Book Review: Hags, Sirens, and Other Bad Girls of Fantasy

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Hags, Sirens, and Other Bad Girls of Fantasy     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Denise Little
Class/Genre:   Fantasy   [Short Stories]
Daw, Jul 2006, $7.99

This twenty story anthology focuses on just what the title states: the bad females of fantasy and fairy tales. Normally stories containing Pandora or Isis, etc. they play the villainess secondary character; in this collection these notorious bad girls play the lead role so the audience sees how they perceive their persona, public image, and the encounters that make characters like Cinderella’s stepmother become the connotation of parental abuse. Though for the most part well written, much of the bite of being the malevolent one is taken away as several of the ladies insist they are misunderstood. Still fantasy fans who enjoy their villains to be hardened women will find this compilation of all new stories fun and will follow the frolics of these fatal fatale females mostly of Greek mythos.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner