I meant to get to this earlier, but got distracted. Plus it was a bit time consuming to add all the links. But here at last: a compilation of all, or at least most, of the fairy tales and similar books and collections mentioned in the comments of this post. I hope you’ll enjoy skimming through this list and perhaps find something here you haven’t previously tried, but might love. I picked up a couple new-to-me books, and I expect I’ll probably pick up a few more …
The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr — I only sort of liked this book, which I remember as being filled with sadness and a good deal of failure and betrayal. I only read it once. But I think I was also impressed by how the stories wove together. Here’s a brief review of this and several other Swan fairy tale retellings.
Beauty and Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley — it’s always interesting to me to see how firmly readers prefer one or the other. I’m a Beauty fan myself. In a broad poll, I wonder how the proportions would come out?
Spindle’s End — In my opinion, the ending was not the best. I do think endings are difficult for various fairy tale retellings, and I thought the ending was weak for both Beauty retellings above as well. The shift in perspective here is interesting; this is one of those rather uncommon novels where the pov shifts dramatically over the course of the novel. This didn’t bother me in this case. McKinley handled this aspect of the story really well.
Sarah Z points to —
Stardust by Neil Gaiman — I’ve never read it. I’m not actually a huge Gaiman fan, aside from questions about the author’s behavior.
Cinder by Melissa Meyer — I know this is a popular retelling. I fear I wasn’t impressed.
The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell — I read this a long time ago, it was completely charming, I should read it again. It’s a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling, by the way.
I’m adding: Castle Behind Thorns, also by Haskell, which is one of those great stories where only one character is on stage for a large part of the story. For some reason, I usually like that. This is also a slice-of-life fix-up-the-castle story, which also appeals to me. I guess I will add that I read this story in draft; Merrie and I shared an agent at the time. She didn’t write a lot of books, unfortunately, but she did write an original fairy tale: The Handbook for Dragon Slayers, and a couple collections of shorter works.
Tithe by Holly Black. I’ve never read it. I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything by Holly Black. About this book, Amazon says: Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother’s rock band until an ominous attack forces the sixteen-year-old back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms—a struggle that could very well mean her death.
Six Gun Snow White by Cathrynne Valente — Valente is one of those authors where I admire her work, but almost never like it.
The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine. I love the Twelve Dancing Princesses. This one is juuuust barely a retelling. It’s more flavored by the fairy tale than a retelling. It’s historical, it’s set in the 1920s. Valentine is a great writer, enormously talented; her books tend to be dense and even claustrophobic; I liked this book, but it’s not a light, fluffy beach read. Looking at her author page, she has mostly been writing Catwoman comics or graphic novels or something, which I would never have guessed.
The Brides of Rollrock Island (selkies) by Margo Lanagan
Poisoned Apples by Christine Heppermann (poetry)
Cautionary Fables & Fairytales by Iron Circus Comics. Sarah says: This is a graphic novel series, a collection of retellings of stories from a different part of the world. Some are too scary for my kids, but some are really fun, and it’s introduced them to stories they’d never have heard of otherwise (The Disobedient Daughter Who Married a Skull, Tatterhood, The Tanuki and the Teapot, the Lizard Prince…
Alison, Kim or both suggest —
Goose Girl by Shannon Hale — I fear I hated it. If I were writing a post on terribly ineffectual protagonists, this book would be right there on that list. I read the fairy tale later to see how true to the fairy tale Hale was when she wrote this book. Very much true to the fairy tale, and I hereby hate the fairy tale as well.
Thorn by Intisar Khanani — It’s been on my radar for a long time. Maybe someday …
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T Kingfisher. Bonkers good, says Kim. That’s fine, but the Defensive Baking one turned me off so severely because of extreme protagonist stupidity that I didn’t finish it. Can anybody confirm that isn’t a problem here?
Craig points out —
Tam Linn by Pamela Dean. This is an elegant contemporary retelling.
Fire and Hemlock by DWJ. An even more elegant retelling, not remotely my favorite of DWJ’s books, but impressive.
