The Merry Spinster, Daniel Mallory Ortberg
The Merry Spinster, Daniel Mallory Ortberg
List: $35.99 | Sale: $25.20
Club: $17.99

The Merry Spinster
Tales of Everyday Horror

Author: Daniel Mallory Ortberg

Narrator: Christina Traister

Unabridged: 5 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/05/2018

Synopsis

From Daniel Mallory Ortberg comes a collection of darkly mischievous stories based on classic fairy tales. Adapted from his beloved "Children's Stories Made Horrific" series, The Merry Spinster takes up the trademark wit that endeared Ortberg to readers of both The Toast and his best-selling debut Texts From Jane Eyre. The feature has become among the most popular on the site, with each entry bringing in tens of thousands of views, as the stories proved a perfect vehicle for Ortberg’s eye for deconstruction and destabilization. Sinister and inviting, familiar and alien all at the same time, The Merry Spinster updates traditional children's stories and fairy tales with elements of psychological horror, emotional clarity, and a keen sense of feminist mischief.Readers of The Toast will instantly recognize Ortberg's boisterous good humor and uber-nerd swagger: those new to Ortberg's oeuvre will delight in his unique spin on fiction, where something a bit mischievous and unsettling is always at work just beneath the surface.Unfalteringly faithful to its beloved source material, The Merry Spinster also illuminates the unsuspected, and frequently, alarming emotional complexities at play in the stories we tell ourselves, and each other, as we tuck ourselves in for the night.Bed time will never be the same.

About Daniel Mallory Ortberg

Daniel Mallory Ortberg is the co-creator of the Toast and the author of the New York Times Bestseller Texts From Jane Eyre.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on March 27, 2018

There are two really great stories here, a couple of okay ones, many pages of beautiful/whimsical/amusing writing, several interesting ideas, and a whole lot of codswallop. Let's call it a 2.5. As with many other short story collections, like Machado's Her Body and Other Parties, The Merry Spinster i......more

Goodreads review by Oriana on May 10, 2018

Oh Mallory, oh Daniel Mallory, oh my goodness gracious how I adore you. This book tho... I don't know. It is incredibly well done, but that is not at all the same as saying I enjoyed it. Each tale starts out familiar, like a song you love redone in a minor key — the mermaid who trades her voice for......more

Goodreads review by Sara on May 21, 2018

I'm officially tired of reading retelling anthologies. They get odder and weirder and more befuddling with each story and by the time I'm done I feel like banging my head against a wall. I understand that part of it has to do with the fact that I have no ducking clue about the original stories themse......more

Goodreads review by Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) on March 25, 2023

Do you ever pick a up a book on a whim and it ends up being a book you didn't know you needed at exactly the right time? That was my experience with The Merry Spinster- a short story collection that has been languishing on my shelves for years and since it fit for a readathon, I decided to finally r......more

Goodreads review by Tori (InToriLex) on April 09, 2018

Find this and other Reviews at In Tori Lex Actual Rating 2.5 You should be a fan of the Grimm' Fairy Tales, in order to appreciate these short stories. I am really familiar with Disney's feel good fairy tales but didn't feel familiar enough with the source material to appreciate the adaptions. These h......more

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