What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I love fairy tale and myth retellings. Here's some of my favorites.

The Snow White, Blood Red Anthology Series: This six-volume anthology series filled with Fairy Tales for Adults, features short stories and poetry by contemporary writers inspired by classic fairy tales. https://www.goodreads.com/series/5562...

Once Upon a Time series: Retellings of famous fairy tales! Series need not be read in any particular order. https://www.goodreads.com/series/1123...

Multiple short story retellings:
Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand by Louise Hawes
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins by Emma Donoghue

Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson: Retelling of Toads and Diamonds

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth: Retellings of Rapunzel

Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde: Retelling of Red Riding Hood

Mira, Mirror by Mette Ivie Harrison: Retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde
Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff: Retellings of Rumpelstiltskin

Jack: The True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk by Liesl Shurtliff: Retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk

Hades and Persephone:
Solstice by P.J. Hoover
The Dark Wife by Sarah Diemer
Love Underground: Persephone's Tale: by Alicia Fields
Radiant Darkness by Emily Whitman

Here are some that my kids and I have enjoyed:
Robin McKinley has Beauty, Rose Daughter and Spindle's End. Also The Outlaws of Sherwood.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is the only one I've read by Gregory Maguire, but he has others.

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

Scarlet and following by A.C. Gaughen

Mercedes Lackey has a series starting with The Fairy Godmother.

Hood is the first in a series by Stephen R. Lawhead.

East by Edith Pattou
Her Mad Hatter by Marie Hall - 1st book in the Kingdom series
Before Midnight by Jennifer Blackstream - 1st book in the Blood Prince series
Beauty and the Beast by K.M. Shea -1st book in the Timeless Fairy Tales series
Shadows on Snow by Starla Huchton - 1st book in the Flipped Fairy Tales series

Daughter Trilogy Bundle (Greek mythology)

If the Shoe Fits

Thought I had more, but the only other one is Her Mad Hatter that's mentioned above.

There is one that was just a new take on humans/shifters etc. Stone Guardian.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories is a good satire.

There is also Thorn by Intisar Khanani. It's a great retelling of "Goose Girl" story and moreover it's clean one, if that's what you are looking for. I think it would be suitable for both adults and children. There is, of course, a bit of violence involved but not more than in the original story.

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is really good. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is great.

I'll also second Datlow/Windling (they also do YA fairy retellings) and Robin McKinley.

There is also Morgan Llywelyn who does mostly Irish.

I love the modern fairytale series by Katy Regnery the newest one is coming out next week

Fitcher's Brides is a re-telling of Bluebeard

Fatal Attraction: Aphrodite's Tale: is a re-telling of Aphrodite/Hephaesteus/Ares (with Cupid & Psyche as a secondary story)

Dazzling Brightness is a romance, retelling of Persephone & Hades

The Stepsister Scheme has several fairy tale princesses show up; first in a serie, as I recall

Teri-K mentioned Mercedes Lackey Five Hundred Kingdom Series. As I recall, her elemntal masters series also deals with fairy-tale rellings; perhaps a bit more "serious" than Five Hundred Kingdoms

Teri-K also mentioned Robin McKinley. Mckinely also has two anthologies of short stories that contain fairy tale retellings: A Knot In The Grain And Other Stories and The Door In The Hedge (I think)

Jessica Day George has a series that starts of re-telling the 12 Dancing Princesses but then the later ones interweave other stories: Book 1 is Princess of the Midnight Ball

A Thousand Acres is a retelling of King Lear which I really enjoyed.

Also recommend The Penelopiad which is a sort of retelling of The Odyssey from Penelope's perspective.

The Song of Achilles (the Iliad and relative myths) and The Sleeper and the Spindle (retelling/crossover of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White).

Diane Zahler has written some YA sequels/retellings such as Princess of the Wild Swans

Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of The Little Mermaid is another suggestion.

Snow White And Rose Red
Just Ella
Ella Enchanted

someone else mentioned the books by Robin Mckinley, left out Deerskin a retelling of the fairy tale Donkeyskin. All her books are awesome!

Winter's Child is a re-telling of the Snow Queen. So is Mercedes Lackey's The Snow Queen; from the 500 Kingdoms series, which has already been mentioned (by Teri-K).

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden is a modern-retelling of a fairy tale story.

Lips Touch: Three Times begins with a retelling of Goblin Market. The other two stories may be retellings but I don't recognize them if they are; they are lovely anyway. (The cover is awful but this was one of my favorite reads last year.)