Kathryn M points to The Lady and the Wish by JM Stengl (a King Thrushbeard retelling). King Who? I said, and here is a Wikipedia page about this fairy tale. Amazon has this about Stengl’s version: Something strange is going on at Lady Beneventi’s villa. Ghostly people appear, doors vanish, statues come to life . . . and the old lady herself despises Gillian. With the help of a handsome but hostile construction worker, can Gillian solve the mystery of the wishes and return to her proper place in high society? Can she finally snare a prince to marry? Or might love play a part in changing her plans?
EC points to —
The Spirit Ring by LMB. We’ve probably all read it. It’s fine, but just not as good as her later fantasy, imo.
Silver Woven In My Hair by Shirley Rousseau Murphy — A delightful retelling, says EC. But when the king’s summer gala draws near and Thursey is, as usual, left at home, she takes charge of her own fate. With help from a traveling monk and a friendly goatherd, she secretly prepares to attend the ball. Does she have help, as well, from the ugly white mare whom she loves? And will she gain more than a rare evening of happiness, perhaps even the joy of new-found love?
East by Edith Pattou is a great retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, which, says EC, stays very true to the original.
Boys of Blur by N.D Wilson — a Beowulf retelling, says EC, and I said, “Really?”
When Charlie moves to the small town of Taper, Florida, he discovers a different world. Pinned between the everglades and the swampy banks of Lake Okeechobee, the small town produces sugar cane . . . and the fastest runners in the country. Kids chase muck rabbits in the fields while the cane is being burned and harvested. Dodging flames and blades and breathing smoke, they run down the rabbits for three dollars a skin. And when they can do that, running a football is easy.
But there are things in the swamp, roaming the cane at night, that cannot be explained, and they seem connected to sprawling mounds older than the swamps. Together with his step-second cousin “Cotton” Mack, the fastest boy on the muck, Charlie hunts secrets in the glades and on the muck flats where the cane grows secrets as old as the soft earth, secrets that haunted, tripped, and trapped the original native tribes, ensnared conquistadors, and buried runaway slaves. Secrets only the muck knows.
I can see it because EC said it, but I wouldn’t have guessed Beowulf from this description.
Moving on —
A Redtail’s Dream, a webcomic by Minna Sundberg. The link goes to the free online version. Here is an ebook version for sale. I don’t find the hardcover EC mentions, but maybe if you poke around you can find it.
The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long. That’s quite a title. Here’s part of the description: Determined to find and free Tom, Jenny must navigate a strange and frightening world of wonders. Her only guides are the hobgoblin known as Puck, and Jack of the Forest, the Guardian of the Edge, a strange green-eyed man who is duty bound to protect her. And she desperately needs protection. Hunted by Queen Titania and her servants, with time running out, Jenny and Jack find themselves caught up in an older magic, one bound in rituals of love and death. As it awakens to the presence of a new May Queen, the Realm demands a sacrifice.
The Land of the Blue Flower by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This is a short, charming original fairy tale.
George MacDonald’s entire oeuvre — link goes to a very inexpensive collection at Amazon.
The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany — also inexpensive; I have it on my Kindle, but of course haven’t read it.
OtterB
Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher
Her Hamster Princess series, graphic novels for early readers, has fun with classic fairy tales without making fun of them.
Green Man series by Juliet McKenna. OtterB says: It doesn’t replicate fairy tale plots but has supernatural characters from old English folklore, dryads and wyrms and swan maidens and hobs and very dangerous Fair Folk.
Mary Catelli suggests
Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis, which, you know what, I honestly ought to read more of CS Lewis’s works.
And of course Mary Catelli has written various fairy tale-adjacent books, such as Even After and a collection of stories in Enchantments and Dragons.
Mona suggests
Seven Daughters Seven Sons by Cohen and Lovejoy. I don’t see an ebook edition, so the link is for paper, sorry.
Tuyo-Fan suggests
Tales of the Wendy by Erin Sky and Steven Brown.
