4.5 stars rounded up

The Tangleroot Palace was just as good as I hoped it would be. It is a lush, darkly magical collection of short fiction from the creator of Monstress, including the titular Tangleroot Palace as a full-length novella. I loved all of them and was completely swept away. It was also cool because Liu includes brief notes at the end of each tale discussing what it was originally written for and when, which I found to be fascinating.

Sympathy for the Bones features a young woman forced to learn dark magic from the woman who took her in decides she has had enough and will use that dark magic to her own advantage.

In The Briar and the Rose we get a sapphic reimagining of Sleeping Beauty that draws on the fact that the original story involved sexual assault while the young woman was sleeping. In this version, it becomes a story of possession where a witch has taken over the body of a beautiful young woman and the only person who notices is a female bodyguard.

Call Her Savage is like steampunk meets monstrous bioengineering in East Asia.

The Last Dignity of Man is about a wealthy, young, gay biotech genius who fantasizes about being Lex Luthor while carrying out disturbing projects on behalf of the government. It's an interesting reimagining that carries a surprising amount of emotional weight.

Where the Heart Lives is the first of three stories about dark secrets living deep in the woods. This one is about a young woman forced to leave home and live with a woman everyone thinks is a witch in the middle of a haunted forest.

After the Blood is a post-apocalyptic survival story with vampires and zombies where Amish people now hold power because they know how to survive without modernity.

Lastly, The Tangleroot Palace is about a down to earth princess resisting an arranged marriage by running away to the dark and dangerous woods in search of help.

I very much enjoyed all of the stories and would recommend checking out the collection if it sounds up your alley. They often feature queer characters, or characters of color, or women who are not satisfied with the lives they are supposed to live. They are stories about love, death, grief, violence, and identity. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I requested this ARC from Netgalley because I am such a huge fan of Marjorie Liu's Monstress series and I had never picked up any of her prose writing before. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was exactly what I was looking for from this little collection of stories. Even though I definitely preferred certain stories to others, I think there was only one of these stories that I wasn't super enamored with. Which is saying something!

But I loved the overall voice and style of this collection and I really fell in love with the author's writing style. Monstress is such a wonderful series, but I'll admit part of why I love it so much is the illustrations...this collection proved to me that Marjorie's writing is strong enough to stand on its own. She has such a way with prose and I loved how she built these worlds in such a short amount of words. As someone who's trying to write their own novel, I found a whole new appreciation for that sort of thing.

This collection was queer and magical and strange, and I found myself wishing more of these stories were full books! It was really cool hearing the short commentary after each story to know where the author's head was when she was writing these. I think a lot of people underestimate the power of a good short story, and this will definitely stand as one of my favorite collections.

3.25 stars

This short story anthology is one of the most interesting books I have read. I do not know if I have ever read one that made me experience such a range of emotions. There were a few that I absolutely loved and some that didn't really capture my interest as much. That being said, a few of these are an absolute must read!

Sympathy for the Bones: 3.5 stars
This was the perfect story with which to start this anthology. Liu's whimsical writing sets the tone and the morbid twists are wonderful glimpses of what is to come. In fact, the moment I read the imagery found on page one, I thought I would absolutely love this because I absolutely love pretty but purposeful language. Although I did enjoy this (a lot) it wasn't my favorite mostly because of the confusing ending. Despite this, I have to give points for the voodoo themed story. I do not think I have ever read one. The parallelism that is utilised to move along morals was subtle but showed the influence of environment on our lives! I also love myself a good revenge story :)

The Briar and the Rose: 4 stars
A fairytale exactly like I like it (I wish the titular story was more like this one). One of my favorite genres(?) is retellings: I eat them up. Luckily for me, this was a Sleeping Beauty sapphic retelling. Liu creates a magical atmosphere where The Duelist and Carmela and Rose live. It works as a short story because it utilises time jumps, repetition, a character focus, and an ethereal fantasy element to move the story along. Once again I was a bit confused by the ending, but this time I didn't mind it as much because I already understood the ethereal nature of the story and it didn't pull me out of the text. Also the sprinkle of commentary was great.

