A Few Cybils Reads – Part 3 (2019)

November 20, 2019 |

Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Echo Alkaev’s father has been stranded in the wintry forest, and the only way to save him is to make a deal with a talking wolf to live with him for a year, but never look upon him at night. While Meyer’s novel is predominantly a retelling of East of the Sun and West of the Moon (which might by a Cybils trend this year), it also includes a few elements of many other fairy tales, including Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. Listening to this one so close on the heels of Edith Pattou’s West, I was concerned that I’d find it repetitive, but Meyer’s writing style is very different, and she sprinkles her story with some fresh elements. For example, the huge house that Echo is trapped in is deteriorating – as time goes by, rooms just disappear, and it has something to do with the curse laid upon the wolf. The real gem of this story, and what made it a step above the average retelling, is a magnificent twist near the end that I didn’t see coming but makes total sense in context. This is a good pick for fans of fairy tale retellings; they won’t be disappointed. Plus that cover is gorgeous.

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

Donnelly’s twist on Cinderella is unique among the slew of villain-POV fairy tale retellings. The stepsister referenced in the title really isn’t a good person – at least not during the traditional Cinderella story. Both stepsisters treated Ella horribly, and when Ella marries the Prince, the rest of the country learns of their behavior and reviles them. But this is a story of redemption. Donnelly shows how Isabelle, the stepsister this story centers on, came to be the way she is and how she transforms herself into a person not only other people will love, but a person she herself can love. Readers will feel sympathy for Isabelle almost from page 1, as her mother urges her to cut off a piece of her foot to win the prince, something Isabelle doesn’t want to do for multiple reasons but doesn’t see a way out of. Isabelle’s mother and the rest of the world has told her that her value lies in men’s perceptions of her, and since Isabelle is not pretty and does not have the traditional values Ella is praised for, she has been told and shown over and over again that she has no value at all.

It’s a long journey to unwind this lie she has internalized, and along the way, she makes amends for her own behavior and saves the country from a warmonger, using her own unique skills and abilities. It’s quite a moving story, one where Isabelle is held responsible for her actions while also given the space to be viewed with empathy and love by those around her, something she experienced all too rarely. It’s also really funny – Isabelle’s sister Octavia is an aspiring scientist and conducts an ill-advised cheese-making experiment one day, and the results are…unpleasant. In a perfect bit of plotting, this experiment is put to good use in a crucial moment. There’s plenty of magic and adventure in this story, which includes personified versions of the Fates and Chance wagering on Isabelle’s ability to change. Hand this one to readers who want something more than a little different in their fairy tale retellings – and want to bring down the patriarchy.

Fairy Tales Retold

June 13, 2018 |

I’ve loved fairy tales my whole life, and the publishing world isn’t tired of them yet either. (Give us another thousand years or so and check back.) I did a big roundup as part of a genre guide in 2014, then highlighted a whole slew of them in 2017. I review retold fairy tales periodically as I read them, but I’ve never put together a post where I discuss my favorites, including those I read before we started this blog in 2009. I thought it would be fun to showcase a few of the books that made an impression on me: those I remember fondly from my childhood, those I frequently recommend to others, and those I occasionally re-read. They span all ages and formats. What are a few of your faves – the ones you find yourself coming back to again and again?

For Kids

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

For a kid born in the mid to late 80s, this book is It when it comes to retold fairy tales. It is The Book, The Only Book, The Best of All the Fairy Tale Books. It’s a retelling of Cinderella about a girl named Ella who is cursed to always be obedient by “that fool of a fairy Lucinda” (I did not have to look up that quote, I remember it as the opening words from memory) who thought she was being benevolent. When Ella’s mother dies and an evil stepmother and two awful stepsisters enter the picture, you can imagine how bad forced obedience can be. But Ella is resilient, rebellious, and determined to break the curse. Levine’s story is set in a magical land with fairies and ogres and princes and a pitch-perfect romance for an eleven year old reader. The concept is clever and the writing is fresh and funny. Is there anyone who hasn’t yet read this book? If that’s you, get on it.

Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O’Neill

This is a graphic novel retelling of Rapunzel, but this time it’s a headstrong black princess, Amira, who rescues a white princess, Sadie, in the tower. They then go on a series of fun, small adventures, culminating in a bigger adventure where they confront the person who put Sadie in the tower in the first place. And yes, they fall in love, and there’s a sweet lesbian wedding in the epilogue, where the two girls are now adults and have accomplished much in their lives – and have come back to each other to live happily ever after. Not only is it important that this book presents a queer fairy tale for younger middle grade readers (an age group that’s tough to find comics for in the first place), it’s also just a really fun story with great art. I listed it as one of my top reads of 2017.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith

Fractured fairy tales were hilarious when I was a kid, and this is the best of the lot. It’s Scieszka’s and Smith’s first collaboration, after which they would go on to do The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and Math Curse, also excellent and funny books – but nothing beats this first one. After reading it, you too may come away believing that the Big Bad Wolf has been unfairly maligned. He can’t help it if he has a cold and sneezes, nor can he help the fact that the pigs’ houses were so poorly constructed that they collapsed under the force of said sneezes, killing the pigs. And there’s no reason to waste a perfectly good ham sandwich…right? Scieszka and Smith are the perfect partners; the art is just as funny as the text.

Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe

I have a confession: I was never that into Reading Rainbow when I was a kid. Sure, I appreciated the fact that we were watching television in school, but the books? I felt I was pretty much over them. They were all picture books and I considered myself too old and advanced for such things. Still, there were some books that stuck with me, and this is one of them, due to a combination of its story (similar to the Cinderella story I couldn’t get enough of) and Steptoe’s striking art. I didn’t realize until I was a librarian how important this book and its creator were to the history of kidlit.

For Teens

Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christine Heppermann

Heppermann’s collection of poetry retells several classic fairy tales, putting a feminist spin on them and drawing parallels between the girls from the fairy tales and real, modern teenage girls. They’re poems about beauty and obsession and misogyny and sex and food and everything that goes into a teenage girl’s life: what’s expected of her, what’s forced upon her, what she wants for herself. I’m not generally much of a poetry reader, but these are short, accessible, and full of mystery and truth. This is a collection worth revisiting.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

I loved this retelling of Beauty and the Beast, a story that’s always tricky to tell in a way that doesn’t make excuses for the Beast and create an inherently unequal or even abusive relationship between him and Beauty. But Hodge pulls it off remarkably well, and what’s more, she does so while also creating a fully-fleshed world of her own with a thorny protagonist and a plot that surprises at multiple turns. And the writing is gorgeous. This is one of my favorite retellings.

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

I first read this book in library school as part of a class, and I credit it with being the book that got me into graphic novels. The castle of the title – Castle Waiting – provides sanctuary for fairy tale characters who have fled bad situations, like abusive husbands (as with our main character Jain who is on the run in the beginning of the book) or discrimination and persecution (as with a group of bearded nuns who find a home there). It’s one of those stories that puts a bunch of fairy tale characters together and has them interact with each other, much like Bill Willingham’s Fables (see below), but Castle Waiting is much less action-heavy and focuses primarily on the characters, who are funny and caring and weird. You’ll wish you could hang out with them. Medley’s story is wonderfully feminist and a joy to get lost in.

Zel by Donna Jo Napoli

I read every single thing Donna Jo Napoli had written at the time when I was a young teenager, but Zel was (and is) my favorite. It’s a re-telling of Rapunzel without much change from the original story, but it’s fleshed out to the length of a YA novel. In so doing, Napoli expands upon the characters and their relationships and motivations, creates a memorable setting (including a market that Zel occasionally goes to, not always locked up in the tower), and gives her readers all the details the standard story omits. What I remember most is how dreamy her writing is here, almost like poetry. I felt swept away while reading this as a teenager.

