In the stories and poems of Fierce Fairytales , Nikita subverts the stereotypes of submissive women. Little Red Riding Hood becomes an environmental leader of wolves instead of being eaten by one. Instead of letting a man use her body to come and rescue her, Rapunzel uses her braid to climb down her tower. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty wake themselves. These damsels in distress don’t need princes because they have the power to save themselves, and this is the prevalent message in Fierce Fairytales : finding your inner strength. Being upset about the inequality to date in our world is not really a useful thing to teach our children. What we need to teach them is how to stand up for themselves and speak out against those that are treating women (or others) inappropriately. This doesn't require us to fear-monger or make like all men in this world are awful. At one point I felt like maybe Gill was building a new lesbian army of teens to take over the world; that's how all out awful a lot of the last poems/stories were. Just unnecessary in my mind and not productive. Just in case you’re not 100% sure what you’re dealing with here, Fierce Fairytales begins with a riff on the creation story of Genesis: the universe is actually built by two women, Cosmos and Chaos, who team up to spark everything into being — leaving no question in a reader’s mind as to what kind of book Fierce Fairytales actually is.

Nikita Gill blends poetry and fairytale stories designed to empower and reimagine the tales we are told as children. For Rapunzel it was realizing that no one who truly loved her would use any part of her body, not even her hair, as a ladder. No one who truly loved her would hide her from the whole world in a tower. When toxic love is finally recognized for the painful, deep wound that it is, all of us must do the drastic and the painful to cut away the poison thread that binds you together. Gill explores the stories of fearless princesses and villains alike. Providing an unwavering voice and bravery to the princesses, and the circumstances which led villains to be one, despite themselves. The idea of updating fairy tales or poems and putting them in a gorgeously bound (and illustrated) book for children/teens is wonderful. The actual production of this book is amazing. I would have cherished it as a child just for how pretty it is; even if I didn't like all the stories. I think there is probably something here for everyone; but unfortunately you have to navigate a lot of obnoxious, in your face rhetoric to find it. Gill starts us out with the tamer stories and sets the tone and mood. She lures the reader into buying into her ideas, stories and verse. Only to take the last quarter of this book bashing, and I mean declaring all out war on, men. I didn't like this. It felt too overt and just too nasty to teach children or teens. Soundar says she particularly loved seeing examples of similarities across different cultures. Polish fairytales often begin, “Za siódmą górą za siódmym lasem…” (“Beyond seven mountains, beyond seven forests…”), which is similar to some Indian stories, she says. “They say seven forests and seven mountains, and we say seven rivers and seven seas. It’s travelled so much and it’s beautiful to see how people refer to time and place.”

Complete with beautifully hand-drawn illustrations by Gill herself, Fierce Fairytales is an empowering collection of poems and stories for a new generation. He gives an example: “Earth and sky came together and had a child called Tāne, the forest, Tāne then had another child called Mumuwhango and Mumuwhango had another child and that child was said to have been raised upon the ocean … one day the child was on the ocean and met a group of dolphins. Russian: ...I was at the wedding, I drank mead and wine there; it ran down my moustache, but didn't go into my mouth!— hotcirclerpg (@hotcirclerpg) April 8, 2019

NG:I consider my books my children. Your Soul Is a Riverwas my baby, Wild Emberswas my fire child. This book was the hardest one to write. I really wanted it to be the best book I’ve written, and show my readers that I can emulate different kinds of writing styles, which is why it’s a collection of poems andstories. It also includes original, hand-drawn illustrations by me. I’ve always drawn and painted—I completed my degree in communication design, and illustration was a part of that. The next book I’m writing will be a collection of short stories with no poetry at all. I exist. Outside of being a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter, I exist. I exist as a human first, as a being that experiences joy and suffering, beauty and learning, life and tragedy. I exist because the universe chose to put me here for a purpose higher than my relation to men. I exist because a wise old woman gave me a gift and now magic runs through my veins. So the problem is not my existence as half dragon, half girl. The problem is how you perceive it as so small, you do not believe I can exist at all apart from through my bonds with men.”In Hansel and Greta (note the name change), Winterson gives us children in despair at the destruction of their forest to make way for a railway line. The antagonist is a nasty aunt called GreedyGuts, who says that “the point of life is to eat as much as possible, make as much money as possible, go on holiday as much as possible … buy two new cars every year, a jacuzzi in the garden, and a Luxury Level Executive Home… ” Hansel and Greta, of course, triumph, plant trees, and all is right with the world.