Let’s talk about how much Disney totally effed with our childhoods.
No? No one wants to get into the unreal expectations, rape culture, subliminal misogyny, and mentally abusive relationships some of their fairy tale adaptions contained?
Fine. FINE.
Then let’s instead just skip over that uncomfortable conversation and instead turn our focus toward healthier, more empowered versions of our childhood favorites.
I consider myself something of a connoisseur of retellings, and this list is a mixture of my all-time favorites, as well as a few that I haven’t gotten around to yet but that my more critical book friends and co-bloggers rave about.
In these stories, the princes and princesses save themselves. Or are the villains everyone else should fear. Or are hell bent on seduction. Or mayhem.
Each retelling I’ve included puts its own spin on the classics, and offers up a deeper, darker, more complex version than the ones we grew up with.
#1 – Ember by Bettie Sharpe
Retelling of: Cinderella
Synopsis:
Everyone loves Prince Charming. They have to—he’s cursed. Every man must respect him. Every woman must desire him. One look, and all is lost.
Ember would rather carve out a piece of her soul than be enslaved by passions not her own. She turns to the dark arts to save her heart and becomes the one woman in the kingdom able to resist the Prince’s Charm.
Poor girl. If Ember had spent less time studying magic and more time studying human nature, she might have guessed that a man who gets everything and everyone he wants will come to want the one woman he cannot have.
Novella / 32,000 words
Warning: This story contains sex, violence, and naughty words.
It’s based on a fairytale, but it isn’t for kids.
Why you should read it:
“Bettie Sharpe takes everything you ever thought you knew about Cinderella and flips it on its head. In this rendition, our young heroine isn’t some helpless damsel in distress trapped in an abusive home until her “true love” rescues her. She’s not some flaxen-haired beauty with doe eyes and a tendency to spontaneously break into song. She’s a redheaded witch named Ember, with a twisted right foot and a temper to match her fiery mane.” – Navessa’s Review
#2 – Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter
Retelling of: Vasilisa the Beautiful
Synopsis:
In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now—but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood.
In Vassa’s neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling away again could become an issue. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters—and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission.
But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket, a gift from her dead mother. Erg is a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and a ferocious cunning. With Erg’s help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch’s curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. But Babs won’t be playing fair…
Why you should read it:
“Vassa in the Night reads like one of those dark, grim fairy tales where the prince doesn’t quite get to the princess in time and so she’s eaten alive by a dragon. Only instead of a medieval or fantasy world, it’s set in a part of Brooklyn that has managed to escape gentrification. A place where night lasts longer than it should, dolls can talk, and the local super market mounts the heads of shop lifters on spikes outside its doors.
Intrigued? Well, why not. This is magical realism at its finest.” – Navessa’s Review
#3 – Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan
Retelling of: A mixture of the classics
Synopsis:
Tangled tales of earth, salty tales of water
Bewitched retellings of thirteen classic fairy-tales with brave and resilient heroines. Tales of blood and intrigue, betrayal and enchantment from a leading Irish YA author.
With 13 stunning black and white illustrations by new Irish illustrator Karen Vaughan.
Why you should read it:
“These stories aren’t always easy to read, just like traditional fairytales they’re dark and sometimes disturbing, they definitely don’t have the Disney happy endings we’ve grown so used to these days! In fact you’ll probably find some of these stories are now even darker than the original versions but they’re very reflective of the way women were treated at the time the originals were written and they feel very true because of that. These stories don’t all have happy endings for the female characters but some of the girls manage to find their own path and take revenge on the people who wronged them which I loved.” – Sarah’s Review
#4 – The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
Retelling of: One Thousand and One Nights
Synopsis:
In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad’s dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph’s reign of terror once and for all.
Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she’d imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It’s an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid’s life as retribution for the many lives he’s stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?
