sorren_briarwood's reviews
146 reviews

Having followed the development of Artifice & Access since almost its inception, I had built up my hopes for this anthology- I can say happily that they’ve absolutely been met. There’s wonderful breadth here, both in terms of representation and in terms of how each writer responded to the prompt of fairytales, whether they were crafting new ones or retelling those that already exist.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

As with any collection by multiple writers, there were stories that resonated with me more than others, but whilst I often struggle to rate them, I happily elected to give the anthology as a whole five stars as every story was thought provoking and the range of voices and perspectives included here is really what makes the book. Personal favourites for me included To Make Her Eat- as an almost-lifelong celiac it was exciting to see a character that shared my illness on the page, and I thought that the way that Stevenson found a way to make it into her strength was just so clever, Stroke of Midnight, Shoes of Glass, for its traditional fairytale voice and its defence and prioritisation of rest, and A Night For Mischief, for the instantly loveable characters, engaging prose, and the intriguing world being hinted at- I really wanted that one to just keep on going!

I’d highly recommend this heartfelt anthology to any fantasy readers (and writers!) disabled or abled: there is so much to take away here, whether it’s from a place of catharsis and solidarity or allyship. I’m excited to read more work by these talented writers and I sincerely hope this is the first in a long line of similar projects- I’d read a sequel anthology right away if it existed.