Top 10 Fairy Tale Retellings

So, I’m linking up with Top Ten Tuesday, which is hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish! I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but I decided I wanted to right after they decided to take a month and a half long break. Soooo… bad timing.

This week’s theme was ‘Ten book recommendations for ______________: (Skies the limit here…examples: for Hufflepuffs, for fans of Game of Thrones, for people who don’t normally read YA, for animal lovers, for video game lovers, etc.)’ and I decided to do Ten book recommendations for people who like fairy tale retellings. Because I’m obsessed with fairy tale retellings. And I can easily name ten fairy tale retellings. So, fairy tale retellings it is!

A couple of these are MG not YA, because I was still reading a lot of MG when I was reading the most fairy tale retellings.

1 – A Curse Dark as Gold

by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Retelling of: Rumpelstiltskin

This is one of my absolute favourite fairy tale retellings. It’s a great book, and I highly recommend it! I haven’t read it for quite a while, but I do remember loving the characters, and thinking it was really well written. The plot was incredibly gripping. There was a… spookiness*… to it, which I normally don’t like, but in this it only made the book better. I think the only way I can accurately describe how this book made me feel is WOW!

*Spooky is totally not the right word, but it was better than creepy. Eerie maybe.

2 – Zel

by Donna Jo Napoli

Retelling of: Rapunzel

This book is… also WOW. Although I didn’t like it quite as much as A Curse Dark as Gold, I thought it was definitely just as good a book. It was… I don’t know, it just blew me away. By the end of the book, Zel was… depressed, and starting to go insane. Because she’d been locked in a tower for half her life, and really, I can see how that would lead to those things.

3 – Ice

by Sarah Beth Durst

Retelling of: East of the Sun, West of the Moon

I’m not sure if East of the Sun, West of the Moon is strictly a fairy tale, but I quite like the story of it, and this book is amazing! So I’m counting it. Ice is so good I love it! So! Much! I’m not really sure why I didn’t put it above Zel. But I’m too lazy to move it now.
Once again, I really need to reread this, so I don’t remember it all that well, but from what I do remember, I loved the main character Cassie. She was really, really great! She’s probably better if you know the original story, the character in that is a bit lame, but she’s an amazing character anyway.

4 – A Kiss in Time

by Alex Flinn

Retelling of: Sleeping Beauty

This book is sort of great. I love love LOVE the concept of it. It’s set in the real world, and 300 years ago, Talia fell asleep… and now, in modern times Jack wakes her up. And it’s great, because then she has to get used to all the new stuff, like cars, and tvs. Not to mention clothes. Because Talia is NOT impressed by modern clothing, she’s used to ball gowns. Also she wants to marry Jack, and he’s like Nope, not happening. And it’s just great.

5 – Princess of the Midnight Ball, Princess of Glass, and Princess of the Silver Woods

by Jessica Day George

Retellings of: (in order) The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Cinderella, & Little Red Riding Hood

This was one of my favourite series when I was a bit younger, and I still love it. These books are hilarious. They’re well written. I LOVE the twists she gives the fairytales. The only problem I have with them is the timeline (which I seem to like to rant about). Unless I completely misunderstood, book two takes place three years after book one, and book three take place ten years after book one. However, there’s only three years between book two and book three. No, just no.

6 – Ella Enchanted

by Gail Carson Levine

Retelling of: Cinderella

This book is probably the first fairy tale retelling I ever read, so it has a special place in my heart. I love it so much. It also has such a cool concept, Ella is cursed with obedience, so she has to do whatever she is told. Which sounds absolutely awful!
It’s also a sort of hilarious book, so many parts just leave me cracking up.

7 – The World Above

by Cameron Dokey

Retelling of: Jack and the Beanstalk with a little bit of Robin Hood

I love this book an unreasonable amount. It has a meh plot, and terribly developed romance, but it’s hilarious. The characters aren’t all that well developed, but I love them anyways.
It does have a cool concept, I like the world, and it’s a fun read when you have a bit of time, and want a light read.

8 – Spindle’s End

by Robin KcKinley

Retelling of: Sleeping Beauty

This is an interesting version of sleeping beauty, it starts with a girl, who somehow ends up hiding the baby princess, Rosie, and then as she grows up, it starts to change to Rosies perspective.
I LOVE Rosie, she’s so not princess-y at all, and I love her. So. Much.

9 – Just Ella

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Retelling of: Cinderella (Again, there’s a lot of cinderella retellings out there)

Although this book isn’t my favourite, I really like the concept… She was chosen only for her beauty, and the prince is a jerk, and a bit of an idiot. She doesn’t really want to marry him anymore… But… you can’t really tell a prince you don’t want to marry him.

10 – Snow

by Tracy Lynn

Retelling of: Snow White

This is a historical fiction, sort of science-y version of snow white. It was interesting, but honestly, I read it long enough ago that I can’t really remember all that much about it.
It was good though. I remember liking it.

Have you read any of these? Do you like fairy tale retellings? What’s your favourite?