I really wanted to like this book. I loved the title, and felt it had a lot of potential. I also love Neil Gaiman, and saw that he had a short story in here. And - I remember checking out all the fairy tale books in my library when I was growing up. Well, fairy tales have definitely changed - and not for the better. I only got about half way through this book - and it has been sitting on my nightstand for months. It is a collection of modern day fairy tales that had an old fairy tale as an inspiration. I had intended to read it all - after all, I could skim through the short tales I didn't care for.....but after reading over 200 pages, there was only one fairy tale I really liked! "A Day in the Life of Half of Rumpelstiltskin" was great! Very clever, and funny, and thought provoking. I loved the description of a woman being "a half-bubble off-level." Many of the fairy tales were gruesome - and that didn't offend me as much as the tasteless ones. Some were just filled with four letter words just because they were adult stories. Anyway - I was really disappointed in this book and am anxious to start something better.