After reading this story for the A2 part of my A-Level, I can't say I was impressed. The stories are well written, I admit that, but although Angela Carter claims that they aren't "adult" stories, there is an awful lot of sex and violence in there. Where there isn't any of this, the stories are interesting, but I feel that these parts ruin them. It's not good to think of the stories we all know and love being turned into violent ones.

The Bloody Chamber is based around Bluebeard, giving the same story but adding more violence; describing the wives in more detail when they are dead, and also adding a description of the pornography collection which the man kept. As a person who had never read Bluebeard before this, I felt the story had a good plot, and there were twists which I never could've imagined.

The rest of the stories are quite short, and most of them do include sex (e.g. The Snow Child involves a man having sex with a dead girl in front of his wife) which I feel overshadows the rest of the story. They are well-written, but even Angela Carter admitted to some of her stories "appauling" her.

Overall, if you are easily offended, this is not the right book for you.