Fairy Tales Re-imagined

One of my favorite fantasy reads in fairy written again with a new spin to the tales that I read when I was younger.  I remember pouring over a large volume of classic fairy tales that I had gotten from my parents.  The love of tales such as these has carried over into my adult reading choices.  It's interesting to see what take a different author takes on a tale, sometimes even writing from the perspective of a character who might not have been a sympathetic or prominent character in the original.  Here are a few books that have taken a new spin on some classic tales that you might recognize from your youth.

All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella's Stepmother - Danielle Teller

We all know the story of Cinderella... or do we? Her stepmother, Agnes, has privately recorded the true story. A peasant born into serfdom, forced into servitude as a laundress's apprentice when she is only ten years old, Agnes was seduced by an older man while a teenager and became pregnant. She had no choice but to return to servitude at the manor she thought she had left behind, where her new position is nursemaid to Ella. The story of their relationship reveals that nothing is what it seems, that beauty is not always desirable, and that love can take on many guises.


Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
"A fresh and imaginative retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale...Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father is not a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has left his family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem intercedes. Hardening her heart, she sets out to retrieve what is owed, and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. But when an ill-advised boast brings her to the attention of the cold creatures who haunt the wood, nothing will be the same again. For words have power, and the fate of a kingdom will be forever altered by the challenge she is issued. Channeling the heart of the classic fairy tale, Novik deftly interweaves six distinct narrative voices--each learning valuable lessons about sacrifice, power and love--into a rich, multilayered fantasy that readers will want to return to again and again."

The Bear and the Nightingale: A Novel - Katherine Arden 

A beautiful re-imaging of a Russian fairy tale.  "In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, a stranger with piercing blue eyes presents a new father with a gift - a precious jewel on a delicate chain, intended for his young daughter. Uncertain of its meaning, Pytor hides the gift away and Vasya grows up a wild, willful girl, to the chagrin of her family. But when mysterious forces threaten the happiness of their village, Vasya discovers that, armed only with the necklace, she may be the only one who can keep the darkness at bay"




The Marry Spinster: Tale of Everyday Horrors - Mallory Ortberg

A collection of darkly playful stories based on classic folk and fairy tales (but with a feminist spin) that find the sinister in the familiar and the familiar in the alien.