemporary sensibility, Koertge retells 23 classic fairy tales in free verse, written from the perspectives of iconic characters like Little Red Riding Hood, as well as maligned or minor figures such as the Mole from Thumbelina and Cinderella’s stepsisters... A fiendishly clever and darkly funny collection.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A much-honored poet and novelist retells, in free verse and from various points of view, twenty-three familiar tales (mostly Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault). With a contemporary sensibility and voice, Koertge pitches directly to teenagers. . . Dezsö’s choice of cut-paper illustrations is brilliant, a nod to Hans C. Andersen’s skill in that medium despite the radically different tone.
—The Horn Book (starred review)

The poems beg to be shared aloud, like the best gossip. The sensibilities are wry, often dark, and the language is occasionally earthy... This slim volume is at once simple and sophisticated, witty and unnerving.
—School Library Journal

About the Author

Ron Koertge is the author of many award-winning novels, including Stoner & Spaz and its sequel, Now Playing: Stoner & Spaz II; Shakespeare Bats Cleanup; Strays; Deadville; Margaux with an X; The Brimstone Journals; and The Arizona Kid. A two-time winner of the PEN Literary Award for Children's Literature, he lives in South Pasadena, California.

Andrea Dezsö is a visual artist and writer who works across a broad range of media. She is a full-time faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art and lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (July 10, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763644064
• ISBN-13: 978-0763644062
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 0.5 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark and Grim but Completely Enjoyable August 20, 2012

By Melanie McCullough

Format:Hardcover

This isn't usually my thing. I like Fairy Tale retellings but I like them in novel form, with a lot of plot and character development. Short stories have never appealed to me. That being said, I actually enjoyed Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses. It's clever and the humor is dark. And I like my fairy tales dark.

Though my ARC didn't have the beautiful cover art you see above, there was art on the inside, each drawing perfectly suited to the story. It's a quick read. The stories are short and grim, sometimes shocking, but never simply for the sake of being grim or shocking. They're purposeful and expertly written. I will say that it is definitely intended for an older, more mature YA audience. It wasn't exactly the kind of story I would want to share with my preteen aged neice.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Review from The Book Rat July 16, 2012

By Misty Braden

Format:Hardcover

When I came across this one in my preparations for Fairy Tale Fortnight, I was immediately struck by the dark and direct tone of the cover, and took it as an indication of the tales found inside. In some ways this is what I got: the retellings are gritty and dark and very pared down, stripped of any residual fairy dust and ball gowns. Koertge plays on the original tales, in all their dark and twisted glory, but he also plays with our Disneyfied modern expectations.

But even though Koertge did sort of give me what I was expecting, it somehow managed to not be quite what I wanted. The book is very brief, tackling 23 different tales in less than 100 pages, including illustrations and title pages for each story. This means each story averages about 2 pages of well-spaced text or free-verse, and this means Koertge only has the space of a few blinks of the eye to make an impression with each story - blink and it's over...

I will say, I think Koertge certainly tried to create memorable, concrete images that would linger with the reader, plunging straight into the heart of each with a wry, jaded style. There's also a really good mix of well-known and little-known tales, and Koertge changes up the narration slightly in each tale. But even the narration at its most different (like Little Red's vapid prattling) still has a sameness to it. Some readers will appreciate this and feel the sardonic tone running throughout is the thread that holds it all together. Other readers - like myself - will feel that what the book really needs is a shake-up. The stories, different as they are originally, blend one into the next in Koertge's hands, and in the end, I would have been hard-pressed to tell you what happened in which, and how - if at all - the narrators differed....

There just weren't any stand-outs. Maybe it's because of my admitted immersion in fairy tales - maybe others who pick this up on a passing fancy, who don't read and breathe fairy tales, will find this fresh - but I felt like I'd seen it all before. This isn't necessarily bad on its own, because these are retellings, after all (so of course I've seen it before), but if you're going to put forth these "little gem" retellings, every effort needs to be made to make each and every one memorable in its own way. And when they're verse on top of that! well, every little bit of space matters. No word should be wasted; they should all serve a purpose. I know I hold things like this to a high standard, but there should be something, some turn of phrase or image or pleasing sound to the language itself that makes each story stand on its own. Instead, these felt (oh god, you have no idea how much it pains me to write this) amateurish. I cringe to write that, I really do, but the stories felt like writing prompts or Creative Writing 101 exercises. And in the end, whether because of their style or brevity, I quickly forgot them.

So maybe others won't feel this way, I don't know. Maybe people who don't eat, sleep and breathe fairy tales, and who haven't read a flipping sh*t-ton of short story retellings that take very similar tones and tacks to the ones in this book but do so better, will find this collection fresh and entertaining. At the very least, it's easily read in 1 sitting, so I would advise those who are considering picking it up to actually pick it up and flip through a few stories first - they're all pretty much the same, so if you like one, you'll probably like them all.