Why you should read it:
“This is a beautifully written, atmospheric 1001 Nights retelling, rich with imagery. The female lead has chosen to marry the king out of vengeance. He married and killed her best friend, along with countless other young women, and she’s bent on putting an end to his bloody reign by sticking a knife in his chest. Or a sword in his gullet, or by bludgeoning him over the head with a mace. Or by slipping a bit of poison into his…well, you get the picture.” – Navessa’s Review
#5 – Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Retelling of: Beauty and the Beast
Synopsis:
“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
Why you should read it:
“What an incredible fairy tale. This book is a lot like the The Wood that dominates this story, luring you close, whispering in your ear, offering you the most tantalizing temptations, if only you’ll be persuaded into it. The difference between the two is that where The Wood is a dark, twisted creation that speaks only lies, this book delivers on its promises.
It’s as if Novik sprinkled real magic within these pages. As if the words written on them are spells in and of themselves, able to lift from the paper and ensnare those who read them.” – Navessa’s Review
#6 – The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmom
Synopsis:
“Swallow, Daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heav’n or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, Daughter. Stay alive.”
The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would trade his soul and lose his son to the sky.
My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.
But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?
Why you should read it:
“Okay, so while this book is listed and marketed as a romantic fantasy, it has all the trappings of a classic fairy tale. I mean that in the BEST possible way. There are curses, prophecies, evil sorcerers, gallant princes, reluctant princesses, and creatures of all shapes and sizes.
I absolutely devoured it, reading it in a single sitting. What can I say? Magic infuses these pages, and I found it damn near impossible to resist Harmon’s spellbinding prose. The world she weaves with her words is as enthralling as it was enchanting, and I’m sorry to leave it behind.” – Navessa’s Review
#7 – A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Retelling of: Beauty and the Beast
Synopsis:
Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.
Why you should read it:
“While this story has hints of the original it definitely stands out in it’s own right, Sarah J Maas has used Beauty and the Beast as a stepping stone but she’s created a world that’s entirely her own that I loved spending time in. A Court of Thorns and Roses has the perfect balance between world building, character development and an action packed plot.” – Sarah’s Review
#8 – Peter Darling by Austin Chant
Retelling of: Peter Pan
Synopsis:
Ten years ago, Peter Pan left Neverland to grow up, leaving behind his adolescent dreams of boyhood and resigning himself to life as Wendy Darling. Growing up, however, has only made him realize how inescapable his identity as a man is.
But when he returns to Neverland, everything has changed: the Lost Boys have become men, and the war games they once played are now real and deadly. Even more shocking is the attraction Peter never knew he could feel for his old rival, Captain Hook—and the realization that he no longer knows which of them is the real villain.
Why you should read it:
“This was so much FUN. Everything I want a retelling to be. It was true to the original in many ways, and yet different enough to fully stand on its own. In this installment, Peter is trans. At home in the real world, he is Wendy, surrounded by a family who doesn’t understand him. It’s no wonder then, when facing the prospect of growing up in a female body and being forced into marriage, that he instead flees to Neverland.
This book is a wildly entertaining action/adventure, complete with romps through fairy-filled forests, danger on the high seas, sword fights with dread pirates, and a frantic race through underground caverns in search of treasure.” – Navessa’s Review
#9 – Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Retelling of: Cinderella
Synopsis:
A forbidden romance.
A deadly plague.
Earth’s fate hinges on one girl . . .
CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She’s reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen – and a dangerous temptation.
Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth’s future.
This is not the fairytale you remember. But it’s one you won’t forget.
Why you should read it:
“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I picked up this book. Sure, I knew it had androids and it was a Cinderella retelling. I expected romance, machinery, evil step-sisters and a prince. While I got most of that, it’s put together in such a fascinating way that I couldn’t help but be charmed. If you’ve read any fairy-tales, or fairy-tale-like stories, you will probably see the ‘surprise’ coming a mile away (or from the very first pages of the book more like) – but that’s okay. That’s part of the fun of reading retellings.” – Angela’s Review
#10 – The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Retelling of: A mixture of the classics
Synopsis:
An absorbing collection of dark, sensual, and fantastic stories inspired by the fairy tales and legends of Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, vampires, werewolves, and more.
