Fractured Fairytales

In all of literature there are hundreds of genres. Every person finds their little cubby-hole filled with familiar sights and sounds that lulls you into a deep trance that doesn't end until the book is closed.

Fractured fairytales are my little nook.

I have heard people ask me if I feel like I'm reading the same book over and over, but it has never felt that way to me. To me I get to step into someone else's childhood home and explore a bit. I think most of us have pretended to be some fictional character at some time or another. I have gone through Madeline, Belle, Cinderella, and so many other beloved characters, but what brought the most fun was infusing those characters I so admired with my own personality, dreams, and aspirations.

Suddenly they all had older brothers and younger sisters, they were forced to go to school, or they had powers stolen from another magical tale.

Authors who can successfully write a fractured fairytale are masters in my mind. As I said before, they are taking characters and plots that we have all visited a million times in our dreams, and changing them. They have to change them enough so that it is original, but not enough that the reader will not feel as if their gems have been violated. It is a hard balance to find, so to help you all discover my own love of these nostalgic tales, I am writing a list of my favorite fractured fairytales below.

Princess of the Midnight Ball
- Jessica Day George (and any other of her books and fractured fairytales)

The Looking Glass Wars
- Frank Beddor

The Goose Girl
- Shannon Hale

Wildwood Dancing
- Juliet Marillier

East
- Edith Pattou (If you only read one book from this list, this should be it)

The Folktales Series
- Robin Mckinley

Beastly
- Alex Flinn

Fairest
- Gail Carson Levine

The Storyteller's Daughter
- Cameron Dokey (another of my favorites along with her other fractured fairytales)

Midnight Pearls
- Debbie Viguié

The Lunar Chronicles (of course)
- Marissa Meyer

(If you ever want more suggestions, I really held myself back on this list so feel free to ask for more!)

Comments

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

OK, before anyone judges my harsh review of this much beloved book, I have to defend my two star review. My first complaint is the voice. I have grown up in a family of 8 children, I have many cousins with young children whom I am close to, I babysit, and I am generally very familiar with children. This book felt like it was going between the voice of a two and twenty year old. That took away from the story to me. I am also well travelled and have German family. The Holocaust has long fascinated me and I still have memories of visiting concentration camps at a young age and being physically ill over what I learned and saw. One of my favorite movies is La Vita é Bella (please watch it). This book did not line up with a lot of the history of WWII that I have read. Also, the extreme ignorance of the main character is unbelievable. The concept is good and I feel like putting children in the context of some of the world's greatest tragedies is a powerful tool, I just felt ...

"Rebel Belle"

I am not the kind of person who will reads the books synopsis before starting it. In order my priorities in choosing books are: 1. Author Style 2. Friend Recommendation 3. Popularity 4. Teacher Recommendation 5. Author 6. Cover 7. The Synopsis (always my last resort) Given my dislike for spoilers, I downloaded Rebel Belle on my phone and finished listening to it in 2 days. I had no idea what to expect, but it certainly was words like "paladin" or "oracle" being calmly discussed in a classy southern drawl. I did not expect heels to become weapons or for me to be furious when an opportunity to break the enemy's neck is lost. I am not a violent person, and I do not like violent books. And while there was fighting, I was never disturbed by it. It is kind of like how the main character refuses to use the "F" word (which I much appreciated). There is an air of class thrown over the whole thing and you come out wondering if you want to move to the...

For Darkness Shows the Stars ~Diana Peterfreund

I am so excited to share this book with you! In a quick one sentence descriptions: this book is Cinder meets Persuasion. In a world recovering from the effects of genetic modification gone wrong, the population is split between the Luddite nobility and the Reduced. The Reduced have a limited mental capacity which makes them perfect slaves, but that has been changing. Enter Kai (yes, I realize the name is the same from Cinder, but they came out around the same time and he is just as dreamy if not more) and Elliot, both from the two very separated classes, but united in their love for adventure. Their story plays out as an awesome feminist and unique retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion. I love the original story, so I was wary of anyone messing with it, but I approve and am currently in the midst of the second book which a retelling of *drumroll please* THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL!!!!! One of my all time favorite books, musicals, and my go-to sick movie. I am enjoying it just...

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