The Merry Spinster

Tales of Everyday Horror

De: Daniel Mallory Ortberg

Narrado por: Christina Traister

From Daniel Mallory Ortberg comes a collection of darkly mischievous stories based on classic fairy tales. Adapted from his beloved Children's Stories Made Horrific series, The Merry Spinster takes up the trademark wit that endeared Ortberg to listeners of both The Toast and his best-selling debut Texts from Jane Eyre. The feature has become among the most popular on the site, with each entry bringing in tens of thousands of views, as the stories proved a perfect vehicle for Ortberg’s eye for deconstruction and destabilization. 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.

Listeners of The Toast will instantly recognize Ortberg's boisterous good humor and uber-nerd swagger: those new to Ortberg's oeuvre will delight in his unique spin on fiction, where something a bit mischievous and unsettling is always at work just beneath the surface.

Unfalteringly faithful to its beloved source material, The Merry Spinster also illuminates the unsuspected, and frequently, alarming emotional complexities at play in the stories we tell ourselves, and each other, as we tuck ourselves in for the night.

Bed time will never be the same.

©2018 Daniel Mallory Ortberg (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

You either love it or you don’t get it

Danny Lavery is incredible. He is so educated, and he draws upon all of his literature knowledge to spin this marvelous little collection of winning little tales. I love how many references and literary devices are tucked into the stories, and I’m so glad that Danny keeps gracing the world with his wit. If you love literature and also have a sardonic nature, I think this book will delight you.

not scary at all, but well told. Reader great!

This book was not scary, but is well written. Retelling of classic fairy tales. That said the reader performance was terrific.

Very Disappointing

I looked forward to listening to this title after reading a write up about it. Unfortunately, the majority of the stories provided no real insight to the characters, moral to the stories or ending that felt complete. This has been one of the worst books I’ve selected.

Worst load of tripe I've ever had to swallow, are these supposed to be RIP offs of Disney storylines?

Or the first horrible drafts of such stories? Worthless, don't waste your time. I'm 35 I ended up ushering it to put myself to sleep when the melatonin wasn't working.

Total garbage

I will usually push through a book to finish it. Life is too short to endure such drivel. There is nothing original here. And, if the most creative thing you can do is call women “husbands” and men “wives,” you really need to find a different career.

I will say that the narrator is not to blame.