Ebony, Blood, and Snow

Inspired by familiar fairy tales, author Tish Black’s debut short story collection takes the tales in new directions and rewrites history: Little Red hunts wolves, Gretel helps the witch, and Bluebeard’s wife gets revenge. These transgressive stories challenge readers’ ideas of what the tales could mean to them. There’s more to learn from fairy tale heroines than how to be eaten, rescued, or married. These unconventional heroines fight the patriarchy with no time for romance; instead, readers will find tales of revenge, sisterhood, political revolt, and independence. Conveying the radical feminism of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and the defiance of Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch, Black’s collection of thirteen tales redefines the fairy tale heroine.

The story of Little Red has always been told by wolves… starting with Charles Perrault changing the French oral tale into a warning of how pretty girls ought to behave and continuing in films with men filmmakers sexing up Red in 40s cartoons, teaching girls to obey their parents in children’s films, and attempting to use the tale to “do feminism” on women’s behalf. In all that- has anyone really understood the tale?

After many years of the Rated F podcast, I now write film reviews and pieces on the Rated F Substack, with plans to reboot the podcast and add video essays to the Rated F content.