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3.5/5 - What a visual masterpiece! The work that went into this book... Illustrated novels stun me every time. The new fairy tales are very sweet and thoughtful. The reason I can't rate this higher as an overall book is because the stories don't all feel complete. Out of seven, I adored two but felt that three of them ended in a weird place. While I fully respect how challenging it must be to create new stories in such a weathered genre, it felt like just a bit more length would have completed the moral of the tale. When putting these next to the introduction and conclusion of the book, things become even less cohesive. I am glad to have the book and will revisit bits of it again, though it doesn't all hit perfectly for me.

Used for 2022 r/Fantasy Bingo (five short stories, hard mode); also fits weird ecology, standalone, published in 2022, shape-shifters, and no ifs, ands, or buts.