It’s book review time! This month, I opted for something on the fairytale side of things. I didn’t realize it was a novella when I requested it, but I’m glad it was something short and entertaining. I’ve been reading too many longer things lately, so it was a nice change of pace. It’s S.L. Huang’s Burning Roses and it was released yesterday (09/29) from Tor/Forge. As usual, I must thank the publisher and NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get on with it.

Burning Roses follows Rosa and Hou Yi, two middle aged women who are the stuff of legends. The problem with being legends is that you have to gain that reputation somehow and that can be misleading, even if it’s all wonder and prestige. Both women are filled with regret and running away from their pasts when they decide to team up and protect their makeshift home from the sunbirds that have started attacking the surrounding area. They don’t expect to make it out alive, but maybe one last adventure can help to resolve some of the regret that plagues them.

I’m going to be completely honest with you. I read this about four weeks ago and have been putting off writing this review purely out of laziness. But what I’ve discovered from my procrastination is that this book is pretty forgettable. I had to skim the first chapter just to remind myself what it’s about. The details came back to me fairly quickly, but I shouldn’t have needed the nudge. I probably won’t remember it at all a year from now. That’s not to say the story is bad (it’s actually really good). It’s just that among the plethora of fairytale retellings, it doesn’t stick out in my mind.

The fairytales. This is a mash-up of Little Red Riding Hood (Rosa) and Hou Yi the Archer from Chinese mythology which I’m not familiar with at all. Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Beauty and the Beast are also mixed in for good measure. I also feel like there might have been some others I wasn’t familiar with, like maybe the thing with the dragon. But the way they were all blended together made for a really nice story of family tragedy and toxic friendships and all consuming obsessions and, of course, love. I really enjoy how the story pulls enough from the originals to make them recognizable, but twists and weaves them into something new.

The story itself. This is a nice read. I took a few days to get through it, but at around 80 pages it could easily have been done in one sitting. The way their pasts unfold, mingled in with the present story is lovely. My only complaint is the same one I have with most novellas: the story feels incomplete. There’s a finality to it, but there’s also this gaping hole where we don’t get to see the end of Rosa’s story. It’s weird how it seems to start out as Rosa’s story, then shifts to Hou Yi’s story during which we get her ending, but it never shifts back to give us a satisfying ending for Rosa. Maybe that’s another story, but it doesn’t really feel like something that would require another book.

The writing is lovely. It’s not super poetic, but there’s this nice rhythm that carries you through the story. The imagery is deliberate and helps bring the story to life. It’s a smooth read.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed Burning Roses while I was reading it. Despite the unsatisfactory ending and the forgettableness of it, I’ll definitely keep an eye out for more stories by S.L. Huang.

Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars (3.5 really, but I rounded up). If you enjoy fairytale retellings, it’s worth a look. And it’s short enough that even if it’s not your cup of tea, you’re not wasting too much time.

Wow. This book is an amazing and gorgeous take on fairy tales.

Red Riding Hood meets with Hou Yi the archer after Red became a killer and fled her Western fairy tale land for Eastern mythology land. The two of them go together to put Hou Yi's past to rest while Red faces her own past.

This is a short story that uses the length well. I liked the reason animals can talk in both places. Both of the characters were heavy with regret from their past actions. This was the perfect length for such heaviness.

This review is based on an advanced copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Fairy tales from the East and West come together in this brisk tale of regret, forgiveness, and closure told in flashbacks while two legends—Hou Yi and Rosa (Red Riding Hood)—hunt sunbirds to save their countryside.

I love how the present-day story serves as a book-end to having the two characters recount to each other their great tragedies. As readers, we get to watch that past unfold on page. Huang expertly balances nostalgia and regret, while also having the characters be open about feelings that made past decisions seem like a good idea in the first place. Both main characters are honest with each other in a way that's compelling both as people who need to work together to solve an immediate problem and as people who need to make room for healing from the past.

In addition, how many retellings appeared in one novella impressed me. We got the fairy tales of our main characters, but Goldilocks and Beauty and the Beast also make an appearance. The world-building isn't heavy in this one, but the subtle way Huang highlights the difference in Hou Yi and Rosa's languages was a very nice addition.

Two older queer women (one of whom is trans) embark on a retelling that suggests that there other ways to make things last than quests for immortality.

It's an interesting take on fairy tales. Rosa (Red Riding Hood) and Hou Yi (Robin Hood) are middle aged ladies now, running away from their ghosts. Set in a place where magic runs rampant and both of these women live for the hunt, old age has brought some of the dark into the light.

Rosa's guilt of betrayal to her friends has caught up to her despite running away to a world where no one knows her. Her story is about abusive families and upon leaving, in her desperation to belong and find purpose, she clings to a new family that twists her guilt into forced loyalty. Until she finds someone that sees past all of it, and Rosa just doesn't know how to live in the light anymore, no matter how much her wife tries to show it to her.

