The Fairy Tale Museum

“In The Fairy Tale Museum, Susannah M. Smith has crafted a world as seemingly scenic and romantic as a snow globe—except this world can break, it can draw blood, and it can transform. This is a beautiful book, its beauty only deepened by its bite.”
— Derek McCormack

“In Susannah M. Smith’s fantastical, moody folkloric menagerie, you can wander slowly and savour, or leap randomly between surprising exhibits. Part Brothers Grimm and part Doktor Bey, part novel and part poem, The Fairy Tale Museum is a moving, exquisite sensory experience. This is an exciting book.” 
— Stuart Ross

"The Fairy Tale Museum has more in common with installation art than with any traditional literary genres... [this book is] an exercise in encouraging creativity."
— Rain Taxi

"A dream within a dream within a book. A wonderland-like journey through magic and imagination. I’m running out of ways to describe this book, in part because it defies description. If you like dark fairy tales, you’ll probably like this."
— Tressa, McNally Robinson Staff Pick

The Fairy Tale Museum is a beautifully written book of short prose that invites the reader to relax and explore the curated ‘collections’ of pieces. It is a book you can, like a museum, come back to again and again and discover something new each time.
— Lindsey Childs, Prairie Fire

How the Blessed Live

With beautiful language and the lyrical voice of a poet Smith carries off this retelling of the Isis/Osiris myth. What makes the novel work is that the reader does not need to know the myth to enjoy the story … [It] is hauntingly beautiful and holds the reader's interest from start to finish. 
— W.P. Kinsella, Books in Canada

Digressive, hauntingly evocative, this story of contemporary Isis and Osiris twins gradually reveals its laden heart. Lucy, Levi and Daniel live in Susannah M. Smith’s lyrical prose, in her gentle pacing, and through the sensitivity with which she conveys grief, alienation and their transformation. A magical debut novel.
— Daphne Marlatt

Smith’s novel consistently evokes poetry, myth, and fairy tale without falling into many of their clichés and allows her heroine (and her readers) a satisfying ending in the process.
— Michelle Hartley, Canadian Literature

How the Blessed Live …has a cast of characters and a narrative backbone that command attention … [Smith's] prose can occasionally be breathtaking.
— Jim Bartley, The Globe and Mail

Smith succeeds often, and well … The novel works because it’s balanced between a modern urban tale and mythology – it’s something of both. In crafting the book, Smith was inspired by the Egyptian legend of Isis and Osiris, even as references to Pandora’s box, The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland are also introduced. …The novel suggests, simply from the way it is shaped, that mythology is not distant, it’s what we live, and we all have our parts … watching it unfold is a rewarding journey.
— Alex Boyd,  The Danforth Review

I gave this book five stars, I've put it on my favourite books of all time shelf, I will a hundred percent re-read it. I don't feel like a single word is wasted. I just really love this book – it ticks every box for me.
— Mercy's Bookish Musings