[And if instead you're looking for short fairy tale retellings with a variety of stories, styles, and twists, I cannot recommend enough the fairy tale anthology series edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow. Especially Silver Birch, Blood Moon, which I adore.] Read more ›

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange. VERY Strange. February 21, 2013

By Wanderer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I must have pressed the wrong button. When this book showed up, I could not recall ordering it. Still can't. But I have enjoyed its remaking of the old fairy tales in ... strange ways. NOT for children! NOT for traditionalists.

1.0 out of 5 stars Lame February 13, 2013

By wysewomon

Format:Hardcover

I wish I could have rated this book zero stars, because it's worth about that much. What is this? The language isn't interesting enough for it to be poetry, and the view is far too shallow for it to be stories. It reads like a writer's note for something he might want to follow up "someday." How it actually got published, I have no idea.

I read this book in about fifteen minutes while I was waiting for my husband to get off the toilet. I could have written in not much longer, in eighth grade. Give this waste of space a pass.

3.0 out of 5 stars Opinion of a very long time Koertge poetry fan February 11, 2013

By Sandra M. Brown

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have all of Koertge's in-print poetry collections and have managed to scavenge a few out of print volumes. I thought Indigo was a bust. Setting that aside, how does this collection feel? Frankly, I found most of the poems to be mean spirited. I know this is probably quite true to the original fairy tale versions, which have been diluted down tremendously for the modern audience. But I missed the oblique gaze, wry humor and affection found in Koertge's other "retelling" poems (Superman - several, vampires, 50's horror movies). Having read the book twice in the past 4 days, I'm sitting here trying to think of the most memorable poem. For me it's Hansel and Gretel or maybe Rapunzel. If you haven't read Koertge poetry before, this isn't the place to start. If you want a modern look at fairy tales in free verse form, with all the darkness left in, you couldn't do better than this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Why you need this book at your dinner party January 13, 2013

By Kate Gale

Format:Hardcover

I read this book out loud last night to my dinner party guests and everyone was immediately taken, and one teacher is now thinking of adopting the book. It's witty, cool, political, mesmerizing and full of imaginative ways of rethinking fairy tales and re-imagining story telling. Ron Koertge is a magical thinker.

3.0 out of 5 stars Library Lady Hylary - Creepy and macabre, but not really for teens. October 30, 2012

By Library Lady Hylary

Format:Hardcover

Written in free verse, this macabre collection of poems and creepy illustrations includes twenty-three retellings of classic fairy tales. Featured tales range from "Cinderella," told from the perspective of the stepsisters, "Hansel and Gretel," who want revenge against the father that allowed them to be abandoned in the woods, and a monologue from "Red Riding Hood" who is relaying what happened to her mother once she is home safe from Grandma's house.

Seasoned young adult author and poet Ron Koertge delivers a chilling set of retold fairy tales in Lies, Knives and Girls in Red Dresses. The collection is brief and can easily be read in one sitting, although many readers might want to go through some of the chapters twice so as not to miss any gruesome details. In terms of enjoyment, some of the tales fare better than others. Although the book is marketed for the young adult audience, only some of Koertge's retellings will appeal to teen readers. Teens will likely enjoy tales like "Red Riding Hood, Home at Last, Tells Her Mother What Happened," "Hansel and Gretel," and "Memoirs of the Beast," all grim but witty retellings of stories that younger readers will undoubtedly be familiar with. Other chapters, such as "Godfather Death," "The Little Match Girl" and "The Robber Bridegroom" are taken from tales that aren't as well-known, and are far more grisly, making them less likely to resonate with the young adult audience. In fact, when factors like language, characterization and imagery are taken into account, this collection seems more appropriate for an adult audience. At most, it will entertain very sophisticated teen readers who will understand all the nuances in each retelling and be familiar with the original tales they are derived from.... Overall, Lies, Knives and Girls in Red Dresses is an enjoyable and entertaining journey into the creepiness of fairy tales, but one that is likely to appeal more to adults than to teens.

I am a fan of fairytale retellings, so when I heard about this creepy collection, and saw the very grim cover, I made sure to pick it up. Although I did enjoy the book, I found myself thinking as I was reading it, "Wow. This isn't really for teens." A lot of the stories are based on more obscure fairy tales, there is definitely some very adult language and imagery in them, and a lot of the humor and irony is very subtle. That's not to say that I don't think many teen readers would be able to understand the poems, they just seem to me that they would appeal much more to an adult audience. I would have trouble recommending this collection to teens who are simply interested in reading fairy tale retellings, as I feel there are many more appropriate and enjoyable books for the age group. To older teens and adults who want a taste of the macabre, however, I would suggest giving this one a try.

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