←Recommendations of What You Wish For (short)

There are fractured fairytales, and then there's 'What You Wish For,' which smashes its source material to indistinguishable, hilarious, sexy (???), profoundly depressing smithereens! It's a story of double standards and lowered standards, in which all happiness and satisfaction come at a high and rising cost. Is it sad? Is it hilarious? YES! It moves like the wind, from climax-to-literal-climax, taking the audience on a depressing workplace journey that will keep them cackling despite it all!

WHAT YOU WISH FOR by David Hilder is a saucy modern take on the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, a story with origins that may go back 4000 years, with a version in many cultures. The Hilder version is for adults, fast- paced, cynical, hyperbolic, and replete with the hierarchal sexism of the corporate workplace. Instead of spinning straw into gold for Miller’s daughter, the goblin with the secret name fondles her as she types magic into her desktop PC, making millions in the process. A disturbing and darkly funny mixture of the old and the new. Hilder is a force.

Fans of Hilder won’t be at all surprised by this witty, sexy, trenchant take on Rumplestiltskin — and in this modern version, gold is also spun out of a kind of straw. But getting out of this impossible situation requires an equally impossible, equally painful bargain. The ending is dark, painful — still, in a very Hilder way, very darkly funny. You’ll want to read this one.

Women have always been (and still are) subjected to abuse and harassment in the workplace, even if they don't want to move up the ladder. Hilder's tale is not only a blistering, raucous reminder of this, but a breakneck and brilliant update of the classic fairy tale for today's society, filled with so much debauchery it's actually uncomfortable. At least the career advancement is worth it. Right? Right? Right? Beans!

Look, you can enjoy this perverse little fairy tale as a satire of capitalism, sexism, ageism, looksism, sex as a weapon, sex as a resource, and, well, the ethical tradeoffs one makes when faced with outright starvation. Or you can just laugh heartily at the balls-out, savagely hilarious dialogue. Or you can find the whole thing unspeakably, unbearably sad. What you can't do, I predict, is resist it, with its great characters, hilarious execution, yummy twists, and strong, strong point of view. Dig in.