For Adults

Fables by Bill Willingham

In Willingham’s imagination, all the people and creatures of fairy tales and fables live in the same magical shared universe. When the Adversary conquers the lands they live in, they escape to New York City and set up Fabletown in an apartment building. There, they make a new life, hiding their origins and abilities from the “mundys,” ordinary non-magic people like you and me. In the world of Fabletown, the Big Bad Wolf is the sheriff, King Cole is the mayor, Snow White is the deputy mayor, Cinderella runs a shoe store as a front for espionage, Beauty works in a bookshop, Prince Charming is a womanizer with several broken relationships under his belt, and Briar Rose gets rich off the stock market. There are a few main story arcs over the course of the series, but the first and best one involves the characters of Fabletown taking on the Adversary, whose identity must first be discovered. Willingham takes these characters in new and creative directions each volume, building their relationships with each other, playing upon and twisting their traditional backstories, and cleverly portraying just how they would survive in the human world. Decidedly mature, this comic book series shows that fairy tales were indeed originally meant for adults as much as children.

Snow White, Blood Red edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Datlow and Windling edited six different fairy tale anthologies in the nineties, and this is the first. As in most anthologies, the quality is hit and miss, but since it’s Datlow and Windling, there are many more hits than misses. I first found these as a teenager at my public library and go back to them when I want something short that I know will be good. Having so many different kinds of retold fairy tales in one book is a great way to sample the breadth and depth of the subgenre, to see all the fresh and exciting ways people continue to adapt these very old stories and make them new again.

Fairy Tale Retellings of 2017

March 29, 2017 |

Fairy tale retellings are still going strong in YA, and I’ve not gotten tired of them yet (nor have my patrons). This year I’ve noticed more contemporary realistic stories without magic, more LGBTQ stories, more stories told from the villain’s point of view, and more mish-mashes of fairy tales, whether in a short story collection or a single story that involves multiple different fairy tales.

In order to keep this list under control, I’ve pretty narrowly defined “fairy tale retelling” to mean older stories where the exact provenance is unknown (with the exception of Hans Christian Andersen). These are stories that spring from cultural legends and traditional stories passed down over generations. Basically, you won’t find re-workings of stories like The Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland or Shakespeare here.

Beheld by Alex Flinn (January 10)

Kendra, a witch, meets James, another witch, in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials, and he rescues her. This is the story of the three hundred years Kendra spends looking for James, while helping those around her find love. (WorldCat) | multiple fairy tales

Drawn Away by Holly Bennett (January 17)

One minute Jack’s in math class. The next, he’s on a dark, cobblestoned, empty street. Empty, that is, except for a skinny girl wrapped in a threadbare shawl. “Matches, mister?” she asks, and just like that, Jack’s life collides with one of Hans Christian Andersen’s grimmest tales. And just when he has almost convinced himself it was just a weird dream, it happens again. Suddenly, Jack’s ideas about what is “real” or “possible” no longer apply.

While he and his new girlfriend, Lucy, struggle to understand who or what the Match Girl is, they come to realize they must also find a way to keep Jack away from her. The Match Girl is not just a sad, lonely soul; she’s dangerous. And each time Jack is drawn into her gray, solitary world, she becomes stronger, more alive…and more attached to Jack. She wants to keep Jack for her very own, even if that means he will die. (Goodreads) | The Little Match Girl

The Wish Granter by C. J. Redwine (February 14)

In this retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, follow the adventures of Ari, an illegitimate princess who, in an effort to escape her twin brother’s fate, trains to be a fighter so that she can defeat an evil wish granter. (WorldCat) | Rumpelstiltskin

Hunted by Meagan Spooner (March 14)

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them.

So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. (Goodreads) | Beauty and the Beast

Geekerella by Ashley Poston (April 4)

Geek girl Elle Wittimer lives and breathes Starfield, the classic sci-fi series she grew up watching with her late father. So when she sees a cosplay contest for a new Starfield movie, she has to enter. The prize? An invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball, and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. With savings from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck (and her dad’s old costume), Elle’s determined to win…unless her stepsisters get there first.

Teen actor Darien Freeman used to live for cons—before he was famous. Now they’re nothing but autographs and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but Starfield fandom has written him off as just another dumb heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise. But when she disappears at midnight, will he ever be able to find her again? (Goodreads) | Cinderella

Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer (April 11)

Half sisters Isabelle and Aurora are polar opposites: Isabelle is the king’s headstrong illegitimate daughter, whose sight was tithed by faeries; Aurora, beautiful and sheltered, was tithed her sense of touch and her voice on the same day. Despite their differences, the sisters have always been extremely close. And then everything changes, with a single drop of Aurora’s blood–and a sleep so deep it cannot be broken.

As the faerie queen and her army of Vultures prepare to march, Isabelle must race to find a prince who can awaken her sister with the kiss of true love and seal their two kingdoms in an alliance against the queen. Isabelle crosses land and sea; unearthly, thorny vines rise up the palace walls; and whispers of revolt travel in the ashes on the wind. The kingdom falls to ruin under layers of snow. Meanwhile, Aurora wakes up in a strange and enchanted world, where a mysterious hunter may be the secret to her escape . . . or the reason for her to stay. (Goodreads) | Sleeping Beauty

My Fairy Godmother is a Drag Queen by David Clawson (May 2)

Chris Bellows is just trying to get through high school and survive being the only stepchild in the social-climbing Fontaine family, whose recently diminished fortune hasn’t dimmed their desire to mingle with Upper East Side society. Chris sometimes feels more like a maid than part of the family. But when Chris’s stepsister Kimberly begins dating golden boy J. J. Kennerly, heir to a political dynasty, everything changes. Because Chris and J. J. fall in love . . . with each other.

With the help of a new friend, Coco Chanel Jones, Chris learns to be comfortable in his own skin, let himself fall in love and be loved, and discovers that maybe he was wrong about his step-family all along. All it takes is one fairy godmother dressed as Diana Ross to change the course of his life. (Goodreads) | Cinderella

The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember (May 4)

Having long-wondered what lives beyond the ice shelf, nineteen-year-old mermaid Ersel learns of the life she wants when she rescues and befriends Ragna, a shield-maiden stranded on the mermen’s glacier. But when Ersel’s childhood friend and suitor catches them together, he gives Ersel a choice: say goodbye to Ragna or face justice at the hands of the glacier’s brutal king.

Determined to forge a different fate, Ersel seeks help from Loki. But such deals are never as one expects, and the outcome sees her exiled from the only home and protection she’s known. To save herself from perishing in the barren, underwater wasteland and be reunited with the human she’s come to love, Ersel must try to outsmart the God of Lies. (Goodreads) | The Little Mermaid

It Started With Goodbye by Christina June (May 9)

Sixteen-year-old Tatum Elsea is bracing for the worst summer of her life. After being falsely accused of a crime, she’s stuck under stepmother-imposed house arrest and her BFF’s gone ghost. Tatum fills her newfound free time with community service by day and working at her covert graphic design business at night (which includes trading emails with a cute cello-playing client). When Tatum discovers she’s not the only one in the house keeping secrets, she finds she has the chance to make amends with her family and friends. Equipped with a new perspective, and assisted by her feisty step-abuela-slash-fairy-godmother, Tatum is ready to start fresh and maybe even get her happy ending along the way. (Goodreads) | Cinderella

Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy edited by Ameriie (July 11)

In this unique YA anthology, thirteen acclaimed, bestselling authors team up with thirteen influential BookTubers to reimagine fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains’ points of view. These fractured, unconventional spins on classics like “Medusa,” Sherlock Holmes, and “Jack and the Beanstalk” provide a behind-the-curtain look at villains’ acts of vengeance, defiance, and rage–and the pain, heartbreak, and sorrow that spurned them on. No fairy tale will ever seem quite the same again! (Goodreads) | multiple fairy tales

Venturess by Betsy Cornwell (August 1)

Young inventor Nicolette Lampton is living her own fairy tale happy ending. She’s free of her horrible step-family, running a successful business, and is uninterested in marrying the handsome prince, Fin. Instead, she, Fin, and their friend Caro venture to the lush land of Faerie, where they seek to put an end to the bloody war their kingdom is waging. Mechanical armies and dark magic await them as they uncover devastating secrets about the past and fight for a real, lasting happily-ever-after for two troubled countries—and for themselves. (Goodreads) | Cinderella

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust (September 5)

