When people think of fairy tales, they often think of childhood, but a lot of adults love fairy tales too! No novel-length retellings this time (that’s a blog post for a different day), but brief bites of fairy tale flavor for grown-ups.

A book I recently read and loved was Veronica Schanoes’s short story collection Burning Girls and Other Stories. It’s made up of thirteen transcendent stories of magic, feminism, and Jewish folklore. Look no further than the story “Emma Goldman Takes Tea With the Baba Yaga,” which pairs the titular Jewish socialist activist with a witch from Russian folklore, and looks at how true stories of struggle map onto magical unrealities. Or the first story in the collection, “Among the Thorns,” which follows a young girl in seventeenth century Germany as she tries to avenge her father’s brutal murder, only to learn the true cost of such vengeance and the value of ties that bind us. Or “Rats,” which imagines the life and legend of a well-known rock music groupie (you’ll recognize her by the end of the story) as the heroine of a fairy tale, the long-wished-for daughter cursed by fairies. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from these stories, which were strange and satisfying, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you felt that way too.

If you’re looking for a more traditional version of reading fairy tales as a young child, I found Joanne Harris’s recent book Honeycomb an excellent read. Although it ultimately comes together as the story of one character from birth to death, the short chapters represent small, semi-contained vignettes, each with their own protagonist and plot. The feel of these stories is very fairy tale like, with characters called things like “The Spider Queen” and “The Harlequin” as well as various maids, midwives, toymakers, etc., none of whom are called something straightforward like the book’s author, “Joanne” or its illustrator, “Charles.” Yes, I said illustrator– dozens of beautifully detailed illustrations are interspersed with the text, from full-page, full-color to small, black-and-white and everything in between. Though the stories are often dark and a bit mysterious (these are not stories for children!), the rich fantasy construction brought me enormous enjoyment and relaxation.

Another new release that’s taken its turn at my house is Isabel Yap’s original collection, Never Have I Ever. The darkness in Yap’s work veers a little more towards horror than much of what we think of when we think about fairy tales, but that makes sense, doesn’t it? As adults, I think a lot of us are somewhat horrified by things we once took for granted in our fairy tales. Veering from magic to urban legends, this diverse and exciting collection contains stories (13 again!) of romance, the supernatural, and darkness, all with a modern twist and from the point of view of Filipino mythology. The bright, fresh voice Yap brings to subjects like monsters and queer love is exciting to read, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Finally, no list of short story recommendations from me would be complete without Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (ebook here, eaudio here). On subjects like “that scary story about the girl with the ribbon around her neck” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” Machado brings spooky feminism to life. Because modernity has its own kind of fairy tales, doesn’t it? The first story in the collection, “The Husband Stitch,” is my favorite, although Machado also takes on prom dresses, surgical weight loss, writers’ retreats, and the apocalypse. Not for the faint of heart, Her Body and Other Parties is a book to be savored like quality chocolate. Don’t rush it to its conclusion and you’ll get along fine.