Once Upon A Time in YA ~ Fairy Tales Re-Told

Whether you're looking for bold re-imaginings, modern twists, or fantasy turned science fiction, the following list has a little bit of everything. Click on titles to request the book for your local Lake County Public Library branch, or come in and check us out today

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (Book 1 of The Lunar Chronicles)

Enter Cinder, a young mechanic cyborg who lives at the whims of her step-mother and step-sisters and dreams of a time when she can escape to a life on her own. But when a terrible tragedy strikes her family Cinder is wrenched from the life she's known and put into a scientific study, destined to be one more who dies in the quest to cure the disease that is ravaging the earth. This is fantasy meets sci-fi, the plot taking place in the distant future. Packed with action and narrated by a very relatable main character, it's easy to forget that this is basically Cinderella in space, because it is simply a whole story of its own. Don't forget to check out the next titles in the series Scarlet, Cress, and Winter. Meyer manages to pay homage to the original stories while winding them all into a continual story arch all it's own.

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

We all know the story of Cinderella. But what happens after? Is it really happily ever after? This novel is a continuation of the classic tale, following Ella as she struggles to fit into a life she isn't quite sure she really belongs in. Can a girl who was hardly more than a kitchen maid be a princess? Does she really want to be anyway? If you've ever thought about what happens after, this is the book for you.

Zel by Donna Jo Napoli 

Unlike many Rapunzel stories where the reader is shown nothing but a villainous witch who only uses the child for her benefit, Zel delves into the idea of Repunzel's mother being a woman who does truly love the daughter she has raised. What's more, this mother has given up everything for the chance to raise her. But with a chance encounter of a young prince, their carefully laid out lives take a sudden twist for the worst and Zel's mother will do the unspeakable to make sure she doesn't lose her daughter.

Golden by Cameron Dokey

This is not the Rapunzel story you think you know. Instead of being stolen, Rapunzel's mother willingly gives away the daughter she can't stand the sight of. For 16 years a powerful sorceress raises her, only to reveal that she has another daughter and that Rapunzel is the only one who can save her from a curse. Filled with twists and turns, this story is an interesting new take on the old tale.

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

Based on the fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, this novel follows Rose, one of the forced dancers in an underground palace. She and the other princesses are caught under a spell and with the help of a young soldier they endeavor to break it. They must find three magical ingredients, as well as true love if they want to escape. However, the real enemy might be in the world above rather than the underground they are trapped in. This is a magical tale that delves into a lesser known fairy tale and is also book one in a trio. Check out Princess of Glass and Princess of the Silver Woods to get the whole of the Princesses of Westfalin story.

Wildwood Dancing  by Juliet Marillier

This novel is a twist on The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but one that makes the story entirely it's own. High in the Transylvanian woods live five princesses, happy and content with their lives at home with their loving father. Main character Jena spends her time exploring the world around her, and her special joy is a portal that opens only to her and her sisters during the full moon. The girls walk through into the world of fairy and dance the night together. However when their father falls ill their cousin Cezar enters their lives, kindness and help disguising his true thirst for power. When one of the princesses falls in love with a dark fey, Jena must work to save not only her kingdom and family but the Other Kingdom through the portal as well.

Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of the Little Mermaid by Debbie Viguie

Long ago a fisherman saves a baby from the sea. Yearning to raise her, they keep the child and name her Pearl, ignoring her strange looks and behavior as she grows from a child into a young woman. Outcast from the village, set apart from other girls who are beginning to marry, Pearl begins a secret friendship with the Prince of her Kingdom. But their fragile relationship is threatened when a plot against the kingdom comes from the depths of the sea. This re-imagining takes a different look at mermaid lore, rather than re-hashing the same old story.

Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli

Sirena is a siren, living under the whims of the Goddess Hera. But her tender heart cannot leave the lone survivor of a shipwreck to drown. She saves the man, breaking the Goddesses rules. As the two begin to fall in love they realize that their path together isn't a simple one. This is a lyrical and soothing story, lulling the reader into a sense of wonder and magic. Not the classic story of the Little Mermaid or the tale of the sirens, this is somewhere in between.