Hou Yi on the other hand lived in the light for most of her glory days, but in her search for even more glory, she dismissed those who loved her. When her loved ones come back to exact their revenge, hers becomes a story of forgiveness and how to work for it.

The one thing I was a bit disappointed about was how simple the action bits were - the sunbirds were still a bit of a mystery by the end and didn't seem to be as much of a focal point as they were made out to be. Although maybe not meant for super high-action fantasy readers, I loved the small humane bits of the stories and the ease of it all.

First: THIS COVER OMGGGG IT IS PERFECTION I LOVE IT

This book is full of badass queer heroines with a touch of fairytales and folklore aspects.
IT WAS SO GOOD
The writing is phenomenal and I needed to read more once I started!
HIghly recommend

I liked the setup and the premise and was very intrigued by Rosa's character. I like the cover and the first chapter and I'm intrigued to read more of S.LHuangs work.

INTERESTING BLEND OF EASTERN AND WESTERN FAIRY TALES

Someone recommended me this book with the words 'It's Sapphic Chinese fairy tales!" So, naturally, I had to get my hands on it! And I am very glad that I did! Though short and with a minor flaw or two, it was interesting, captivating and queer, so I really enjoyed it!

👍 What I Liked 👍

Fairy tales: There were so many great fairy tales combined in this story, even one I didn't know of. What I especially liked was that the setting of this book was Eastern and one of the main fairy tales is Eastern as well. Yet, the rest of the stories are Western and are given a sort of Eastern feel and gloss. It was interesting to see this familiar stories in a new setting.

Dark: I always love when fairy tale stories are given a dark twist or when the heroes turn out to actually be the villains. The fact that this book gave some of these stories some darker twists was particularly interesting to me.

Journey: Our two main characters, Rosa and Hou Yi, embark not only on a physical journey but also on an enlightening one. Both women are battling internal demons and need to find absolution and redemption. This journey allows them to see inside themselves and journeys like that are always fascinating.

Queer: 'Nough said.

👎 What I Disliked 👎

World building: This is obviously such a rich universe with many stories and facets to it. Sadly, much of the universe was never really developed. Sure, this is perhaps more a novella than a novel, but the universe still deserved to be expanded and explained because it was really quite interesting.

Beginning: With this being a novella I really needed it to lay down the land early on and quickly set the stage. That, sadly, did not happen and the result was a kind of rocky and slightly confusing beginning.

I feel like this is the queer feminist fractured fairytale mashup I didn’t know I was waiting for! If you enjoy folklore and fairy tale retellings, I highly recommend this haunting novella by S.L. Huang. I don’t see very many books with middle-aged heroines, or lesbian heroines, so that was a special treat.

I wasn’t familiar with the story of Hou Yi, but I enjoyed the intermingling of Western fairy tales with Eastern mythology. I also enjoyed reading a paranormal fantasy that focused more on family and friendship than romance.

Much of the story is told in flashbacks and visions, and the main characters are not particularly reliable narrators, so don’t expect a straightforward narrative. It took me a little while to adjust to the writing style, but as I grew more comfortable with it, I found myself really enjoying it.

The story is quite dark at times, so I really wasn’t expecting a happy ending; I was very pleasantly surprised to find an ending filled with hope. There’s not much denouement here, so you might be frustrated if you prefer stories where all the loose ends are tied up, yet I found the ending quite satisfying.

This is the third story in Huang’s Hunting Monsters series; although the stories are related, each can be enjoyed on its own.

I was provided an unproofed ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

This was a really great mix of eastern and western myths and fairytales with family at its heart. The world is vividly described, the emotions beautifully wrought and it leaves you with an irrefutable feeling of hope.

The world of Burning Roses is one of fairy tales. It's a story about a quest to come to terms with the mistakes of our past. But at the same time, we see the snippets of that past. The mistakes of youth, cowardice, and fear. Burning Roses is more introspective than the summary might appear. When we've started walking down a path of revenge and violence, how can we turn away? Love can change us, make us see our life is not just a cycle of revenge and violence.

While I loved the themes of Burning Roses, and the queer characters, I just wanted some more depth into the side characters. Since a lot of the story is taken up by the way the past haunts us, I wanted to see more dimensions to the side characters. A considerable amount of the character development is dedicated to the hard work of making amends. Of being with the people who see us, our flaws, mistakes, and cowardice. It was certainly a novella I enjoyed reading, but in some ways it felt a little incomplete? And I wish there had been more detail into the sunbirds!