Call Her Savage: 2.75 stars
This is a steampunk alternate history story about a woman named Xing. I thought this story was just below "good". The reason for this is because, unlike The Briar and the Rose, I do not think it worked well as a short story. This should have been a full length novel. There is much more that was needed to be elaborated on and wasn't. The ending also required an emotional connection and deeper understanding that just wasn't there because of the lack of context and word count. If the author ever makes this into a feature length novel, I'll gladly read it though!

The Last Dignity of Man: 4.75 stars
This is my FAVORITE short story I have ever read. I love superheroes. Though I do consider myself more of a Marvel fan than DC, I absolutely loved the relation between escapism and mental health and self-projecting onto heroes and villains. It is a masterful story. Fits perfectly into the constraints because we get context from setting clues and the way that Alexander Lutheran thinks. It has a bittersweet ending that will stay with me for a long time. Cannot recommend this enough. (Be sure to push through the first page or so, the beginning is a bit weird).

Where the Heart Lives: 3 stars
This is apparently a prequel to a series called Dirk & Steele, maybe I'll check it out now because this story definitely made me intrigued. Unfortunately, I kind of wished that this would have been a bit longer just like Call Her Savage because there was some fleshing out of characters that should have happened and the Fae aspect was a bit rushed. Personally, I don't think this would have been enough for a novel, per se, but rather a novella. Majorie Liu really shows her mastery of creating a haunting tone in this short story, even though I already praised this. The haunting forest shone here and Lucy was a heart-warming protagonist.

After the Blood: 2 stars
The weakest short story in this collection. Amish vampires in a post-plague world where people live in small enclaves does sound very interesting, but I felt like it was a bit too long. Seriously, we could have given these pages to some of the other stories! The themes about morality were being point-blank fed to you and I just didn't really care. Maybe I would if I read Dirk & Steele, but alas I haven't. It was fine, I didn't exactly dislike it. ... and it had cats.

Tangleroot Palace: 2.5 stars
The titular short story of this anthology did disappoint me a little bit, I can't lie. It was written as a fairytale, but in the way that I do not like. Liu plays with the runaway princess trope where the main character Sally refuses to marry the malignant Warlord. To escape her fate, she tries to enter the Tangleroot Forest, but things do not go exactly as planned. First off, the magic was interpolated with the story in a peculiar way: >the author didn't seem to be able to make up her mind if she wants to go all in with the fantasy aspects or if she wants to focus more on the plot. In my opinion it should have been either focus on the realism, but make it magical, or go all in with the fantasy. The twist is obvious from the moment Sally encounters a certain other character so I wasn't exaclty shocked by the ending. Again, I'm not saying this is a bad short story, it is fine, but I kind of hoped it would be something more. Maybe I just didn't understand this.

The Tangleroot Palace: Stories has been a ride with enormous highs and decent lows. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this collection overall. If anything, you truly must read The Last Dignity of Man!

Marjorie Liu is one of my favorites. Her characters and worlds are beautiful and dark, sensual and mysterious. This is nothing short of gorgeous.

When I saw there was a new book by Marjorie Liu, I KNEW I had to get my hands on it! I'm a HUGE fan of her Monstress comic series, so I'm definitely in the target audience for her kind of storytelling. I was a little surprised to realize that The Tangleroot Palace was a collection of short stories and not a single story, but that just meant I got to sample more of her stories. What a wonderful collection of explorations here - from the expected fantasy fairytales to apocalyptic sci-fi adventures. As with any short story anthology, I liked some stories more than others. The titular piece was a longer chunk -- and saved for the very end -- and it was one of my favorites for sure. Although I almost wish it had gotten more attention, because I would have enjoyed reading this as a full-length novel (or novella). I think my favorite story in the whole book was The Briar and The Rose, because it was so full of the intrigue, secrets, and deep relationships I love to experience in books. One thing I really appreciate about this whole volume was the bit of commentary about each story from the author, giving you insight into the prompt for the story and how she approached that to create a very unique interpretation that was all her own. This was a really fun collection of stories I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy short stories!

This is a solid collection of short stories that range from post-apocalyptic urban fantasy, dark fairy tales, and near-future science fiction. As a fan of Monstress, I knew I had to pick this collection up, and wow I am so glad I did. Each story feels unique and gripping, and I quickly was immersed in each different setting. Definitely recommended if you enjoy short story collections, the eldritch artistry of Monstress, or you're in the mood for some darker SFF stories.