A feminist reimagining of the Snow White fairy tale, which follows both of the central female characters from the original story: the princess and her stepmother. (Goodreads) | Snow White

Piper by Jay Asher, Jessica Freeburg, and Jeff Stokely (October 31)

Long ago, in a small village in the middle of a deep, dark forest, there lived a lonely, deaf girl named Maggie. Shunned by her village because of her disability, her only comfort comes from her vivid imagination. Maggie has a gift for inventing stories and dreams of one day finding her fairy-tale love.
When Maggie meets the mysterious Piper, it seems that all her wishes are coming true. Spellbound, Maggie falls hard for him and plunges headfirst into his magical world. But as she grows closer to the Piper, Maggie discovers that he has a dark side. The boy of Maggie’s dreams might just turn out to be her worst nightmare. (Goodreads) | The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao (October 10)

Eighteen-year-old Xifeng is beautiful. The stars say she is destined for greatness, that she is meant to be Empress of Feng Lu. But only if she embraces the darkness within her. Growing up as a peasant in a forgotten village on the edge of the map, Xifeng longs to fulfill the destiny promised to her by her cruel aunt, the witch Guma, who has read the cards and seen glimmers of Xifeng’s majestic future. But is the price of the throne too high?

Because in order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins–sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute. (Goodreads) | Snow White

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning (October)

Pitched as the never-before-told origin story of the sea witch from Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” told in the vein of Wicked – from the villainess’s point of view. (Goodreads) | The Little Mermaid

The Midnight Dance by Nikki Katz (October 17)

Penny is a dancer at the Grande Teatro, a finishing school where she and 11 other young women are training to become the finest ballerinas in Italy. Tucked deep into the woods, the school is overseen by the mysterious and handsome young Master who keeps the girls ensconced in the estate and in the only life Penny has ever known.

When new memories appear, showing a life very different from the one she thought she’d been leading, Penny begins to question the Grand Teatro and the motivations of the Master. With the sweet kitchen boy, Cricket, at her side, Penny vows to escape the confines of her school and the strict rules that dictate every step she takes. But at every turn, the Master finds a way to stop her, and Penny must find a way to escape the school and uncover the secrets of her past before it’s too late. (Goodreads) | The Twelve Dancing Princesses

The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen (November)

A young woman trapped in Never Never Land leads a strike due to the unfair labor practices of the Lost Boys. A young girl is blown away from Kansas and returns as a sophisticated woman with unusual gymnastic abilities. While forging an extraordinary sword, a talented apprentice falters and is left to the mercies of Merlin. Poor Alice’s nemesis has fearsome jaws and claws, but it also lacks essential qualities—like a sense of humor. Enter the Emerald Circus and be astonished by the transformations of your favorite tales. (Goodreads) | multiple fairy tales

Bonus 2018 Title:

Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen (March 2018)

They say Château Beaumont is cursed. But servant-girl Lucie can’t believe such foolishness about handsome Jean-Loup Henri Christian LeNoir, Chevalier de Beaumont, master of the estate. The chevalier’s cruelty is soon revealed, however, and Lucie vows to see him suffer. A wisewoman grants her wish, with a spell that transforms Jean-Loup into monstrous-looking Beast, reflecting the monster he is inside.

But Beast is nothing like the chevalier. Jean-Loup would never patiently tend his roses; Jean-Loup would never attempt poetry; Jean-Loup would never express remorse for the wrong done to Lucie. Gradually, Lucie realizes that Beast is an entirely different creature from the handsome chevalier, with a heart more human than Jean-Loup’s ever was. Lucie dares to hope that noble Beast has permanently replaced the cruel Jean-Loup — until an innocent beauty arrives at Beast’s château with the power to break the spell. (Goodreads) | Beauty and the Beast

A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas

July 25, 2016 |

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of fairy tale retellings. I loved the premise for Rhiannon Thomas’ A Wicked Thing, which focuses on what happens after Sleeping Beauty wakes to find that 100 years have passed and everyone she knew is dead – oh, and she’s supposed to marry the stranger who woke her up.

