Fairy Tale Lust: Erotic
Fantasies for Women
Edited
by Kristina Wright
Cleis
Press, 2010
978-1-57344-397-5
Once
upon a time, a lovely author of sexy stories put out a call for
erotic fairly tales. She worried whether anyone would take up her
challenge. After all, there had been many X-rated retellings of
Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin and Rapunzel in the past. Perhaps the
well of inspiration had run dry.
Fortunately
for connoisseurs of erotic fiction, her fears were unfounded. Fairy
Tale Lust is a treasure chest of delights, each tale a unique
gem. There are really no boring or poorly written stories in this
anthology, which is a marvel in itself. From Shanna Germain's lyrical
and haunting “Her Hair is a Net, Woven” to Jeremy Edward's
hilarious “Gildi and the Unwieldy, Ineffectual Committee of Bears”,
each story offers a different voice and a different vision. Some,
like Andrea Dale's “How the Mermaid Got Her Tail Back” or Louisa
Harte's “Ellie and the Shoemaker”, offer contemporary settings
and modern characters. Others, such as “Three Times” by Justine
Elyot and “The Pub Owner's Daughter” by Alegra Verde, unfold in
the traditional fairy tale world of Germanic villages and royal
castles, populated by canny maids and brave lads out to make their
fortunes (and get off along the way).
Some
of the stories particularly stand out for their originality. In Craig
Sorensen's “Ducking”, a modern-day ugly duckling discovers that
sexiness starts from within. I was impressed that a male could write
such an accurate account of feminine self-doubt. “Sleep Tight”,
by Janine Ashbless, offers a visceral first person account by the
hapless landscaper penetrating Sleeping Beauty's palisade of thorns.
The final twist is shocking and yet, in retrospect, feels inevitable.
Kristina Wright's own contribution, “In the Dark Woods” explores
the transforming power of obsessive, forbidden desire. It is less of
a fairy story than many of the tales in this volume, though it hums
with dark magic. “Gingerbread Man” by
Carol Hassler, is almost a horror story, despite its eventual happy
ending.
Traditional
fairy tales did not always end well. While most of the stories in
this collection conclude with the characters well-matched and
well-fucked, the conclusions in Janine Ashbless', Kristina Wright's
and Shanna Germain's contributions are all threaded with darkness.
Alana Noël Voth's “Big Bad Wolf (An Excerpt)” foreshadows pain
and loss as well as pleasure. And Charlotte Stein's haunting and
erotic “The Return” brims with anxiety, despite the heroine's
delirious satisfaction with her new lover:
“Of
course Roland never spoke about him at all. Families like his don't
talk about bad eggs, who do things like steal and murder and inveigle
their way into your secret heart, the secret heart that wants dark
instead of light, danger instead of boredom.”
All
in all, Fairy Tale Lust is an exceptional collection. My one
complaint is the ridiculous subtitle: “Erotic
Fantasies for Women”. There's nothing at all in this book that
particularly qualifies it as “women's fiction”. In fact, a woman
reader looking for “safe” erotica might find some of the tales in
this book rather alarming.
So
I'd recommend that you just ignore this clumsy marketing attempt. Get
yourself a copy of Fairy Tale Lust and read happily ever
after.