Summary:
This is a collection of short stories spanning 8 years by one of the creators of the hit Image comic “Monstress”. If you have read ‘Monstress’, you will be familiar with the overall darker tone of this book. There are 7 short stories in total: ‘Sympathy for the Bones’, ‘The Briar and the Rose’, ‘Call her Savage’, ‘The Last Dignity of Man’, ‘Where the Heart Lives’, ’After the Blood’, and ‘Tangleroot Palace’.

Positives:
+ I really enjoyed the intro at the beginning of the book and the subsequent explanations after each short story. The ones after the stories were particularly informative; telling you where they were anthologized and what the story meant to the author. It was also nice to read what the stories were based off of as well; it means I could try and see if i picked up on that inspiration, or the story was giving me the same feeling.
+ The stories all had wonderfully distinct voices and tones. I really enjoyed that they were all over the place in terms of time periods and genre. Each and every one felt very individual.

Negatives:
- I was sad that there wasn’t more to “Tangleroot Palace”.

Final Thoughts:
Post-apocalyptic beasties, enchanted forests, traveling troupes, and Hoodoo magic - so many neat and varied themes and ideas all under the cover of one book! This collection of short stories puts me in mind of the original ‘Grimm Fairy Tales’ or Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories - kinda dark, definitely twisty, not exactly happy endings but certainly leaves you pondering. Being a fan of the ‘Monstress’ comic series, I was not disappointed. My favorite short stories in the book had to probably be the fairy tale reimagining's (or the ones that seemed most like fairy tales); “Tangleroot Palace” and “The Briar and the Rose”. I am not the biggest fan of collected short stories, but I am interested in seeing if Marjorie Liu writes any other full length novels; many of the stories in the book would be an amazing snippet into a larger story/world.

Atmospheric, inventive, and very creepy, these short stories are great for anyone who enjoys fairy tales, but even more so, enjoys deconstructions of fairy tales. While the specific settings and stories are all unique, there is a clear writing style and in most, a strong and well-developed heroine. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading this set of stories!

This is my first foray into Liu’s work (Saga sits, frowningly, on my shelf unread) and while I can’t say I liked all the stories in this collection, the ideas presented and the worlds created were so incredibly unique and bizarre that I’m now very interested in her other works. I usually review anthologies as a whole because individually reviewing 10+ stories, some merely a couple pages, is difficult. The Tangleroot Palace only has seven stories, all of which nicely fleshed out and ‘full’, so I’ll review these independently.

Sympathy for the Bones – 4/5

A creepy, Appalachian(?) inspired story about a young girl trained by her grandmother to kill people through voodoo dolls. I enjoyed the overall vibe and MC’s determination to free herself from this vicious cycle of grandmother indoctrinating granddaughter

The Briar and the Rose – 5/5

A sapphic sleeping beauty retelling, told from the perspective of the beefy sapphic duelist. Big sword lesbian/book lesbian vibes and overall very cute

Call Her Savage – 2.5/5

A ragged old superhero called to duty one last time, set in an alt-history backdrop where China has colonized the West Coast of America and losing a war to the Brits. There’s a lot of moving parts here and I can see what Liu is trying to do, but this is one of those, would work better as a novella or full length novel stories

The Last Dignity of Man – 5/5

SadGay™ wannabe Lex Luthor slowly learns to let go of his childhood comic book ideals and learn that he doesn’t need a Clark Kent to be happy. My favorite of the entire collection. CW for graphic descriptions of worms

Where the Heart Lives – 3/5

A Forest with a Secret story. The concept was interesting but I wasn’t really engaged with any of the characters

After the Blood – 2.5/5

There were a lot of moving parts and I didn’t understand what Liu was trying to do. Post-apocalyptic, people with superpowers hiding from those without, the Amish are involved in some form? Apparently this is a prequel to one of Liu’s other stories, which is probably why I didn’t understand it.

The Tangleroot Palace – 2/5

I think this is a very loose interpretation of a Beauty and the Beast retelling, where a young princess, forced to marry a feared Warlord runs away to a forest to do….stuff? Just didn’t like this story in general.

