Fairy Tale Retellings

[Spartan Girl]

I can't get enough of these ones.  While most of them are YA novels, there are quite a few good adult fairy tale retellings.  Most recently I read While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell, a fabulous "historical fiction" version of Sleeping Beauty.  I also recommend Mermaid and The Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon.

 

My favorite YA retellings include the Once Upon A Time series and Beauty and Spindles End by Robin McKinley, Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, Fairest of All by Serena Valentino. 

[Eegah]

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer feature sci-fi versions of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White teaming up to fight an evil queen. It's as awesome as it sounds, and I am so looking forward to the last book. Also, Meyer really helped herself out by promising up front that there would be NO love triangles in the story.

[Chip]

The Lunar Chronicles are awesome! The last book can't come fast enough.

 

I just read a review/announcement today of The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine (Atria Books). It is a retelling of Twelve Dancing Princesses as flappers during the Roaring Twenties in Manhattan, according to io9.

[Epeolatrix]

I like short story collections because they have such variety.

The Armless Maiden and Other Tales for Childhood's Survivors edited by Terri Windling

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

Little Red Riding Hood in the Big Bad City edited by Martin H. Greenberg

Red as Blood by Tanith Lee

Snow White, Blood Red edited by Ellen Datlow

[Snow Apple]

I just finished Grim, an anthology published by Harlequin Teen. Some stories are better than others, and there are hidden gems which I wish were a full novel.

[Ariah]

The Woodcutter by Kate Danley had the feeling of a fairy tale being told. Plus it revisits most well-known European fairytales.

[Rick Kitchen]

Has anybody read the Fables graphic novels?  There's a series of videogames out that from what I understand, is a prequel to the graphic novels.

[ShadowDenizen]

Fables (and the spin-offs "Jack of Fables" and "Fairest") are all quite good. And word is that the main title will be ending at Issue 150 (whihc is NOT that far away.)

 

Whiel a bit dated, and somewhat cheesey, I enjoyed Dennis Mckiernana "Once Upon a..." series.

And I'm a sucker for any remakes/revamps of "Beauty and the Beast" and "East of the Sun/West of the Moon".

Anne Ursu also does some loose revamps of classic fairy-tales. I like both "Breadcrumbs" and "The Real Boy".

[Lovecat]

Chris Colfer (of GLEE fame) is writing a series based on fairy tales called The Land of Stories.  Book 3 is out tomorrow.  I've listened to the first 2 on audiobook (Colfer does the narration), and though he could probably use a better editor, the stories themselves are a lot of fun.  They are marketed as YA, but I think they're engaging enough for adults.

[ShadowDenizen]

Thanks, Lovecat!

 

I read the first one, and while it was decent, I wasn't sure if I was engaged enough to read the second. (I have literal BOOKCASES of stuff I need to read...)

Would you recommend it?

 

[Lovecat]

If you were meh about the first one, you might not want to tackle the second.  Like any book, they won't be everyone's cup of tea.  I thought it was a lot of fun, but it's longer, IIRC, and life is too short to slog through books you're not enjoying!  I just downloaded the third book to my audible app, and can't wait to get started, but I have this month's book club book in the listening queue, too...so many books, so little time!! 

Edited July 8, 2014 by Lovecat

[unworried well]

I love The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. Not a retelling, although it draws paralells with known fairy tales. It is dark, twisted, and beautiful.

[Iguana]

Robin McKinley has written 2 versions of beauty and the beast, Beauty and Rose Red. Both are excellent. She's also done a new take on Sleeping Beauty called Spindles End. Sleeping Beauty and her prince are not the heroes.

Mercedes Lackey's series Tales of the 500 Kingdoms are loosely connected books where fairy godmothers are desperately trying to stop real people being trapped by the Tradition into living out classic fairy tales with far from happily ever after ending.

[Sharpie66]

Back in 1986, I took a Feminist Lit class at Marquette, which was all SF/Fantasy books/stories written by women. One of my favorite books that we read was a collection of feminist fairy tales called Don't Bet on the Prince. It was edited by Jack Zipes, who also edited a fantastic collection of Grimm's Fairy Tales that I highly recommend (it's about as close to the original tales without all the whitewashing as I've seen). Both are really great books!