Why you should read it:
“Angela Carter is an absolute masterful writer. She takes the basic narrative of fairy tales and infuses them will blood, death and horror. She’s a genius at what she does.
She’s a great story-teller. She transports the stories to the confines of modern society and considers real issues such as the representation of women, the limitations of gender and the restrictions of stories themselves.” – Sean’s Review
#11 – Hunted by Meagan Spooner
Retelling of: Beauty and the Beast
Synopsis:
Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.
So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance.
Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?
Why you should read it:
“This book was awesome! It had everything I wanted. The traditional elements of the original tale are there, and I do mean the original tale, not the Disney version, but adapted to a Russian-like setting. It is familiar and comforting, in a different setting, and my love for the classic tale is such that I never get tired of the variations. Some of the (welcome) difference in the book is that Gaston (Solmir) is actually a really nice guy (I was rooting for him!) and Belle (Yeva)’s sisters are really nice (again, a welcome change)” – Khanh’s Review
#12 – The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Retelling of: Vasilisa the Beautiful
Synopsis:
A magical debut novel for readers of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman’s myth-rich fantasies, The Bear and the Nightingale spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.
At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind–she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.
After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.
And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.
As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed–this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.
Why you should read it:
“Every so often a book comes along that is so good it just blows your mind. In 2014 it was Red Rising, 2015 was Uprooted, in 2016 it was Nevernight and I know it’s early to say this but for 2017 it’s The Bear and the Nightingale. These are the kinds of books that I actually get anxious about writing reviews for because I know I’ll never be able to do them justice. They’re the books that I end up buying multiple copies of, books that I walk around bookshops surreptitiously moving them into more prominent places on the shelves and books I start physically handing to random strangers.” – Sarah’s Review
#13 – Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Retelling of: Peter Pan
Synopsis:
Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair…
Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn’t believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.
Peter is unlike anyone she’s ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland’s inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she’s always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.
With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it’s the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who’s everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn’t grow up.
Why you should read it:
“This novel tells the tale of the dark underbelly of Neverland where the good guys don’t always win and love doesn’t always triumph. It’s so much darker and sadder than I could have possibly imagined. Even though we are told from the start that this is a love story, it is more than that. It’s about loss and loneliness and fear of change. Because who would fear change more than those who’d never had to experience growing up and dying?” – Emily May’s Review
#14 – Beauty by Robin McKinley
Retelling of: Beauty and the Beast
Synopsis:
Robin McKinley’s acclaimed first novel is a brilliant reimagining of the classic French fairy tale
I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour. . . . My father still likes to tell the story of how I acquired my odd nickname: I had come to him for further information when I first discovered that our names meant something besides you-come-here. He succeeded in explaining grace and hope, but he had some difficulty trying to make the concept of honour understandable to a five-year-old. . . . I said: ‘Huh! I’d rather be Beauty.’ . . .
By the time it was evident that I was going to let the family down by being plain, I’d been called Beauty for over six years. . . . I wasn’t really very fond of my given name, Honour, either . . . as if ‘honourable’ were the best that could be said of me.
The sisters’ wealthy father loses all his money when his merchant fleet is drowned in a storm, and the family moves to a village far away. Then the old merchant hears what proves to be a false report that one of his ships had made it safe to harbor at last, and on his sad, disappointed way home again he becomes lost deep in the forest and has a terrifying encounter with a fierce Beast, who walks like a man and lives in a castle. The merchant’s life is forfeit, says the Beast, for trespass and the theft of a rose—but he will spare the old man’s life if he sends one of his daughters: “Your daughter would take no harm from me, nor from anything that lives in my lands.” When Beauty hears this story—for her father had picked the rose to bring to her—her sense of honor demands that she take up the Beast’s offer, for “cannot a Beast be tamed?”
