Reviews
A wolf preys on a young family. A woman’s identity is stolen by a close friend. Students at a strict dance academy decide to fight back. A princess kisses a frog. Dani Taillefer’s fairy tale retelling, Night Under a Dark Moon, is a collection of short stories featuring characters and settings both eerily familiar and chilling to read. With short, simple retellings of well-known fairy tales and legends of folklore – Rapunzel, the Pied Piper, Snow White – this book takes the stories we grew up with and gives them a dark and bloody twist. There are over thirty fairy tales in this book, providing bite-sized tales for readers looking for their next scare.
Night Under a Dark Moon is a truly creepy and original read. Horror retellings of folk tales are nothing new, but Dani Taillefer has breathed new life into each story, using atmospheric horror to craft a clever reimagining of classic tales. A Nightmare of Time, You Only Need Two Eyes and Lies of Dread stood out to me as particularly strong entries in this collection. There’s a varied mix of modern retellings and classic settings in medieval kingdoms; I was pleasantly surprised by how unexpected and fresh these changes were. There is a very clever and modern twist on Rumpelstiltskin, where the traditional spinning gold from straw has been replaced by online stock market trading. Overall, this is a delightful horror collection. Readers who crave psychological horror and stories reminiscent of The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter will love Night Under a Dark Moon.
Night Under a Full Moon, by Dani Taillefer, is a short story collection dedicated to anything and everything that could go wrong in obviously dangerous fairytales. Some stories weave a pessimistic outlook on life that they happily share with readers, while others dignify their narcissistic characters with a righteous justice only found in TikToks. Overall, Taillefer builds a solid display of tales delivering lessons on morality, mental resilience, and carefulness.
While I enjoyed most of the stories in the collection, many of the themes don’t carry the enchantment I expected from fairytale retellings. Taillefer endeavors to incorporate modern sensibilities into the plot, but oftentimes the effort falls short. That being said, I can definitely appreciate the psychological aspects she explores in her characters, whether it be Hansel’s horrific fate in the asylum or the 12 dancing princesses and their princes, all trying to break free from their fates. To me, this was a mesh of themes that needed to be fleshed out more.
So for now, I would give this collection a 3 out of 5 stars, and would recommend it to those who enjoy works by Marissa Meyer and Alex Flinn.
Dani Taillefer delivers a chilling reimagining of Grimm tales that prioritizes atmosphere and dread over traditional narrative comfort. The collection excels in transforming familiar stories into vehicles for supernatural horror, emphasizing the cost of wishes and the proximity of evil. It stands as a potent example of modern horror literature that respects source material while violently reshaping it for adult audiences. Readers seeking lighthearted tales should look elsewhere, but those craving stark reality and gothic terror will find this volume compelling and unsettlingly effective.