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Thursday Thistle: A Fairy Tale

August V. Fahren

3.56 · Rating details · 18 ratings · 12 reviews

Lethe: le the noun 'le-the

1: A dark, forgotten land from which all of our fairytales originated.

2: A Post apocalyptic realm of twisted, magic wielding royalty locked in battle with a race of technologically superior Guardians (who seek to snuff out magic forever).

3: The world Thursday Thistle has journeyed to in order to locate Princess Monday, one of seven paranormal prin ...more

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Kindle Edition, 120 pages

Published July 24th 2011 by Broken Star Books

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Bizarro

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Sep 19, 2011 Jason Pettus rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary, weird, funny

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

The more bizarro novels I end up reading here at CCLaP (not by choice but because of so many bizarro authors specifically sending me their books, I think because of a reputation I've picked up in their circle for being kind to bizarro authors), the more I'm realizing that even among this most original of g (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

The more bizarro novels I end up reading here at CCLaP (not by choice but because of so many bizarro authors specifically sending me their books, I think because of a reputation I've picked up in their circle for being kind to bizarro authors), the more I'm realizing that even among this most original of genres, there are still certain running themes that repeat among a whole series of these books, a lot of them first established by groundbreakers so long ago that their followers might not even know they were the originators. For example, it's becoming clear just how much the entire bizarro genre is defined solely through the work of early gonzo pioneer Kathy Acker, and how many of these books take on the same general Acker premise for their own; that is, an adherence to a general fairytale trope that already exists (pirates, ogres, Alice in Wonderland) but then filling that trope with details that are truly transgressive, which for those who don't know the difference is not just subversive (i.e. challenging the system) but actively celebrates things that many others find repulsive.

This is all essentially a long preamble to my look at August V. Fahren's Thursday Thistle, because that's essentially what the book is -- an Ackeresque transgressive fairytale but with the author I'm not sure even being aware of Acker's work, which I think says a lot about just how common this has become within the world of bizarro fiction, of taking Grimm-like conceits about Little Red Riding Hoods then raising the stakes to a ridiculously adult degree. As such, then, certainly it's a well-done book just on its own, and a great introduction to the genre for those who are new to it; but it will try the patience of those already well-read in this genre, and be actively disappointing to existing obsessive fans of Acker herself. And in the end, I guess that makes it kinda middle-of-the-road in general, which is why it's getting a middle-of-the-road score today.

Out of 10: 7.9 ...more

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Oct 27, 2011 Sheldon rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, e-books

“Me-O-My Monday is missing and Thursday has come again.”

This is the theme that runs throughout Thursday Thistle, an adult-oriented fairytale by August V. Fahren. It's a little gem of story, although it's a gem with some significant flaws.

Thursday Thistle is the title character, a teenage girl who lives with her clueless father and abusive stepsisters (her stepmother had run off). She's a nice girl who puts up with a lot, and passes much of her time practicing her drawings, although all she ever “Me-O-My Monday is missing and Thursday has come again.”

This is the theme that runs throughout Thursday Thistle, an adult-oriented fairytale by August V. Fahren. It's a little gem of story, although it's a gem with some significant flaws.

Thursday Thistle is the title character, a teenage girl who lives with her clueless father and abusive stepsisters (her stepmother had run off). She's a nice girl who puts up with a lot, and passes much of her time practicing her drawings, although all she ever draws is anatomically-correct robot mermaids. After meeting a two-headed talking mouse, she travels to the world of Lethe, a place which has largely been forgotten or ignored, but from which all of our fairytales have sprung. However, Thursday soon discovers that, while modern tellings tend to water-down the original fairytales, the original fairytales are themselves watered-down from reality (for example, Snow White is actually Princess Wednesday, a nymphomaniac sex slave to the seven diminutives).

Her quest is to find and free Princess Monday, who she has been told was kidnapped by the cannibal queen. Thursday's journey immediately brings to mind Alice in Wonderland, meeting crazy people and situations that don't necessarily make sense, and I seriously doubt that my interpretation is unique. It was definitely an interesting and compelling story. There are some major flaws with the book, however.

The first and most obvious is that Thursday Thistle desperately needs more editing. There are a fair number of errors in the book, including punctuation, misspelled words, missing words, and grammatical problems. This is a purely technical problem that could easily be fixed, and as such I wish it had been. With the number of technical errors throughout the book, it breaks the reading flow and yanks a reader off the page very easily.

Second, the plot felt very uneven, and it felt like there were chunks of the book that had been edited down or taken out altogether. Ultimately, the plot holds together, but I'm pretty sure I could see the stitching involved to do so. Unfortunately, this makes the plot and character movement feel very herky jerky, like sitcoms where someone is learning to drive for the first time and the car goes quickly forward a few feet before screeching to a stop, then repeating over and over again.