Beauty Sleep: A Retelling of Sleeping Beauty by Cameron Dokey

This is the Sleeping Beauty story we all know, but with a princess who isn't waiting for her destiny to do its dirty work. When she finds out that her curse will also affect her entire beloved kingdom of people, she sets out on a quest to change her fate. This one is for those who enjoy brave girls who take their lives into their own hands.

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

This is a fairy-tale mixed with the horrors of real life. Rebecca has always listened to her grandmother (Gemma's) stories about Briar Rose, otherwise known as sleeping beauty. But as her Gemma lays dying, she begins to say something astonishing: that she is, in fact, Briar Rose. Rebecca goes on a quest through the past to find the truth, leading her through a history that none of us should forget. Though this is essentially a Holocaust story, there is a lot of the fairy-tale still in the story, making for an interesting twist on the story we all know.

Thorn by Intisar Khanani

Thorn is the story of Princess Allyra, a young woman who has never had any power over her life despite her royal life. Forced into an arranged marriage with a foreign royal, Allyra travels to meet her new fate. However, in a magical attack gone wrong Allyra's identity is switched with another woman. Suddenly she has a freedom she never expected to have. She could fight for her almost betrothed, or give herself a new life, unencumbered of the duty that bound her before. She never expects the Prince to be someone worth fighting for, but he surprises her. She finds that if she turns her back on him, his life is forfeit, but if she stays she risks her own life. Based on the fairy tale, The Goose Girl, this story is all about the choices we make and the trust we must learn to put in ourselves.

East by Edith Pattou

Always feeling out of place and alone in the world, Rose jumps at the chance to escape her life. When a giant white bear appears to her, asking her to come away with him, she knows this is the magical chance she has always been waiting for. She comes to live in a faraway castle where each day she must solve a mystery to learn what her purpose in the world as well as help the bear who is the victim of dark magic. This is a fantastical re-telling of East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

Beauty by Robin McKinley

This is a story of a girl who is not a beauty, as her nickname suggests. But she does have courage.  When her father gets lost in an enchanted forest, he returns to tell her that he made a terrible deal. One of his daughters must go to the beast that lives there, all because of the father's reckless taking of a rose. Beauty knows she must go, and leaves of her own choice to meet the fate ahead of her. This is a magical story that pulls the reader in, filling the original story with new life.

Beastly by Alex Flinn

With a gender twist, this is a modern day re-interpretation of the Beauty and the Beast story. Kyle is a rich freshman, with all the good looks and money a guy could need at his fancy-pants New York prep school. But he chooses the wrong girl in his English class to insult and suddenly finds himself turned into a hideous beast. With his father ashamed to even look at him, Kyle is shut into a house on the outskirts of town, kept company by a maid and a blind tutor. Kyle feels doomed, especially because the witch who cursed him gave him only way out: if he can find someone who loves him as he is within two years, the curse will lift. But who can love him as a beast? This is the story from the beast's side, as he learns that he doesn't have to be beastly outside as well as in.

The Crimson Thread: A Retelling of Rumplestiltskin by Suzanne Weyn

In the year 1880 young Bertie is a seamstress happy to find work in the home of a textile tycoon. But when the business is threatened, her father makes a boast that she will live to regret: surely his daughter can save the business, because her sewing is so perfect she can practically spin gold. And she does what she can, but with the help of a man from her tenement. He spins with a magnificent crimson thread, and all he wants is her firstborn child in return for his help. It isn't until it's too late that she realizes she might have agreed to something she wasn't willing to own up to. 

Cloaked in red by Vivian Vande Velde

For anyone who has ever wanted more from the story of little red riding hood, this book is for you. Made up of eight short re-tellings of the same story, Velde looks at the same old story from every side. She capitalizes on an already weird story to take a look at the quirky side of things.

Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire

In an exquisite exploration of Russian folklore, this story follows Elana, an impoverished girl from the countryside. When a train filled to the brim with food and treasures arrives in their town, it carries a noble family on their way to meet the Tsar of Russia. When Elana's life collides with the young noble Ekaterina, the two are set on an adventure neither expected filled with magic, mistaken identity, and even a run in with the dreaded Baba Yaga of Russian myth.

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

When Sophie is orphaned, a mysterious invitation from a Godfather she's never known is the only avenue forward. She leaves her life behind for the lavish existence at Wyndriven Abbey where she, despite herself, drawn to the wealth and charm of her enigmatic guardian. But there are whispers all around, of past wives with hair as red as hers, and a mystery that is inescapable. The further she goes the more trapped she knows she is. A tale of mystery and romance, this is a play on the fairytale of Blue Beard in a reimagining that takes place in antebellum Mississippi.

Fairest of All by Serina Valentino

This novel is part of a series that takes a look at the villain side of Disney movies. For anyone who loves Disney already and would like to dive further in, this would be a great one to read. Fairest of All follows the Wicked Queen from snow white to find out exactly why she is the way she is. Don't forget to check out the other books in this series including, The Beast Within, Poor Unfortunate Soul, and Mistress of All Evil.

Violet Eyes by Debbie Viguie

Violet never expected to fall in love with a prince, and it seems that his parents weren't bargaining for it either. In this re-telling of the Princess and the Pea, Violet must compete against other real princesses in royal tests to prove she is worthy of a prince. This novel is more of an expansion on the fairytale and would be of interest to anyone who loves once upon a times and happily ever afters.

For the proest voters I offended - hear me out.

I'd like to start things out with a bit of a preface on me. For anyone who does not know me I'm a very headstrong woman who is not afraid to voice my thoughts and opinions. I'm also stubborn and have a really hard time backing down once I've gotten riled. That being said, I'd like to say that I can admit when I'm wrong.

At the peak of election night I re-posted and added to a post needling third-party voters about the protest votes. This post upset some people and by the next day there was a very heated argument and tears on both sides, in a way that only Facebook seems to feed up best. I generally stand by my opinions, but in that moment when I stood over my phone, I realized something that made me feel even more sick than I did over this election debacle. I was helping the chaos spread just as much as every racist bigot who came out of the woodwork and showed their true colors. I still stand by my opinions. I have yet to see or believe that the protest vote is the right way to go about things. However, in my approach I didn't focus on the real problems we are facing - but instead attacked those who, like me, are trying to make a difference. In these moments after the election I feel like it will make or break our country. I've seen a lot of people arguing and dividing, people hiding behind their doors refusing to believe reality. But none of this is going to make things any better, it's only going to make it worse. So much worse. We are stronger together, and we are going to need every single one of us who stands on the side of justice and equality to fight in whatever way we can to keep this country's head above water. This means figuring out the real enemy - racism, sexism, xenophobia - and standing united against it.

Things need to change and though there are a lot of different views on how this can get done, we need to stick together to make it work. So for those of you who I upset, am I ashamed of my opinions? No. Am I ashamed that I divided those of us who can be allies in this, blamed the wrong people, and acted in an inflammatory fashion that was beneath me? Yes. I'm not going to take all the blame for everyone's actions, but I know when I have something to apologize for. So this is me apoligising not only because I don't revel in hurting those I care about - really hurting anyone at all, but because I want to make positive change in the world, not negative.

Everyone who made a choice did so for their own reasons and I respect that. We have freedom of choice for a reason. What I fight against are those who wish to use their freedom of choice to take away the freedom of others or further trample and abuse minority people. If anyone else feels like that I believe we should be on the same side regardless of who we voted for.

