Book Review: At Midnight edited by Dahlia Adler

If you know me, you know that I’ve adored fairytales since childhood. I love reading them, which means that retellings are up my alley. When I saw that Titan Books were publishing an anthology of fairytale retellings with a bunch of authors I love? Yeah, I was sold.

I’ll admit that I’ve not read the entire thing cover to cover. But I am OBSESSED with this anthology. I want to eke out the reading experience as long as possible, so I decided to review this book after reading a few retellings.

But one of my favourite things about this collection is that it contains the original tales too! Most of the stories in this are pretty well known, but a few aren’t as well known. The fairytales being included means that if you want to immediately compare or just reread a favourite after, you can! This is a reasonably chunky anthology, and the original stories are included, so that’s why.

Now I’ll go into more detail on some of the stories.

Say My Name – Rumplestiltskin – Dahlia Adler

I adore Rumplestiltskin, so this was the first short story that I gravitated towards. And this really was a great retelling of the original story. In this story, you’re actually following the Rumpelstiltskin character herself. This was a contemporary retelling set in a high school. We follow Ren, a teenage girl so desperate to please the girl she fancies that she’s trying to trick someone else into giving her what she wants.

With this being a short story, I’m obviously not going to go into detail, but I will say Ren’s real name made me cackle. Such an unfortunate name. But it made sense why she wouldn’t want anyone to know it.

The Sister Switch – Original – Melissa Albert

I’m not a big Melissa Albert fan, but her original fairytales are fascinating. Honestly, I wasn’t as interested in this one as in some of those in The Hazel Wood. But this was more of a contemporary one. I won’t go into detail as, unlike the other stories, this isn’t one that readers will already know. So it’s best to go into it blind.

That said, this did still feel like a fairytale. It fits into this anthology perfectly, despite being original.

HEA – Cinderella – Alex London

Though there aren’t just contemporary retellings, I decided to focus on this type of retelling for this review. As Alex London is an author I adore, I knew I had to read this one. I’m not the biggest Cinderella fan, but I loved how this was handled.

Not only do we have a male Cinders, but his home life isn’t all terrible, and he’s a drag queen influencer. That’s so much fun. And I loved how nerdy Asher was. I wish we could see more of this supposed happily ever after, as clearly, it won’t be smooth sailing. That would be so much fun to read.

I really had fun with this one.

Final Thoughts

I adore this anthology. I think it’s one all fairy tale fans should pick up. You get a new book with some great fairytales and fun retellings. Titan did a great job picking this one up, and Adler chose some excellent stories and authors.

Title: At Midnight

Editor: Dahlia Adler

Genre: Fairytale Retellings

Age Range:  Young Adult

Publisher:  Titan Books

Release Date: Out Now

BUY LINKS

Amazon UK | Amazon US | Waterstones | Bookshop Org