The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers: And Other Gruesome Tales
Author: Jen Campbell
Illustrator: Adam de Souza
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
COLLECTION
LiteratureFourteen fairy stories collected from all around the world, each with a particularly gory or gruesome quality.
The foreword features direct address from the narrator, inviting the reader to "step inside" - this unsettling welcome brilliantly sets the tone for the tales within. Accompanying the stories are inked illustrations from de Souza, with some full-colour pages and some marginalia, lending the book a classic quality.
Campbell engages with the broad history and heritage of fairytales, and ensures a contemporary spin in her retellings, with some tales rewritten to have more feminist messaging, as well as incorporating queer characters and positive representation of disability. An accomplished and atmospheric collection.