Our system in America is really messed up. Our government, the politics, and our politicians are really messed up. It is up to us to work each day to make that change. While I believe that it was the wrong time to push the protest vote, I understand what these voters were working for. I get their motives and even agree with what they want the final outcome to be. Yes I was angry, I'm still angry. I feel like there could have been better times ahead for the protest vote to have more heft. However what's done is done and I really have enough people to fight against at this point. It was wrong of me to blame them for the full fallout in the way I did, even if I had my reasons.

So though I don't roll over and submit to people, give up my opinion easily in the face of adversity, or let any one silence me, I can admit when I'm wrong.

Standing together is more important than my opinion on a protest vote. And standing with those I care about can be more important than my opinion. So I hope that maybe more of us can stand together and not let this thing divide us when we need each other, need love, and need hope, more than ever.

Regret

When I was thirteen,

I was desperately afraid of being different.

So much so that I got rid of priceless and irreplaceable parts

of my childhood,

all in an obscure effort to fit in.

Now at 25 I wear my differences like armor,

my words tempered weapons

– fuck the world if they have a problem with it.

Except somewhere along the way I,

in my mad dash to never be pushed down,

I started being the one who pushed others.

But it was okay if it was in the defense of what was right?

Right?

When does pushing back start to become pushing down?

When did I decide that my pride was more important than my best friend?

Regret is s paperweight safety pinned to my heart,

tearing me apart with every sway of my halting steps.

I imagine you showing up at my door

– the relief I’d feel knowing you could forgive me

for telling you that you weren’t worth it.

Why was I so surprised to find that when I told you to go,

you walked away –

when I asked you to come back

you decided I wasn’t worth that trouble.

I tore myself apart with the silence

I created when I hurt you.

It was an argument that turned into a flood.

I still keep afloat on my convictions,

but I should have taken your hand when you reached for me,

to try to pull me from the water we created.

Regret is a paperweight.

Maybe someday the weight will feel less. 

Let me tell you a story

I have a friend, the kind of person you wish wasn’t in your life. You know the type: someone who’s been in your life for as long as you remember, but not in the good way. Instead of hours of childhood bliss spent wiling away the hours you’re still able to kill, there is no giggling fun and lighthearted dream spinning. Instead all you ever remember is every bad thing this person said or did to you, how shitty they made you feel, and how mad they still make you.

For the sake of this story let’s call my friend Debs. I don’t know why I keep letting Debs come around. She’s dead weight and I should tell her to hit the road. Still she comes around and I can’t say no. I let her come in and I listen – to everything. She tells me how incompetent I am. I can’t do my job, not at all – according to her. I won’t accomplish my dreams, so why try. When Debs comes to stay she takes a perverse pleasure in wrestling me down and making me realize that I’m empty. She won’t listen either, not about my loving husband, my good job, the wonderful house I live in. She shakes her head, disregards everything I have that’s beautiful and wonderful in my life. Then she tells me I’m empty. That I have nothing. That I am nothing. And there’s no point in even trying to change any of it because I am a pretty useless mediocre person. When she says all this, I nod slowly. I can feel the way my stomach dips, the sinking hopelessness in my middle where there should be something to hold onto, something to make me feel real.

The worst part about Debs, is I feel like I can’t really tell anyone about her. A guilt looms over me whenever I see the very things I tried to show Debs so futilely moments ago. How can I complain when I have so much? How can I be such a horrible person to dare to be unhappy when so many more have it worse?

In these moments I’m so sure that Debs is right – about everything. I can feel myself sinking into a nothingness I almost embrace. It isn’t until much later that I realize something very important. Debs is a cunt. That’s right, I said it. She’s a self-serving bitch who takes advantage of my every insecurity and I seriously need to throw her out on her ass.

Now I’m going to tell you something else. Debs isn’t a real person. I made her up. But she is very real to me because she lives inside me. Debs is my depression. She makes me feel horrible, alone, useless, worthless. It takes a lot of time, practice, and love from those around me before I can tell Debs to fuck off.

