I'm so glad I took the time to read this book. Although it is not a life changing read, I did enjoy it, and it served as a thinking piece. As an educator as well, it's a great concept and tool to have on my shelf.

The book uses the public domain writings of 'The Blue Fairy Book', 'The Red Fairy Book' and 'The Yellow Fairy Book' by Andrew and Leonora Blanche Lang. Runs them through an algorithm that swaps all the genders of the characters, and edits them to be readable in such a way.

This means the original language of the late 1800s texts is still used, and so it's a very traditional reading experience, with a major twist.

I found the reading itself mixed. Some stories worked amazingly well, others were more complicated, dated or confusing. But that comes down to personal understanding and preference I think.

The part which I really enjoyed, was the way this books starts a conversation. In the introduction, Fransman and Plackett talk about the patterns and differences the algorithm had on the stories, talking about how the female characters name began to appear first in the titles, how the women were described as handsome, and the young boys as being pretty, and how the wicked mothers became fathers, the Kings became Queens, the hags old men, and the witches wizards.

It was so interesting to see those gendered stereotypes reversed, and roles redistributed.