Tumbled Tales - Various Authors - ★★★.½

AUTHORS: Various

GENRE: Fantasy Anthology.

RATING: 3.45 stars.

In a Nutshell: An anthology of genre mash-up stories coming from fantasy, horror, sci-fi, dystopian, and retellings. Was a bit too mashed-up for my liking, but it might work better for the right reader.

This collection of twenty-one tales comes with a very clear intent. Each story within intends to cross boundaries of genre. That also explains the title of ‘Tumbled Tales’ – every tale subverts traditional genres and tumbles into an array of some innovative combinations. We have already seen how mainstream novels these days aren’t restricted to a single genre, when why should short stories stay behind? As such, every single one of these twenty-one tales straddles at least two genres, sometimes totally unexpected ones.

The editor’s note at the start is quite detailed and precise, penning her thoughts and intent for this collection. She also mentioned her reason for selecting each of the twenty-tales, giving a brief insight about them. While I appreciate her detailed elaboration, I feel like the highlight of the individual tales should have been made at the end of that specific story, or maybe at the end of the overall collection. Placing it right at the start is pointless as we get partial spoilers about a story we haven’t even read yet. I’d recommend reading the individual story synopses only once you are done with that specific story.

The stories themselves were a mixed bag for me. Not because they weren’t creative or well-written. In fact, many of the stories displayed a great originality of content and execution. The only issue was that the content wasn’t exactly my kind of content. I have never been a werewolf/vampire/Godzilla kind of woman, so when such creatures pop in a story, I mentally pop out. Moreover, a couple of the mashed genres such as Westerns never work for me. I would also have liked some more retellings to be part of the mix.

To some extent, I wish there had been a hint of the genres just under the title. That way, I would have gone into each story better prepared, especially when it turned paranormal.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Most of the stories fell between the 3 to 3.5 star mark for me. The few that went above this range were the ones that contained my kind of genres and tropes. So my rating is more an indicator of my reading preferences than of the actual quality of the book.

My favourite stories were:

🌺 Eat Me - Mike Morgan: Began the conventional way (rather, as conventional as a dystopian story can get), but soon revealed the true colour of its characters. Quite enjoyable. Would have loved to see more of this world where monsters are the norm. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌺 The Haunting of Star Princess - Bruno Lombardi: Think Wall-E plus murder mystery. Loved the surprise element. The ending was a bit too hurried, else this would have rated even higher. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌺 When Anakar Met Susan - Jason Sharp: A first date that ends up revealing too much about both characters. Again, would have loved to see more of this world as the story leaves several details out. Still, a fun ride. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌺 Point Taken - Richard Zwicker: My favourite story of this anthology. Imagine a mash-up of detective fiction and Greek mythology! This would easily have been a 5 star had there been a few more details about the detectives’ background. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

🌺 Make Love, Not War - Eva Morton: Exactly as the title suggests, except that the “love” isn’t a conventional development. Very creative, but a bit too short. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

🌺 Inside Job – Mel Grebing: How do you start a story when your character doesn’t want to start a story? What a great concept! - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

All in all, there was some genuinely good content in these stories, but it wasn’t the right book for me as some of the stories branched into genres I don’t enjoy. If you are slightly fonder of darker/paranormal fantasy and don’t mind random jumps across story genres, you are sure to like this better.

3.45 stars, based on the average of my rating for each tale.

My thanks to The Wandering Waves Press and BookSirens for the DRC of “Tumbled Tales”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.