Synopses & Reviews
Thirteen tales are unspun from the deeply familiar, and woven anew into a collection of fairy tales that wind back through time. Acclaimed Irish author Emma Donoghue reveals heroines young and old in unexpected alliances sometimes treacherous, sometimes erotic, but always courageous. Told with luminous voices that shimmer with sensuality and truth, these age-old characters shed their antiquated cloaks to travel a seductive new landscape, radiantly transformed.
Cinderella forsakes the handsome prince and runs off with the fairy godmother; Beauty discovers the Beast behind the mask is not so very different from the face she sees in the mirror; Snow White is awakened from slumber by the bittersweet fruit of an unnamed desire. Acclaimed writer Emma Donoghue spins new tales out of old in a magical web of thirteen interconnected stories about power and transformation and choosing one's own path in the world.
In these fairy tales, women young and old tell their own stories of love and hate, honor and revenge, passion and deception. Using the intricate patterns and oral rhythms of traditional fairy tales, Emma Donoghue wraps age-old characters in a dazzling new skin.
Review
"[Donoghue's] distinctive, powerful, finely honed voice offers a unique challenge for the mature, discerning teen reader." Booklist
Review
"Sophisticated teenagers (and adults too) will be mesmerized by the powerful voices and intricate structure, while the lesbian endings promise controversy." Publishers Weekly
Review
"The female characters...are at least complex enough to be neither entirely good nor entirely evil. However, the male characters are all weak, stupid, boorish, or a combination of the three. This one-dimensional treatment makes for very dull reading." School Library Journal
Review
"A dark jewel." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Cinderella forsakes the handsome prince and runs off with the fairy godmother; Beauty discovers the Beast behind the mask is not so very different from the face she sees in the mirror; Snow White is awakened from slumber by the bittersweet fruit of an unnamed desire.
Acclaimed writer Emma Donoghue spins new tales out of old in a magical web of thirteen interconnected stories about power and transformation and choosing one's own path in the world. In these fairy tales, women young and old tell their own stories of love and hate, honor and revenge, passion and deception. Using the intricate patterns and oral rhythms of traditional fairy tales, Emma Donoghue wraps age-old characters in a dazzling new skin.
About the Author
EMMA DONOGHUE has published six novels, including the internationally acclaimed and bestselling Slammerkin, Life Mask and The Sealed Letter, which was longlisted for the Giller Prize. Her most recent book, Room, won the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Governor Generals Award and the Man Booker Prize. Born in Ireland, Donoghue lives in London, Ontario, with her partner and their two children. Visit the author online at <>.
Reading Group Guide
Questions For Discussion:
- How do fairy tales inform our lives?
- In what ways does Emma Donoghue undermine the conventions of the fairy tale?
- By weaving all of the tales together, what might the author be trying to say about these women and their stories? About women in general?
- In what ways are the women in these stories the same? In what ways different?
- How important is homosexuality in these stories? Would you consider this book Gay Literature? Why?
- At the end of The Tale of the Rose, the author writes, And as the years flowed by, some villagers told travelers of a beast and a beauty who lived in the castle
and others told of two beauties, and others, of two beasts. What factors could contribute to these various perceptions? Do you think the beauty and her beast are lovers? Does it matter to the story?
- Which of these stories is your favorite? Why? Which best captures the situation of women today?
- How are men portrayed throughout the stories? What are their views on women? Does this seem to differ from mens perceptions of women in traditional fairy tales?
- Why does the author entitle this book Kissing the Witch?
- In traditional fairy tales, we know these stories by the names of the women who star in them (Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, etc.). However, Emma Donoghue chooses to name her tales after the inanimate objects in the stories. What relationship do the women have to the objects? What does each object symbolize in these stories?