This is a wonderful collection of fairytales from around the world, drawing on themes of queerness. It’s not a book of retold stories. Instead, Pete Jordi Wood has chosen a selection of tales that feature same-sex love, or explore ideas of gender.

These stories are an excellent reminder that queer people have always existed, and that we have existed in every culture around the world. The best thing about any fairytale, of course, is the happily ever after, and it’s wonderful to see queer characters get the literal fairytale ending that they deserve.

Wood took different approaches to each story, and there’s a really good appendix that explains the origin of each story and any changes made. Often these changes have been made regarding transgender or gender non-conforming characters, to better reflect our modern understanding of gender. All of the stories hold up very well on their own, but that extra information is very interesting to those who might want to look deeper into the story.

Many of the stories focus on themes of gender, and it’s so important in today’s environment to not just celebrate and uplift trans stories and trans joy, but also to remember (and I’ll say it again because it’s so important), that trans people have always existed. I hope that this book finds its way into the hands of those that need it the most, because I have a feeling it’s going to mean a lot to a lot of people.

I will note that there is an absence of sapphic stories in this collection. Given the amount of research that has clearly gone into this book, I suspect that is due to the lack of source material, but I hope that’s something we might see if there is a follow-up book.

This is a groundbreaking collection and will be a welcome addition to many bookshelves for years to come.

I received a free copy for review. All opinions are my own.