[Constant Viewer]

Tor once had a fairy tale series of books edited by Terri Windling.  Some are out of print but many were enjoyable.  They included

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (mixes sleeping beauty with the holocaust)

Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia Wrede(more traditional fairy tale)

Jack the Giant killer by Charles deLint(magic happenings in the city)

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean(mixes the story with college life in the 70s)

Nightingale by Kara Dalkey(really hard to find but I liked it, set in Japan)

Edited October 17, 2014 by Constant Viewer

[lucindabelle]

I also loved Tam Lin!

Entwined by Heather Dixon is a very good version of the twelve dancing princesses.

[Spartan Girl]

Bumping this thread to give everyone a heads up on a new fractured fairy tale series A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell, which basically takes a Disney movie and gives it a darker turn by changing a crucial moment in the story.

I just read the first book, A Whole New World which is basically a retellings of Aladdin where Jafar had gotten the lamp instead of Aladdin. It's gets pretty dark:

Jafar murders the sultan and goes batcrap crazy, while Aladdin and Jasmine form a revolutionary army of street rats.

I really liked it though, and I can't wait for the next one, which is an A/U of Sleeping Beauty where Aurora never woke up.

Edited September 3, 2015 by Spartan Girl

[Snow Apple]

Has anyone read Uprooted by Naomi Novik? It's not really a retelling although it does pay tribute to Baba Yaga. It's one of those book that I wasn't sure how I felt while reading it, but then I couldn't stop thinking about it for days afterwards.

[GreekGeek]

It's more of a myth retelling than a fairy tale, but C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces is a brilliant re-imagining of the Cupid and Psyche tale from the point of view of one of the "evil" sisters. The protagonist is a kick-ass warrior queen.

[Spartan Girl]

Some great new Snow White retellings just came out: Dark Shimmer by Donna Jo Napoli and Mirrored by Alex Flinn. Dark Shimmer is particularly interesting because in this version the evil stepmother doesn't start out as evil: she loses her mind because she's exposed to quicksilver while making mirrors.

Oh and is anyone excited for Neil Gaiman's Sleeping Beauty/Snow White crossover, The Sleeper and the Spindle? It comes out next week!

[Darian]

Most recently I read While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell, a fabulous "historical fiction" version of Sleeping Beauty. 

I am only 70 or so pages in but so far, yes, it is fabulous. I started it on my commute to meet up with friends and wanted to cancel on them and keep reading (I did not). But it's a rainy day where I am so I am going to curl up on the couch and immerse myself.

 

Am loving this thread. I'm terrible about remembering what I've read (I should keep a list). I am adding several titles to my wishlist.    

[Spartan Girl]

I read The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman and it is fantastic! A great refreshing twist for both Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. The illustrations are gorgeous.

[Darian]

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

 

Just started this and wow, I am riveted. The writing! Am ordering her other books now. 

[MeloraH]

Has anyone read Uprooted by Naomi Novik? It's not really a retelling although it does pay tribute to Baba Yaga. It's one of those book that I wasn't sure how I felt while reading it, but then I couldn't stop thinking about it for days afterwards.

 

It's also loosely a Beauty and the Beast retelling. I really loved it all the way through, it might be my favorite thing I've read this year.

 

The Wrath and the Dawn is a YA book loosely based on Scheherazade and was pretty good and Salman Rushdie also wrote one this year but I haven't read it. The retelling series staring with Sisters Red (also YA) is pretty good but the first book is the best of the series and you can totally stop there if you want to. I also loved The Penelopeiad Margaret Atwood's version of the Odyssey (I guess not a fairy tale but close enough?) from Penelope's perspective.  Ash by Malinda Lo is a ya, lgbt retelling of Cinderella and was pretty good and  A Court of Thorns and Roses is a ya loose Beauty and the Beast retelling that I really liked.

Edited December 11, 2015 by MeloraH

[Qoass]

I just started Gregory Maguire's After Alice and I just don't "get" his oeuvre.  I hated Wicked but loved Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister so I am hopeful AA will grow on me.