I haven’t read oodles of Neil Gaiman’s work, but somehow I expect his tone to be much darker than I’ve generally found it, and certainly much darker than Stardust, which I actually found to be very sweet. In fact, if it wasn’t for a couple of (probably) inappropriate words (although, if you’d just broken your leg, you might be tempted to say “Fuck!”, too) I’d say this was suitable for children, as it’s such a fairy tale: young men on quests, beautiful maidens, evil witches trying to eat your heart – that kind of thing.

I found memories of Enid Blyton in here, somehow, in the mysterious wood across the forbidden meadow. Large periods of the adventure are skipped in half a sentence. It all comes together very well, though, like any of Grimms’ finest.