MinDonner Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 One of my favourite subgenres of all time. And I'm not even really sure why - but there is something incredibly satisfying about reading new twists on old tales, which I guess is a more concentrated version of why we like fantasy in the first place..?Anyway, there's some absolutely tremendous examples out there. I used to religiously snap up all the "Black Thorn, White Rose"-type anthologies by (usually) Windling/Datlow; Tanith Lee RIP wrote some super stuff, of course then Valente with The Orphan's Tales duology... but I'm mainly starting this topic to rave about a couple of books I picked up this week and which are spectacular.1. The Castle Behind Thorns by Merrie Haskell. I'd previously read her "The Princess Curse" which was an interesting adaptation of The Twelve Dancing Princesses combined with the Persephone myth; as you may gather, this is a Sleeping Beauty analogue. The final third of the story is a bit weak, but the bulk of it is very good indeed. Probably more on the YA than the adult side but that's no bad thing.2. Toad Words by T Kingfisher. AKA Ursula Vernon, this is a very smart and funny and dark anthology with (usually) some more closely adapted tales, with a more polemical feministy slant than Haskell (who is subtler). Some of her stuff is free online - see Jackalope Wives or The Sea Witch Sets The Record Straight - but her books are pretty cheap on Kindle anyway.So yeah, if you like that sort of thing you should definitely check those out. And if you have further recs then post them below! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spockydog Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Laird Barron's The Croning is an extremely creepy re-imagining of the tale of Rumpelstiltskin that totally gave me nightmares. By the end of the book I was so scared, I could barely continue reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 not really literature but I always tend to think of Jim Henson's "storyteller" when this is mentioned. Bill Willingham's "Fables" comics has some reimaginings of Fables when he occasionally does Flashbacks to his main series. They are often fun. Or even when he hints at them being different eg Goldilock's dates the three bears and Prince Charming is the same prince that rescued/stole the hearts of Snow White, Cinderella, etc.I guess Gaiman dabbles in the genre too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maarsen Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 When my daughters were young I made up a reworked fairy tale called 'The Three Little Wolves'. The first wolf met some creepy little pigs, the second wolf met a peculiar little girl in red, while the third one managed to escape numerous disasters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo498 Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 The first "Witcher" volume (at least I think it is the first) has several "re-workings" of traditional fairy tales and fairy tale tropes. Some (Beauty and the Beast) are easily recognizable, others are more indirect references or refer to Slavic folklore not so well known to me. And Walter Moers "Ensel and Krete" is a large scale reworking of Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel" (apparently this has not been translated to English). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman. Snow White as told from the point of view of the Evil Stepmother. Brilliantly done, and very disturbing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckwheat Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 I am taking a class this semester about just this topic. I wanted to add Ensel and Krete by Walter Moers, as Jo said ... really surprised that it has not been translated into English, as other books by him seem to have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kindly Old Man Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 The Sea Was Wet as Wet Can Be by Gahan Wilson. A weird take on the Walrus and the Carpenter. Not sure if Alice in Wonderland exactly counts as a fairy tale, but I think it fits here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyanna Stark Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is a brilliant collection of short stories which are mostly reworked fairy tales with surprising twists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beniowa Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Min, what about some more general mythic stories? Speaking of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, there's another take on it I thought was really good, The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine set in 1920s NYC. The story itself is straight-up historica fiction, the only fantastical bit being that it's based on the fairytale, but it's very good. Catherynne M. Valente's Deathless is based on Russian fairytales of Koschei the Deathless I think, though the story follows the character of a mortal woman. The late Eugie Foster has a collection of shorts called Returning My Sister's Face which has several retellings of Japanese tales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summah Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is a brilliant collection of short stories which are mostly reworked fairy tales with surprising twists. Completely agree. Also Wicked is kind of along the same lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerenthaClone Posted June 12, 2015 Share Posted June 12, 2015 Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman. Snow White as told from the point of view of the Evil Stepmother. Brilliantly done, and very disturbing. Catherynne M. Valente's Deathless is based on Russian fairytales of Koschei the Deathless I think, though the story follows the character of a mortal woman. Seconding both of these. Both extremely good. Valente's In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice aren't reworked fairy tales, but they'd probably be really enjoyed by anyone looking for this type of genre. Also, her "Fairyland" series has a lot of fairytale logic to it. Here's a pdf of Snow, Glass, Apples btw. http://thedreaming.joefulgham.com/1999/10/10/snow-glass-apples/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly are both great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deedles Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 I've just read Uprooted by Naomi Novak. I really liked it. Easy to read, lots of the fantastical. Eastern European rather than Western.For prose, "the Brides of Rollrock Island" and "tender Morsels" by Margo Langan. Both fabulous books. Selkies and Rose Red and Snow White. (Autocorrect selkies to selfies was amusing).I also quite likes "the Woodcutter" by Kate Darnley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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