Nightmares and Fairy Tales: Once Upon a Time... - Serena Valentino

A collection of six dark comics telling the stories of life seen through the eyes of Annabell, a little rag doll as she changes owners. After witnessing the gruesome demise and violence surrounding her owners, Annabell believes herself to be cursed. Later owners begin to be able to hear her warnings and she discovers she may be able to help the innocent after all.

The first two tales are about Morgan who is dating Dominique who claimes to be a vampire. She stays with a friend when things start to get creepy, but wakes up to find him dead next to her along with his housemate. She is taken to a mental institution when it turns out Dominique is dead and branded insane, all because she refused Dominique's gift of immortality. The third tale shows Dominique in a nunnery giving birth. Her son is taken to his adoptive parents, but has possibly been sacrificed to monsters in the attic. It shows Dominiques origins and the truth behind her earlier claimes. Annabelle then meets Snow in the fourth tale with a look at Snow White before helping Gwen in the fifth tale. Gwen is moving to a new house with her parents that seems haunted. There are monsters in her closet and her neighbour gives her Annabell to protect her. The real monsters aren't in her closet however, and Annabell is able to protect her from her parents until her neighbour rescues her. It seems Gwen is the first to hear Annabelle. The final tale looks at Annabelle's role in Cinderella's life.

This was a beautiful collection. The tales were quite short and simple, but chilling and stuck in the mind afterwards. The illustrations by FSc are beautiful and it is worth reading for those alone. It leans more towards horror than fairy tale and is possibly more suited to female readers as it is always woman who seem to own Annabelle.