Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

"The Three Roses" was an enjoyable fairy tale and probably my favorite reading from this week's selection of anthologies. Time for some story notes! I'm going to try the "Focus on Plot" strategy for notetaking.

• I always enjoy stories that start with "Once upon a time." These words always put me in a relaxed mental state, ready to enjoy a tale.
• I was surprised at the third daughter's request for three roses. She seems to have more depth than her sisters and is somehow a bit mysterious.
• As the mother sets off for the market, I could sort of sense as a reader that something unfortunate would occur!
• The mother gets lost! The plot is moving quickly. She then stumbles upon a "palace" which is always a great setting for a fairy tale.
• The palace has a rose garden, so surely the third daughter will get her rose, right? Probably not without more complications though! For a short story, the author sure has thrown in a lot of interesting wrinkles.
• The antagonist (maybe?) appears...and is a Basilisk. I like how the creature enters "at once" before strongly demanding that the mother exchanges her daughter for the roses.
• The plot continues to move quickly, and I like this pace. The mother goes home, resigning herself to giving up her daughter. Yikes! That would be terrible. I wish we had more insight into the mother's emotion at that point with some dialogue.
• The daughter (who just now gets a name, Mary!) seems fine with going to the castle and being handed over to the creature...which is a twist. It makes me as a reader feel better about where this is headed!
• Mary having to nurse the Basilisk is certainly an interesting yet odd wrinkle. And then, suddenly, he brings out a sword for her to cut his head off. What an interesting turn of events! It's almost as if each successive strange event is topping the last. 
• Mary cuts off the creature's head, and then a new head appears so she is told to cut it off as well. The second cut reveals a young boy! The creature becoming a young boy is the most important event in the story, in my opinion. The plot seems to hit its peak here.
• The boy says that he "must" marry Mary, which is one final plot twist. This has been a roller coaster of a short tale. I'm not sure that I like the fact that the marriage seems forced...
• The wedding is "great" as the story concludes, yet the author writes that the attendants all "had to play and dance." More forced things? A bit odd! This has been a fun, quick plot nonetheless. 
• I enjoyed how the emphasis shifted from the mother in the beginning to Mary in the back half, coinciding with the moment where the author lets readers know her name.

Male green basilisk. Source: Wikimedia

Story source: The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis (1922).