Her mother told her she could grow up to be anything she wanted to be, so she grew up to become the strongest of the strong, the strangest of the strange, the wildest of the wild, the wolf leading the wolves." In Hansel and Greta (note the name change), Winterson gives us children in despair at the destruction of their forest to make way for a railway line. The antagonist is a nasty aunt called GreedyGuts, who says that “the point of life is to eat as much as possible, make as much money as possible, go on holiday as much as possible … buy two new cars every year, a jacuzzi in the garden, and a Luxury Level Executive Home… ” Hansel and Greta, of course, triumph, plant trees, and all is right with the world. Instead of a princess waiting to be rescued, Rapunzel in Gill’s version finds her own way out of the tower. Just as importantly, she also decides not to accept tainted love anymore as well. She isn’t just running from one bad relationship to another. She’s setting boundaries for herself. This is a very timely lesson for our current society. Just in case you’re not 100% sure what you’re dealing with here, Fierce Fairytales begins with a riff on the creation story of Genesis: the universe is actually built by two women, Cosmos and Chaos, who team up to spark everything into being — leaving no question in a reader’s mind as to what kind of book Fierce Fairytales actually is.

Gill explores the stories of fearless princesses and villains alike. Providing an unwavering voice and bravery to the princesses, and the circumstances which led villains to be one, despite themselves. Traditional fairytales are rife with cliches and gender beautiful, silent princesses; ugly, jealous, and bitter villainesses; girls who need rescuing; and men who take all the glory. Imagine fairytales where the line between heroes and villains are blurred, where there is violence in supposed Prince Charming’s, and where the girl is independent, brave and smart- and can fight her own battles against monsters. This book explored themes of abuse and self-love, how women as well as men can be toxic, and how it is your own business how you decide to heal- and that healing and becoming yourself again is a form of magic in its own right.

And if that means a willing suspension of disbelief just to create a new line-up of characters who in their own flawed way can help a few people realise identities, potentials and strengths—why not? One twist modern readers seem to never tire of is seeing a well-known story through the eyes of the villain. Often the villain then becomes sympathetic and another character emerges as the true evil-doer. Think of Disney’s Maleficent and the string of Joker and Harley Quinn movies. Nikita Gill has taken classic fairytales, and in these she has masterfully combined the subjects of empowerment, love, feminism, abuse and mental illness. I enjoyed the way Gill kind of climbs into these characters in the stories, whether they are villains or heroes, and enables the reader to see them in a different perspective. Nikita Gill puts an adult, mostly feminist spin on common fairytales and legends in her collection, titled Fierce Fairytales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your Soul. For me, though, the content wasn’t as stirring as promised.

when we feel like life is overwhelming,/we must remember that we’re just sparks of energy borrowing skin. Being upset about the inequality to date in our world is not really a useful thing to teach our children. What we need to teach them is how to stand up for themselves and speak out against those that are treating women (or others) inappropriately. This doesn't require us to fear-monger or make like all men in this world are awful. At one point I felt like maybe Gill was building a new lesbian army of teens to take over the world; that's how all out awful a lot of the last poems/stories were. Just unnecessary in my mind and not productive. When thinking about how to twist a trope or well-known tale to make it fresh, ask yourself what if. What if the big bad wolf was trying to save his kidnapped pups? What if Cinderella was lazy? In my collection of modern fairy tales When Magic Calls, I asked myself what certain fairy tales would look like if they took place in the modern world. How would that change the narrative? Imagine if the holy river we bring to life every month was treated with the prayer and worship it deserved. Visualize fairytales that included the oceans in our stomachs. Aurora speaking to her mother about blood was a right of passage. Belle teaching a whole classroom how to care for their wombs. Queen Cinderella decreeing that the language of blood was no longer secret. Snow White, being able to declare to the dwarves, 'Excuse me, I have my period' without them being affected into silence and awkwardness. Think of a world where your period was not a thing or murmurs. How people knew that like the moon, half the world has a cycle, and because of this cycle, this process of our uterus letting go that humans exist, you see, blood does not take permission. Blood comes and goes as it desires, and it is a damned shame that instead of looking at themselves as the warriors they are, little learn to worry about how to afford this bleeding, instead of math, science, art, history, geography, literature, drama. Imagine a world where your period is normalized, where instead of fearing leaking every girl can declare proudly, 'I can do anything, and I can do it with holy blood rivers flowing.'" 49. "There is an entire forest full of the most incredible flowers, plants and trees inside you, and you are ignoring all of it to nurture a single tree that they planted inside your heart and abandoned. The people who left you this way don't deserve to become your favourite stories to tell. You are a massive forest full of beautiful and vibrant stories and every single one of them deserves you more than those that abandoned you to hell." 50. "I wonder what I could have done with all of the time I wasted wondering if I was good enough, pretty enough to exist." 51. "Some days I am more wolf than woman and I am still learning how to stop apologizing for my wild."

The idea of updating fairy tales or poems and putting them in a gorgeously bound (and illustrated) book for children/teens is wonderful. The actual production of this book is amazing. I would have cherished it as a child just for how pretty it is; even if I didn't like all the stories. I think there is probably something here for everyone; but unfortunately you have to navigate a lot of obnoxious, in your face rhetoric to find it. Gill starts us out with the tamer stories and sets the tone and mood. She lures the reader into buying into her ideas, stories and verse. Only to take the last quarter of this book bashing, and I mean declaring all out war on, men. I didn't like this. It felt too overt and just too nasty to teach children or teens. In Hansel and Greta (note the name change), Jeanette Winterson gives us children in despair at the destruction of their forest to make way for a railway line.’ Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian