Around the Web: How to Fight a Fairy Tale by Jenny Hamilton

How to Fight a Fairy Tale: Retellings in the Age of Romantasy by Jenny Hamilton (PUBLISHED ON MAY 15, 2024) on Reactor.

The trouble with structuring a book around a fairy tale is that fairy tales make no sense—but books have to.

Excerpts to whet your interest--lots of authors and titles are included in the article, too:

Fairy tales haunt us. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen an author speak about the fairy tale that kept them up at night, I’d have enough dollars to buy enough fairy tale collections that I would never sleep again. Fantasy with its magics and monarchies, and romance with its mandatory happily-ever-afters are particularly unable to let sleeping fairy tales lie, so it’s perhaps not surprising that smushing the two genres together has produced a truly awe-inspiring level of fairy tale poisoning.

... What if books can also just depend on the imagery, rules, and structures of fairy tales to avoid the challenge of worldbuilding? What if a fairy tale world, but completely different characters and situations? (I say this without judgment. Worldbuilding is famously hard, and fairy tale worlds are rad. Slash terrifying.)

... Then you have the books that are asking what for? What’s everyone acting like this for? How should we be understanding it? I grew up on these.

Bargain Ebook: Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth for $2.99

 

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth is on sale in ebook format for $2.99. It may be a today only deal, but I am not sure. This is a novel inspired by Rapunzel.

Book description from the publisher:

A Library Journal Best Book of 2014: Historical Fiction

The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and the redemptive power of love

French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens...

After Margherita's father steals parsley from the walled garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he is threatened with having both hands cut off, unless he and his wife relinquish their precious little girl. Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1512 and still inspiring him at the time of his death. She is at the center of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition.

Locked away in a tower, Margherita sings in the hope that someone will hear her. One day, a young man does.

Award-winning author Kate Forsyth braids together the stories of Margherita, Selena, and Charlotte-Rose, the woman who penned Rapunzel as we now know it, to create what is a sumptuous historical novel, an enchanting fairy tale retelling, and a loving tribute to the imagination of one remarkable woman.

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Bargain Ebook: Don't Call the Wolf by Aleksandra Ross

 

Don't Call the Wolf by Aleksandra Ross is on sale in ebook format for $2.99 in the United States--check the link to see about other countries. This one is a retelling of The Glass Mountain, also known as Aarne–Thompson-Uther or ATU 530: The Princess on the Glass Mountain.

Book description from the publisher:

A fierce young queen, neither human nor lynx, who fights to protect a forest humans have long abandoned.

An exhausted young soldier, last of his name, who searches for the brother who disappeared beneath those trees without a trace.

A Golden Dragon, fearsome and vengeful, whose wingbeats haunt their nightmares and their steps.

When these three paths cross at the fringes of a war between monsters and men, the shapeshifter queen and the reluctant hero strike a deal that may finally turn the tide against the rising hordes of darkness. Ren will help Lukasz find his brother . . . if Lukasz promises to slay the Dragon.

But promises are all too easily broken.

This Eastern European fantasy debut, inspired by the Polish fairy tale “The Glass Mountain,” will take you on a twisting journey full of creeping tension, simmering romance, and haunting folklore.

“Rich and meticulously developed. An immersive world rooted in Polish culture.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Ross delivers a fierce, fully fleshed heroine and a richly textured fantasy with a kind heart.” —Publishers Weekly

“Immediately hooks the reader with its dark and twisted scenery. In a genre full of retellings, this book sets itself apart.” —School Library Journal

“Teeming with mystical creatures and lurking dangers. . . . A page-turner.” —Kirkus Reviews

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New Book: One Cursed Rose (Grimm Bargains Book 1) by Rebecca Zanetti

 

One Cursed Rose (Grimm Bargains Book 1) by Rebecca Zanetti is released today. This one is the start of a new dark fantasy romance inspired by Beauty and the Beast.

Book description from the publisher:

They christened me Alana—and while the name means beauty, beneath that surface is a depth I allow very few to see. I’m sole heir to Aquarius Social, a media giant about to succumb to an unseen enemy. My father’s solution is to marry me off to the son of a competing family. My reaction? Not a chance. Now I have just a week before the wedding to change my fate.

Who knew the unforeseen twist would be an assassination attempt on me and an unwanted rescue by Thorn Beathach, the head of the rival social media empire driving Aquarius under? The richest, most ruthless of them all, the Beast protects his realm with an iron rule: no one sees his face. When he shows himself to me, I know he’ll never let me go.

Thorn may think he can lock me in his enchanted castle forever, but I’m not the docile Beauty he expects. If the Beast wants to tie me up, I’m going to take pleasure from every minute of it . . .and we’ll just see who ends up shackled.

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New Book: Tangled Up In You (Meant to Be Series 4) by Christina Lauren

Tangled Up In You (Meant To Be Book 4) by Christina Lauren is released today. The book is fourth in a series of romance novels inspired by Disney versions of fairy tales by different authors. As one does. And I hope that sentence made sense, too. This one is inspired by Tangled and thus Rapunzel, of course.

Book description from the publisher:

A witty and deeply romantic modern reimagining of Disney’s Tangled, by the New York Times bestselling author duo Christina Lauren, part of the acclaimed and bestselling Meant to Be collection.

She has a dream. He has a plan. Together they’ll take a leap of faith.

Ren has never held an iPhone, googled the answer to a question, or followed a crush on social media. What she has done: Read a book or two, or three (okay, hundreds). Taught herself to paint. Built a working wind power system from scratch. But for all the books she’s read, Ren has never found one that’s taught a woman raised on a homestead and off the grid for most of her twenty-two years how to live in the real world. So when she finally achieves her lifelong dream of attending Corona College, it feels like her life is finally beginning.

Fitz has the rest of his life mapped out: Graduate from Corona at the top of his class, get his criminal record wiped clean, and pass himself off as the rich, handsome player everyone thinks he is. He’s a few short months from checking off step one of his plans when Ren Gylden, with her cascading blonde hair and encyclopedic brain, crashes into his life, and for the first time Fitz’s plan is in jeopardy.

But a simple assignment in their immunology seminar changes the course of both their lives, and suddenly they’re thrown out of the frying pan and into the fireon a road trip that will lead them in the most unexpected directions. Out on the open road, the world somehow shifts, and the unlikely pair realize that, maybe, the key to the dreams they've both been chasing have been sitting next to them the whole time.

Previous books in the series include:

1: If the Shoe Fits: A Meant to Be Novel by Julie Murphy (Cinderella inspired)

2: By the Book: A Meant to Be Novel by Jasmine Guillory (Beauty and the Beast inspired)

3: Kiss the Girl A Meant to Be Novel by Zoraida Córdova (Little Mermaid inspired)

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As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.