Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.
Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.
Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!
Title: The Starlit Wood (New Fairy Tales)
Author: Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe (editors)
Published: 2016
Length: 400 pages
What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):
An all-new anthology of cross-genre fairy tale retellings, featuring an all-star lineup of award-winning and critically acclaimed writers.
Once upon a time. It’s how so many of our most beloved stories start.
Fairy tales have dominated our cultural imagination for centuries. From the Brothers Grimm to the Countess d’Aulnoy, from Charles Perrault to Hans Christian Anderson, storytellers have crafted all sorts of tales that have always found a place in our hearts.
Now a new generation of storytellers have taken up the mantle that the masters created and shaped their stories into something startling and electrifying.
Packed with award-winning authors, this anthology explores an array of fairy tales in startling and innovative ways, in genres and settings both traditional and unusual, including science fiction, western, and post-apocalyptic as well as traditional fantasy and contemporary horror.
From the woods to the stars, The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales takes readers on a journey at once unexpected and familiar, as a diverse group of writers explore some of our most beloved tales in new ways across genres and styles.
How and when I got it:
I bought a copy back in 2016.
Why I want to read it:
I originally bought this book after seeing a mention of it online, which listed the contributing authors.
According to Amazon, authors with stories in The Starlit Wood include: Charlie Jane Anders, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Jeffrey Ford, Max Gladstone, Theodora Goss, Daryl Gregory, Kat Howard, Stephen Graham Jones, Margo Lanagan, Marjorie Liu, Seanan McGuire, Garth Nix, Naomi Novik, Sofia Samatar, Karin Tidbeck, Catherynne M. Valente, and Genevieve Valentine
With a line-up like that, how could I resiste? I was especially drawn to this book because of Seanan McGuire, but there are so many other writers here whose work I love too.
As an added incentive, the editors later released another story collection, Robots vs. Fairies, which I actually read — and loved! My review of that book is here.
What do you think? Would you read this book?
Please share your thoughts!
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Bookshelf Fantasies 
I actually have a copy of this too, and haven’t read it. Not sure why (other than too many books), because the author lineup sounds fantastic!
For me, I think it’s my usual unwillingness to pick up a story collection when I have so many novels to read — but I do think this one sounds great and I love so many of the authors.
This sounds really intriguing; one I’d definitely be interested to explore.
So many great authors! I think if I take this off my shelf and move it to my nightstand, maybe I can create a routine of reading one story per day or a few per week.