Show Me Your... Fairy Tale Retellings

Show Me Yours is our new discussion post where we ask for your book recommendations on a different subject each month.

Recently, I had a hankering to read a fairy tale retelling but there are so many out there now that I don't know where to start. Fairy tales have been a solid part of my reading diet since I’ve been small. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I grew up during the time when Disney was releasing some of their most popular fairy tale based animated movies. I remember going to see The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin in the theater! Not to mention, my sisters and I wore out the VHS tapes of Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.

After growing up on Disney movies and the dark fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, I discovered my first fairy tale retelling in Ella Enchanted and I haven’t turned back. I love reading both a story that is familiar but yet different at the same time. I’ve devoured retellings of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Donkeyskin, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Snow White, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, and many more. And if it’s a retelling of an obscure fairy tale, I'll read it just because so you can just take my money now.

I’ll admit that I’ve read some truly terrible retellings. But for every terrible one, I’ve found one that has blown my socks off! And I’ll be honest, if given the choice between a fairy tale retelling and a super popular contemporary, I’ll choose the fairy tale retelling every time. I've read a lot of the popular retellings like Spindle's End, Beauty, Uprooted, and The Lunar Chronicles. I know there's been a Fairy Tale Retelling revival recently especially in YA. Have you read any of them? I need recs badly!

Here's Gretl to get it started:

I haven't read many retellings, though I have a ton of them in my TBR pile - A Court of Thorns and Roses, Dorothy Must Die, The Lunar Chronicles, The White Rabbit Chronicles, and probably some others I'm forgetting. But I can recommend a few.

Christina Henry's Alice was one of my favorite books of 2015. It's one of the rare adult retellings, and we're talking NC-17 adult here. Alice was institutionalized after her first trip to the Old City, but when the asylum burns down she and and her fellow inmate Hatcher escape. Alice is forced to confront her fears and starts to understand the memories that terrorized her for the last ten years as they navigate a world of run by magical mobsters. The sequel, Red Queen, comes out this summer.

For more on this title, check out

My review of Alice

The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury is the first retelling of Aladdin's story that I've seen. It's told from the jinni's point of view and delves into the jinn mytholgy, which I thought was really interesting. I had a few issues with the story, but the YA community is loving it. It was featured in a subscription box last month and has gotten great reactions so you might want to give it a try.

For more on this title, check out

My review of The Forbidden Wish

What are your favorite Fairy Tale Retellings? Why do you think I should give them a chance?

Now let us show you ours!
We're going to spotlight some of our favorite retellings we've reviewed on the blog throughout the week.

If you have a genre or topic you'd like to see in a Show Me Yours post, let us know in the comments or send us a Facebook message or email goldiloxandthethreeweres@gmail.com.