Fairy Tale Retellings! discussion

King Thrushbeard is a little less well known than others, but I hope you guys still have fun discussing or recommending retellings. Happy reading!

I personally highly recommend The Lady and the Wish by J.M. Stengl. It's hands down one of my all time favorites. The character growth is amazing and the book's hilarious. But the full impact of the story will only be made if you read at least the first book of the series: Ellie and the Prince which is a Cinderella retelling (and also a great retelling in its own right).

Noonecansinkmyship wrote: "I personally highly recommend The Lady and the Wish by J.M. Stengl. It's hands down one of my all time favorites. The character growth is amazing and the book's hi..."

Thanks, I'm excited to start reading the series!

Tiggywinkles wrote: "Noonecansinkmyship wrote: "I personally highly recommend The Lady and the Wish by J.M. Stengl. It's hands down one of my all time favorites. The character growth i..."
Hope you like it!

I love King Thrushbeard but I haven't read any retellings of it yet so thank you for these!

I don't know of many either, but this is one of my very favorite fairy tales! I'll be watching this thread with anticipation!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

I haven't read this one yet but it's inspired by King Thrushbeard and several friends have said it's really good!

Princess without a Palace: A King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale is a good retelling that follows the original fairy tale pretty well, though with the addition with a sister for the hero, who's the one being nasty to our heroine.

The Scarecrow King is also really good, with some Rumpelstiltskin vibes. It, more, takes the original premise of the fairy tale and runs in its own direction with it, but it does well with the story and the couple is really sweet and the heroine's arc is awesome. There is a fade-to-black, but it is clean.

I've heard about both of those and was wondering if they were any good. Thank you!

Nerdy Werewolf wrote: "I don't know of many either, but this is one of my very favorite fairy tales! I'll be watching this thread with anticipation!"

Ohh I see a fellow King Thrushbeard fan! Do you have any favorites to recommend? :)

Kendra wrote: "Princess without a Palace: A King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale is a good retelling that follows the original fairy tale pretty well, though with the addition with a sister for the hero, w..."

I've read both of those! They were lovely and both were a fresh take on the tale. Great recs.

Noonecansinkmyship wrote: "Ohh I see a fellow King Thrushbeard fan! Do you have any favorites to recommend? :)"

I haven't read it yet, but this one's been on my list forever: The Reluctant Wife: a King Thrushbeard fairy tale by Nina Clare. I can see it...sitting on my desk...waiting....

Of course, I couldn't help myself, so here are some others I've just come across because I love getting sidetracked:

Princess without a Palace: A King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale by Kristen Niedfeldt
The Song of the Thrush by Christine Pope

Voyage by Camille Peters is one of my favorite books! She tells her stories so well💖

Jordan (jojobooklover) wrote: "Voyage by Camille Peters is one of my favorite books! She tells her stories so well💖"

I've read Voyage by Camille Peters. I enjoyed it and it was a great new view on the retelling. Great recommendation!

Nerdy Werewolf wrote: "Noonecansinkmyship wrote: "Ohh I see a fellow King Thrushbeard fan! Do you have any favorites to recommend? :)"

I haven't read it yet, but this one's been on my list forever: [book:The Reluctant W..."

I've read two of those retellings! Palace of Stone was a good retelling. Thanks for links by the way. Makes life easier lol. You should definitely scoop up The Reluctant Wife. It's on my favorites list. :D

I'll check out The Song of the Thrush ASAP.

Anytime! I knew you would know some of them! Thanks for making this thread!

Of course! I’m so glad someone else loves King Thrushbeard as much as I do haha.

The Lady and the Wish is fantastic! I didn't realize it was a Thrushbeard retelling. o.O

Winter wrote: "The Lady and the Wish is fantastic! I didn't realize it was a Thrushbeard retelling. o.O"

Yeah! It so fun to uncover the hidden layers in books. :)

I just finished reading The Princess without a Palace by Kristen Nieldfildt and I'm not really sure how I feel about it.

I couldn't put it down but it also seemed like the original story with nothing added. I mean I loved the original story but I do feel like I would have loved something added or re-imagined.

I was wondering how everybody else felt about the book or honestly about retellings that seem like the original story without adding anything else to it.

It very much feels like "The original, but the problematic elements removed and modified" I.e. she's not forced instantly into the marriage and the mean things the king did to her to break her pride are now attributed to his sister. My feelings towards it are mostly ambivalence. I like it its faithfulness to the original, but something was definitely missing.

Oh, I've had that happen before. There's this fine line we look for with any retelling, right? Between being faithful to the story we (might) know and love and looking for something a little extra that wows us.

I love to compare this to comic book-to-movie adaptations! I love Batman, right? (Not to go too far off-script!) But I don't want a Batman movie that's lifted word-for-word. I want something exciting that I didn't see coming. A new twist or background character development or trope subversion or SOMETHING. I still want Batman to save the day, but I want to be invested and excited and if I know everything that's coming, what's the point of even 'adapting' it?

It's a special type of author that can deliver that 'golden ratio' of true to the tale vs. new thoughts and ideas that maybe weren't explored in the original text.

Amen, sisters!

Thank you, I thought it was just me but then I was like it can't be just me when I see people writing reviews about it. You know it is just so nice when you know that it isn't just you.

How many time can I write 'you' in one sentence? LOL

As I tell anyone who's interested in writing a retelling, they have to own the story. They have to take that fairy tale and make it THEIRS. And you can write a faithful retelling and still do that, but I'm not sure Princess Without a Palace quite succeeded. Every change made only felt as though the author was reacting to something they found problematic in the original tale and was adjusting accordingly. Also, a lot of the conflict rather felt like overreaction, especially towards the end.

It lacked the depth that's needed for a faithful retelling. I think that's the problem.

Yeah Princess Without a Palace did give me that feeling. While I was reading it, I couldn't put it down either, but towards the end I was disappointed because the author took out the personal self improvement journey that I really enjoyed. We also saw so little of the prince that he was just a cherry background character almost. I just kept waiting for something to divert from the plot so I was disappointed about that aspect of the story too. So no you're not alone. Seems like a lot of agree with you. :)

Kendra wrote: "As I tell anyone who's interested in writing a retelling, they have to own the story. They have to take that fairy tale and make it THEIRS. And you can write a faithful retelling and still do that,..."

Exactly! If a book or story isn't moving you in some way, it's really missing the mark. Especially fairy tale retellings, I think. They are lessons and warnings and need to make us feel like we should listen. That depth thing you mentioned...

We are diverse, but we have standards. 🤣

Kendra wrote: "As I tell anyone who's interested in writing a retelling, they have to own the story. They have to take that fairy tale and make it THEIRS. And you can write a faithful retelling and still do that,..."

Very nicely put. It's true that what makes people read retellings is the own personal touch an author puts to the story. I personally like to see if the author captures the main morals behind the story and what kind of interesting elements and twists they add to the story. Like in Ella Enchanted, the story was obviously a fairy tale retelling of Cinderella, but it was interesting how the shoe didn't play that big of a role, but the story still held the readers in thrall.

You're also right that the retelling lacks depth and I think it lacks depth because she didn't really grow as a person which is one of the key points of King Thrushbeard.

Nerdy Werewolf wrote: "Kendra wrote: "As I tell anyone who's interested in writing a retelling, they have to own the story. They have to take that fairy tale and make it THEIRS. And you can write a faithful retelling and..."

Exactly! We are diverse, but at the end of the day we still have standards lol.