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These Children Who Come At You With Knives, And Other Fairy Tales: Stories (2010)

by Jim Knipfel(Favorite Author)

3.01 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1439154120 (ISBN13: 9781439154120)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Simon & Schuster

review 1: I was optimistic when I bought this book. I thought it would be a compilation of dark fairy tales, and in a way, it is. The darkness of the stories is not the problem. The way they all end in disappointment for both the characters and the reader is not the problem. Disappointment seems to be the intended theme here, "This book will disappoint you because it reflects reality, that life is disappointing. Get over it... or don't." All of these elements can have value, even if I don't particularly care for them.However, I found the perpetual condescension unacceptable. Some remarks came from characters, but most came from the narrator. The story of the gnome had strong racist undertones. Other characters were described in condescending ways because of their weight, gender, or ... moredisabilities. The word retard and fatty was used prominently. To any reader with a history of being bullied in real life, these stores will cut just like real children coming at them with knives.And maybe some people would find that exhilarating to read, the abandonment of political correctness, the erasing of lines which should not be crossed. To some this book may seem like a brave thing to create. But the truth is, there is nothing brave or new about calling someone fat, or comparing Blacks to gnomes, or making fun of the mentally disabled. It's just not what well-written books do.
review 2: From the twisted mind of the man who brought Slackjaw to so many avid readers of “The New York Press” comes an anthology of modern-day fairy tales peopled with trolls, talking animals, polluting elves, power-mad gnomes, hungry larvae, happy-go-lucky sock monkeys and the most fearsome, deadly and violent creature of all—mankind, a creature a bored Satan created out of animal feces. Knipfel exposes humans in all our raw ugliness yet the reader will find himself rapt with appalled fascination at all of our silly foibles. less

Download links for: These Children Who Come at You with Knives, and Other Fairy Tales: Stories

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