Ahoy there me mateys! So a while back I listened to the wonderfully fabulous fortunately, the milk, which I adored. I immediately added all of Mr. Gaiman’s audiobooks to me list. I have a wee bit of an obsession (for details click here) and so when I had a short bit of time I decided to listen to this one.

I have to admit that while I thought this was an enjoyable fairy-tale retelling, I am not sure if I would listen to this again. It does have the beautiful imagery inherent in Gaiman’s works. I loved the sleeping masses that seemed almost zombie-like in their shuffling rambles. I loved the idea of everything being covered in spider silk and spiders. I loved the tangles of vines blocking the castle. I loved the strong women present within. The ending was wonderful. The book just didn’t catapult me into another time and space. I wasn’t sure if that was just because I was missing out on the illustrations.

I do remember there being a bit of a controversy when this came out due to one of Chris Riddell’s illustrations showing a woman kissing a woman (eek!?!). Even that kiss is more than it seems when taken in context with the story.

I did look up some of the illustrations online after listening to the story and found them to be compelling. The “dreaded” kiss one was achingly beautiful. In fact there is a lovely article in the Guardian in which Chris Riddell gives insight into the images he created for the book. I recommend this. So yes while the images were wonderful and magical in their own way, I still wasn’t mesmerized by them. So while I am glad to have listened to this, I am not sad that I don’t own a copy of me own.