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It’s All Well and Good Until Someone Gets Cursed

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Welcome, welcome to the dying of the year! The days are getting darker, the nights are growing longer, the temperatures are dropping (if you’re far enough North that is), and though Halloween has passed us by for another year, it’s never too late to celebrate dark fiction!

This happens to be my favorite time of year to read fairy tale retellings. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s that my brain associates dark, cold nights with fireplaces, and fireplaces with storytelling? (I blame Jim Henson.) Or maybe it’s that fairy tale retellings often feature a mix of darkness and hope that I find perfect for a time of year characterized by both endings and beginnings. Or maybe it’s simply that fairy tales have always been a part of my life, and there’s a lot of comfort (and serotonin) to be found in retellings that put creative twists on familiar narratives.

Whatever the reason, I have one rule for fairy tale retellings: darker is always better. So I’ve put together a list of sinister retellings that are must haves for my winter TBR, and hopefully for yours too!

A Few Reminders: don’t eat fruit handed to you by strangers; no making deals with overly helpful unknown entities; always stick to the path; spinning wheels are bad, get a better hobby; and, above all, nothing is as it seems so don’t take anything for granted! (See, it always comes back to Jim Henson.)

cover of small favors by erin a craig

Small Favors by Erin A. Craig

Rumpelstiltskin has always been one of my favorite fairy tales. So when I found out that Erin. A Craig – whose House of Salt and Sorrows was a retelling of another fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses – was writing a creepy YA fantasy novel loosely inspired by Rumpelstiltskin, I was over the moon! Ellerie Downing has lived in the town of Amity Falls all her life, in the shadow of Blackspire Mountains and surrounded on all sides by a nearly impenetrable fortress rumored to be full of devils the villagers defeated long ago. But a sudden disappearance disturbs the peace of Amity Falls, raising fears that the monsters may have returned, ready to tempt unwary villagers with promises of desires fulfilled. And in return they ask for so little! What’s a small favor in the face of all you’ve ever wanted?

cover of winterglass by benjanun sriduangkaew

Winterglass by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

So personally, I love Frozen. But if Disney’s (very, VERY) loosely Snow Queen-inspired film didn’t do it for you, may I recommend something a little more… violent? Sirapirat has been locked in endless winter ever since the Winter Queen captured the city-state. In search of the shards of a powerful magic mirror. General Lussadh carries one of those mirror shards in her heart, making her unwaveringly loyal to winter. Her job is to find the remaining “glass-bearers”, and her search eventually leads her to Nuawa, whose only mission in life is to destroy the Winter Queen. Add in one brutal, deadly tournament in which the victors become part of the Queen’s army, the loser’s souls are forfeit, and there’s a complicated romance growing between general and insurgent, and you’ve got all the makings of an epic queer retelling that also happens to be seasonally on point!

cover of For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten

Little Red Riding Hood really is the perfect fairy tale for adaptation. It’s dark, borderline scary (some versions are downright gruesome). It pits a young girl against a violent, predatory, sexually coded figure, and it’s all set against the back drop of a vast, threatening forest. In other words, it’s pretty much the proto-plot for any number of horror stories. Red is the original final girl. And when it comes to dark retellings, For the Wolf definitely delivers! Red is a Second Daughter, the first in centuries, which means that her one purpose in life is to be sacrificed. The Wolf in the Wood holds the world’s gods captive and every second daughter born is sacrificed in hopes that he might release them. But what she finds in the depths of the Wilderwood is a tangle of lies, and everything she thought she knew about her world comes undone.

Cover of Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente (November 9th)

The release date of Comfort Me With Apples got delayed late last month because of the almighty and terrible supply chain issues that are currently plaguing publishing, but the day is finally here! Tomorrow this chilling, enchanting Bluebeard retelling enters the world, and I could not be more excited. Sophia knows nothing but the reality of her perfect, sheltered, beloved life behind the safe walls of Arcadia Gardens. She was made to be her husband’s little darling, that’s her whole life. Sophie has never questioned her existence, or how she came to exist. Until one day the arrival of a stranger in Arcadia Gardens threatens to overturn her peaceful existence and reveal the terrible truth that hides behind the basement door her husband forbids her to open.

Briar Girls cover

Briar Girls by Rebecca Kim Wells (November 16th)

Can I just say how much of a struggle it was to choose a Sleeping Beauty adaptation when I had three amazing, queer retellings to choose from? But ultimately I chose Briar Girls because I’m a sucker for a mysterious forest. Lena has spent her whole life living in fear of her curse, a touch that can kill. She and her father live in a tiny village near the Silence, a dense forest that few are foolish enough to enter, and fewer still return from. Until the day that Miranda emerges from the trees, on a quest to wake a fabled sleeping princess that may be able to save her home city. Miranda promises to break Lena’s curse in exchange for the other girl’s help in completing her mission, but the further into the forest they travel, the more Lena beings to suspect that not everything is as it seems.

Fresh From the Skeleton’s Mouth

Nightworms featured an interview on their blog with authors Beverley Lee and NIcole Eigener, all about Vampires!

V. Castro’s books Goddess of Filth and The Queen of Cicadas both made it onto the Brom Stoker Reading List!

We’ve got a brand new podcast over at Book Riot! Adaptation Nation is all about TV and film adaptations of your favorite books! And given this glorious genre renaissance in which we find ourselves, you just know some of those adaptations are going to be horror!

As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.