Blog Tour ~ Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales by Melanie Gillman ~ Top 5 Reasons to read the book
Morning all!
A magical welcome to the Blog Tour for Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales by Melanie Gillman!! Eep! I am so excited that I could be part of this amazing tour. The book was oodles of fun and I give a 4.5 stars!
For today’s post I got 5 reasons why you should read this book + book/author information.
Ready? Readyyyyy? Let’s go!
5 reasons I would recommend to read this book!
1. The art It was just absolutely stunning! I really love Melanie Gillman’s work (been following them on Twitter for some time) and that was also one of the reasons for myself to pick up this book and hope that I could review it! They really has a soft and pretty style.
2. The stories The stories were just wonderful. I love how we had a prologue and an epilogue. I enjoyed all the stories and was totally into them. I think my favourite ones were the ones about the suitor followed by the mermaid x the old woman.
3. The romance/LGBT + feminism (OK, maybe this is 3 reasons, haha) There are so many cute romances and I was just rooting for everyone to get their happy ending in one way or another. Like the girl with the cold suitor, that turned out in a way I hadn’t expected but totally loved. I absolutely loved how we didn’t have, and I hope I am saying this right, I am so sorry otherwise, we don’t have your typical princes and princesses or standard characters at all. The princess don’t all wear frills or look all dainty. The knights aren’t all male or have fancy shiny hair. It was just such a breath of fresh air. Don’t get me wrong, I love myself some frills and fancy dresses, but this was even more perfect. I definitely fell in love with the princess in the goose story and the knight in the story about a hole in the heart/protecting people.
I loved the feminism. The strong girls vibe. The we don’t need a knight to protect us. We don’t need magic or sparkles to find our luck (though I definitely, at the moment at least, wouldn’t mind some sparkles or magic to feel happy). The side characters are also important. The old woman and the mermaid story was just so sweet!
4. The classic fairy tale vibe Despite these being way more modern and feminism/queer-filled, they just had that feel as if they were really old classic tales. Often with retellings it just feels real modern, new, shiny, but with this one I didn’t have that, and I adore that!
5 How we see people come back: Haha, this may sound a bit weird, but with that I mean that in later stories we may see characters we met earlier. Like we meet the Goose Girl and her family and people in the story about the knight who was searching for something. I just adore it when stories connect. When the country and lands we visit are all in the same world, the same universe.
Once upon a time . . . happily ever after turned out differently than expected. In this new, feminist, queer fairy-tale collection, you’ll find the princesses, mermaids, knights, barmaids, children, and wise old women who have been forced to sit on the sidelines in classic stories taking center stage. A gorgeous all-new collection in graphic novel format from a Stonewall Honor-winning author and artist.
What if the giant who abducted you was actually thoughtful and kind? What if you didn’t want to marry your handsome, popular, but cold-inside suitor? What if your one true love has all the responsibilities that come with running a kingdom?
Award-winning author Melanie Gillman’s phenomenal colored-pencil art creates another “ever after” for the characters who are most worthy of it.
Buy this book here: Amazon ||| Book Depository
Melanie Gillman is the cartoonist behind this story. They hold an MFA in comics from the Center for Cartoon Studies, and currently live in Columbus, OH. Melanie is also the author of Stage Dreams, a lesbian western graphic novel, available from Lerner/Graphic Universe. They are represented by Jen Linnan, of Linnan Literary Management.
