This is one of the best modern fairy tales I have read in a long time. I finished it over the weekend–I didn’t mean to, but I was pulled in so deeply that I couldn’t stop until the very last word. I wept through the latter half of this book, here at the kitchen table with a tissue in my hand, and all the while I sat in awe of Hoffman’s skills. I’ve always been in awe of her skill as a storyteller, but this book blows all the others away. I suppose part of that is because of how easily I found myself in the story. It was unsettling, how close it hit to home. But mostly it is because of the way Hoffman tells the tale. Not one extraneous word, not one unnecessary description, and woven all throughout, the fairy tale. I can’t say it any better than the reviewers already have. Please Alice, write another.