04 August 2015

My Ten Favorite Fairytale Retellings

Ooh, I love this prompt! I went through a couple Goodreads lists looking for retellings I'd read, and wound up with like fifteen books/series to choose from after like five minutes. I'm a huge fan of fairytale retellings, so this is going to be a lot of fun! Here are ten of my favorites:

1. Jessica Day George's Princess of Westfalin trilogy (My review of the first book)
This is a great series for many reasons. It's got retellings of three great stories (The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood), it ties them all together into one cohesive tale, and it does all of this by taking advantage of the twelve heroines in The Twelve Dancing Princesses (every book focuses on a different one of the sisters).

2. The Rumpelsiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde
This is a great book that features a bunch of different retellings. Every chapter is a completely different retelling, and it's really neat reading so many completely different takes on the same story.

3. Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George (My review)
This is another retelling by the amazing Jessica Day George! It's a retelling of one of my favorite tales, East O' the Sun, West O' the Moon.

4. East by Edith Pattou
This is one of my all-time favorite retellings, and also one of the first retellings I've ever read. It's another version of East O' the Sun, West O' the Moon.

5. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
This Newberry-winning retelling of Cinderella is famous enough I really don't need to describe it too much. Needless to say that I love it just as much as every other fairytale fanatic out there.

6. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
This is the follow-up to Ella Enchanted, and is a very loose adaptation of Snow White. I honestly love it just as much as the more famous Ella Enchanted, and only wish it were as popular.

7. The Twice Upon a Time series by Wendy Mass
There are three of these so far: one about Rapunzel, one about Sleeping Beauty, and one about Beauty and the Beast. They're funny, clever retellings of the classic tales, and I really love them.

8. The Half Upon a Time trilogy by James Riley
This awesome series doesn't focus on just one fairytale; it jumbles dozens of different stories together, from The Little Mermaid to Sleeping Beauty, and I love it so much!

9. The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker
No, I am not talking about that dreadful Disney movie by the same name, the one that was "based" on E.D. Baker's books. I'm talking about the wonderful book series itself, and more specifically the first book, aptly called The Frog Princess, which is probably the best Princess and the Frog retelling I've ever read.

10. Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
This is such a great retelling of Sleeping Beauty! It's really original, and I love it. Which reminds me, I should re-read it one of these days . . .

11. Curse of the Thirteenth Fey by Jane Yolen (My review)
Yes, I realize this is more than ten books. I do know how to count, I'm just had to slip this one in there somehow! I thought of it when I was writing down Princess Ben, and I didn't want to get rid of any of the other ones already on the list. I read The Thirteenth Fey recently, solidifying my new addiction to Yolen's books, and discovered another incredibly original take on Sleeping Beauty. It's even more original than Princess Ben, but in a completely different way.

Have you read any of these books? Do you have any others to recommend? I'm always on the look-out for more retellings, so please tell me about your favorites!

6 comments:

  1. Fantastic list this week! My TTT: http://tsundokubooks.blogspot.com/2015/08/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-fairytale.html?showComment=1438716330623#c2467615209016775937

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    1. Thanks, SMM Frost! I definitely had a lot of fun putting this list together.

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  2. Curse of the 13th Fey is on my list too! New Follower.
    My ttt
    http://hauntedgravebooks.blogspot.com/2015/08/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-fairy-tale.html

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Renee! Curse of the Thirteenth Fey is definitely a great fairytale retelling.

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  3. The Princess of Westfalin trilogy sounds really interesting! I don't remember the story of The Twelve Dancing Princesses that well, which makes me want to read this book even more. Great list! I don't have any of the books on your list in my TTT post, I will be adding some of your choices to my tbr.

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    1. Yes, it's a great trilogy. Definitely one of my favorites! :) Thanks for stopping by, Bookish Wanderess.

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