Overall, I rate this collection a 3.5/5. A lot of interesting concepts and I adored The Briar and the Rose and Where the Heart Lives but the rest of the collection was a miss for me.

Review to be posted on my blog 31 May 2021

A stunning collection of weird, fantastical, uplifting and thought-provoking short fiction from the author of Monstress. Not a graphic novel, please note, but absolutely worth a read if you like the authors work or short SFF fic in general.

Inventive and transportive, magical and haunting, The Tangleroot Palace is a collection of seven unique short stories written with Liu’s beautifully flowing prose. Each story is the perfect length to let you revel in the intriguing worlds she creates, yet leaves you wanting more as well. From hoodoo dolls to supervillains to vampires, every story is unique and captivating, many reading like fairy tales or twisting regular tropes into new shapes. Honestly, I think this is one of the strongest anthologies I’ve read yet, my overall rating for it sitting at 3.64 stars.

Sympathy for the Bones: I absolutely loved this one, so perfectly creepy and dark as it is. It’s written well, mystery sown in its words—not revealing too much yet affecting all the same. The story slowly unraveled around me as I took in the circumstances of the protagonist’s stolen life and the work she did. In essence, this is about freedom and taking your life into your own hands when it was destined for something else, and both the literal and metaphorical depictions of this through the use of hoodoo dolls was brilliant.

The Briar and the Rose: A twist on the tale of Sleeping Beauty, this was darker than I expected it to be, but I loved it. I adored the (sapphic) romance that formed, where the sheer power of hope and love they had for each other was so wonderful to see. The villain of the story, a body-stealing witch hungering for power, was absolutely terrifying but well-crafted. As the author wrote, this is a “tale about women, and the power of women, and how women save each other and themselves through sisterhood and love.”

Call Her Savage: First of all, I want a full novel set in this world immediately, because the alternate China-Britain politics of it are so fascinating and I so badly want to see them explored more. Second, this story was just so cool. It stars a soldier who was accidentally born superhuman and raised as a weapon her whole life, following her life after war brings her trauma and changes the way she views herself and morality. I don’t want to say much, but the way this explored betrayal really appealed to me and had me going a little feral.

The Last Dignity of Man: This story is kind of hilarious because this man is literally trying to be Lex Luthor while bioengineering giant worms. And honestly… that’s kind of why it didn’t fully work for me, because it’s absolutely wild and not all the parts clicked together. I really love the idea, someone who attempts to emulate a villain in hopes that a countering hero exists—and loves him—but it wasn’t executed as well as I wanted, especially with the giant waste-eating worms. But I think what is most compelling about this story is the feeling of loneliness that permeates it; it feels so real and tangible.

Where the Heart Lives: I loved so much of what was going on in this story—particularly the setting (an immortal woman in the form of a forest who takes people) and the themes (finding love and family when you have never been familiar with what those are). This truly reads like a fairy tale, with that whimsical whirlwind adventure feel to it. However, something about it was a bit eh for me and the story didn’t hit me as hard as the others did.

After the Blood: I don’t have much to say about this one, because I didn’t really care about anything that happened. This story is about humans who became vampires after a virus took out 80% of the world’s population. I honestly was confused throughout the story, and the only part that interested me was what happened at the end.

The Tangleroot Palace: The titular novella of this collection, and my favorite, this takes the typical tale of a princess running away from home and an unwanted arranged marriage, and transforms it into a fascinating, magical story about illusions and agency. This was a story that slowly grew on me more and more as I kept reading, not fully invested at first but completely in love by the end. In the beginning, I was a little off-put by the romance and how insta-lovey it was, but then the end came and I became absolutely enamored by it, particularly with how I thought it subverted a typical trope. The setting, a magical forest ruled by an imprisoned woman, also grew in its intrigue over the course of the story. This story just has such a fascinating exploration of illusions and truth and how the lines can be blurred to work for or against someone, as well as a feminist twist to the usual choiceless princess who cannot save herself, and it was the perfect choice to end the anthology.

If it wasn’t already clear, it was truly a joy to read this collection of short stories. Liu’s lush settings allows her to play with so many interesting themes and tropes, and I think that is why this is the first collection where I’ve loved almost every single story. If you want fresh, fairytale-like takes on fantasy with powerful magic and women, told through gorgeous writing and set in enthralling worlds, you will find everything you’re looking for within these pages.