Why you should read it:
“Beauty has been for a long time one of my favorite fairy tale novelizations. It’s a delightful read, not as long or complex as some of Robin McKinley’s later works, but it has sweetness and a heart and has withstood many re-readings. I remain convinced that Disney swiped several details of this book for its “Beauty and the Beast,” like the book-loving heroine and the servants that seem to have become part of the furniture.” – Tadiana’s Review
#15 – The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan
Synopsis:
Rollrock island is a lonely rock of gulls and waves, blunt fishermen and their homely wives. Life is hard for the families who must wring a poor living from the stormy seas. But Rollrock is also a place of magic – the scary, salty-real sort of magic that changes lives forever. Down on the windswept beach, where the seals lie in herds, the outcast sea witch Misskaella casts her spells – and brings forth girls from the sea – girls with long, pale limbs and faces of haunting innocence and loveliness – the most enchantingly lovely girls the fishermen of Rollrock have ever seen.
But magic always has its price. A fisherman may have and hold a sea bride, and tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she is. He will be equally ensnared. And in the end the witch will always have her payment.
Margo Lanagan has written an extraordinary tale of desire, despair and transformation. In devastatingly beautiful prose, she reveals unforgettable characters capable of unspeakable cruelty – and deep unspoken love. After reading about the Rollrock fishermen and their sea brides, the world will not seem the same.
Why you should read it:
The Brides of Rollrock Island is one of those novels that left me with the thought that there is no possible word in the English language that could even attempt to summon up the strange, ethereal, and mystifying experience that is chronicled in this book. As my first venture into Lanagan’s world, I have to admit that Brides simply blew me away, leaving me utterly breathless. It is a slow, intriguing tale that often reminded me of Darwin’s An Origin of Species,since, in many ways, Lanagan seems to be recording the evolution of the magic on Rollrock Island through her multiple PoVs, characters, and generations.” – Keertana’s Review
#16 – Alice by Christina Henry
Retelling of: The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland
Synopsis:
A mind-bending new novel inspired by the twisted and wondrous works of Lewis Carroll…
In a warren of crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City, there stands a hospital with cinderblock walls which echo the screams of the poor souls inside.
In the hospital, there is a woman. Her hair, once blond, hangs in tangles down her back. She doesn’t remember why she’s in such a terrible place. Just a tea party long ago, and long ears, and blood…
Then, one night, a fire at the hospital gives the woman a chance to escape, tumbling out of the hole that imprisoned her, leaving her free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those years ago.
Only something else has escaped with her. Something dark. Something powerful.
And to find the truth, she will have to track this beast to the very heart of the Old City, where the rabbit waits for his Alice.
Why you should read it:
“This is one of the best, darkest and most disturbing retellings I have ever read. The author gets extremely creative with this world, weaving in characters we recognize from the original Alice in Wonderland but telling a very different kind of story. The world created here is not our world and it is not Wonderland. It’s a horor-fantasy style setting in a fictional place called the Old City. Ever since Alice returned to her parents after going missing as a child, with blood running down her legs, missing memories, and strange inexplicable abilities, she has been deemed mad.” – Emily May’s Review
#17 – At the Stroke of Midnight by Tara Sivec
Retelling of: Cinderella
Synopsis:
Once upon a time Cynthia was the perfect housewife. Between being the President of the PTA and keeping her home spotless without a hair (or her pearls) out of place, her life was a dream come true. Her husband was once her knight in shining armor, but now he’s run off with all their money…and the babysitter.
Dressed as a princess at the annual Halloween block party on Fairytale Lane, she meets two other “princesses” also facing money troubles: antique store owner Ariel and librarian Isabelle. When the women are invited to wear their costumes to a party where they’re mistaken for strippers, Cindy, Ariel, and Belle realize that a career change could be the best way to make their money problems go bippity-boppity-boo.
But can structured Cindy approach a stripper pole without sanitizing wipes? And could the blue-eyed anti-prince that has been crossing her path become Cindy’s happily ever after? At the Stroke of Midnight is a hilarious, empowering story where princesses can save themselves while slaying in stilettos.
