Cloaked in Red: A Review

Hello, my lovelies!

Between the holidays and traveling I know I’ve missed a few posts in the last few weeks but no more!

I am back to stay. I promised you last week that I would be sharing a review of this book with you and here it is:

Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde

3 Stars

So you think know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the girl with the unfortunate name and the inability to tell the difference between her grandmother and a member of a different species? Well, then, try your hand at answering these questions:

-Which character (not including Little Red herself) is the most fashion challenged?

-Who (not including the wolf) is the scariest?

-Who (not including Granny) is the most easily scared?

-Who is the strangest? (Notice we're not "not including" anyone, because they're all a little off.)

-Who (no fair saying "the author") has stuffing for brains?

Vivian Vande Velde has taken eight new looks at one of the world's most beloved (and mixed-up) stories. You may never look at fairy tales in quite the same way again.

-From Goodreads

This book was broken up into short stories, each one a retelling of the same tale. Some of the stories I adored, other I absolutely hated. So today I thought I’d do something a little different and talk about each story individually. I’ll try to keep each one short and spoiler free.

Author’s Note:

3 Stars

This comes before the stories begin and sort of sets the tone for the rest of the book. The author is discussing the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood and why it was she chose that story. She also raises a lot of really great questions about the time while doing so in a very hilarious way.

I didn’t know what to make of this. On the one hand it offered some great commentary into the tale and as I said it asked some valid questions about it. On the other hand it had a very judgmental air about the whole thing. It was as if the author didn’t even like the tale and that was why she was writing this book- to make a not great thing good.

I much prefer to read books written by someone who clearly loves a tale, though they can definitely see its flaws and aren’t afraid to acknowledge them. I don’t like authors who look at fairy tales and come across as snooty and better than that writer.

Also, as someone who loves fairy tales very much it makes me angry when people who don’t like them use them in ways like this. If the story is so terrible don’t write a book based on it and make money off of it. Find other things to write your book about.

The Red Cloak

2 Stars

Right out of the gate running I knew I didn’t like this story.

The main character in this tale is Red Riding Hood- a girl named Meg in this tale- who is clearly better than everyone else she meets. This story sets the precedent for several other stories- as in this one we will later see parents who are idiots and evil woodcutters. We’ll also continue to see main characters who think they are better than everyone else.

Meg makes it pretty clear that she thinks herself the mature one in her relationship with her mom, though the thing we’re told is most immature about the woman is that she met her husband and fell in love with him at first sight. There’s a pretty clear knock on fairy tale romance in the tale, but it’s weird because the dad isn’t really in it but you get the impression he’s still around. So their knock on fairy tale romance makes little sense since the couple who fell into it is still together.

The Red Riding Hood Doll

2.5 Stars

This tale was a lot more interesting than the last but still had a very judgmental air. It’s told from the perspective of the Mother, though there is an interesting added twist on the original.

This story seems to send the message that everyone secretly hates everyone else and wants to be mean to them and you know the person is a good person if they only think the rude thing and don’t actually say it. I wanted so badly to smack the main character on several occasions.

I did, on the other hand, understand where she was coming from. She’s lonely and sad and the author does a good job of bringing that across. I felt her loneliness as I read and it tugged at my heart in probably the strongest bit of emotion I felt in this whole book.

But then the author took it too far and the story got downright weird. Georgette- the main character in the story- is a seamstress and she makes Red Riding Hood out of cloth. She then proceeds to insist this doll is her daughter and we’re supposed to side with her when her mother is weirded out and refuses to accept the cloth creation as her child.

And that’s not even the weirdest bit. That comes at the end, which I won’t discuss so as to avoid spoilers. But it bugged me. A lot.

Red Riding Hood’s Family

1 Star

I this was downright weird from beginning to end. I just- I can’t even make words for how much I didn’t like it. It mostly just made no sense and I kept reading because what else was I supposed to do?