Burning Roses is a fantasy novella that has a lot of cool ideas, but for whatever reason just didn't come together for me. It felt like it was trying to do too much, lacked cohesion, and made some choices about narrative structure that I wasn't really a fan of. Here are some things I liked:

- Casually queer main characters (both women have or had wives)
- Putting a darker twist on classic fairytales and highlighting things like the selfishness of Goldilocks or framing Belle as having Stockholm Syndrome.(note that if this was all or most of what it was doing, I probably would have liked it more)

Here are some things I was less a fan of:
- I want a novella to immediately draw me in and connect me with the characters or the plot. This had a confusing start and took awhile to figure out. It also uses a framing structure that is frustrating and feels like a forced fable on toxic family relationships and forgiveness. I liked the stories within the frame, but didn't enjoy the frame itself.
- Something about the writing style didn't really work for me. You can tell the author is used to writing gritty thrillers and this is an attempt at shaping that into a dark fairytale voice. Tonally it felt discordant.

It's unfortunate because I see what this book was trying to do and quite like specific elements of it, but it just didn't come together for me. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Content warnings include gun violence, murder, child abandonment, killing of people in animal form.

An intricate puzzle box of a story, Burning Roses follows two women, both of whom have grown old since their more notorious youth. A sudden reappearance of firebirds requires Hou Yi, a famed archer from Chinese folktales, and Rosa, a Red Riding Hood mixed with backstory from other fables, to begin what they both expect will be the last quest of their lives. Without spoilers, I can safely say that the twists and turns subvert your expectations. Highly recommended for anyone who would like to see a hero's journey that doesn't involve a teenage protagonist, those who are interested in mythology of all cultures, and fantasy fans.

Many thanks to Macmillan-Tor and NetGalley for the ARC.

Burning Roses is a fairy tale retelling mash-up mainly consisting of "Little Red Riding Hood" and the Chinese legend of "Hou Yi." Now middle aged women, Rosa and Hou Yi are hunting down destructive sunbirds and telling each other the tales of their pasts. The book switches between the present moments and Rosa's tale of her past, which also includes aspects of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and "Beauty and the Beast." Rosa's story was easily my favorite part of the book. I really wished there was a whole novel devoted to it. I loved seeing how Huang used and changed the fairy tales. I'm also happy that I've been introduced to a new fairy tale; I had never heard of "Hou Yi" prior to this and now I have a new tale to explore.

There is a lot of diversity in this book, which I know a lot of people will appreciate. Both Rosa and Hou Yi are queer women of color, and the country they are in is Asian-inspired. As you may know by now, I love finding diverse fairy tale retellings because the genre is usually so straight and white. I'm so happy that the genre is expanding to include LGBT+ characters and characters of color, and it's also great to see a retelling of Chinese story instead of just the usual European ones.

Unfortunately, this book mainly missed the mark for me. Part of the issue is that it is a novella; I don't always vibe with fantasy novellas because of how short they are. I tend to want more world building than they have space to provide, and that's what happened here. There seems to be so much to this world, and we ultimately see very little of it. I wanted to know more about the grundwirgen (intelligent animals), who are a major part of Rosa's back story, and about how they interacted with society. Sometimes I was confused by things the characters treat as standard occurances, and I think a little more world building would have helped with that.

I also didn't have much of a connection with either Rosa or Hou Yi. I didn't feel that I knew them well enough, even though the book is literally telling the stories of how they came to be the way they are. Part of this comes from many things being told to the reader instead of shown. Rosa's love for Mei is a good example. Huang tells us that they love each other, but we don't actually experience the relationship developing or the love they share. This made it hard for me to connect with and care about the characters, which is a major part of reading for me. I don't have to like the characters, but I do have to care about them.

Overall, Burning Roses is a fairy tale retelling that didn't quite do it for me, but it is still worth checking out. Huang's writing is lovely and lots of people will enjoy reading about these queer, POC protagonists.

What a poignant and amazing tale. Nuanced characters, tangible world, and succinct writing. I highly recommend this lovely story.

Thank you to Net Galley and Tor Publishing for an eARC of this novella in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fairytale of revenge and redemption, of demons and gods and most of all love, in all its glorious and more shadowy forms.

We meet Rosa as she broods on a past filled with bloodshed and desperation. Our red cloaked shotgun toting lady is a re-imagining of Red Riding Hood I have never read the like of before.
And we meet Hou Yi, a famed and infamous archer from Chinese mythology, whose past is equally dark and full of loss.
When two women set out on a quest to save the local people from deadly sunbirds they begin to share the stories of their lives before they meet and slowly come to confront the choices that made them who they are today...


The writing is fast paced and sharp. I read this novella extremely quickly partially due to the excellent writing and partly the intriguing story and characters.
The plot weaves together current events and moments of memory seamlessly and twists and turns in many unexpected ways.
Beautiful East Asian influence is clear in the world building and magic systems and I loved to see that mixing with more western fairytale characters in a most original way.
This novella also features queer leading ladies and a beautifully diverse cast.



