The latest in Terri Windling's Fairy Tale series is an adaptation of the story of Bluebeard, set in the Finger Lakes region of New York in the first half of the 19th century. I'm going to proceed on the assumption that anyone reading this is familiar with the basic Bluebeard story. A Boston widower with three beautiful daughters has remarr ied, to a woman who leads him into the orbit of a millenialist preacher, the Reverend Elias Fitcher. Rev. Fitcher has announced that the world will end within the next year, and that only those who are accepted into his utopian community of Harbinger will be saved. (Fitcher and his followers are based on a real millenial movement, the Millerites, whose leader predicted the end of the world in 1843.) So Mr. Charter takes his new wife, Lavinia, and his three daughters (Vernelia, Amelia, and Katherine) off to Harbinger. There they are installed in the community's gatehouse, to collect a toll from each family seeking to enter Harbinger. They quickly discover that the house has an odd history--the previous gatekeeper and his wife, the Pulaskis, vanished, and there's apparently a ghost or spirit residing in the room shared by the three girls. The spirit predicts that each of the girls will have a suitor before the end, and in short order, Rev. Fitcher pays them a visit and decides to take the eldest, Vernelia, as his bride.

Vern is quickly whisked off to her new life as Mrs. Fitcher, in the main Harbinger community, completely separated from her family in the gatehouse. It doesn't take her long to realize there's something very wrong about her husband, and something very strange about life in Harbinger, including some odd deaths and disappearances. Eventually, of course, her husband gives her the keys to the main house at Harbinger, tells her she can go anywhere except the one room whose lock is opened by the small, glass key, and then leaves her for another proselytizing journey. This ends in the expected manner, and Fitcher, sadly informing his wife's family that she has run off to join a lover in Boston, has the marriage annulled and marries Amy. Amy in her turn makes unpleasant discoveries, with the expected result.

None of the sisters is either stupid or weak-willed, but in proper fairy-tale fashion, itrquote s the youngest sister, Kate, who is clever enough and stubborn enough to find the truth and escape Fitcher's trap.

This latest in the Fairy Tales series is, once again, a very good adaptation of the traditional story for modern, adult readers. ( )

part of the excellent Fairy Tale Series, with an very good introduction by editor Terri Windling. combines the Bluebeard fairy tale with another collected by Grimm called "Fitcher's Bird", and then resets the whole thing in early nineteenth century New England amid tent evangelists busily manufacturing some end-of-the-world Christian fervour. that's a lot of different elements to juggle, but the whole thing works surprisingly well, and yields some vivid characters and moments of true gothic terror. ( )

This is a great book. The historical descriptions of end-of-the-world New York State, the journey the family takes, the house they buy . . . all of the minutae of their world translates into a very authentic description of a true historic time. It reminds the reader that the world was supposed to end and it didn't, either in the 1840's or 1993 or in 2012.

Once the "action" moves to the sisters and their marriage to the creepy Fitcher it becomes, well, creepy. Since the sisters are depicted as 3 distinct women with distinct personalities and strengths, each wedding and subsequent betrayal of their trust draws the reader deeper and deeper. ( )

Another in Terri Windling's Fairy Tale series, in which a common story is retold. In this case, Frost chose to translate Bluebeard into 1840s America. Quite good. ( )

This book is quite radically different from the other entries in Terri Windling's 'Fairy Tale Series.' Most of the other books Windling selected stayed much closer to the classic feel of fairy tales in their retellings. I knew that, from what I'd read in other reviews, and for that reason waited quite a while to get around to reading this - the description just didn't appeal to me that much.

However, now I'm sorry I didn't give it a chance earlier! No, this book doesn't have that 'fairy-tale' feel to it - but it's a damn good book.

It retells the tale of Bluebeard - so the reader knows from the start this isn't going to be a pleasant story.
Set in 19th-century America, Frost gives us an apocalyptic cult which has set up a compound in upstate New York. A widower has been converted by his new wife, and he relocates, bringing his three unmarried daughters, to join the utopian community. The family falls under the spell of the charismatic preacher that leads the cult - and of, course, it's an honor one can't refuse when the leader chooses the oldest daughter to be his bride.
You know bad things are coming when one of the cult members mutters, "she's not the first, and she won't be the last..."
And, of course, things degenerate to the exact opposite of a utopia...

Frost is an excellent writer. I found the setting and the characters to be completely convincing, even when they were acting against all reason. He portrayed the cult mentality in a way that felt utterly believable.
Almost 5 stars, but I felt that the demonic denouement didn't flow smoothly from the events leading up to it. It was a bit much, in an effort to give it a Big, Dramatic ending. (Kind of like how I feel about the ending of Foucault's Pendulum - which is also an excellent book.) I'd still recommend this. ( )