Hints of McKillip in this often feminist, character-focused collection of stories. I'd read the first Monstress book some time ago and it wasn't really my cup of tea, so I'm glad to find that this was much more type of thing. Highlight was definitely the title novella, The Tangleroot Palace, but none of the stories really disappointed me.

They have lots of strong female characters, beautiful prose (not flowery or anything, just... imaginative, I suppose). The stories are often inspired by fairytales and, for some reason, frequently set near or around forests.

Most of them are bite-sized explorations of love, storytelling, magic and independence. Solid debut!

I'm only familiar with Monstress in passing, but Black Widow: The Name of the Rose is one of my favorite comic runs, so I jumped on the chance to read this anthology by Marjorie Liu. This is a wonderful collection of stories ranging the gamut of speculative fiction genres - it includes everything from alternative history to fairy tale retellings to post-apocalyptic zombie vampires. My personal favorite stories were "Sympathy for the Bones", a story set in Appalachia involving folk magic and slow revenge in a bid for freedom, and "The Last Dignity of Man", about a socially awkward billionaire involved in biological engineering gone wrong. Liu's prose shines when she writes about the otherworldly, especially in her fae-based/inspired stories; her sense of setting is impeccable. Highly recommended.

A highly intriguing and gorgeously rendered collection of short fiction, all themed around concepts of owning oneself and claiming one's place in the world, particularly as a woman.

What a collection of horror, fantastical stories! It's my very first time reading Majorie Liu's work and her writing style is just lyrical and full of magical things. My favorites are Sympathy for the Bones and also The Briar and The Rose.

"Love is powerful, replied the storytellers. Love is divine. That is the answer to every tale we tell. What sleeps can always be awakened with love."

I received an e-ARC copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Tangleroot Palace will be available on June 15th, 2021.

I've been introduced to Marjorie Liu's work because of Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening, and I have been eager to see her written work after that. And oh boy, this short story anthology held on to the promise of what I've seen from her so far, and delivered in great heights.

This short story collection held a wide range of genres, ranging from fantasy, horror, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic times, but all the stories have a central surrounding theme to them that I loved to see depicted. While most of them aren't connected with one another, some similarities were there that it was almost uncanny at how they aren't connected (supposedly). I also loved the notes she had included in the end of each novella about its origin and creative writing process.

1. "Sympathy of Bones" - a story about witches, dark magic, and a lot of voodoo! (3.5 stars)

2. "Briar and Rose" - a very twisted Sleeping Beauty retelling, and possibly my most favorite story! (5 stars)

3. "Call Her Savage" - an alternate history story wherein China and Britain are at war with each other, and genetic manipulation comes into play. (3.5 stars)

4. 'The Last Dignity of Man" - an anti-hero (villian-like?) story featuring a bright and young mad scientist who has a fascination for comic book heroes, and a multi-billion corporation with a top secret government project. (4 stars)

5. "Where the Heart Lives" - a story of a young woman finding herself working for a strange family in an equally strange yet magical forest but full of unknown creatures. (3 stars)

6. "After the Blood" - a post-apocalyptic story featuring a deadly virus pandemic and Amish vampires! (4 stars)

7. "Tangleroot Palace" - a classic princess story of her father marrying her off to a ruthless warlord of another kingdom, and escapes to seek out her own path. Another favorite of mine, and I really wish this has a more extended story! (5 stars)

Over-all, this collection has been one thrilling and compelling read, and I am still wishing that these stories would get explored more in the future. I am highly recommending this anthology for everyone, because it is so worth it!

"New York Times bestseller and Hugo, British Fantasy, Romantic Times, and Eisner award-winning author of the graphic novel Monstress, Marjorie Liu leads you deep into the heart of the tangled woods. In her long-awaited debut collection of dark, lush, and spellbinding short fiction, you will find unexpected detours, dangerous magic, and even more dangerous women.