Despite this, Thursday Thistle is also strangely compelling. As I read, I was genuinely curious as to where the author was going to go with it, especially the hints peppered throughout the book of an incredibly rich backstory, as though the author had written his own Silmarillion-style reference guide to the history of Lethe. And I can tell you that sticking with it does pay off with a well written ending. At the same time, I wanted to know more, and it felt like there was supposed to be more, but that it got cut out or left out for whatever reason. Hopefully the author has a sequel on the horizon, because there are still some significant questions left unanswered.

The book can be rewarding but can also get frustrating at the same time because of the above mentioned flaws. It's short, and definitely worth your time, but if you're a stickler for technical detail, your frustration level will likely be heightened. It would earn four stars, but the technical problems are significant enough in my opinion that I have to detract a half-star.

Thursday Thistle by August V. Fahren earns 3.5 out of 5 stars (bumped up to four on Goodreads due to the benefit of the doubt and the lack of half-star ratings).

Note: A free copy of this book was sent to this reviewer by the author for review purposes. This did not affect this review in any way. ...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Matthew Fryer rated it really liked it

This bizarro e-fairytale comes courtesy of relative newcomer August V. Fahren. I was put off slightly by a familiar concept and cobbled together cover, but it’s clear within a couple of pages that the writing is crisp and the tale easy to engage.

The title refers to our heroine, a downtrodden Cinderella-esque misfit who lives with her sneerful stepsisters and likes drawing robotic mermaids. Her humdrum life is interrupted one day when she’s led into the land of Lethe by a two-headed talking mouse This bizarro e-fairytale comes courtesy of relative newcomer August V. Fahren. I was put off slightly by a familiar concept and cobbled together cover, but it’s clear within a couple of pages that the writing is crisp and the tale easy to engage.

The title refers to our heroine, a downtrodden Cinderella-esque misfit who lives with her sneerful stepsisters and likes drawing robotic mermaids. Her humdrum life is interrupted one day when she’s led into the land of Lethe by a two-headed talking mouse, and discovers that a cannibal witch queen is destroying the paranormal princesses, each named after a day of the week. Like herself.

The “Alice in Wonderland” structure is a well beaten path in this genre, and such formulas need investable characterisation and depth otherwise even the most outrageous ideas become bland. I was pleased to discover that although a couple of the set pieces didn’t quite have the substance or staying power of others, Thursday Thistle is on the whole an entertaining tale.

Along the way we encounter – amongst other things – tarantulas on methamphetamine, a breadcrumb trail of lamb foetuses, a spider-cow man, and a bunch of racist dwarves who keep princesses as sex slaves. The whole thing feels ever-so slightly cluttered, but then the format does allow for this to a degree, and the characters we meet are well realised. I particularly enjoyed the Zen monk who manages to confuse himself with his philosophy, as well as our patient protagonist. Thursday herself is a likeable, feisty guide, and her reactions provide much of the irreverent humour as she becomes accustomed to – and slightly jaded by – her threatening, otherworld surroundings.

“I am the lion prince,” he said.
“Good for you.”
The prose has a wry innocence, sharp with contemporary culture references, and it becomes quite unsettling when the whimsy takes a turn to the dark side.

I’ve read some bizarro that clearly rated psychedelic and weird above plot and personality. But this book is never turgid, flush with dialogue that ensures that it keeps moving, and the players’ natural human responses prevent it from wandering from the reach of both our grasp, and our interest.

It has a cartoonish feel at times, like Disney’s long-suppressed dark side has suddenly leaked through the facade. The author also uses music to good effect, describing the dramatic orchestral accompaniment to scenes of action and fighting, like a film score, in which the instruments also become involved. This was a risk, but it pays off.

There are a couple of spelling mistakes unfortunately, and a couple of the segments were by the numbers, whereas others would’ve been better expanded, but overall it’s a colourful and effortless read. I expected it to be more twisted, having read similar fayre more devoted to horror, though it certainly isn’t for kids. There are still moments of sour nastiness that balance it out nicely and ensure it stays the right side of the watershed. ...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Cassie-la rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011-reads

REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2011/10/07/b......

This story opens in the style of Cinderella, with Thursday Thistle being forced to do chores and simultaneously being tormented by her evil step-sisters, Charity and Joy. As expected, one is extremely round and short and the other is thin and tall. Although neither of them cut off portions of their feet to fit in glass slippers. Damn Grimm Brother, you’re so grim.

As with Cinderella, Thursday has bad luck with women. Her mother died durin REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2011/10/07/b......

This story opens in the style of Cinderella, with Thursday Thistle being forced to do chores and simultaneously being tormented by her evil step-sisters, Charity and Joy. As expected, one is extremely round and short and the other is thin and tall. Although neither of them cut off portions of their feet to fit in glass slippers. Damn Grimm Brother, you’re so grim.

