Firstly, I have to say that I love the cover for Upon a Once Time and it is what first caught my attention, and I am so glad that it did because I loved this anthology. I've been dipping my toes more and more into retellings this year, and I've found it a bit of a gamble, but this anthology was certainly a win. I loved the sheer variety of approaches and genres in these tales, as well as the wonderful diversity, and while I had some stories that I enjoyed more than others, every story in this collection stands out. It was a delight to see the nuggets of familiar fairy tales turn into something new, and I would highly recommend this collection.

Even though fantasy is not my go-to genre, I do dabble, and I'm glad I did here (although all of the stories may not fall into that category). Readers are bound not to like all of the stories, but many of them are quite good. All are pretty imaginative. A good collection overall.

Thanks very much for the review copy!!

Todd Sanders has arranged a number of creative voices in Upon a Once Time. I loved how stories in this collection played with conventions and led me to new places as a reader, while also linking back to tales I know well.

I'm always a sucker for fairy tale retellings, especially ones that go against expectations. This collection delivered everything I wanted and then some! Opening with a dark tale of vengeance of six rusalki sisters, I knew this was going to be my kind of anthology. The second entry telling of space-hopping sentient worms was definitely a departure from anything I'd read before, and by the end I was fully invested. One entry ("Taketori Momogatari") was so bizarre I couldn't tell if it was told earnestly or meant to be a fully humorous commentary on society, but that weirdness and sheer "wtf??"-ness was still completely delightful.

I ended up loving every entry, but the standouts to me were definitely "The Rabbi's Daughter and the Golem" (in just a few short pages Alex Langer encapsulated so many elements from the philosophical question of "what makes us human", the original Beauty and the Beast tale, and Jewish culture and tradition while delivering an utterly charming and wonderful tale of acceptance and love), "The Forest Magic Protects Its Own" (a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin set in Appalachia from author Jamie Lackey, whose novella "The Forest God" I am also very much in love with), and the final story "Where the Earth Meets the Sky and the Sea Meets the Sky", which is actually a combination of stories that I won't spoil, just know that it's so fluffy and sweet I ended it filled with warm fuzzies.

I don't mind fairy tale retellings in general, but I didn't like this one.
It was just too muddled up for me. The fact that they combined multiple tales in one story was bad enough, but then you add multiply styles/genres, and all you get is a story that doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up.
There are two or three that are good, or at least better than the rest. The golem retelling and the Cinderella retelling are not bad. The golem is combined with the beauty and the beast story, with the rabbi’s daughter teaching golem how to be a human, and the Cinderella being a “what happens after the happily ever after” story. I liked those. But again, these suffered from an ailment that is typical for poor short stories – it was incomplete. I felt that if the authors of these stories had been given more room to work, the stories would have been better.
All in all, a muddle and a mess. Not a book for me, I’m sorry to say.
Two stars because there were some pearls among the rest of it.

this was a great anthology, each story works well together and the book has a great flow. All the stories flow together and there wasn't any weak one in this anthology.

Fairy tale retellings have become my absolute favorite books to read nowadays, and I was thrilled to have gotten approved for this book! I loved not only revisiting the classics and well known and loved tales, but it was so much fun to have other tales I had never heard of before available to read!

Upon A Once Time
Editor: Todd Sanders
Genre: SFF Anthology

The description of this book on NetGalley says:
"This book gathers twenty-one authors who have brought new focus to fairy tales by combining two well known stories with a literary genre of their choice."

When you read this, your mind starts expecting a Neil Gaiman-esque fictional + fantastical bonanza. And the book does deliver to a great extent.

The fairy tales used for this anthology range from the popular ones such as Beauty and the Beast, The Pied Piper and Little Red Riding Hood to totally unheard ones (unheard at least by me! 🤭) such as The Arthurian Cycle and The Caliph Stork. But whether I was aware of the original fairy tale or not didn't affect my comprehension, nor did it impair my enjoyment.

Unlike what you would assume, not every tale here is a fantasy fairy world retelling. You have a wonderful mix of science fiction, dark fantasy, humour, horror, steampunk, cyberpunk... The stories take a unique approach to the traditional fairy tales and in most cases, they leave you stunned with their unusual spin on the original.

Almost every story in the anthology is a pleasure to the senses! Of the 21 stories in the collection, I thoroughly enjoyed 16. Some of my absolute favourites were Six Rusalki, Little Tom's Reality, Strings that ought to be pondered even in urgent times, Taketori Momogatari, Gell who makes, and A dark path through the forest of stars. But I do wish the writers would rethink some of the story titles; they are quite a mouthful!

Overall, this is a really interesting, eclectic collection and would be a great choice for all SFF lovers.

I love a good retelling and this book is filled with wonderful fairy tale retellings by amazingly talented writers. The stories have all kinds of genres and I read this book in just one day.

My favorite story was The Rabbi’s Daughter And The Golem by Alex Langer, a fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast and The Golem of Prague.

Also the cover design by Serena Malyon is gorgeous.