Most of the books I read about Black Lives and race are narrated towards white people in an effort to better educate them about a life they don't live. The difference here is that the creators within this huge zine did not create their works for the white gaze. And it was kind of refreshing. Though I still have many blind spots, I have read quite a few works about race and black lives in the US (though I'm always on the hunt for works about Canada), and it was wonderful to have something that's just about black people living their lives and the struggles/injustices they go through addressed to a whole audience that isn't specifically to educate white people. I still learned a lot from this and it made me angry and sad and revved up, but it was also beautiful. 
I'd recommend having a phone close at hand (as the editors suggest in the introduction) to look up things you're not familiar with and to follow people on instagram and twitter whom you want to know more about. 

Can I give this more than 5 stars? I'm not sure I can review this in depth as I'm currently riding the high (and the sadness) of finishing this. This book is just beautiful, it's, as a friend of mine described it, a hug. 

At first I wasn't too sure what to rate this. I love the way classic fairytales are written, in this weird straight-forward style but nothing fully makes sense because it's so chock-full of imagery and whimsical circumstance. Most of it I loved, especially with the accompaniment of the beautiful and sometimes uncanny illustrations. However, some of it went over my head, I think, I never really studied fairy tales while getting my english degree, and maybe that would've helped (or maybe not), but because of that I was left confused, and it made it a little less enjoyable. 
I also don't know how I feel about rating a book with stories that are 100s of years old that were found lost in an archive and then published, like are you even supposed to rate that?

I really enjoyed this, as dark and awful the characters and stories are, but it's written in a really interesting way that address mental health, homelessness, expectations of family, and it's also extremely triggering, like any trigger you can think of. As someone who's really bothered by realistic violence and gore in the torture-porn realm of things, I wasn't bothered by the violence in this, probably because the art style isn't really realistic, particularly when it comes to the gore aspect of the never-ending violence. 
I also had a scroll few some reviews, but I couldn't really find any written by a person of colour - the way this treats Mexican people was interesting, it takes place in the 70s, so the racism is there and isn't really addressed, but the main characters themselves are not overtly racist. It was kinda weird and I'm left feeling a bit unsure as to whether or not it's offensive. 
It's extremely dark and the characters are extremely gritty and flawed to the point where they're basically unenjoyable, but I feel like that's the point here, and I'm extremely curious to see how the development of the characters and their story continues. 
Overall I'd recommend if you're looking for something mysterious and dark, something that leaves you wanting to pick up the next volume right away. 

this is series is so fucking good and I loved this conclusion. the found family vibes are REAL and I cried