As with Cinderella, Thursday has bad luck with women. Her mother died during a “Hava Nagila” mishap and her step-mother ran off to follow a Pink Floyd cover band and take psychotropic drugs. She fills this gap by drawing (although she only draws robot mermaids) and obsessively watching Disney’s Snow White. Oh, and did I mention she collects crickets and lets them crawl on her while she masturbates? No? I must have missed that part.

Her journey begins when a two headed mouse, one head named Maya, the other Amnesia leads Thursday into a magical world a la the White Rabbit. The majority of this tale takes place in this world, called Lethe, the birthplace of fairy tales and where Thursday learns the true meaning of self (as everyone does in fairy tales- if only that happened in real life). Lethe is also a river in the Underworld (the Greek version of the afterlife) and drinking from it results in forgetfulness, much as traveling through Lethe enables Thursday to forget the world she left behind. It’s also necessary if you’re trying to brew the Forgetfulness Potion in Pottermore.

From here things get even weirder, and we begin to meet the seven princesses of Lethe, who all seem obsessed with the fact that Princess Monday is missing. Some are inspired by existing princesses in fairy tales, others seem to be complete fabrications. All of them have alliterative first names that give a clue as to their paranormal abilities/nature, which is why I’ve chosen to exclude those (they give away too much!). Like they do in Twilight.

1. Princess Sunday = Trapped in a very deep sleep, may or may not be inspired by the Sleeping Beauty (or “The Lost Temple of Rivina”).
2. Princess Monday = Missing, rumored to have been kidnapped by the Cannibal Queen, who steals faces and eats babies to stay young. Elizabeth Báthory much?
3. Princess Tuesday = Lives in a gingerbread house and wears a chocolate dress, anal retentive, bipolar, has a feral servant/horn dog named Babe.
4. Princess Wednesday = Based on Snow White, being kept in bondage by the Seven Diminutives as a sex slave, if she bites you it results in a contraction of nympho fever, likes breaking out into song.
5. Princess Thursday = Extremely low self-esteem, in an abusive relationship with Prince Charming.
6. Princess Friday = Doesn’t understand homonyms, is unaffected by gravity, has a harem of ladies at her beck and call.
7. Princess Saturday = Clinically depressed emo girl with a tendency to go a little wacky.

In addition to these princesses, we meet the 7 dwarves, who prefer to be called diminutives, a donkey who poops lamb fetuses to create a new-age breadcrumb trail, sexy zombies, mime monkeys, and a clockwork tortoise and hare. If anything, Fahren’s mind is not short on ideas or imagination. Or craziness, which I personally take as a compliment.

Fahren has a very interesting writing style, which I found to be original and refreshing. It would be impossible for me to explain just what I mean, so I’m leaving you with one of my favorite quotes from this work. At this point in the narrative, we are getting our first glimpse of the Cannibal Queen, who is most certainly inspired by Snow White’s step-mother (does that poor lady even have a real name!?!) “‘Am I not the most comely in the land?’ She tosses the husk on the mummified pile of other infants, as though she were casting off her rhetorical question like her past meals.” It might be a heavy narrative style, but I like its balls.

Now it’s not a perfect story, there are a lot of points where I get pulled from the tale by elements that seem thrown in for mere shock value, or when Fahren is describing a noise and he just writes onomatopoeias for an entire paragraph, or when the dialogue is so forced and painful. But this is his first novel, and a self-published one at that. Despite these challenges, he still manages to weave a light, enjoyable tale. I was going to say yarn, but I’m not that old yet. ...more

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Oct 12, 2011 C.V. Hunt rated it really liked it

Thursday Thistle is a teen girl living with her loving widowed father, and two ungrateful step-sisters that treat her badly. On a night when she is left alone in the house, she is visited by a strange two headed mouse that beckons her to follow without delay.

She had twisted and turned across a countless number of streets only to reach this place. A place where the streetlight oozed down, a greasy yellow spot on the asphalt and the two-headed mouse, which resembled a swirling oil slick, hurried Thursday Thistle is a teen girl living with her loving widowed father, and two ungrateful step-sisters that treat her badly. On a night when she is left alone in the house, she is visited by a strange two headed mouse that beckons her to follow without delay.

She had twisted and turned across a countless number of streets only to reach this place. A place where the streetlight oozed down, a greasy yellow spot on the asphalt and the two-headed mouse, which resembled a swirling oil slick, hurried across the lighted spot and down the hill. It went down into hell. No, that wasn’t right. It was colder, quiet, an unknown journey into the bowels of the world, down into long forgotten places where nobody walked, but sidewalks still remained.

