The Tangleroot Palace | ARC Review

Thank you to Tachyon Publications and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.

 Book: The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie Liu
Release Date: JUne 15th 2021
Tags: Fantasy | Adult | Short Stories | Short Story Collection | Fairytales
Trigger/Content Warnings: Rape | Miscarriage | Mentions of suicide | Animal Death
Other books by this author I reviewed
Monstress Volume 1

New York Times bestseller and Hugo, British Fantasy, Romantic Times, and Eisner award-winning author of the graphic novel, Monstress, Marjorie Liu leads you deep into the heart of the tangled woods. In her long-awaited debut story collection, dark, lush, and spellbinding short fiction you will find unexpected detours, dangerous magic, and even more dangerous women

I first heard of Marjorie Liu because of the comic Monstress that I am a fan of. So when I saw this gorgeous cover and a story collection by her hand, I knew I had to request.

At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about this collection. The first two stories certainly didn’t grab me like I thought they would but then the story Call her Savage came around and I fell quite in love with how this story was told. And that continued on with the rest of the stories in this collection. Most of the stories have a fairytale like feel and some are even inspired by some of them. There are always strong woman and a lot of diversity to go around, making this a very solid and strong collection as a whole. It has 7 stories and I think that balances out this collection. Not too many in to one.

Sympathy for the Bones | 3,5 stars
In itself this is a very interesting and creepy story about voodoo. But personally could have done with a bit more of wickedness in Ruth than we got in the story. I just didn’t quite feel the fear we were meant to I guess.

The Briar and the Rose | 3 stars
This is a sleeping beauty retelling with quite a bit of a dark twist with a saphic romance. Unfortunately I didn’t quite care about the characters.

Call her Savage | 5 stars
This story is set in an alternate China-Britain. It follows a soldier who was trained as a weapon from birth and retired in her own way. But when war threatens, reappears. The politics and the whole interactions just completely drew me in.

The Last Dignity of Man | 4 stars
This was an interesting play on Superman. Our mc is trying to be Lex Luther which is kind of ridiculous on its own. The whole story is really, but then there are the underlaying emotions of loneliness that come through.

Where the Heart Lives | 5 stars
This fairytale story was everything I like to see in a whimsical kind of story. The magical forest one has to stay away with. The orphans taken in by a woman on her own. I just loved all the aspects and I would love to read more about them.

After the Blood | 3,5 stars
A story about humans becoming vampires after a virus. I really liked the idea and the characters but it got confusing in parts.

Tangleroot Palace | 4 stars
This story takes the typical tale of a princess running away from an arranged marriage into a lovely tale about magic and things not being what you think they are. And again, a magical forest. I love those.