Fitcher's Brides by Gregory Frost

Fitcher's Brides (The Fairy Tale Series) is based on a particularly Grimm variant of Bluebeard. This rendition fills in the details with a religious cult and obscure mountain settlement, which makes a rather logical backdrop for the story.

The magical elements are very sparse, and although it's not precisely a happy ending, it's satisfying in the same way as Fitcher's Birds. I was genuinely spooked a few times -- I had to lock my doors and turn some lights on as I was reading. For the most part the writing was excellent, though a bit on the flowery side for my tastes. There was only one sentence that reminded me of a bad romance novel ("He devoured her with his eyes"), but I have to admit even so that it wasn't used quite as I would have expected.

My overall impressions were favorable. Although this is not a happy-princess-fairytale, it's worth reading if you like the darker stories.

Fitcher's Bird by Grimm/Cindy Sherman

This is a straight up rendition of Fitcher's Bird, from the brothers Grimm, but illustrated with photographs by Cindy Sherman. Now, I have to say right from the beginning, dolls are creepy enough as it is. Juxtaposed with this Bluebeard variant, this book hits my goosebumps button.

There's nothing inherently gory, here, so I'm not saying that it couldn't be a kids' book... if you're okay with telling your kids the gruesome story in the first place. The art is all quite beautiful, if, as I have said, completely macabre.

This is very worthwhile, if you're a fairy tale collector.