London. 1789. More than anything in the world, Wendy Darling wants to be the captain of a ship, but women aren’t allowed in the Royal Navy. When she learns the Home Office is accepting a handful of women into its ranks, she jumps at the chance, joining the fight against the most formidable threat England has ever faced. Magic.
These are nice covers, especially the second book:
Elaine’s Teen says: I’d like to contend that it’s not enough fora retelling, retouching, or other have the trappings of a fairytale if it isn’t about what the tale in question is Actually About. For example, a selkie story isn’t made by a person who has a sealskin and spends time as a seal, but by the themes of being trapped, of power and abuse of it, and the choices made with it, all wrapped up in the sealskin- or the swanfeather cloak. Or a thing can run on the logic that fairy tales are made of, without being one, and then everyone who meets it goes, ” should know that tale” because it feels like it came out of the right space.
I basically agree, or I think I do. I think if the retelling departs too far from what the original was doing in terms of the theme or the heart of the story, it’s hard to call it a retelling. I’m not dogmatic about this, but I think I would tend to reach for terms such as “flavored with” or “slightly reminiscent of” or something. As for the second clause, absolutely, and those are the original fairy tales, such as a handful of those above, plus Chalice by McKinley or City in the Lake by me. Or The Shape-Changer’s Wife by Sharon Shinn. Maybe Sister Light Sister Dark by Jane Yolen — it’s been a while since I read that!
I’m pausing to think: I should do a post just on original fairy tales. There are surely quite a few. I think it’s hard to capture the fairy-tale feeling … hard for me … apparently it was easy for Patricia McKillip, because she did it a bunch of times.
Anyway, the Teen then points out that Ladyhawk is like that. The book is apparently out of print and stupidly expensive on Amazon. Rather than look for an ebook someplace, here’s the movie. I have the book and I’ve watched the movie; my vague memory is that the movie is pretty good and sticks halfway well to the book. Can anybody else confirm that?
Heather suggests
Rumpelstiltskin, plus various other books, by KM Shea. There are a bunch.
And then draws attention to: A yearly retelling-fairy-tales writing competition that ran for four years. It did Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella, and published the five best short stories that came in for each. Each book has ONE (fairly) straight retelling, but the others… the OTHERS… well, take “Sleeping Beauty” and slot it into far-future sci-fi, where an alien prince who’s been lying in stasis for thousands of years is accidentally-awoken by a human grave-robber! Or take Beauty and the Beast and slot it into a gothic tale of a gargoyle who’s the last of his kind to stand against the encroaching evil, and unless he finds a bride the world will be destroyed… and he’s dying…!
The collections are:
Elaine T mentions one I have never heard of — though to be fair, there are a fair number on this list I’ve never heard of — anyway —
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim.
Shiori’anma, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted. But it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother. A sorceress in her own right, Raikama banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes. She warns Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.
Also, stories by Eleanor Farjeon, and here’s an inexpensive collection. I’ve got one of these on my TBR pile, I see.
Maria suggests
Briarly by Aster Glenn Gray. It’s got one of those BLACK COVERS WITH A RED ROSE that to me say, “This is probably erotic horror.” I don’t know, that’s often misleading because these types of covers are used a lot. But that’s what this implies to me.
During a chance summer shower, an English country parson takes refuge in a country house. The house seems deserted, yet the table is laid with a sumptuous banquet such as the parson has not seen since before war rationing. Unnerved by the uncanny house, he flees, but stops to pluck a single perfect rose from the garden for his daughter – only for the master of the house to appear, breathing fire with rage. Literally. At first, the parson can’t stand this dragon-man. But slowly, he begins to feel the injustice of the curse that holds the dragon captive. What can break this vengeful curse?
Entreat Me by Grace Draven. Determined to rescue her sibling from ruin, Louvaen Duenda pursues her to a decrepit castle and discovers a household imprisoned in time. Dark magic, threatening sorcerers, and a malevolent climbing rose with a thirst for blood won’t deter her, but a proud man disfigured by an undying hatred might. Louvaen must decide if loving him will ultimately save him or destroy him.
