Other Ever Afters, by Melanie Gilman, is a collection of comics depicting queer and feminist fairy tales.

This is going to be a short review, because there really isn’t much to say about this book.

I really wanted to love this book. I always love fairy tale-type stories, especially sapphic ones, and the art is absolutely gorgeous (truly the best thing about the book).

The premises of each story are also quite interesting; they all keep perfectly within the expected tone and structure of fairy tales, while still featuring their own unique twists. The plots were all quite predictable, but that didn’t bother me much due to the fairy tale premise; these are stories that feel innately familiar to us, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t enjoyable.

My favorite of the tales was definitely Hsthete; it felt interesting and compelled me in a way that the rest of the stories failed to. The King’s Forest was also quite good, though the set-up was a little confusing.

My primary issue is that I just never felt at all invested in these stories. None of them felt particularly satisfying, and, indeed, it often felt like they cut off before reaching their conclusions. It’s possible that this was an intentional choice to leave the stories more up to the interpretation of the reader, but, at least for me, it just left the book feeling very incomplete.

The world-building was also quite confusing; there simply wasn’t enough explanation at the beginning of some of the stories, which made the first half of most of them feel a little confusing. Other Ever Afters just really could have benefitted by allotting more space to each story to allow for more set-up and a more satisfying conclusion.

I’m giving Other Ever Afters 3.5/5 stars (it would be 3/5 if not for how beautiful the illustrations are). I’d definitely recommend this book for people who love fairytales and fairytale retellings. It truly is a lovely (and quick) read; I just wish that it had had a little more substance and follow-through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.