Discussion post + Beastkeeper winner announcement: your favourite fairy tale recommendations

Hello book lovelies

I’m so sorry for only posting this now, but between letting my time run away from me and dealing with an unwelcome stint of flu, I really didn’t have a chance to sit down and write a new blog post.

Thankfully, I’ve got a bit of time right now, so in tonight’s post I’ll be announcing the Beastkeeper winner (yay), and featuring your fantastic recommendations in response to my quest for more retellings and modern adaptations of fairy tales.

I also have to mention that I’ve finally finished reading Beastkeeper (review should be up by end of the week or early next week for the absolute latest) and can tell you that you’re in for an absolute treat.

So without further ado, congratulations AnotherLibrarian – you’re the recipient of a book filled with beautiful and bittersweet prose, twisty, thorny imagery and the story of one brave and resilient young girl who refuses to give up in the face of life and magic’s harshest obstacles.

Please get in touch with me tammybell78(at)gmail(dot)com and provide me with your details so that I can order your copy asap.

You have 48 hours to respond, after which I’ll select another winner should you not have responded by then.

More giveaways will be coming your way shortly, so be on the lookout for that.

In the meantime, I asked you to tell me about your fairy tale favourites/recommendations and here are your awesome responses:

 Winner response: AnotherLibrarian

My favourite fairy tale is the Xhosa story of the Girl and the Mbulu - I heard it at a young age and it always stuck with me as it was so different from the stock European fairy tales I had read up until then.

My favourite retelling is Tinder by Sally Gardner - a retelling of The Tinderbox by H.C. Anderson

Carla

My favorite is indeed Beauty and the Beast! It was this realistic (not in the magic sense) story of the unlikely characters ending up together.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and never judge a person by what they look like. It’s such a lesson filled story and it is a very fun creative story too - best of all possible worlds!

TallStoryTeller

My favorite fairy tale is The Town Musicians of Bremen. I loved that it was animal focused and they totally owned those thieves and managed  to live happily ever after. Yay for happily ever after.

Recently I enjoyed a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman - Smoke and Mirrors and it includes a few fairy tale adaptions. My favourites: Snow, Glass Apples (Snow White) and Troll Bridge (Three Billy Goats Gruff).

Monique

My favourite fairytale is Rumpelstiltskin. I know he steals kids to eat them and all that, but come on, if you’re gonna make a deal with a little magical being, at least be ready to suffer the consequences. I'm glad the TV series Once upon a Time is showing Rumple in a slightly more improved light.

My favourite retelling is Nameless by Lili St. Crow. I'm also pretty excited to start reading the Grimm Diaries series. Of course, that has to wait until my boyfriend lifts the book buying ban.

Cyan

If we are broadening the scope to folk tales then, my favourite would be Graeme Base's interpretation of the traditional story 'The Tender-Hearted Aardvark,' but that's probably a little niche.

More broadly speaking I've always loved 'The 12 Dancing Princesses' because it spoke of defiant young women who danced in secret worlds that only the Hero (who is hero more because he follows fairy tale rules and is polite to old women at cross-roads than because of anything innate) could follow them to with the aid of magic.

I liked it because it was so every day, with the magic worked in as the backdrop to a story of a grumpy father with daughters who were growing up beyond his control.

My favourite retellings include the Fables comic book series published by Vertigo, Ella Enchanted (book not movie) by Gail Carson Levine and Watching the Roses by Adele Geras

Monique

I love Beauty and the Beast. Some of my favorite YA retellings include Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Beastly by Alex Flynn and Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce.

PisceanDragon

My favourite fairy tale is the Little Mermaid, but I don't like the Hans Christian Anderson ending. I prefer the Disney happily ever after ending, the real ending just makes me cry.

I have enjoyed Marissa Meyer's retellings of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel. Robyn McKinley, Jackson Pierce and Gregory Maguire are great too with their retellings. I am not sure if Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl counts, but that is my absolute favourite.

Cassey

The Little Mermaid is my favourite fairy tale hands down - even with the troubling change yourself to get a person message. But the traditional version does do what fairy tales did - before the happy after endings - teach us a lesson. I suppose that's why people enjoy them so much.

I've not really read many retellings 0_o, but my favourite to watch is Disney's Little Mermaid.

Nadine

My favourite fairytale has always been The Ugly Duckling. Even as a child I couldn't understand why no one could see that the swan baby was beautiful.

As far as fairytale retellings go..... Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber is brilliant although I must admit it did make me feel like a horribly inferior being as far as my intelligence goes. Cinder surprised me and though I expected not to, I enjoyed it a lot.

And funny enough I was just thinking last night that as far as fairytale retellings go, the writers behind Once Upon a Time are doing a really imaginative job.

Sometimes I watch that show and I giggle at the poor dialogue or the sometimes poor execution of the whole thing, but I can't fault the storyline. The way they keep managing to thread it all together is actually quite fun and impressive.

So, now that you've shared your fairy tale recs, which retelling/modern adaptation are you really looking forward to reading this year? I'd love to know.