The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey. It takes place in her Elemental Masters universe.
Hammer and Air by Amy Lane — a cross between Snow-White and Rose-Red and Hansel and Gretel.
Brute by Kim Fielding. Maria says: a lovely romance with a really kind and compassionate main character. From the description: Brute leads a lonely life in a world where magic is commonplace. He is seven and a half feet of ugly, and of disreputable descent. No one, including Brute, expects him to be more than a laborer. But heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and when he is maimed while rescuing a prince, Brute’s life changes abruptly. He is summoned to serve at the palace in Tellomer as a guard for a single prisoner. It sounds easy but turns out to be the challenge of his life.
That sounds like my cup of tea, so sure, picking it up.
How to Find a Nameless Fae by AJ Lancaster — a Rumpelstiltskin retelling with some Howl’s Moving Castle inspiration. It’s about a 40 year-old princess tracking down the fae who won her in a first born bargain but never showed up to claim her.
WHEW. I think that’s MOST of the fairy tales, fairy-tale-adjacent, original fairy tales, and other related books that were mentioned in the comments of the earlier post.
Please Feel Free to Share:
I loved Ladyhawke, the movie!
I read the book later, and I liked it mainly because it was basically the movie. I believe it’s a novelization of the movie, which I don’t usually read but I did since I like the movie so much, and I found that the book was good as well.
I usually reread Beauty and Rose Daughter in tandem, and it depends very much on what I’m in the mood for which one I prefer. Most often Beauty though; Rose Daughter has a bad case of Meaningful Names, which is always a demerit for me.
I read Entreat Me, but didn’t love it, and I can’t for the life of me remember why.
I’d like to add that The Folk Keeper, by Franny Billingsley, is another selkie tale that captures the haunted, wistful feel of the genre precisely, though as far as I can tell it’s not based on any one story in particular.
I further submit Pangur Ban, The White Cat, by Fay Sampson, for your consideration for original fairy tales – it’s a Celtic tale, which starts with a murder in a monastery.
The thing with Boys of Blur, is that I didn’t realize it was a Beowulf retelling until about 2/3 of the way through – at which point the parallels became too obvious to ignore, when the villainess is named Mother and her minions are Grens, and our hero goes into the swamp wrestling one of them. Heorot’s Hall becomes a football team, fragmented by distrust and fear of the terrible creatures, and brought back together by our hero. And then, at the end, a bookish boy insists that Charlie read Beowulf while he’s grounded.
Rachel, the Briarley cover IS misleading, it’s a sweet slow-burn romance with some humor and a really nice main character.
BTW I’ve recently been rereading older books and realized that The Northing Tramp by Edgar Wallace is axtually a Thrushbeard retelliing. :) It’s a crime/advenrure novel, not a fantasy and it’s also surprisingly modern (except the old slang), considering that it was first published in 1926.
Good to know, Maria! Publishers KEEP putting this sort of thing on the cover and I keep going, ugh, looks too much like horror for me, not in the mood.
EC, I’m enjoying the author handing Beowulf so pointedly to the main character at the end, just to be sure the reader gets it. I’m not especially interested in Beowulf as Beowulf, but this does seem like a fun play on the story.
Yes, Irina, that one thing with names is enough to ensure I will never love Rose Daughter. I truly detest names of this kind. I can hardly tolerate stupid names in Pratchett’s work, and for anybody else, it’s a death knell.
Thorn is an excellent! Highly recommended. She really expands the world and story, and incorporates the traditional elements in a beautiful way. It also is just a lovely story with an unusual protagonist and unusual themes as well.
Thank you for compiling this, Rachel.
I think I read Entreat Me, by Draven, and decided it would have made a decent short story. Unfortunately it was much longer than it needed to be. If it’s the Draven I’m thinking of, I skipped a lot and suffered no confusion due to missing info from skipping. …
huh, Amazon is hiding reviews now? I left a review on the Draven I read, and I’m not seeing any reviews at all on Entreat Me. Hedesa doesn’t have any either. ctl-F ‘review’ 77 and a down arrow – “see customer reviews” . Which I click and…. still waiting…. still waiting after finishing this comment… I think I will complain to Amazon.
