A weird and wonderful treat ideal for reading in a well lit, cosy room with the darkness of an autumn night and the fairy folk firmly locked outside -or at least you hope they are. I particularly enjoyed reading the original stories and admiring the writer's imaginations in using the elements to create contemporary feminist tales. Thank you to netgalley and Little Brown books for an advance copy of this book.

Hag is a collection of short stories based on UK folklore, that have been told in a contemporary fashion by some splendid authors. Covering a range of mythological creatures like fairies, elves, selkies, mermaids and weird paranormal stories like the Dauntless Girl and The brothers, theses stories are brought to life and respun in modern times. The original tales can be found at the back of the book to give some context. In all of the ones that I really liked, I preferred the retelling to the original. My favourites (all 5 stars) were: * Rosheen - I loved how the original tale of a badass girl is spun to show how familial bonds can draw you to certain places and people. Our heroine is also black and stays fearless. * Between the Sea & Sky - is a sad little tale about a selkie boy torn between the sea and land. This was quite haunting and I won’t forget it. Also amazing considering the source material. * The Holloway - great story that leaves you debating whether the happenstances are coincidental or the work of elves. Honorable mention for the Panther’s tale, which is about an Indian princess cursed to be a panther. The rest are a mixed bag and I generally preferred the original versions. Some of the retellings are truly forgettable like The Droll of the mermaid and The Tale of Kathleen. You will be astounded when you read the original. Overall this was a great spooky read for October and I found it refreshing to read all these stories I knew nothing about. It is a 3.65 but rounding up to 4 stars overall.

Hag is a wonderfully relevant and apt anthology of British and Irish folktale retellings, perfect for the upcoming Halloween season. Filled with feisty female characters, atmospheric settings and morals aplenty, the fairytale lover within me thoroughly enjoyed rediscovering some of these bygone traditional tales. Originally a podcast series, Professor Carolyne Larrington conjured up a writing experiment which tasked 8-10 inspiring British and Irish women authors to write a contemporary retelling of a forgotten folktale with a modern, feminist twist. This collection reminds me of a fresh uplift on the gothic horror genre - think Angela Carter meets Henry James’ Turn of the Screw. With particularly eerie and dark stories, the tales within are guaranteed to get you in the mood for Halloween and those darker nights by the fire. As someone who has spent a fair bit of time reading folk/fairytales (I even did my dissertation on them) I was pleased to see a few of the more familiar and popular creatures making an appearance here such as selkies, boggarts, fairies and mermaids. That being said, the stories they were contained within felt fresh and new, I didn’t feel like I’d read any of them before – whilst the concepts may have been familiar, the stories themselves had me gripped to finding out what was going to happen, so they felt like more than just your average retellings. What I particularly liked in Hag, was the focus on different regions from the UK rather than just a generalisation of British and Irish tales. It really did emphasise the nature of how transient traditional stories are and how they have shaped places across our entire nation. Also, the settings of each story became more relevant and heightened; you could visualise the area you live in and the places you’ve visited. Kudos too goes to the authors who managed to incorporate some the regional accents and dialects into the speech of their stories to make them all sound incredibly authentic. The breakdown at the end recaps for the reader the ‘original’ tales as they may have been told in anthologies from the 19th and early 20th centuries. These short snapshots not only refresh your memory of all the stories you’ve just read, but it also helps to see just how these tales have been revamped and updated for our 21st century world - they now have a modern diversity which wasn’t necessarily present in their earlier versions. It is highly evident to see how much effort and hard work each author has put into their own retelling. Shamefully, I wasn’t aware when first diving into these stories just how well known some of these amazing writers are and it’s made me want to add more of their own voices and writings to my ever expanding TBR pile – there is some serious talent within this book and it shines off each and every page in the tone of the retellings and the way the stories have been brought to life within the pages.

Curated by Professor Carolyne Larrington, St John’s College, Oxford, these stories are inspired by the forgotten folklore of the British Isles. The project originated as a podcast, emphasising the oral tradition. Here, for the first time and with two new contributions, the stories are brought to the page. And what stories they are. Dark, powerful, feminist and current, as to be expected from authors Kirsty Logan, Irenosen Okojie, Daisy Johnson, Eimear McBride, Emma Glass, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Natasha Carthew, Mahsuda Snaith, Naomi Booth and Liv Little. Standouts were the chilling 'The Dampness is Spreading' by Emma Glass, 'A Retelling’ by Daisy Johnson and Kirsty Logan's 'Between Sea and Sky'. Uncanny. My thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC.

As a collecter and lover of folk tales, I just had to add 'Hag' to my must-read list! I knew several of the original tales and some I'd not heard of before. But either way, I really enjoyed the re-telling of these old tales. It was a mixed bag. A couple of the stories just didn't really do much for me but overall, this was a strong selection of powerful and rich writing from some brilliant female writers. My favourites were 'Sour Hall' by Naomi Booth; a chilling tale about a Yorkshire Boggart who takes up residence in an old milk churn. 'The Panther's Tale' by Mahsuda Snaith is based around the story of the panther kept at Chillington Hall. This was the most beautifully written story and for me, the most cleverly re-imagined. 'The Dampness is Spreading' by Emma Glass was the most macabre and chilling of all the stories. I'm not usally into audible books but this is one that I'd really like read to me! And the final tale was also one of the strongest, 'The Holloway' by Imogen Hermes Gowar tells a depressing tale of emotional and physical abuse in a family and the ending leaves us wondering whether it was human or otherworldly intervention which sorts out the problem. I was happy that the original tales were included at the end of the book, but I felt that I would have preferred them to either be at the beginning or end of their corresponding re-tellings. It was fascinating to see how each writer worked with the original tales.