Aurora’s happily ever after doesn’t start when the prince kisses her. Rather, she’s bewildered by the fact that everyone believes he is her true love, since that was never a part of the story she knew. The story has been embellished over the 100 years she’s been sleeping, and now everyone expects her to marry the prince and help stabilize the kingdom, which has seen many, many kings since Aurora pricked her finger. The current king and queen essentially put her under house arrest, giving her no choice in the matter.

The royal family aren’t the only ones who want to use Aurora for their own ends. There’s a visiting prince who suggests another path for Aurora, but she’s not sure it’s the right one either. She meets a revolutionary boy who wants to overthrow the king (who is quite heavy-handed in his villainy) and use Aurora to help make that happen. And then there’s the evil witch who cursed her in the first place, who has her own designs on Aurora. She’s being pulled in so many directions and she’s not sure she can trust anyone – only herself.

Thomas does a good job portraying just how alone Aurora feels. No doubt many people who know the original or Disney story of Sleeping Beauty have wondered how Aurora must have handled the realization that her entire family and all her friends are dead, and Thomas provides a good explanation. There’s a little bit of magic beyond the initial curse here, too (the “wicked thing” reference in the title), that I felt was a little underdeveloped. Ultimately, the main conflict is what Aurora will decide to do – who will she side with? Is there anyone she can ally with who wants what is best for her, not just to use her to accomplish their own goals? Is it possible for her to have any true friends?

The path Aurora eventually chooses is the only right one, and I was satisfied by it, though it does leave things a bit open-ended. Luckily, there is a sequel! I wouldn’t call this an outstanding example of a fairy tale retelling, but it’s an intriguing one, it’s competently written, and it should satisfy most readers. I look forward to seeing where Thomas takes Aurora next.

What I’m Reading Now: Retellings Edition

September 30, 2015 |

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

I started reading this one before I dove into A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston (there’s still time to enter to win a prize pack at that link, by the way), and they’re interesting read in conjunction with each other. They’re actually quite different in tone – Johnston goes for the ethereal and Ahdieh’s story feels much more grounded. The explanations behind the monstrous rulers’ terrible actions – killing each wife before the sun rises – are different as well, with Johnston’s rooted much more in myth and Ahdieh’s focused on a curse. The Wrath and the Dawn also features a romance, though how it plays out I am not yet far enough in to determine. I like it so far and think it stands perfectly well on its own; neither it nor A Thousand Nights suffers in comparison with the other. I have to admit, though, that I’m a bit predisposed to like Ahdieh’s writing since we share an alma mater.

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

Cinderella seems to be the most-often retold fairy tale, and it’s certainly my favorite. Comparisons to Marissa Meyer’s Cinder are inevitable with this one, since both feature mechanically-inclined protagonists, but Cornwell actually sold her book before Meyer did and so far they’re quite different to me. Mechanica has more of a steampunk feel, and the scope is much smaller – no interplanetary conspiracies. Nicolette – called Mechanica by her stepsisters – is a gifted inventor and does so in secret in the basement, hoping to eventually sell her inventions and make enough money to escape her awful situation. I’ve just begun reading, but I’ve heard this is one of the most feminist retellings of Cinderella yet, so it was a given I’d read it sooner rather than later.

Ash and Bramble by Sarah Prineas

This is another Cinderella retelling, but it also incorporates many aspects of other fairy tales. Pin is locked in a fortress by a fairy Godmother, and she doesn’t know how she got there – or really who she is. She spends her time sewing dresses and eventually escapes with the assistance of a boy, whom we know only as Shoemaker, or Shoe (at least so far). I’ve always really enjoyed re-tellings that mix together different fairy tales or myths into a single storyline (like Fables for adults, or Elissa Sussman’s Stray), and the mythology behind this one – featuring a Story with a capital S controlled in some way by the Godmother – is unique. The issue with re-telling a perennial favorite like Cinderella, a story so old and steeped in western culture, is making it fresh for the reader. This is easier to do with teens, who haven’t been exposed to as much as adult readers, but even so, Prineas’ take feels original – for both teen readers and for oldsters like me. Prineas has written middle grade before; this is her first crack at young adult. The writing is complex and it seems like she’s setting up an equally complex world.