Why you should read it:
“The book was absolutely hilarious. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard while reading in a long time. Between Cindy learning how to get the stick out of her ass, Ariel’s crudeness, and Belle’s random facts at the most inopportune times sometimes, I was laughing so hard I was almost crying.” – Kayla’s Review
#18 – Shadows on the Moon by Zoë Marriott
Retelling of: Cinderella
Synopsis:
Trained in the magical art of shadow-weaving, sixteen-year-old Suzume is able to recreate herself in any form – a fabulous gift for a girl desperate to escape her past. But who is she really? Is she a girl of noble birth living under the tyranny of her mother’s new husband, Lord Terayama, or a lowly drudge scraping a living in the ashes of Terayama’s kitchens, or Yue, the most beautiful courtesan in the Moonlit Lands? Whatever her true identity, Suzume is destined to capture the heart of a prince – and determined to use his power to destroy Terayama. And nothing will stop her, not even love.
Why you should read it:
“This lovely, poetic Cinderella retelling set in a Japanese-inspired fantasy world known as the Moonlit Land utterly captivated me from start to finish. It’s a more mature YA. Instead of swimming in the shallows, it dives into deeper waters, tackling heavy themes like adultery, betrayal, murder, revenge, and suicide with the detail and gravity they deserve.” – Navessa’s Review
#19 – The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember
Retelling of: The Little Mermaid
Synopsis:
Having long-wondered what lives beyond the ice shelf, nineteen-year-old mermaid Ersel learns of the life she wants when she rescues and befriends Ragna, a shield-maiden stranded on the mermen’s glacier. But when Ersel’s childhood friend and suitor catches them together, he gives Ersel a choice: say goodbye to Ragna or face justice at the hands of the glacier’s brutal king.
Determined to forge a different fate, Ersel seeks help from Loki. But such deals are never as one expects, and the outcome sees her exiled from the only home and protection she’s known. To save herself from perishing in the barren, underwater wasteland and be reunited with the human she’s come to love, Ersel must try to outsmart the God of Lies.
Why you should read it:
“The Seafarer’s Kiss is a bisexual retelling of The Little Mermaid with added Norse mythology thrown in for good measure and I enjoyed every minute of it. I guess I should probably confess that I’ve never seen the Disney version of the Little Mermaid so I can’t compare it to the animation but I did have a book of the story as a child and there were enough similarities in this story for me to easily see the connection. It isn’t a full retelling though, it uses the original story as inspiration and then goes off in it’s own direction. Adding in Norse mythology was a genius idea and I especially loved that Loki was described as having both male and female attributes – their form changes every time we see them and they are only ever described in gender neutral terms.” Sarah’s Review
#20 – The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury
Retelling of: Aladdin
Synopsis:
“She is the most powerful Jinni of all. He is a boy from the streets. Their love will shake the world…”
When Aladdin discovers Zahra’s jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn’t seen in hundreds of years—a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra’s very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes.
But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity—only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart?
As time unravels and her enemies close in, Zahra finds herself suspended between danger and desire in this dazzling retelling of Aladdin from acclaimed author Jessica Khoury.
Why you should read it:
“Well, well, well. This is one beautifully written fairy tale retelling.
Imagine the story of Aladdin. Now change the sex of the jinni who serves him, add in some supernatural politics, some courtly intrigue, a handful of badass female warriors, two peoples on the brink of war, and you basically have this book in a nutshell.” – Navessa’s Review
LOVE.
And, despite knowing the wrongness of so many of my childhood favorites from Disney, I love them still. Problem-filled as they are.
But, I love an even better re-telling more. And thankfully the history of these fairy-tales is so much richer than Disney ever delved.
I have a love/hate relationship with a lot of them, and have to force myself to turn my brain off if I watch them. I’ve read too many books about subversive rape culture at this point -_-
Yeah. It permeates nearly everything. *sigh*