Burning Roses is an amalgamation of fairytales we are familiar with turned entirely on their heads and twisted into darker shapes then you could ever imagine.
If you love darkly magical re-imaginings, anti-heroes, weapon wielding ladies and gritty action, then this novella is for you.
I adored this story in every way and cannot recommend it enough to all fantasy fans.

S. L. Huang's Burning Roses is noir fantasy, that takes off from well known fairy tales like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, and Puss in Boots.

Rosa, who used to be known as Red Riding Hood, has teamed up with Archer Hou Yi against deadly sunbirds. Though they are friends of sorts, these aging women have not shared their pasts.

Burning Roses is a most unusual dark fantasy. It does have a happy ending but read it and you'll never see Goldilocks the same way again.

Written by S.L. Huang, Burning Roses is a unique fantasy, one that merges elements from classic stories and turns it into something newer.

Rosa is a woman who has been running from her past – the good and the bad. Her flight brought her to Hou Yi, another woman deeply haunted by her past. Together these two forge onward, while trying to come to terms with everything they have done and lost.

“They fit together – tagging onto Hou Yi's obsession gave Rosa's life borrowed meaning, and Hou Yi was growing too old to succeed in such recklessness alone.”

Burning Roses is an absolutely enchanting (and occasionally haunting) read about two women and their joined quests. It's a tale of love and loss, of forgiveness and so much more. Oh, and did I mention it all does so while merging in classic fairy tale elements?

That very well may be my favorite part about this story, if I'm being honest. The subverting of classic stories and turning them into something larger and frequently darker. For example, Rosa is Little Red Riding Hood, but her story is not what you might think. For she has plenty of reasons to feel guilty for what she has done.

Honestly, there's so much to love about this novella. The main characters, the setting, the world-building, and all of the little details that flesh it out. The infusion of Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, and Goldilocks only helped to bring the story to life, in my mind.

It also brings Chinese lore and fairytales into the mix, which was delightful and insightful. I'll admit that I don't know as much as I would like about those stories, but even I could spot some of those elements. It was wonderful, and once again worked to enrich the story being told here.

I love that these characters were allowed to exist as they were. Flawed humans with backstories they weren't exactly proud of. I also adore that they were both allowed to actually be older women, instead of the classic trope of having them be young and beautiful. Oh! Did I mention that it's delightfully sapphic as well?

All things considered, I really enjoyed this new telling of fairytales found within Burning Roses. If I'm being completely honest, my only regret is that it ended. I would have happily read more, if there had been any to read. It was that enthralling.

4.5 stars

THIS is how you write a novella!!!! Usually I have trouble with novellas feeling too short but this one just felt like the perfect amount of words, you got a complete story with well fleshed out characters without getting bogged down in the prose. The wirting was stunning, simple and evocative and really captured the folklore feeling of the story.

This is a story about redemption and family, as well as a look at the harrowing side of revenge and past regrets. We follow Rosa and Hou Yi, two older women who are travelling together and reflecting back on their lives. Rosa's story is essentially a red rising hood retelling, with other fairytales involved - I was so invested in these flashbacks!! And as well Rosa is sapphic and her love story with Mei (who is essentially beauty from beauty and the beast) was super cute but also really emotional. Hou Yi is also a trans wlw character.

When Rosa's grandmother is killed by a magical wolf Rosa goes on a revenge quest to kill all other magical creatures. We watch Rosa reflect back on her past regrets, and well as follow her in the present when she has run away form Mei (her wife) and daughter and has to reconcile with why she really ran away. This hit home for me because Rosa felt like she would be less of a burden if she ran away and WOW THE FEELS T_T.

In conclusion, a beautiful tale of love lost and found, with a great message and some hard lessons learnt. A masterpiece of a novella.

This is a gorgeous little book. A fairytale woven through with both love and regret that follows Rosa and Hou Yi on a quest that forces them to revisit their pasts. And in their own retellings, they encounter some difficult truths about the stories they've told themselves, decisions they've made, and people they've loved.

The writing is descriptive and beautiful, creating vivid images and engaging the sensory imagination. Huang creates a lush world in this short work that is both tangible and memorable.

Part quest, part flashback, and part redemption tale, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Within a few pages the book jumps straight into the action. The two protagonists are queer women warriors who protect the innocent. They come from different parts of the world, but their motives are the same- atonement for their past sins.

I enjoyed how the author intertwined well known fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood with Asian fairy tales/culture. The women are strong and confident (in their fighting craft). The book explores their inner conflict while they must battle external demons.

...Sometimes the people who can hurt you the most are the people you most trust

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor.com Publishing for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.