"Disfigured" review
Overview
Title: Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space
Author: Amanda Leduc
Subgenre: Nonfiction
2021 Bingo squares: Nonfiction
Stars: 4/5
Topics covered
- Different models of disability: the social model, the medical model, the virtue model
- The role of disability in many fairy tales, including The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty (and Maleficent), The Ugly Duckling, Hans My Hedgehog, and others
- Plot summaries of several of these fairy tales
- The way these tales evolved over time, with a focus on the role of disability in them
- The history of the fairy tale and brief biographies of several prominent fairy tale authors
- Amanda’s diagnosis with cerebral palsy framed as story, as well as anecdotes from her own life, including her struggles with depression
- Anecdotes from other disabled people who Amanda conducted interviews with, about their experiences living with disability and what they want from society
Review
Disfigured is an engaging look at the topic of disability in fairy tales. Why do so many fairy tales deal with disability? Why do the happy endings insist that being able-bodied is a requirement for a happy ending? Through the lens of the social model of disability as well as that of an author seeing her life as a story, Amanda asks why characters in fairy tales must behave certain ways, and explains the damaging consequences stories can have on real people as they shape our real expectations.
By intermixing history, personal anecdotes, and fairy tale synopses in a flowing voice, Amanda holds the reader’s attention throughout the text, making it easy to pay attention throughout the 250 pages of the book, even if you don’t typically read nonfiction.
While it’s an interesting book for readers, I can’t recommend it enough for writers, as a way to understand the value of representation - and ways representation can be both helpful and harmful.
And somewhat unrelated to this specific book, for a fiction novel (novella) that I think treated physical disability notably well, I recommend Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson.
