Review: The Princess and the Prick - Fairytales for Feminists - Walburga Appleseed - October 2020 When The Princess and the Prick by Walburga Appleseed arrived as a birthday gift, I practically squealed with delight. Having devoured Divine Dicks and Mortal Pricks, I knew I was in for a treat, and this feminist humour book for adults did not disappoint. From the very first page, Appleseed takes a wrecking ball to the fairy tales we grew up with, exposing the deeply problematic gender dynamics lurking beneath their sugary surfaces. The opening story sets the tone perfectly: a prince asking if he may kiss Sleeping Beauty, not waiting for an answer because she's unconscious, and kissing her anyway. It's simultaneously hilarious and horrifying , a masterclass in how consent violations were normalized in stories we fed to children for generations.  Each page feels like a gut-punch of recognition as you realize just how much casual sexism was baked into these "innocent" c...

Review: Divine Dicks and Mortal Pricks - Walburga Appleseed - January 2024 You know those cozy evenings when you're curled up with a cuppa, and you want something that's both clever and entertaining? Well, I found exactly that in Walburga Appleseed's delightfully irreverent romp through Greek mythology. This isn't your dusty school textbook version of these ancient tales. Appleseed has taken the familiar stories we all half-remember – you know, the ones where Zeus couldn't keep it in his toga and everyone seemed to be related to everyone else – and flipped them on their head. Finally, someone's asking the questions that should have been asked millennia ago: Was Achilles really that heroic? And why on earth did the Trojan War start over what was essentially a cosmic temper tantrum? What I absolutely loved about this book is how it centers the women who've been lurking in the margins of these stories for ages. The goddesses dealing with their philandering hu...