Review By Colleen Mondor of "The Reverend's Wife."

Although written back in 2009 when the Datlow/Windling anthology Black Swan, White Raven was first published, I only recently and quite by accident discovered that Colleen Mondor gave my short story, "The Reverend's Wife"  a rather nice review -- which even though lately discovered, has made me very happy this morning. 

"Right off the bat, there are several standouts in Black Swan including Midori Snyder's very sexy take on a Sudanese tale, translated to a rural American setting, "The Reverend's Wife." (If ever a story said "fairy tales for adults," it's this one.) Tackling the nature of marital fidelity while also spinning on what it means to be a good wife, Snyder has a lot of fun here with a slight trickster take on woman having the upper hand but using their power for the sake of saving their marriages (well, okay and having some fun too). It's the sense of fun and humor that really makes this story succeed and that the gender roles are reversed to a certain degree. It's certainly bawdy in the best use of the word and also carries a sense of coyote and raven tales in how the women get one over their husbands (to everyone's benefit)"

 And just for fun, here's the opening paragraph: 

"It was funny the way it turned out. Hard in fact to feel any shame about it at all. No matter the fire and brimstone and God-avenging, hitting the Good Book hard enough to make sin jump up into your mouth and begin to testify. Me, I don't need to testify. God knows me. Instead, I just stay quiet and get to thinking how God has a mighty good sense of humor and doesn't mind a little sinning now and again. That is, of course, if no one gets hurt and all parties wind up happy. I guess you could say Violet Thomas and I wound up pretty happy women. And our dear husbands, though they learned a thing or two about women, were never the wiser for it. "