★★★☆☆
(Fairy Tale) Red Riding Hood escapes the wolf after years of living together and finds asylum with Beauty while the Beast is overseas on business. (7,910 words; Time: 26m)
"Windrose in Scarlet," by Isabel Yap [bio] (edited by John Joseph Adams), appeared in Lightspeed Magazine issue 113, published on October 1, 2019.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.587 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: Obviously this is a lesbian love story, and the only question is how long will it take Red and Beauty to realize it and then what will they do about it?
On another level, it’s a story about abused women who have come to “love” their abusers but then realize they want their freedom. Red and Beauty are trapped in different ways, but both are trapped in abusive relationships.
The ending (not the epilog) is satisfactory in that Red pays a price (a high price) for her happily-ever-after with Beauty.
Con: There’s very little surprise in this story up until the very end. The abuse elements are evident in the original fairy tales; they’re just more explicit here. And the resolution to the final conflict is pretty much a deus ex machina.
The conclusion, in which we learn this was all a story one girl was telling to another, doesn’t really add anything.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Isabel Yap Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: Obviously this is a lesbian love story, and the only question is how long will it take Red and Beauty to realize it and then what will they do about it?
On another level, it’s a story about abused women who have come to “love” their abusers but then realize they want their freedom. Red and Beauty are trapped in different ways, but both are trapped in abusive relationships.
The ending (not the epilog) is satisfactory in that Red pays a price (a high price) for her happily-ever-after with Beauty.
Con: There’s very little surprise in this story up until the very end. The abuse elements are evident in the original fairy tales; they’re just more explicit here. And the resolution to the final conflict is pretty much a deus ex machina.
The conclusion, in which we learn this was all a story one girl was telling to another, doesn’t really add anything.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Isabel Yap Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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