Tangleweed and Brine

A collection of thirteen dark, feminist retellings of traditional fairytales from one of Ireland’s leading writers for young people. In the tradition of Angela Carter, stories such as Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin are given a witchy makeover, not for the faint-hearted. Intricately illustrated with black and white line drawings, in the style of Aubrey Beardsley, by a new Irish illustrator.

Review

`Deirdre Sullivan’s writing is beguiling, bewitching and poetic. Her prose is almost dreamlike, reminiscent of Angela Carter.’ – Juno Dawson, author of The Gender Games ; ‘Witchy, eerie and beautiful. These thirteen fairytale retellings already feel like feminist classics.’ – Claire Hennessy, author of Like Other Girls ; `Sullivan’s prose is delicate and masterful, but there’s a belligerence to it as well – these stories demand that we go as deeply with our reading as she has in her writing – that we listen to the women at the heart of these stories, that we see the shadows beneath the trees.’ – Dave Rudden, author of Knights of the Borrowed Dark ; `Dark, intimate and poetic, these stunning feminist fairy tales give voice to the witches & the wicked queens and twist the familiar into something salty & seductive, offering a collection of stories you’ll feel like you know in your bones.’ – Moira Fowley-Doyle, author of Spellbook of the Lost and Found ; ‘Deirdre Sullivan’s terse and stark renditions of fairy tales in Tangleweed and Brine challenge us to rethink what the destinies of young women were in traditional fairy tales, and she spells out what they might really be in other times and settings. Sullivan’s original stories are riveting and offer readers unusual perspectives on how to read fairy tales in times of conflict.’ – Jack Zipes, author of The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Social and Cultural History of a Genre

About the Author

Deirdre Sullivan is from Galway and is now living in Dublin, where she works as a teacher. Her hugely acclaimed novel Needlework consolidated her reputation as a leading Irish YA author. Needlework was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards and went on to win the Honour Award for Fiction at the Children’s Books Ireland Awards in 2017. Her Primrose Leary series was also widely praised; two of the Prim books were shortlisted for the Children’s Books Ireland Awards; and the final one, Primperfect, was also shortlisted for the European Prize for Literature.