The Best Fairy tale Retellings: the book list
'Red Rising Hood', 'Little Mermaid', 'Sleeping Beauty'... Everyone grew up with these fairy tales. But when we grow up, we realise they are a little unrealistic. Why everyone is so naive in those stories? Why the villains are just evil, without any deeper motivation? How is it possible that the Evil Queen was jellous of Snow White so much she wanted to literally kill a teenage girl? How Belle even fall for a guy who imprisoned her?
No one would believe this kind of fairy tales when they are older! But we still want to feel the magic of them... That's when the modern writing comes in, with the fairy tale retellings. This book list of the best of the fairy tale retelling is all you need to sense the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo in the air and believe in the true love, this time with all the realism and more drama.
#6
A Court of Thorns and Roses
by Sarah J. Maas:
The Retelling of 'Beauty and the Beast'
Probably one of the most impactful and popular fairytale retelling, inspired by 'Beauty and the Beast'. After killing a magic wolf that turns out to be a Fae, a human Feyra is kidnapped to the palace of Faes. Feyra broke the magic law to save her family from hunger and now, she must complete the sentence of Faes. Feyra moves to the villa of Tamlin - blonde and handsome, but masked, High Fae. The poor village changed to the luxsurious palace seems like a solution to all of the Feyra's problems.
However, humans hate Faes and Faes hate humans - that's been the condition in their shared continent for centuries. Thus, Feyra will have to do all her best not to kill her Fae hosts in sleep and not to be killed by them. Entangled by a romantic tension with Tamlin, Feyra soon discovers that the Fae world is different than she expected.
Artwork from Europa's Fairy Book By John D. Batten - Books, Public Domain
If you read my blog for at least a second, you know I am not a Sarah J. Maas' fan. Be for real, it is not an advanced literature. And I hate, just hate her cringy sex scenes. However, it all make ACOTAR a perfect guilty pleasure. Reading ACOTAR is fun, it make you giggle like crazy. Plus, it lacks an unbearable, pretentious main character as Aelin from 'Throne of Glass'. Or the infinite amount of eroticism from 'Crescent City'.
And although I am not one of the TikTok girlies obsessed with Sarah's works, I would recommend ACOTAR for those who are looking for the unadvanced, airport fiction, make yourself a guilty pleasure and just read ACOTAR!
#5
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher:
The Retelling of 'The Sleeping Beauty'
‘Thornhedge’ is a retelling of ‘The Sleeping Beauty’. However, the titular Beauty isn’t the protagonist of this story – she is the villain. Toadling, the fairy godmother in the original story, was replaced by a changeling after her birth as a princess. Toadling, a girl taken by fairies to their world, and grew as one of them.
As an adult, Toadling was asked to bless a newborn baby with a magic spell. This act, however, didn’t end as planned. Years later, a knight encounters a mysterious Thornledge around a tower that is told to be a place of a curse. Toadling needs to stop the knight from breaking the curse no matter the cost, under a threat of death. It's her job to save the world from the evil of the tower...
#4
Heartless by Marissa Meyer:
The Retelling of 'Alice's adventures in wonderland'
Used only for Review Reasons according to the Polish Law on Copyright (art. 29).
Cath is a daughter of a marquis. However, she doesn’t find aristocratic lifestyle attractive – her biggest passion is baking. And her biggest dream? Opening a bakery with her best friend, Mary Ann. Cath doesn’t belong to the life she’s forced to live and she doesn’t have courage to live her life her way. Everything in her changes when Cath meets Jest, a court joker serving a King of Hearts. Cath and Jest fall for each other from the first sight, what sounds impossible. A noble lady and a simple jester being in love?
If the controversial love interest weren’t enough for the misery of Cath, she’s at the same time a favourite of a King of Hearts. Everyone expects Cath to marry King and become a Queen of Hearts. Especially Cath’s mother who has a strong hold on Cath and her life. However, when Cath is falling in love with Jester, her courage to fight for a happy ending in her way strengthens. Will she object society expectations and become a woman she wants to be?
John Tenniel - Illustration from The Nursery Alice (1890), Public Domain
This book is everything I’d expect from a one inspired by ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. You can feel a madness of this land, of these characters, of this plot. And the references to the original version are numerous.
Nevertheless, the most important thing about ‘Heartless’ is a fact that this book pleads on its own. You don’t need to know every detail of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, actually you don’t need to know the original book at all. You will be moved and engaged by ‘Heartless’ anyway. It’s such a wonderful book even without being a backstory of a Queen of Hearts. The characters are deep and complex, the moral dilemmas are mind-blowing, and the love story is just beautiful. Therefore, whoever you are – a fan of the original or not – you will love ‘Heartless’ by Marissa Meyer simply for its uniqueness.
The Tragic Backstory of the Queen of Hearts
The backstory of Queen of Hearts explored this way is absolutely magnificent. She’s just an average girl at the beginning yet slowly becoming a Queen of Hearts, everyone knows. I deeply like the original Cath – she’s a girl just like you and me, young, hopeful, innocent, full of dreams. And now, I can’t imagine a Queen of Hearts without her passion for baking! This hobby adds to her character an additional sprinkle of believability. And I was dreaming about Cath’s baked goods since I also have a sweet tooth, they sound that delicious.
