I absolutely loved the meta way that fairytale retelling concept was presented through this novella. I have never thought about fairytales as critically as I have through this story: their origins, their purposes, the way they function and the meaning they hold. Because the MC has an academic background in folklore the whole story was so self-aware, and it felt like the reader is at times part of the story and at times in conversation with the author as it went, which was just really interesting. I also couldn't stop appreciating how brilliant it was to make the narrative voice be so relatable 21yo girly pop and include moments that are absolutely preposterous and seem silly and unserious up front, just to then switch it up and throw in so much commentary on the way assumptions mislead us and how women show up in fairytales and the roles they take on to get through them. Like this is a story about survival that plays on our preconceptions and misconceptions of fairytales as feminine and of femininity as shallow. Great as always to get both chronic illness and queer rep, and I loved the story of friendship in this too. The only thing keeping this from 5 stars for me is really just that the ending, while I understand it, just wasn't totally satisfying to me which is a bit of a bummer. I know there's a sequel though so maybe that explains it, and there's hope for a better one at the end of that!

I have some very mixed feelings about this book. I did learn a lot and found parts of it to be incredibly interesting and compelling, especially on intersectionality, but I also spent most of the book feeling like I didn't understand why I was reading what I was reading (i.e., why the authors were presenting the particular stories they did and in the way they did). I understand that the book originated as a podcast, and while I haven't listened to it, in theory that format makes a lot of sense to me; I can absolutely see how each chapter lends itself perfectly to a single episode focused on one particular queer person and drawing a picture of the relevant world and queer history shifts in- and as a result of- their lifetime. Unfortunately, in book form I felt that the chapters were largely independent and sorely lacking in the necessary throughlines that the introduction and conclusion tried to establish. As I read it felt like the identity of the book was a bit muddled and it was part thesis, part biography, part history book, part opinion piece, and not fully committing to delivering on any. I think the book also could have benefited from a heavier edit in general, because all the time jumps and loops back around within each chapter were a bit hard to follow, and the audiobook had some reread lines left in. Ultimately I do think this could be an especially cool listen for someone with more pre-existing mainstream knowledge on the people and historical periods featured, though I have to recommend the podcast in the hopes that it fares better than the book.