For those of you who have your own Debs, you are not alone. And though your depression might make you feel ashamed, don’t believe that bitch. Depression isn’t something you should be ashamed of. Every life is fit for the person who lives it, every good and bad thing unique to that person. We are allowed to feel pain, and let others know and understand it. As much as I’d love to say that this is a success story, where I tell depression to tuck and roll as I kick her out of a moving car – I’m not going to be a liar. Depression will probably always be a part of me, waiting to prey on me when I least expect or want it. Maybe it’s a part of my brain chemistry – or maybe it’s just me. But I won’t let depression win – and I hope neither will you.

Maybe this bad friend has come to visit you lately so I want you to know a few things. You are loved. You have a lot going for you. Depression is a dirty lying whore. But most of all, it’s okay to be upset, to be sad, and to let people know. I hope you can tell your depression to fuck off soon.

So here goes everything – fuck off Debs. *slams door*

Social Networks and the Writer

There is a common stereotype that has come about that authors are the unicorns of the professional world. Moody, easily spooked, and obviously to be treated with extreme caution, writers are all obviously social recluses that are allowed this by their profession. After all they get to sit about in their pjs all day writing.

This is sadly, not a true fact, and is actually quite the opposite. Anyone can write. It takes devoted fans to make a writer and author. To get fans you have to (you guessed it!) socialize with people! (Gasp).

Now, for those of you who are already edging away with a look of horror, don't leave me just yet. There is a way to do this without ever leaving your home, or those comfy jamjams. The saving grace of that ever reclusive writer is, social networking. I'm sure you've heard of it, it's hard not to. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, blogging. This is how so many authors are getting their start. This is how they are getting out there before their words have ever actually hit print. Social networking.

As an aspiring published author myself, I have dutifully done my part and started to cull what I have fondly started to think of as my perspective minion following. I blog actively through this blog. What I post here I advertise through my own private Facebook, inviting perspective family and friends to become readers and take a look. I do the same on my professional twitter, my two Tumblr blogs, and Goodreads. I reach out through every medium possible and search for my readers. Writing is hardly even the half of it. You need readers for much of anything else. Betas to help you edit, like minded bloggers and writers to give you advice and help you along, and followers to spread your word. With as many social networks as I juggle I do have to give a word to the wise. Pick your favorite and then go with it, give it your all. If you are spread too thin then you won't get much of anything anywhere. I know I know, even to me saying I run three functioning blogs, a Facebook, a Twitter, LinkedIn Pinterest, and a Goodreads account sounds pretty impressive. But it took me awhile to realize that it takes a lot of devotion to really get the results and you just can't do that when you're looking in eight different directions at once. For now I focus primarily on this blog and my twitter for my writing and it has worked much better. By blogging original content here at least a few times a month, and trying to adhere to at least one tweet a day on twitter, my followings (at least on twitter) have gone up substantially. If you get off track as well, no worries! Just do your best to jump back on. Life is crazy and I'm not going to pretend that I always find time to tweet or write a blog post. But I try my best even so.

The online world can be a scary place, and I won't act like it isn't daunting trying to build from nothing. But you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Give it a try and see what happens.

And as always, keep writing!

Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead

Trapped, by her own people, struggling to survive and keep her own sanity: this is what Sydney's life has become. Re-education isn't really as bad as everyone said it would be. It's worse. The only thing she can do is keep fighting and repeat to herself that the center will hold and that Adrian will come for her. But even here, in a place fraught with danger and enemies, Sydney can't help but push the lines in a quest to do what's right.

Outside, Adrian is doing everything he can think of to find and save Sydney, but with no results. How can the center hold when he is helpless? Spirit is rising within him and it feels good, but Aunt Tatiana is growing louder. Not even partying himself senseless can get rid of her, or fill the hole Sydney left behind.

As Adrian teeters closer to the edge than ever before, it's clear that both of them are reaching their darkest hour. Their love is strong, but can it bring them back together and into the light?