The Seventh Bride is a sort of archetypal retelling of several tales; Bluebeard, Robber Bridegroom, others. I liked it a lot.

Quite Contrary is a retelling of Red Riding Hood; I haven't read it but I love, love, loved the author's Wild Children, so it's high on my list.

I have a shelf for retellings which you are welcome to browse; I mostly have been collecting them and haven't got a chance to read them yet, but you may see something interesting.

Bridge of Birds is set in "an ancient China that never was," and the plot is put into motion by a sequence of events that was based on the Chinese folk tale "The Weaver Girl And The Cowherd."

Number Ten Ox is a very strong peasant who is dispatched to find a wise man when all the children in his village fall ill with a mysterious sickness. The only sage Ox can find who is willing to help is Master Li, who has a slight flaw in his character. Together they travel all across China, encountering challenge after challenge, and eventually shake the very pillars of Heaven itself.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me.

Something Rich and Strange is a Tam Lin retelling.

The Godmother
The Godmother's Apprentice
The Godmother's Web

Rafi wrote: "someone else mentioned the books by Robin Mckinley, left out Deerskin a retelling of the fairy ..."
I love Deerskin, but it's not for the faint of heart. Be forewarned that it contains (view spoiler)[incest and a violent beating/rape (hide spoiler)], but the author doesn't go into a lot of detail. My aunt who loves fairy tale retellings won't read this book because of those controversial issues. Anything else by Robin McKinley is highly recommended by me!

My recommendations are:
Beast
All the fairytale books that Alex Flinn has written such as Beastly
Eloisa James's fairytale series that begins with A Kiss at Midnight
Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles which starts with Cinder and retells Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White. There are two other books in the series: one deals with Snow White's evil stepmother's back story (Fairest) and the other is a short story collection.
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine. She has other fairytale inspired books as well.
Someone above mentioned Jessica Day George. My favorite by her is Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow.
And we can't forget E.D. Baker's books! She has The Frog Princess series and The Wide-Awake Princess series (I've linked the first book in each series).

If you are looking for books based on myths I highly recommend Rick Riordan's books. There are three completed series that deal with demigods and magicians and he just stared a fourth series (with a fifth on the way!) that deals with Norse mythology. Start with The Lightning Thief if you're going to read this series.

The Dragon King and I

I definitely second the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. I've read them so many times and love them more every time.

Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale

Daughter of the Forest (retelling of The Six Swans from the Brothers Grimm - and an absolute favorite of mine)

by Jackson Pearce:
Sisters Red (Little Red Riding Hood)
Sweetly (Hansel and Gretel)
Fathomless
Cold Spell (The Snow Queen)

by Rosamund Hodge:
Cruel Beauty (Beauty and the Beast)
Crimson Bound (Little Red Riding Hood)
Gilded Ashes (Cinderella)

Enchanted (This is a great mashup of all sorts of fairy tale classics)

Red and the Wolf, pretty clean, little violent, not a children's book though

Tana wrote: "Something Rich and Strange is a Tam Lin retelling."

This is going to be reprinted in Dreams of Distant Shores which comes out in a couple of months. It'll be cheaper to buy the collection rather than the out of print stand alone book, at that point.


I'll second a lot of these recs.

What kind of retellings are you interested in? YA? Adult? Humorous? Horror? Romance? That might help narrow down the suggestions a little.



Robin McKinley is who introduced me to fairy tale retellings, and Deerskin is my favorite of hers though it's very dark.

The Datlow/Windling anthologies that Chris mentioned would also be a great starting point, since they can introduce you to a lot of great writers. https://www.goodreads.com/series/5562....

I LOVE Catherynne Valente though she has a very dense, ornate style that's not for everyone. A couple of her retellings are Silently and Very Fast and Speak Easy.

Another recent favorite of mine that hasn't yet been mentioned is Tanith Lee's Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer.

Nalo Hopkinson also hasn't been mentioned yet. Skin Folk retells a lot of stories with a Caribbean flavor.


You might also be interested in Sur La Lune which is a website dedicated to fairy tales. If you choose one of the tales on the left hand menu then choose "Modern Interpretations", you'll get a list of retellings of that particular tale.

The Godmother, first in a trilogy, many mentions and interactions with fairy tale characters in a modern setting.
Tam Lin, The story of Tam Lin, set on a modern college campus.

Dragon Rose is a re-telling of the Beauty and the Beast series.

Heart of Ice is the first in a two-book series that is inspired by the Snow Queen story.

Ariel is a YA retelling of Shakespeare's Tempest.