Review by Kelly Jarvis: Ebony, Blood, and Snow by Tish Black

Ebony, Blood, and Snow is a stunning collection of short stories inspired by traditional fairy tales. Writing in the tradition of artists like Angela Carter, Emma Donoghue, and Anne Sexton, Tish Black presents readers with feminist retellings designed to empower women and smash the patriarchy. Black grounds her retellings in a keen understanding of the female writers and scholars who have studied and worked with fairy tales before her, effectively penning a new group of intriguing stories from folkloric material.

The stories in Ebony, Blood, and Snow are told from both third person and first person perspectives, but each narrative is a clear and concise exploration of a character or tale. “Ebony” provides the back story of Snow White’s mother, “Amethyst” reworks “The Goose Girl,” and “Pine” presents a group of sisters who sneak out of their father’s house not to dance, but to earn their own money. Readers will find a Little Red Riding Hood who hunts wolves and a Rapunzel who escapes from her tower on her own. While the men in Black’s tales rarely act as saviors, women and witches are rewritten as powerful entities who navigate difficult circumstances with a combination of intelligence, cunning, and female rage. Two of my favorites include a Swan Maiden tale that opens with the fabulous phrase “Once upon a time, a king pissed off a witch,” and a nod to the frame tale of 1001 Nights that showcases the incredible power of storytelling.

The thirteen tales in Black’s collection are enticing enough to be read in one sitting, or they can be savored slowly by those looking to contemplate how fairy tale narratives have shaped and can continue to shape our cultural understanding of gendered expectations. Although many of the narratives contain alarming adult themes, the stories beautifully explore the roles of mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives, and the text offer new ideas for empowering women in both domestic and social spaces. If you enjoyed The Bloody Chamber or Kissing the Witch, you will find much to love in Ebony, Blood, and Snow. You can find the book here, and you watch The Fairy Tale Magazine's interview with Tish Black on our YouTube Channel here. Like and follow to watch Fairy Tale Voices, a series of conversations with writers, poets, scholars, and artists who use fairy tale and folklore in their work.

Thank you to the author for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review.

Kelly Jarvis is the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine. Her work has also been featured in A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard, Blue Heron Review, Corvid Queen, Eternal Haunted Summer, Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly, The Chamber Magazine, The Magic of Us, and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers. Her first novella, Selkie Moon, comes out in 2025. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/