Top Ten Tuesday: Fairytale Retellings

Top Ten Tuesday is a fantastic meme hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

This Week's Topic: Fairytale Retellings

A fairytale retelling is considered classic in the realm of young adult novels. The Queens of the fairy tales (and of this list) have to be Alex Finn, Marissa Meyer, and Gail Carson Levine, all of which seem to specialize in retelling the favorites. Most of the books that I've chosen for this list are from my childhood, give or take one or two, because, I'll be honest, I'm growing out of the retellings. However, that in no way denies the fact that these book are some of the best I've ever read. Here are my top ten choices:

1. Ink Heart by Cornelia Funke: As a kid, I loved both this book and its movie. Ink Heart is, in my mind, the quintessential retelling. It is literally about having the power to bring fairytale book characters to life by reading aloud. It perfectly captures the essence of imagination and storytelling and is a great read for middle grades and up.
2. Beastly by Alex Finn: As I said before, Alex Finn is a Queen of fairytale retellings. Along with Beastly, I also love A Kiss in Time. (Towering, however, I was not a fan of. At all.) Beastly was inspired by Beauty and the Beast, and A Kiss in Time was inspired by Sleeping Beauty. Alex Finn has also written stories derived from Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, and The Frog Prince. 
3. Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis: When it was released, Stitching Snow got a lot of YA hype surrounding it. In this novel, R.C. Lewis retold the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
4. Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer: Meyer was the first person I thought of when I saw that the prompt for this week. In the Lunar Chronicles, Meyer has retold Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel. Everyone who is anyone in the YA book world knows about Meyer and her wildly popular Lunar Chronicles series.
5. Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen: This is my favorite book out of the entire list. Lisa Jensen spins Peter Pan (which I consider a fairy tale) into a rich and exciting story told from Captain Hook's point of view.

6. Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige: I haven't seen many retelling of The Wizard of Oz, and this is the only one I've actually read. Edgy and strangle and inexplicably good, it was hard to forget this book even after I'd finished.
7. The Selection by Kiera Cass: Even if this whole series is obviously a spin-off of the Bachelor, it does have some traces of Cinderella, which apparently has earned it a spot on this list. It makes me mad how addictive this series really is. Impossible to put down is an understatement.
8. East by Edith Pattou: I read this a long time ago, but I still remember. It has to be one of the best Beauty and the Beast retellings out there today.
9. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson: If I included one Peter Pan retelling, I had to include another. Peter Pan, the story, is amazing, but this take on the briefly mentioned minor character Tiger Lily was so perfect.
10. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine: When I was younger, Gail Carson Levine was my whole world. In my elementary school's library, there was an entire shelf dedicated to her books. Every time we went in there, I was drawn to that shelf like the impressionable magnet I was. She was my idol, and my childhood love of reading was pretty much built around her. Plus, it's pretty much impossible to dislike Ella Enchanted. 

Some fairytale retellings that I desperately want to get my hands on:

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
2. Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge
3. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
4. Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire

Stitching Snow Review

Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis

Title: Stitching Snow

Author: R.C. Lewis

Series: None

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Publication Date: October 14, 2014

Genre: Fiction; Science Fiction; Futuristic; Retelling; Adventure; Romance; Young Adult

Pages: 328

Format: Hardcover

Buy now From Barnes & Noble• Buy now From Amazon• Add On Goodreads

Princess Snow is missing.

Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back—but that’s assuming she wants to return at all.

Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.

When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane’s arrival was far from accidental, and she’s pulled into the heart of a war she’s risked everything to avoid. With the galaxy’s future—and her own—in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival.

First Impressions: Stitching Snow looks like any other fairy tale retelling. A breeding ground for the infamous insta-love (*gag*). Little to no complexity in the plot. Shallow characters, (i.e. the wanna-be-hero male lead and pathetically-hopeless female lead). Extremely low expectations.

                                                                                                                                         

After Reading: Stitching Snow was nothing like how I thought it would be.

Essie chooses to live in the coldest, most desolate of planets. She keeps her distance and expects everyone else to do the same. When someone named Dane crashes near her home, she can no longer keep her distance. Something about him and his circumstances draws her in and forces her to confront the past she’s been desperately trying to forget. When it becomes clear she can no longer run from her role in the fate of the universe, she must choose a side.

Following a trend set by the well-loved Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, Essie is a mechanic on a distant planet fighting to end an oppressive regime. It's no wonder that people have noticed the disturbing similarities between the two books, and while there is a undeniable like-hood between the two, I gave Stitching Snow a chance to prove it was different. It really wasn't that different, but there were qualities about this book that set it apart from its competition that made it worth reading.  

The characters, setting, plot line, world-building were all on point. Essie was a textbook case in terms of retold fairy tales. Independent, smart, defiant, cautious but not so much as to miss out on adventure. The exact opposite of the character they were based off. There will be no sniveling damsels-in-distress here.

With a name like Stitching Snow, I expected one of those nothing novels. The ones you read then instantly forget because it was so superfluous and unremarkable. I was extremely surprised to find heavy subjects distributed throughout this seemingly light and fluffy story line. Abandonment, death, abuse. They were all in there. Who would’ve thought? The confrontation of these topics caught me so off guard, I couldn’t help contemplate it long after I’d actually finished the book.

To sum up, this book defied all my pre-conceived notions on exactly how it would turn out.  I’d recommend it for a quick read, especially for the lovers of Cinder caught in the limbo of waiting for the next book of the Lunar Chronicles. For those still doubtful, pick it up any way. You may be surprised. 

Alias Hook Review

Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen

Title: Alias Hook

Author: Lisa Jensen

Series: None

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

Publication Date: July 8, 2014

Genre: Fiction; Historical Fiction; Fantasy; Retelling; Romance; Adventure; Adult

Pages: 368

Format: Hardcover

Buy now From Barnes & Noble• Buy now From Amazon• Add On Goodreads

"Every child knows how the story ends. The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It's my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy."

