Returning Fairytales to Their Roots – Stories that are NOT for Kids

When Liz Gotauco (aka cosbrarian) announced last year that her F*cked Up Fairytales with Liz video series was coming to us in book form, I got very excited. When the arc showed up on NetGalley, I smashed the request button hard. When the e-arc showed up on my kindle, I started to read it very slowly, because in 2025, joy should be savored. F*cked Up Fairytales: Sinful Cinderellas, Prince Alarmings and Other Timeless Classics is everything I hoped it would be.

F*cked Up Fairy Tales is what happens when you let a storytelling nerd (complimentary) off the chain. I have savored reading this lovely book. I spent 3 days just reading the introduction and I went back to it periodically while reading the fairy tales. The collected tales are drawn from all over the world and Liz interjects asides and commentary as she retells the stories. Having watched her video series (starting on TikTok but available elsewhere too), the interjections felt familiar. I could often hear her voice as I was reading. Liz’s love of storytelling comes through on every page.

The tales included do indeed live up to the “f*cked up” descriptor. Fortunately Liz includes content warnings for each story. “The X-Treme Sport of Giant Killing,” a retelling of Scotland’s “Molly Whuppie,” did not at all go the way I expected based on my Disney training. Rather than being the well-behaved milksop, Molly becomes an increasingly unhinged giant killer. “Love is a Revolution,” delves into resistance to colonialism in the Philippines while exploring toxic masculinity and the long term consequences of insulting a goddess, even a goddess you think you’ve co-opted. I enjoyed reading all of the stories, even the ones that horrified me because Liz was right there agreeing that whatever was happening, it was f*cked up.

I liked Jade Gotauco’s illustrations. They reminded me of the illustrations in one of the folk tales books I had as a kid in the 1980s. I can’t wait to have a physical copy in my hand.

I received this as an advance reader copy from W. W. Norton and Co. and NetGalley. I shared online communities with the author for many years, so I can’t consider myself unbiased. My review though is honest and freely given.