I also liked Thorn, enough to go on with the set. Although the other two focus on someone else. All good enough to finish.
Gaiman never did much for me, and I couldn’t see why other people liked his work so. Some writers I can, it just isn’t for me. He’s not one of them.
Merrie Haskell was enjoyable.
Quite a few years ago now, I tried to find the original legend Ladyhawke [i]must[/i] have been based on. Couldn’t find a thing. Far as I could ever tell it was an original story that captured the right feel of a tale. … today’s looking for info turned up this (on wiki) from the writer:
Writer Edward Khmara stated “The story of two lovers kept apart by taking human form only at opposite times of day was an inspiration that occurred to me while jogging on the roof of the Hollywood YMCA. The studio contention that ‘Ladyhawke’ is based on an old legend is, in fact, a violation of Writers Guild rules, since it denies me full rights of authorship. The Guild undertook an action against Warner Bros, on this account … and a small amount of money was paid as compensation … Warner Bros., or its publicity department, continues to circulate material restating the old legend story. The inspiration for the character of Phillipe the Mouse was Francois Villon. ”
Never cared for McKinley’s Rose Daughter. Looking back as Six Crimson Cranes, I would say it fails as a retelling of the swan – crane in this case – princes, due to lack of feel, per the Teen’s opinion above. It’s got all the elements, but doesn’t feel like a fairy tale. And even combines two, the girls with a bowl on her head is also a tale. It doesn’t feel like it comes from that space, but more from a historical-with-magic perspective.
A Sorceress Comes to Call has two protagonists, neither of whom are stupid. Cordelia is the expected heroine; here’s what I said in my Goodreads review: she is rendered helpless by her circumstances but she finds tiny ways to fight back, especially when she realizes who else is going to suffer from her mother’s all-encompassing selfishness. It’s lovely to see her recognize selflessness in others and trust in her own empathy as a power that might be greater than sorcery.
But Hester is a middle-aged woman who I think is the true heroine of the story, as she rescues both her brother and Cordelia from the sorceress’s clutches. Hester and her two friends are an utter delight.
(I think Defensive Baking is a bit of an outlier for Kingfisher, honestly. Read A Sorceress and Nettle and Bone to reset your expectations of her.)(I’m looking forward to her Snow White retelling that just came out: Hemlock and Silver.)
Relevant to this thread, I just discovered a Disney series in my library in which popular romance authors retell their fairy tale movies (so, mostly only tangentially related to the original fairy tales!) as contemporary YA romances. I’ve read two so far: Tangled Up in You and By the Book (Beauty and the Beast. Because Belle likes books.) They’re fluffy and enjoyable, and clever in how they adapt the plot and character elements. Worth it if you feel nostalgic about Disney princesses and have travel time to while away!
My TBR is growing… I recognize only about half of these titles! Hurrah for books!
Kate Stradling also has a number of fairy tale retellings. Goldmayne is the best one, I think, although the number of small typos bothered me a bit.
I was happy to see Five Magic Spindles and the rest of the Rooglewood Press anthologies on this list! I take no responsibility for my story’s sales copy. I don’t think any of the retellings in our volume were particularly straightforward. Mine mapped fairy tale elements onto ancient Middle Eastern myths, which led to most of the deviations.
I agree that Nettle and Bone is more representative of Kingfisher. The protagonist is very determined, and even if she doesn’t have all the answers, she knows how to find someone who will.
Oh, Kate Stradling is fun! I loved her gender-reversed Beowulf: The Legendary Inge. I’ll have to pick up more of her.
Clears throat
The most fairy-tale adjacent of my books are: Even After, The Princess Seeks Her Fortune, The Other Princess, The Enchanted Princess Wakes, and Over The Sea, To Me.
At least those were the ones I intentionally derived from tales. I’ve had reviews describe The Wolf and The Ward as Beauty and the Beast, which was — odd.