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You are not a hero.
You don’t get to have True Love.
This is the part where you lose everything.

This is the part where you rewrite your story.

After losing everything in service to the Evil Queen, and driven to the edge of sanity by a cruel narrator who won’t let him die, Hansel must bring himself to do the impossible: forge his own destiny or give up on his Happily Ever After.

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  • HOW TO SURVIVE THIS FAIRYTALE asks the questions I’ve always wanted to know of fairytales but was too afraid to ask: Who are the characters in fairytales, when they’re not busy escaping witches or undoing spells? Who do they love? What are their dreams, and what keeps them going? Do they know when they’ve messed up? Do they know they’re inside a story? S.M. Hallow takes us on a magical journey fraught with beauty and danger in equal measure, with gorgeous prose to match.

    — Tina S. Zhu, WYRMHOLE Editor

  • With prose that is as unflinching as it is mesmerizing, S. M. Hallow's How to Survive This Fairytale lures you into its dark, magic-littered woods. What will happen to you there is at the same time uncertain and predetermined, as is any fairytale character's fate: there will be love, and pain, some laughter and so much hunger, and kind feathered friends. Above all, there will be the realization that choice can be something you can learn to grow into, like a sweater made of nettles, itchy and woven with sacrifice, but yours all the while.

    — Danai Christopoulou, khōréō editor & author of VILE LADY VILLAINS (2026)

  • Told in second person with gripping, melancholy prose, HOW TO SURVIVE THIS FAIRYTALE takes an adamant approach to autonomy and self-reclamation in the wake of trauma, abuse, and grief. Perfect for readers who yearn for a darker, queerer spin on fairytale reimaginings and want their happy endings both unexpected and hard-earned.

    — Elle Porter, author of Hyacinth

  • Full of simple yet passionate lyricism à la The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero, How to Survive This Fairytale is a study in choices— the good, the bad, and the unavoidable. S.M. Hallow skillfully waves together recognizable fables and creative spins on old classics to tell a stunning story about the all-too-human desire to love and be loved in return.

    — Haley Strassburger, book reviewer and educator (@spoonie.reads)

  • S. M. Hallow’s debut, How to Survive This Fairytale, is a brilliant remix of classic fairytales—Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, and more.  If what does not kill you makes you stronger, what kills you over and over makes you angrier.  Come for the enchantment; stay for the revolution!

    — Jacob Slichter, Drummer for Semisonic & Author of So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star