The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror

"In The Merry Spinster, the stories might be a mix of classic fairy tales and Old Testament, but they’re not the bedtime stories you remember. They’re darker, bloodier and messier. They also subvert traditional roles – princess, daughter, king and husband are all untied completely from gender. The frog in “The Frog’s Princess” falls in love with a daughter, who is male. It’s liberating. Can you see those tropes more clearly now? And author Daniel Mallory Ortberg has said it wasn’t just an interesting thought experiment; Ortberg was in the process of coming out as transgender while writing these stories."