Into the Forest

August 1, 2022
Ryan (Throw Me to the Wolves, written with Christopher Brooks) brings together 23 dark, feminist fairy tales exploring the folkloric figure of Baba Yaga. The eerily cheerful tone of Gwendolyn Kiste’s Stepford Wives–esque “Last Tour into the Hungering Moonlight” spirals into something more desperate and erratic as the housewives of an apparently perfect neighborhood succumb to Baba Yaga’s pull. An unloved princess finds revenge and salvation through Baba Yaga in “Of Moonlight and Moss” by Sara Tantlinger, while the heroine of R.J. Joseph’s “Where the Horizon Meets the Sky” joins the witch to escape her husband’s ghost. In EV Knight’s timely standout “Stork Bites,” a young woman in need of an illegal abortion seeks out Baba Yaga. Many of these stories take place in the ambiguous, “long ago” era of fairy tales, but some—like Donna Lynch’s “Flood Zone” and Jacqueline West’s “Fair Trade”—transpose the legend into the present day. The least successful of these is “Baba Yaga Learns to Shave, Gets Her Period, Then Grows into Her Own” by Jess Hagemann, which lacks the eerie atmosphere that makes the other stories work. “Water Like Broken Glass” by Carina Bissett, meanwhile, delivers a wonderfully queer update to the tale against the backdrop of WWII. Fans of folklore retellings will find plenty to enjoy.

September 1, 2022

You may know the legend of the Baba Yaga, the revered and feared ogress who lives with her sisters deep in the forest in a house that spins atop bird legs, but you've never seen her like this. Slavic in origin but universal in her ability to transcend time and place and to transform, for better or worse, this anthology collects the many sides of the Baba Yaga as she is, was, and could be. Is she a witch, a goddess, or a cannibal? Is she all or none? A mesmerizing blend of folklore and fairytales, this introduces the Baba Yaga as you've never seen her before in a haunting collection of original tales and origin stories brimming with magic, mystery, mischief, and sisterhood. VERDICT Written by some of the most popular women in horror today, this is a one-of-a-kind anthology and sparkling jewel that will appeal to fans of fantasy, folklore, and feminist fiction.--Alana Quarles

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Starred review from September 15, 2022
This set of surprising tales is inspired by the mythology of Baba Yaga from Russian folklore. Gwendolyn Kiste's story sets things off in a Stepford-wives direction with a vision of glossy suburbia ("Last Tour into the Hungering Moonlight"), while Sara Tantlinger goes in a more traditional direction with a protagonist who must ask Baba Yaga a favor then prove herself worthy to earn it ("Of Moonlight and Moss"). Christina Sng and Donna Lynch, both known more for their poetry than longer-form fiction, will dazzle the reader, first with a Hansel-and-Gretelesque spin on the mythos and then with an exploration of why Baba Yaga's house often appears attached to high chicken legs. One of the best tales is from award-winning author Stephanie M. Wytovich, which gets into pregnancy-horror territory with gruesome terms of an offer. The standout of the anthology is "Where the Horizon Meets the Sky," by R. J. Joseph, which puts a completely new spin on the fairy tale's structure with the inclusion of a Black perspective in a traditionally white space. Perfect for horror fans who can't get enough of folklore and fairy-tale retellings that veer in unexpected directions.

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