Rabbit Trail Reviews: Fairy Tale Edition

[meltintall3]

original post: March 27, 2013 | updated August 4, 2015

Mostly a list at this point... relying on my reading list to fill in the gaps in my memory isn't working as well as I'd hoped. I feel like I've read more, particularly in the Beauty and the Beast section, than I've listed. The majority of these are novel-length.

Originals and Not-quiet-mashups
Once Upon A Marigold by Jean Ferris like a fractured fairytale, or The Princess Bride, or something… light, fluffy stuff
Twice Upon A Marigold by Jean Ferris not as good the second time around

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt Richly textured and quite the story, this novel draws upon the threads of Scherezhad and French fairytales

Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
Out of the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst

Once On a Time by A. A. Milne hilarious fairy tale type story with snide authorial asides and a charming villainess

The Ordinary Princess by M. M. Kaye One of my favourite 'modern' fairy tales; gorgeous illustrations, too!

The Princess and the Goblin by George McDonald
The Princess and Curdie by George McDonald

The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable sort of Russian fairy tale-ish but more generic

Short Story Collections
The Brown, Green, Pink, Blue, Red, Purple, Grey, and Yellow Fairy Book(s) by Andrew Lang
Favourite Fairy Tales of Walter Crane illustrated by Walter Crane included 'Story of Goody-Two-Shoes'
The Light Princess by George McDonald
The Wonder Clock by Howard Pyle twenty four fairy tales
Twilight Land by Howard Pyle a collection of fairy tales
The BookRoom by Eleanor Farjeon a little treasure box from the opening essay to the charming and varied stories that fill its pages
The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley contains versions of 'The Princess and the Frog' and 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses' and two others
Newfangled Fairy Tales: Book 2 edited by Bruce Lansky 'classic tales with a humorous twist' they claim; some are funnier than others, some are just plain weird
The Wonder Child & Other Jewish Fairy Tales selected and retold by Howard Schwartz and Barbara Rush
Louisa May Alcott's Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories by Louisa May Alcott edited by Daniel Shealy; an anthology

Twelve Dancing Princesses
Entwined by Heather Dixon
Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley
The Midnight Dancers by Regina Doman
The Twelve Dancing Princesses & The Further Adventures of the Twelve Dancing Princesses by Queen Eleni
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier A take on 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses' only there were only five, as well as ''The Frog Prince' set in Transylvania complete with vampireish characters… not bad, but not terribly outstanding
The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler

East O' the Sun and West O' the Moon
East by Edith Pattou I believe this one puts an Inuit spin on things
Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George this one keeps the Scandanavian flavor of the fairy tale
Ice by Sarah Beth Durst a modern day retelling
Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis technically, I suppose this is more Cupid and Psyche but they are similar tales


Princess and the Frog
Cloaked by Alex Flinn fairy-tale mash-up; mostly based on 'The Princess and the Frog', but lots of other favourites, humourous
The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

Cinderella
Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Ever After 1998 movie; I'm sure there's a tie-in novella somewhere...
Five Glass Slippers edited by Anne Elisabeth Stengl fairy tale retellings of Cinderella; contains stories by Elisabeth Brown, Emma Clifton, Rachel Heffington, Stephanie Ricker, and Clara Diane Thompson; the middle three are my favorites, ranging from humorous-and-showing-traces-of-Disney to sci-fi
Shadows on the Moon by Zoë Marriott set in an alternate Japan

Rumplestiltskin
A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
The Rumplestiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde short stories on the same theme

Beauty and the Beast
Beauty by Robin McKinley
Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley I remember hedgehogs showing up as a symptom of Beauty's influence working against the curse. But not a book I'd recommend
Beauty and the Beast by Nancy Willard very like McKinley's Beauty, only set in New York and environs in the late 1800's, early 1900's; with woodcut illustrations
Rosemary Potatoes by MertleYuts short story
Beauty and the Beast by Megan Kearney webcomic

Sleeping Beauty
Waking Rose by Regina Doman sequel to Black as Night
The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson the concept of Sleeping Beauty meets Ever After plus Bible verses is intriguing, but it lost me somewhere in the execution
Spindle's End by Robin McKinley
Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep by Gail Carson Levine
Sleeping Beauty's Daughters by Diane Zahler
The Castle Behind Thorns by Merrie Haskell fairy tale retelling; Sleeping Beauty and hints of Snow White in the poisoned gloves and slippers

The Wild Swans
The Swan Kingdom by Zoë Marriott It was pretty good, with a vividly described setting and likeable characters right up to the climax, which skimped on the evil mother-in-law (a change I didn't mind) but also the actual use of the nettle shirts, going instead for the catch-all "you have the power to change this yourself and always did and by the way you did the curse too" while the antagonist had a very vague motivation herself, even though she got a 'happy' ending too; which would have been cool except you had no hints in that direction other than her name being brought up a few times
Princess of the Wild Swans by Diane Zahler makes the princess much younger to avoid the evil mother-in-law plot entirely, keeps the 'brother retains swan wing' part of the story; but dances around the princess having to not speak to anyone by giving her some telepathic friends and characterizes one of the brothers as a 'bad boy redeemed by true love'...not surprisingly, he was the most vivid of the bunch. At least the jilted boyfriend was reasonable about the whole thing

The Little Mermaid
Midnight Pearls by Debbie Vigiué Once Upon a Time series; a retelling of Anderson's Little Mermaid with the addition of a couple more mermaids, and a sugary sweet happy ending. Nicely told, but shallow; the characters all seemed to be paper cut-outs.
Knife by R. J. Anderson it matches Anderson's plot too well for me to leave it out, even though the author didn't set out to retell the story
The Sea Witch Sets the Record Straight by Ursula Vernon short story

Rapunzel
Rapunzel Let Down by Regina Doman fairy tale retelling
Cress by Marissa Meyer sequel to Scarlet

Snow White
Black as Night by Regina Doman sequel to Shadow of the Bear
Fairest by Marissa Meyer prequel to Cinder

The Goose Girl
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale not bad, per say, but something about the story reminds me of an author whose debut I quite enjoyed, and whose later work was too New-Agey for my enjoyment

Red Riding Hood
Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George sequel to Princess of Glass
Scarlet by Marissa Myers sequel to Cinder

Snow White and Rose Red
Shadow of the Bear by Regina Doman


The Princess and the Glass Hill
Cinderellis and the Glass Hill by Gail Carson Levine


Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Alex O'Donnell and the 40 CyberThieves by Regina Doman

Other
The Rose Bride by Nancy Holder Once Upon a Time series; retelling of the fairy tale 'The White Bride and the Black Bride'; very syrupy-sweet and slightly strange with its Greek gods in a demi-French landscape

The Ravine by Janet Hickman children from 'our time' cross over into the world of a the German folktale 'Fair Gudrun' when their collie dog accidentally becomes a link

Harfang by Aurore BlackCat webcomic; fairy tale retelling; unsure which one, but it involves a witch capturing a young peasant's fiance and turning her into a bird and his bargain with a dragon for a sword with which to free her

The Haughty Princess by bingo7 fairy tale retelling of King Thrushbeard

Suggestions for additions to the collection are welcome!