But as the plot is going on, the fate of Cath seems to be more and more painful. Her decisions are becoming more and more miserable, and you can sense the bleakness Cath sinks in. And you want Jest and Cath to have a happy ending so bad, but at the same time – you know, that it all will just be a misery, a big, heartbreaking misery. And you will be the one left heartless at the end, since Marissa Meyer will whip your heart with this tearful story. Definitely the best retelling of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'!
#3
The School for Good and Evil
by Soman Chainani
Sophie and Agatha are best friends living in a small village called Gavaldon. Once a year, a pair of the Gavaldon’s children is kidnapped by a mysterious School Master to the School for Good and Evil, a fabulous academy training both heroes and villains. Sophie believes that she and Agatha will be chosen this year.
Since Sophie is beautiful and beloved by the whole village, everyone is sure Sophie will be kidnapped to the School for Good and will become a princess she always wanted to be. Agatha, however, is a lonely, spectral outcast, living in a creepy cemetery with her mother and ugly cat. She seems like a real-life witch, so Sophie and all of the villagers consider her the next villain of the School for Evil.
When the landmark day comes, the unthinkable happens – Sophie become chosen to be a student in the School for Evil, and Agatha – the School for Good. What at first seems like a mistake, soon will expose the misconception everyone used to have about the girls whose souls aren’t the one their façades would suggest. But the School Master is right all along about Agatha’s Good and Sophie’s Evil, what they both will have a hard time discovering and understanding.
———• ☾ •———
'The School for Good and Evil' isn't the retellling of a fairy tale per se. It is more like a sequel and modification of different fairytales mixed in one, wonderful work. The titular School is the academy for the decendants of the fairy tale heroes and villains, like 'The Ever After High'. For example, my favourite male character of the series (Hort of Bloodbrook) is a son of Wendy and a pirat from 'Peter Pan'. On the other hand, my absolutely the most hated character, Tedros of Cameloth, is a son of King Arthur. The students in the School for Good and Evil study on how to be a better hero or a villain and eventually, start their own fairy tale.
And speaking about the modifications made to the original fairy tales, Soman Chainani brilliantly adapted the known motives. I'm talking drama, drama and even more drama! For example, the 3rd volume portrays the heroes from the fairytales in their old age. We can learn that Peter Pan, the nemesis of Hort's father was in fact a jerk or that Hansel and Gretel were illegally invading the grounds of the witch. Scandal is everything those fairy tales are now. But I will not tell more not to spoil you anything about the series that changed my life! I guess you have to try 'The School for Good and Evil' yourselves...
#2
Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales
by Soman Chainani
The collection of Soman Chainani's actual dark retellings of fairy tales. Containing the retellings of all the most popular fairy tales, 'Beasts and Beauty' reinterprets them by the modern problems. Also, Soman Chainani adapts the fairy tales to the modern standards of cultural and racial diversity and feminism, breaking up with the toxic original fairy tales. Furthermore, it is a perfect complement to 'The School for Good and Evil', with 'Beasts and Beauty' starring the backstory of my favourite Hort.
Including:
Red Riding Hood
Snow White
Sleeping Beauty
Rapunzel
Jack and the Beanstalk
Hansel and Gretel
Beauty and the Beast
Bluebeard
Cinderella
Little Mermaid
Rumelstiltskin
Peter Pan
#1 The Mists of Avalon
by Marion Zimmer Bradley:
The retelling of 'King Arthur'
The book starts with the tragic story of Igraine, the wife of Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall. She’s unhappy in her marriage, married to the elder man on demand of her sister, the Lady of the Lake, called Viviane.
Living in the castle of Tintagel with her first-born daughter Morgaine and younger sister Morgause, Igraine remains an inactive witness of the political chaos in Britain and the misery of her life. It changes when Morgaine meets Uther Pendragon, the probable future High King. They fall in love, experiencing an instant mystical bond of twin flames and knowing their souls from a past life at the Atlantis.
The Avalon's Prophecy
By falling for Uther, Igraine begins fulfilling the prophecy of her sister Viviane and changes the fate of Britain. The Lady of the Lake foretells that the son of Igraine and Uther will be the High King to liberate Britian from the Saxon attacks and unify the people of the islands. Indeed, they conceive a son, Arthur, who is sent from his father’s court as a child.
Couple of years later, Morgaine as a grown woman become an important piece of the story. She also has been sent from Igraine as a little girl, barely remembering her younger brother. Morgaine lives at the misty island of Avalon with her aunt, Viviane, and is taught to become a sorceress and the future Lady of the Lake. Unexpectedly, she reunifies with her brother Arthur, what is another turning point of the British history. From now on, Morgaine is the main narrator of the novel starring also Lancelot, the best friend of Arthur and his knight or Gwenhwyfar, the wife of Arthur.
Public domain
It is the best retelling of the Arthurian legends ever! With the feminist approach, Marion Zimmer Bradley creates wonderful story told from the women's perspective. Except of the story of King Arthur and his knights, this is the story of their mothers, sisters, wives or female lovers. This is so interesting to get to know the alternative version of such a known story, proving that some women are actually secretly in charge of the greatest kingdoms.
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