The chapbook I chose to buy came from Dancing Girl Press. It is Elective Affinities by Kara Dorris. When I first found this book, I had never heard of the author and knew nothing about her writing style. I just thought that the cover looked interesting. After I received the chapbook and read it, I really enjoyed her writing and what she did with this work. It is a book giving new spins to fairytales. She has some pieces such as “To Fairytales” and “ Some Notes on Why the Color had to be Red.” These pieces span from Little Red Riding Hood to Snow White. Throughout these pieces of childhood, she throws in little 3 or 4 line pieces that tie into the larger pieces but are little pieces of gold to keep the reader interested.

The longest piece is the namesake of the book. It is 8 pieces that is like a fairytale in itself. Kara Dorris writes about fairytales and writes one of her own. It has love and mystery and magic, which is what all people love from the stories they heard as children. Kara Dorris brings reality into the imagination of childhood and still keeps the fairytale alive.

She finishes the book with “A Spell” which is how she interprets what happens when spells are made and used. “Dandelion germs, candlewick, toes & flour. The blood that turns the rest to liquid, an incanted language, the skin.”  She brings out all the feelings that one would feel hearing a spell in the story. The feeling that something exciting is going to happen. Kara Dorris brings this out in her book with a passion for the fairytales that brings the reader in and reminds them of childhood. She gives adults an excuse to reach back into their hearts to remember what it felt like being a child but brings out how an adult would feel now, cautioning the damsel in distress to not eat the apple. TO caution the girl with the red cape to not go to her grandmothers house that day. Kara Dorris brings this out of the reader in a magical way that gives an excuse for letting go and letting the stories bring them to a forest with a headsman giving them pardon and a reason to survive.