If you loved how stories like "Ayama and the Thorn Wood" and "The Too-Clever Fox" turn familiar fables inside out, Carter’s collection will hit the same nerve. In tales like "The Bloody Chamber" and "The Company of Wolves," she reshapes Bluebeard and Red Riding Hood with lush prose and razor-edged insight—much like how Bardugo reimagines a siren’s ascent in "When Water Sang Fire" or recasts power and beauty in "Little Knife." It’s haunting, sensual, and gleefully transgressive.

The way "When Water Sang Fire" threads the danger of a voice bargained away, or how "The Soldier Prince" warps enchantment into possession, echoes through Novik’s tale of Miryem striking fey bargains that freeze kingdoms and snare souls. Like the ruthless choices in "Ayama and the Thorn Wood," every promise here binds—and missteps carry a bite. You’ll relish the chill, the beautiful cruelty, and the triumph wrested from impossible terms.

If the compact, crystalline punch of "The Witch of Duva" or "The Too-Clever Fox" delighted you—each story complete, yet echoing the others—Donoghue’s linked retellings will feel like a kindred spell. Each tale stands alone with the intimacy of Bardugo’s vignettes, yet they talk to one another, reframing a heroine’s past the way "Little Knife" reframes a contest of beauty and choice. It’s brief, potent, and quietly devastating.

If "The Witch of Duva" struck you with how hunger becomes a living force, or "Little Knife" with its sharp allegory of beauty and power, Gaiman’s story will feel familiar in its mythic logic. Ursula Monkton’s smiling menace and the Hunger Birds’ cold inevitability mirror the way Bardugo’s tales turn abstract threats into creatures that stalk the margins. It’s dreamlike, unsettling, and resonant long after the last page.

If the late rug-pulls in "The Soldier Prince" or the fierce reversals of "Ayama and the Thorn Wood" thrilled you, this anthology delivers that same jolt. Authors like Naomi Novik and Catherynne M. Valente twist familiar stories into strange shapes, landing revelations with the same audacity as "When Water Sang Fire." Expect elegant betrayals, clever pivots, and endings that make you reread the first page with new eyes.