Hoopty Time Machines: Fairy Tales for Grown Ups

Christopher DeWan’s Hoopty Time Machines: Fairy Tales for Grown-ups is an entertaining, engaging read, a grown-up version of the fairy tale. It is made up of forty-five or so stories, some coming across as flash fiction, some so short they won’t even take up a page, but they all make for a gorgeous collection. This is a book that will allow mature readers to reconnect with the beauty of a world they have enjoyed and lost, a plunge into the fabulous world of fantasy where dream meets humor. Comprised of numerous stories that feature different kinds of characters—heroines and heroes, beasts, and humans—this collection will most certainly rouse readers to the sunny world of fairyland.

What makes these stories stand out? What is it that makes it hard to put down? Here is the thing: they don’t read like fairy tales at all. As one moves from one story to the next, there is the bizarre feeling that one gets reconnected to a memory, to a region of the brain that has been forgotten or ignored for so long. There is an unsettling realism about the stories that makes them even more enjoyable. In writing Hoopty Time Machines: Fairy Tales for Grown-ups, Christopher DeWan pays great attention to our contemporary values and the lens through which we look at reality, and his uncanny ability to help the reader re-connect with his world of fantasy can’t go unnoticed.

I enjoyed the flawless writing and the author’s gift for storytelling. Readers will get to know very complex and compelling characters who will remind them of some of the forgotten human values. And then there is the humor, sprinkled over the entire collection, with a suspense that makes readers want to find out what the next story has to offer. This slim book is a treasure trove, one of the best ways to escape from the strain of today’s fast-paced and competitive work culture.