This novel is the fifth installment of the action packed Bloodlines series, add on to the already established world created for Mead's Vampire Academy. For those who haven't read these series, go do now! If you want to hear what I had to say about the previous two books in the series, click the titles to find my reviews of The Indigo Spell and The Fiery Heart. Yes, yes I can already hear you Pleeeeeeeaase not another teenage vampire book. However, I can assure this one is worth your time. Witty and fast paced, Mead's writing has the reader holding on from page one, on point from beginning to end.

To say I am a fan of Richelle Mead's writing is, at best, an understatement. I don't think there is a thing I've read by her that I haven't loved. There is just something about her style that just gets me as a reader. She develops characters that are beautifully mutli-faceted and real. Her plot is a roller-coaster half part mystery and full part intense. Best of all, the cadence of her narration, no matter who it is, is unique and interesting. Silver Shadows is no exception. In fact I'd say Mead's writing and story telling only get better with each new book. Sydney has become one of my all-time favorite fictional characters. Strong, intelligent, and kick ass and that's only scraping the surface. I've become so invested in her character that reading each new book in this series is a heart-in-the-mouth experience as I fly through the pages praying everything turns out alright.

I don't want to give too much away about the plot, so I'm just going to say that I was very VERY pleased with how things turned out. I suppose some might not be as enraptured by it all, but that opinion is not mine. I will definitely warn it is emotionally trying. There were tears of pain and joy shed throughout. Yeah, that's a thing I forgot to mention. Read her books, get attached, then prepare to cry. Mead is a great writer. She's also great at torturing her own creations and the readers as a result. It's still worth it, because as Ron Weasley once said, "You're gonna suffer, but you're gonna be happy about it.'

Prepare to go from this:

to this:

and back again.

A note on the end [don't proceed if you don't want to know]

The fact that they made it through what they did could be accused of being convenient at the very least. However, I maintain, IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. ANJSKABFDJASHJ. That is all.

Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed by Michelle Knight with Michelle Buford

On May 6, 2013, it was all over the news: the recovery of three kidnapped women, held in captivity by an Ohio man for over ten years. Michelle Knight, the first of the kidnapped victims, has come forward with the help of writer Michelle Buford to tell her side of the hellish experience she was forced to endure. A tale of darkness, Michelle relates her struggles that started from long before she was kidnapped. 

As so often happens for me when I read memoirs, I always can't help but wonder how much is really true, how much shifts in the telling, what is lost and gained. From what I've come to understand of life and storytelling, even the purest intentions can lead astray because no one view is ever truly objective. Sometimes with a good memoir, I forget these questions, the story well written enough to keep me going, real or not real. This was not one of those stories. 

Though I was pulled through the story in an overall engrossing 'can't turn away from something grossly disturbing' sort of way, there were parts of it that were hard for me to swallow. Not to do with anything factually present or not, but more in relation to the writing of the prose and delivery of the story. The story is written as if it is happening in real time, though thankfully in past tense. Still, throughout much of the writing there is a lot of direct quoting as well as pinpoint detail on things already described earlier on as memories that had all 'blurred together'. For me, this sort of attempt at narration pulls me more out of the story than into it, because I often get caught up arguing in my head about whether or not one could actually remember something in so minute a detail. However, I do believe that what Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus, and Amanda Berry went through was horrific enough to be imprinted on their minds forever. I'm not in any way trying to silence or disregard the story or this woman's words. My bone to pick is simply with the narrative style. 

Another thing to do with the writing that I still don't know how I feel about is the amateur style of the narrative. It is obvious that this story might not have become a best seller were it not for the nature of the memoir and the news blast that came from it. It at once bugged me, and yet also made me feel like the story was more authentic. After all, Knight states over and over that she barely got through a few years of high school. It would stand to reason that she would still be incredibly behind on grammar and other writing techniques once she began to try and write down her experience.

All in all the book is poignant and hard to read. Given the nature of her descriptions, coupled with the style, I don't think I'd recommend it, but I will say that it has continued to stick with me long after I finished.