There was another knock on parents being in love, like it was some horrible, horrible thing. Which I just don’t get. Parents being in love is a good thing. It’s a healthy thing in a marriage. We really need to stop knocking it in stories.

Also Roselle- the Red Riding Hood character in the story- was so judgmental and thought herself so much better than everyone else. And it just grated on me.

And then there were others weird, random elements that there was zero precedent for and the whole just confused me.

Granny and the Wolf

4 Stars

Why is the woodcutter always underdeveloped and evil in these stories so far?

Okay, that’s out so now I can get to the good bits. I actually really loved this story. Maybe it was because the others leading up to this point were so bad? Whatever the case, I liked this one a lot.

The story is told from the perspective of the Grandmother. It’s cleverly told, keeping mostly with the original tale but adding some really fun twists and the like. Nelda- the Grandmother- is spunky but also weirdly kind for a character in this book? She has a little bit of judgmentalness but even that actually seems justified in this one?

I don’t know. I just really liked this one.

Deems the Wood Gatherer

5 Stars

This one was my favorite story. This one was clever and well told and the judgement in the tale was from a loveable old man who more shook his head at the youths today than anything else. And Deems is a cinnamon roll.

What’s really fun about this one too is that several other fairy tales make an appearance and that’s fun. The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, and the Gingerbread Man. They all work surprisingly well for such a short story and it’s just a really great story.

I don’t know what else to day about it. I just really, really loved it.

Why Willy and His Brothers Won’t Ever Amount to Anything

4.5 Stars

This story was beyond clever. The hints of the original tale mixed with a lot of fun twists and it was just really cool.

I do love Willy a lot and it made me sad that there was some slight judgement about him. He was earnest and good and even though he was a little quick to jump to conclusions and or let his imagination run wild I didn’t see those as reasons to hate him.

But overall it was a good story. And the ending was perfect and I loved it so incredibly much.

The Little Red Headache

4 Stars

I was so happy to find three stories in a row in this book that I liked that I was almost certain it couldn’t last.

But then it did.

This story is told from the perspective of the Wolf and it’s just so fun. He’s not this evil creature that the stories make him out to be. He’s actually rather polite and civilized and the whole story is one big misunderstanding.

It’s super great.

It only gets 4 stars though because when I was writing this review I forgot about it until I reread a little snippet and then I remembered. So it gets a star knocked off for being slightly forgettable. But it’s still really good.

Little Red Riding Hood’s Little Red Riding Hood

1 Star

And of course the love couldn’t last. I hated this story.

This one is told from the perspective of the hood and that is so clever. But that was all the story had going for it.

The cloak is accidentally blessed with intelligence by a fairy and the story goes downhill from there. Apparently if you’re smart that also makes you a little snot who judges everyone else. So fun.

In fact, going back over my notes, the last thing I wrote while reading this story was “What the heck? Another dumb one…”

It was just a very judgmental story, which as sad because I got four good ones in a row so I was lulled into a false sense of security before I read this one.

Overview:

All in all this book had an air of judgment about it that was too hard to shake while reading it. The idea was clever but in the end too poorly executed for me to really enjoy.

I didn’t like the messages it sent- love is something to roll your eyes at/something for stupid people; it’s okay to be judgmental to literally everyone you meet as long as you don’t actually say what you’re thinking out loud; if you’re smarter than everyone else it also means you look down on everyone else because they’re all idiots.

There were some good stories, which I would recommend reading. If you can get your hands on the book I would recommend reading those stories but skipping the rest. And I wouldn’t bother actually wasting money on it at all. I paid $4 for this between the ebook and the audio and I’m really grateful I didn’t spend any more than that.

I hope to see you on Monday! Until the next time we meet don’t forget to live happily ever after <3

~Jennifer Sauer, the Ivory Palace Princess

P.S. Let’s Chat! What is your favorite thing about Little Red Riding Hood? What is your favorite retelling of that tale?