The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror

Author(s): Mallory Ortberg

Fiction

'Dark and dreadful and persistently clever. Ortberg bloodily turns familiar tales inside out.' Rainbow Rowell


'A collection of stories delectable, formidable, and nimble. As a fantasist and short story writer, Mallory Ortberg is without peer.' Kelly Link


'Mallory Ortberg has a voracious appetite for poison apples, and a genius for finding the places in fairyland where all the bodies are buried. The Merry Spinster will ruin your most-loved fables, in the best possible way.' Charlie Jane Anders


'Mallory Ortberg has the sloe gin wit of Dorothy Parker and the soul of a Classics nerd. It's like both of them sat next to each other in The Merry Spinster and gossiped away. The result is an absolute delight.' John Scalzi

'Mallory Ortberg has created a Frankenstein's monster of familiar narratives. . .[that swings] between Terry Pratchett's satirical jocularity and Angela Carter's sinister, shrewd storytelling, and the result is gorgeous, unsettling, splenic, cruel, and wickedly smart. I've never read anything quite like them, and I bet, Dear Reader, that you haven't either.' Carmen Maria Machado


A collection of darkly mischievous stories based on classic fairy tales. Sinister and inviting, familiar and alien all at the same time, The Merry Spinster updates traditional children's stories and fairy tales with elements of psychological horror, emotional clarity, and a keen sense of feminist mischief.


Unfalteringly faithful to its beloved source material, The Merry Spinster also illuminates the unsuspected, and frequently alarming, emotional complexities at play in the stories we tell ourselves and each other as we tuck ourselves in for the night.


Bed time will never be the same.


Product Information

"A wholly satisfying blend of silliness, feminist critique, and deft prose makes this a collection of bedtime stories that will keep you up at night for all the right reasons." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Ortberg's sly, scathing renditions. . . .strike directly at the heart. . . . .The book brings the shock of the new and the shock of recognition into play at the same time; it's a tour de force of skill, daring, and hard-earned bravura." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Dark and dreadful and persistently clever. Ortberg bloodily turns familiar tales inside out." --Rainbow Rowell, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Carry On"A collection of stories delectable, formidable, and nimble. As a fantasist and short story writer, Mallory Ortberg is without peer." --Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble"Dear Reader: It would, truthfully, be simplest to call the stories in THE MERRY SPINSTER 'retellings, ' but that word does not adequately capture their dark alchemy. Mallory Ortberg has created a Frankenstein's monster of familiar narratives. . .[that swings] between Terry Pratchett's satirical jocularity and Angela Carter's sinister, shrewd storytelling, and the result is gorgeous, unsettling, splenic, cruel, and wickedly smart. I've never read anything quite like them, and I bet, Dear Reader, that you haven't either." --Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties: Stories"Mallory Ortberg has a voracious appetite for poison apples, and a genius for finding the places in fairyland where all the bodies are buried. The Merry Spinster will ruin your most-loved fables, in the best possible way." --Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky"The secret to THE MERRY SPINSTER, I think, is that she never wanted to be your wicked stepmother--she was too busy. There are uncanny slivers of delight and recognition mixed here with the wit we all love Ortberg for, but here that wit is wielded with new force. If fairy tales are ways to describe the rules we don't dare put down on paper, in her hands they become ways to challenge those, or even to write new rules. I don't know if these stories are for bedtimes, but they are for us." --Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night"Mallory Ortberg has the sloe gin wit of Dorothy Parker and the soul of a Classics nerd. It's like both of them sat next to each other in THE MERRY SPINSTER and gossiped away. The result is an absolute delight." --John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Lock In and Redshirts "Ortberg's sly, scathing renditions. . . .strike directly at the heart. . . . .The book brings the shock of the new and the shock of recognition into play at the same time; it's a tour de force of skill, daring, and hard-earned bravura." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Dark and dreadful and persistently clever. Ortberg bloodily turns familiar tales inside out." --Rainbow Rowell, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Carry On"A collection of stories delectable, formidable, and nimble. As a fantasist and short story writer, Mallory Ortberg is without peer." --Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble"Dear Reader: It would, truthfully, be simplest to call the stories in THE MERRY SPINSTER 'retellings, ' but that word does not adequately capture their dark alchemy. Mallory Ortberg has created a Frankenstein's monster of familiar narratives. . .[that swings] between Terry Pratchett's satirical jocularity and Angela Carter's sinister, shrewd storytelling, and the result is gorgeous, unsettling, splenic, cruel, and wickedly smart. I've never read anything quite like them, and I bet, Dear Reader, that you haven't either." --Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties: Stories"Mallory Ortberg has a voracious appetite for poison apples, and a genius for finding the places in fairyland where all the bodies are buried. The Merry Spinster will ruin your most-loved fables, in the best possible way." --Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky"The secret to THE MERRY SPINSTER, I think, is that she never wanted to be your wicked stepmother--she was too busy. There are uncanny slivers of delight and recognition mixed here with the wit we all love Ortberg for, but here that wit is wielded with new force. If fairy tales are ways to describe the rules we don't dare put down on paper, in her hands they become ways to challenge those, or even to write new rules. I don't know if these stories are for bedtimes, but they are for us." --Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night"Mallory Ortberg has the sloe gin wit of Dorothy Parker and the soul of a Classics nerd. It's like both of them sat next to each other in THE MERRY SPINSTER and gossiped away. The result is an absolute delight." --John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Lock In and Redshirts "Dark and dreadful and persistently clever. Ortberg bloodily turns familiar tales inside out." --Rainbow Rowell, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Carry On"A collection of stories delectable, formidable, and nimble. As a fantasist and short story writer, Mallory Ortberg is without peer." --Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble"Dear Reader: It would, truthfully, be simplest to call the stories in THE MERRY SPINSTER 'retellings, ' but that word does not adequately capture their dark alchemy. Mallory Ortberg has created a Frankenstein's monster of familiar narratives. . .[that swings] between Terry Pratchett's satirical jocularity and Angela Carter's sinister, shrewd storytelling, and the result is gorgeous, unsettling, splenic, cruel, and wickedly smart. I've never read anything quite like them, and I bet, Dear Reader, that you haven't either." --Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties: Stories"Mallory Ortberg has a voracious appetite for poison apples, and a genius for finding the places in fairyland where all the bodies are buried. The Merry Spinster will ruin your most-loved fables, in the best possible way." --Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky"The secret to THE MERRY SPINSTER, I think, is that she never wanted to be your wicked stepmother--she was too busy. There are uncanny slivers of delight and recognition mixed here with the wit we all love Ortberg for, but here that wit is wielded with new force. If fairy tales are ways to describe the rules we don't dare put down on paper, in her hands they become ways to challenge those, or even to write new rules. I don't know if these stories are for bedtimes, but they are for us." --Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night"Mallory Ortberg has the sloe gin wit of Dorothy Parker and the soul of a Classics nerd. It's like both of them sat next to each other in THE MERRY SPINSTER and gossiped away. The result is an absolute delight." --John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Lock In and Redshirts

Mallory Ortberg is the co-creator of the Toast and the author of the New York Times Bestseller Texts From Jane Eyre.

General Fields

  • : 9781250113429
  • : Henry Holt & Company
  • : Holt Paperback
  • : 0.185973
  • : February 2018
  • : .62 Inches X 5.77 Inches X 8.17 Inches
  • : United States
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Mallory Ortberg
  • : Paperback
  • : English
  • : 208