Briar, bodyguard for a body-stealing sorceress, discovers her love for Rose, whose true soul emerges only once a week. An apprentice witch seeks her freedom through betrayal, the bones of the innocent, and a meticulously plotted spell. In a world powered by crystal skulls, a warrior returns to save China from invasion by her jealous ex. A princess runs away from an arranged marriage, finding family in a strange troupe of traveling actors at the border of the kingdom's deep, dark woods. Concluding with a gorgeous full-length novella, Marjorie Liu's first short fiction collection is an unflinching sojourn into her thorny tales of love, revenge, and new beginnings."

If you have no idea who Marjorie Liu is I'm no longer talking to you until you've read this book and ALL of Monstress to date.

I went into this expecting a graphic novel, because this is how it had been presented to me, as a collection of short stories in a graphic novel format. Which is why I was so disappointed that it was simply a regular collection of short stories.

I love Marjorie Liu's other work called Monstress, which is a graphic novel series, thus when I saw this on netgalley I knew I had to try to get my hands on this. The cover is gorgeous and has the same art as her other series, which is one of my favorite. These stories had what I love in her work which is amazing world building.

TW: it is super gore and has some topics and scenes that could be preferable for some people to avoid this collection. some are implied such as rape.

It is an horror, fantasy, gory LGBT+ collection, the depictions are graphic in some instances and I loved how, in such a short a mount of pages, she managed to put so much without it feeling like it was going too fast. While some of the stories are better than others, in my opinion, they are all at least a 3 stars and some are nearly a 5 stars.

They touch way, love, what we would give and be willing to do to be free and how trauma and events can change us. You will find in there all sorts of main characters, including a villain and a vampire. This was a nice collection that left me wanting full novels, her writing is captivating.

Overall I really enjoyed my time reading the stories one by one, in between books. If you love gore, fantasy, horror and amazing worldbuilding and characters this is for you !

3.75/5 stars.

Bookarina.

Although I've had Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening on my Kindle forever and have had X-Men: Dark Mirror on my TBR, this is actually the first book I've read by Marjorie M. Liu.

While the ideas were all very interesting and the tales dark and lovely, this was a bit hit or miss for me. I think the short story format just wasn't working for me, but that doesn't mean others won't absolutely love this.

None of the stories were bad, but the only one that really pulled me in and kept me engaged until the end was The Last Dignity of Man. I absolutely could have read a full-length novel of that one; I loved it. The rest were okay-good, not great.

I will certainly dip into some of Liu's other work in the future. I can't help but feel that maybe I would have enjoyed these stories more had I already been introduced to the author's style. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

(I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

The cover for The Tangleroot Palace immediately caught my eye- Sana Takeda is a wonderful artist- and when I saw that Marjorie Liu was the author, I knew I wanted to read this book. I haven't read as much Monstress as I'd like, but I've read enough to want more by Liu.

This collection of stories is a quick read, with the titular story, a novella, at the end. All the stories seemed to deal with loneliness, in some fashion- often loneliness alleviated by love, but not always. I'm not sure whether this was intentional, but it added a cohesiveness to the collection that I think worked. I would also like to thank Liu for the older protagonists in some of the stories- I love reading about older women, especially in fantasy. Another thing I really liked about the collection was her notes at the end of each story about why she wrote each one, and how she often side-stepped whatever the prompt was for those stories written for prompts.

"The Briar and the Rose" was a lovely take on the Sleeping Beauty story. I loved Briar (hot older lady!) and Rose's curse was really interesting and well done. The ending hinted at their future together in such a delightful way, too.

"Where the Heart Is" was also lovely. I'm a sucker for characters finding homes for themselves, and all the relationships were just so good. The idea of pining for a person so long they become an idea is also one that really interests me, and I would have loved to read more about Maude and Henry's time together.

The stand-out story, to me, was 'The Last Dignity of Man.' I've been a comics fan since high school, and so I loved that element of it, but the heart of the story- a man who is desperately lonely, who wants to be a super-villain but also tries to be good- broke my own heart. I want to wallpaper my house with copies of this story.

"The Tangleroot Palace" novella was charming, and really nailed a lot of standard fairy tale tropes. It didn't really turn any on their head, but that's more than fine- sometimes you just want a good fairy tale, and this delivered. Sally and Mickel were a cute couple, and I loved their ending.

All the stories in this collection were good, but the above were the ones I liked most. I'd love to read more from Liu (and I really should catch up on Monstress).