Fairy Tale Endings Fiction

[booknbelle]

Hi,

I don’t know if this has been done in this forum yet or not. I looked back a few pages (not a lot, I admit) and didn’t see anything.

I read a lot of books based off of fairy tales. I thought it’d be great to have a topic in the forum on them. So, if anyone wants to leave their recommendations or comments, go ahead. I’m just going to start with a list of some of my favorites.

-“Cinder” by Marissa Meyer
Based off of Cinderella, “Cinder” is the first of Meyer’s “Lunar Chronicles” series. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of steampunk, dystopian, fantasy, and Sailor Moon (the author is a big Sailor Moon fan and there are things in the book that remind me of the anime).

-“Cloaked in Red” by Vivian Vande Velde
These are bunch of short stories based off of Little Red Riding Hood. Velde has done this once before with Rumpelstiltskin’s story in “The Rumpelstiltskin Problem”. In both books, she starts out with a short essay explaining that she’s disatisfied with those fairy tales because of certain elements that don’t make sense (Like what father would tell the king his daughter can spin gold when she really can’t? I mean, she’s obviously going to be found out eventually). Then she rewrites the stories several times over for you to see how it could’ve been done differently. Both books are really fun reads.

-“Princess of the Midnight Ball” by Jessica Day George
Based off The 12 Dancing Princesses, this story is the first of a trilogy based off of fairy tales by George. Twelve Dancing Princesses is one of my favorite fairy tales to read retellings of. I think it’s because it’s not retold as much as others. It’s not too well known. George is a great fantasy writer. I really like her work.

-“The Looking Glass Wars” by Frank Beddor
This one is based off of Alice in Wonderland. It has two sequels and a comic book series as well. One of the best parts of this trilogy is they make it where Alice was actually from Wonderland but driven out of it by her evil aunt (the Queen of Hearts). I think it’s a nice twist on the plot.

This is just a few recommendations, but I have plenty more. Most of the ones I’ve read are young adult novels, but even adults can appreciate them (I’m in my twenties btw, so, I’m speaking from experience).

[LisaFromOH]

Those look really interesting. Maybe they’ll be good reading material over the summer hiatus. Oh, and I’ve been on the forums for awhile and I don’t remember there being a similar thread to this. 🙂

[angiebelle]

I have read lots of fairy tale based children’s books!

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Ella actually made it to the ball herself- the fairy godmother thing was just a rumor. Unfortunately, after she is set to marry the prince, she discovers he is completely vapid and that she has a distaste for the royal life. She decides to escape.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
(Yes, a movie was based on this, but the book is very different) This Ella has a fairy’s “gift” put on her that she most obey any direct command given to her.

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
This takes place in the same world as the other book but is a new take on Snow White.

The Wide Awake Princess by E.D. Baker
When Sleeping Beauty’s younger sister Princess Annie is born, her parents beg the fairies to guard her against the gifts of the wicked fairy. She is then gifted with not only being immune to magic, but any magic near her looses it’s effect. So when the entire castle falls under the sleeping curse, she is the only one left awake and must find a prince to wake up her sister.

Fairest of All by Serena Valentino
This book is actually published by Disney and is their answer to Wicked. It is the tale of how the Wicked Queen from Snow White became wicked- like Regina, that wasn’t always the case.

Whatever After by Sarah Myinowski
A modern day girl and her brother accidentally end up in Snow White’s story and talk her out of taking the apple from the old hag. Unfortunately this changes her story so that she doesn’t end up with the prince so they try to fix it! This is the first in a series. The 2nd one is about Cinderella but I haven’t read it yet.

[kfchimera]

Mercedes Lackey has written a few fairy tale reinventions. She is a fantasy genre novelist primarily, but she has a series that are a little more “romance-novel” like so for more mature readers. That series really plays with the idea of “fairy tale tradition” as an active force shaping the lives of the characters, and part of the story is how they can escape or change that.

Stand-a-lone fairy-tale ones:
Firebird
The Black Swan

Five Hundred Kingdoms Series

The Fairy Godmother
One Good Knight
Fortune’s Fool
The Snow Queen
The Sleeping Beauty
Beauty and the Werewolf

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

[Author]

Posts