Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, so go see what other authors decided to write about for this week’s prompt – fairytale retellings!
I love me some fairytales, y’all. Like, a lot. If you tell me something is a fairytale retelling, I will read it immediately and probably enjoy it. These are my favorite ones.
Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier
Heart’s Blood is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, with Marillier’s fantasy Irish flair. Magic, malevolent ghosts and an actual war – sign me up, over and over again. I love this book so much, and you should read it. It also deals with domestic abuse and beginning to heal from it. I can’t talk about this book too much, so you should go read it and talk to me about it!
Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Goose Girl is based on a fairy tale of the same name, and the whole Books of Bayern series is absolutely magical. I’ve bought and given away so many copies of this series, it’s insane. These books are also getting new covers next summer, so you should buy them. The characters in this series all deal with learning their powers and their places in the world in their own way, and it’s wonderful.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Uprooted is based on fairytales of Baba Yaga, and a Polish fairy tale called “Agnieszka and the Yellow Cow,” which I hadn’t read, but I fell in love with this this past week via audiobook. This
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
Wildwood Dancing is based on The 12 Dancing Princesses, and its sequel, Cybele’s Secret takes you to a fantasy Turkey and it’s absolutely amazing. I love Juliet Marillier’s writing in almost all of her series’, but these two are my top series by her.
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Ella Enchanted is a retelling of Cinderella, of course. If you haven’t seen the movie with Hugh Dancy and Anne Hathaway, you’re either very young or very wrong. It actually has very little in common with the book, but I adore both versions for their own selves, and for what they have in common.
The Lunar Chronicles (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Winter) by Marissa Meyer
This collection of stories is based on fairytales – Cinder is Cinderella, Scarlet is Little Red Riding Hood, Cress is Rapunzel, and Winter is Snow White – but they take on a life of their own in their adventures on Earth, in space and on Luna. I loved this series, and I think you probably will, too.
Without thinking too hard (not enough coffee yet), Gregory Maguire’s books immediately come to mind. I didn’t realize that Shannon Hale had written so many! I’ve only heard of Goose Girl. I’ve had a book called Beauty by Robin McKinley on my shelf for years but haven’t opened it yet. I’ve heard good things, though.
The only one I’ve attempted to read was Wicked, but I tried that when I was in 4th grade and it scared me. I haven’t been able to bring myself to read any of his stuff since!
You should definitely read the rest of the series! I love them to bits!
I hear absolutely wonderful things about Intisar Khanani’s book Thorn, but I haven’t had the chance to read it yet. My recollection is that it’s also a Goose Girl retelling, which, yay! The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, by Genevieve Valentine, was a verrrry good one; I remain sentimentally attached to Robin McKinley’s Beauty. I am actually kind of picky about fairy tale retellings, although I super love them.
I love them, too, but I apparently haven’t read that many that I liked. I’ve read quite a few Beauty and the Beast retellings but very few of the YA ones work for me. I love the good ones though. They get re-read constantly.
Ah, I’m happy to see Uprooted make the list so quickly! I feel great about my recommendation now 😀
It was such a good recommendation! I’m so grateful, Naz!