Once Thursday has entered into this strange new land he is greeted with a nursery rhyme every time she tells someone her name:

Me-O-My Monday is missing and Thursday had come again.

With what scarce information she can gather, there are seven princesses in this new land, and Monday is missing. She takes it upon herself to seek out what has happened to Monday in the hopes of find answers.

Along her journey she is runs into an assortment of strange creatures and characters including: a cannibal queen, a nymphomaniac princess, zombie bears, and insane wise men, just to mention a few. Beyond battling these creatures to find answers, Thursday finds herself battling strong sexual urges in the presence of the princesses when she meets them.

August V. Fahren does a wonderful job assembling a strange and horrifying world that gives Alice in Wonderland a run for its money. My only grip would be that there were areas that seemed left out, as if the author expected the reader to already now certain information, and it left me slightly confused in an already maddening world. Thursday seemed to know things without being told in other areas, but overall I think the story was great and very imaginative.

Thistle Thursday was an odd collage of every fairytale, mixed with horror. This is definitely not a fairytale I was told at bedtime, but my morbid fascination kept me wanting more.
...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Todd Fonseca rated it really liked it

Thursday Thistle - Cinderella in Bizzaro Fantasy

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Author: August V Fahren
Format: Kindle

Living with her father and mean and slutty stepsisters after her stepmother had run off with a Pink Floyd cover band, Thursday Thistle's life was a living hell. Reflecting on simpler times, she decided to escape into her favorite movie - Snow White. She falls asleep and upon waking a mouse introduces her to a world forgotten by most. Here she must help them find Princess Monday in a land of f ...more

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Oct 15, 2011 Valentina rated it really liked it

This is one strange, wonderful book. It is full of quirky moments and bizarre takes on some of our most beloved fairy tales.
The plot is a fantastic jumble of plot lines, with a nymphomaniac Snow White character and a witch who’s an etiquette fanatic, among many delightful characters, who fill the pages. The reader is amused and frightened by the things Thursday sees and yet we feel comfortable in the atmosphere created by Fahren, to the point where we don’t really want the story to end. There a ...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Andrew rated it liked it

This is my first book of this genre which has been described as bizarro fantasy. Its kind a twisted fairy tale that borrows ideas and character types from well known fantasy. I thought many of the ideas in this novel were pretty neat although they didn't quite all gel together in the end. The plot moved pretty fast which I thought was good but too much ground was covered. A few of the places and characters could have been left out to delve a little more deeply into some of the more interesting o ...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Lauren rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle

This was the first ebook I purchased for my newly acquired Kindle as well as my first foray into the world of bizarro fiction, and I feel I made a good decision on both accounts. The author has a distinct writing style that I found interesting and beautiful, and the concept was original and weird. Maybe a little too weird at times, but I won't hold that against it. I mean, the genre this book belongs to is known as "bizarro", that'd be like getting mad at soup for being hot, know what I'm saying ...more

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Oct 15, 2011 J.H. Kingsley rated it it was amazing

Thursday Thistle, written by August V. Fahren, is a fairytale done as a nightmare. Take the Brothers Grimm, Lewis Carroll and Mother Goose, give them all nightmares and have them write a story together, and this is what you would get. Will Thursday complete her quest? Will she even make it out alive? Definitely not for children, Thursday Thistle is a fast, fun read if you like your fairy tales dark. This could have been a dark confused mishmash of images, but in Mr. Fahren’s hands, it is well wr ...more

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Feb 20, 2015 Pauline allen rated it liked it

What?

I love that I wasn't expecting any of this!!! Nothing it was so refreshing. I adore it. Weird messed up fairy tale ...more

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May 08, 2013 Krista rated it it was ok

It was interesting trying to figure out which fairy tales were being twisted into horror stories, but the story was hard to follow and left me with too many questions unanswered.

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Bizarro Fiction: Thursday Thistle (#11,453 overall, #2 Fairy Tales, #62 Dark Fantasy)	5	16	Aug 29, 2011 01:42PM
Steampunk Reads : One steampunk tortoise.	2	32	Aug 08, 2011 10:22AM
Goodreads Authors...: Dark Fantasy Fairy Tale (Current Stats: #11,322 overall, #2 Fairy Tales, #60 Dark Fantasy)	3	14	Aug 07, 2011 10:44AM
Fairytales and Re...: Thursday Thistle (#10,635 overall, #2 Fairy Tales, #60 Dark Fantasy)	1	6	Aug 07, 2011 08:54AM
Fantasy Aficionados: Thursday Thistle (#11,322 overall, #2 Fairy Tales, #60 Dark Fantasy)	1	11	Aug 07, 2011 08:49AM
Supernatural Fict...: "Thursday Thistle" by August V. Fahren	1	6	Aug 07, 2011 08:44AM