The Merry Spinster

"Empowering, subversive . . . Daniel M. Lavery twists fairy tales into elegant garrotes . . . There's not a single weak link in the cat's-breath chain of this collection."—The New York Times Book Review

“Look out, Angela Carter. There’s a new feminist fairy tale queen in town, and [his] imagination is as sharp as [his] wit. Lavery, co-founder of the beloved website The Toast, takes [his] column ‘Children’s Stories Made Horrific' to new heights in this collection of twisted tales that will shock and delight you.”—Esquire

“Fairy tales get a feminist spin in this short story collection."—The Millions

“Sinister and inviting, familiar and alien all at the same time, The Merry Spinster updates traditional children’s stories and fairy tales with elements of psychological horror, emotional clarity, and a keen sense of feminist mischief.”—The Rumpus

“Lavery’s uniquely hilarious voice lends itself well to the dark and twisted milieu of fairy and folk tales and [his] reimagining of classics is predictably perverse, but also offers wonderful insight into the reasons why humans are so drawn to these stories of horror and loss.”—NYLON

“Adapted from [his] 'Children's Stories Made Horrific’ series, this book provides some updates to well-known children's stories that change them into something else entirely.”—Bustle

“Mischievous, unsettling, and often feminist, the stories in The Merry Spinster are a delightful, ingenious spin on beloved classics.”—Buzzfeed

"Dear Reader: It would, truthfully, be simplest to call the stories in The Merry Spinster ‘retellings,’ but that word does not adequately capture their dark alchemy. Daniel M. Lavery has created a Frankenstein’s monster of familiar narratives . . . [that swings] between Terry Pratchett’s satirical jocularity and Angela Carter’s sinister, shrewd storytelling, and the result is gorgeous, unsettling, splenic, cruel, and wickedly smart."—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

"The secret to The Merry Spinster, I think, is that she never wanted to be your wicked stepmother—she was too busy. There are uncanny slivers of delight and recognition mixed here with the wit we all love Lavery for, but here that wit is wielded with new force. If fairy tales are ways to describe the rules we don't dare put down on paper, in [his] hands they become ways to challenge those, or even to write new rules."—Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night