Meet Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in a pointless war that never ends. But everything changes when Stella Parrish, a forbidden grown woman, dreams her way to the Neverland in defiance of Pan's rules. From the glamour of the Fairy Revels, to the secret ceremonies of the First Tribes, to the mysterious underwater temple beneath the Mermaid Lagoon, the magical forces of the Neverland open up for Stella as they never have for Hook. And in the pirate captain himself, she begins to see someone far more complex than the storybook villain.

With Stella's knowledge of folk and fairy tales, she might be Hook's last chance for redemption and release if they can break his curse before Pan and his warrior boys hunt her down and drag Hook back to their neverending game. Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen is a beautifully and romantically written adult fairy tale.

When someone said “Peter Pan,” I used to conjure up feelings of warmth and love. Now, whenever someone brings up Peter Pan, the only words that come to mind are: “Dammit, that annoying little twit.” 

A twisted retelling of Peter Pan for adults, this story shines a light on the classic fairy tale of Peter Pan never seen before. James Hook is an adult in the rotten, cursed world of Neverland, and he is doomed to be haunted by that horrible Peter Pan over and over again. He can’t die, but his men can, and he must live with the burden of watching them fight to the death in an endless cycle. Only he can survive, even when what he wants more than anything is to die. He’s a living, breathing pawn of Peter Pan’s game, and there is no way out. Until, Stella Parish decides to make a surprise (and forbidden) appearance. Unsure of how she got to the world of Neverland, Hook is sure she was sent there for a reason. And that reason may just be his escape.

I never realized it until after reading this book that Peter Pan is a spoiled, ungrateful little brat who is too bloodthirsty for his own good. I love kids, but Peter Pan is not a kid. He is a monster who exists only to torture Captain Hook. Think about it: in the story, Peter Pan cuts off Hook’s hand and then feeds it to a crocodile. It’s kind of sick, actually.

Despite all the times I was this close to chucking this book across the room whenever Pan ruined things, I understood on some level the importance of his character and Hook’s characters. While they seem like foils in the original story, in this retelling, you see that they are the same. Pan is Hook, and Hook is, on some level, Pan. They are afraid of the same things and have different types of crippling innocence and guilt. They are both scared of growing up and moving on, but in the end, at least one of them learns how to do just that.

Everything was so unexpected and even when it seemed wrong, it worked out to be so right. There was the dark underbelly of Peter Pan, and then there was the soft side of the scary Captain Hook. You could finally understand his defeat, his loss of life when he was stolen and taken into the cruel world of Neverland. It was impressive, the emotion I felt alongside the characters of the story.

I was astounded by the artful remastering of J.M. Barrie’s classic, the phenomenal attention to detail in its remaking, and the addictive story line that hardly allowed me a moment’s break. This is still a tale of growing up, but it is also a story of defying your destiny.  

Dorothy Must Die Review

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Title: Dorothy Must Die

Author: Danielle Paige

Series: Dorothy Must Die #1

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Date: April 1, 2014

Genre: Fantasy; Fiction; Young Adult

Pages: 452

Format: Hardcover
goodreads

I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.

But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado - taking you with it - you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little bluebirds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still a yellow brick road - but even that's crumbling.

What happened? Dorothy.

They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas.

I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.

I've been trained to fight.

And I have a mission.

I don’t usual read spin-offs, like, as a rule. That may be because I’ve never actually read a good spin-off of any fairy tell. And, well, when I saw this cover, I have to admit that I was skeptical. Maybe a little bit more than skeptical. I kind of made a decision to avoid this book because I honestly thought it wouldn’t be any good. But, because of a recommendation, I decided to give it a chance. I am so glad I did.

We all know the story: there’s a tornado, a lion, a scarecrow, a tin man, and lots of gingham. But what about after? Amy Gumm never thought about that, and why would she? It was a happy ever after, end of story, right? Wrong. After Oz, Dorothy found a way back into the magical land and took over all power. As a result, she kind of became a control freak– a blue gingham covered, ruby slipper wearing control freak. Oz is breaking, slowly fading into a sad memory of what it used to be. In one freak accident of a rampant tornado, Amy Gumm finds that she’s not in Kansas anymore. Oz has become twisted. The wicked have become the heroes, and the good have become the enemies. With the help of moody goth munchkin, a wingless flying monkey, and four wicked outcasts, Amy must survive in a world where Oz is nothing like you thought, and Dorothy is anything but an innocent, kind-hearted farm girl.

Reading spin-offs and retellings, in my opinion, is like trying to fix something that is anything but broken. In most cases, it hurts the original story rather than add anything to it. This was not the case in Dorothy Must Die. Besides being hilarious, this parody of the Wizard of Oz was highly creative and delightfully imaginative. In short, I absolutely adored it.

The characters, unlike the two-dimensional sweet and innocent characters of the original Wizard of Oz story, were complex and well crafted. Throughout the entire story, you’re never quite sure who to trust or what the other characters are thinking. I absolutely loved the ingenious manipulation of the lion, tin man, the scarecrow, and, of course, Dorothy. I also appreciated the creation of the new characters I have never heard of before, like Glinda’s sister, Glamora, and Nox.

Amy is nothing like Dorothy, before or after she turned evil. Amy is underestimated and complex. She thinks she is less brave than she actually is, and she is much more capable than she expects. I loved her character’s development through the story.

Long story short: Dorothy Must Die was action packed, grimly magical, and fascinatingly complicated. I can’t wait to find out how Paige will follow up this epic masterpiece.

  

The Wicked Will Rise

March 30, 2015