Enter the world of faerie where anything can - and does - happen. Some of these books have a new take on a traditional tale - like Cinderella - others are new tales set within a fairytale-like world.
Holly Black
Kaye's 16 - she's tough and independent. When she is forced to live at her childhood home her childhood friends - the faeries at the bottom of the garden - return. But this time they bring with them some scary friends and enemies. A darkly sensuous tale.
Recommended for ages 16+
Emma Bull
Eddi's in a band - until she gets dumped by her boyfriend and the band breaks up and... can things get any worse? Well, of course they can - she could be drawn in to the wars between the faerie folk.
Recommended for ages 16+
C.B. Cebulski, artist Sana Takeda
Stories of X-Men retold as fairy tales.
Cyclops becomes Momataro, the Peach-Boy – a Japanese legend. Along side him are the Beast, Angel and Iceman, fighting against the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
The friendship between Professor Xavier and Magneto is recast as the African folk tale, ‘The Tortoise and the Eagle’.
Gambit and Rogue feature in retellings of Cajun tales.
Jean Grey becomes Sleeping Beauty, awakened by Cyclops.
Cameron Dokey
Aurore grows up knowing that her fate is sealed - when she is 16 she will sleep for a hundred years. She lives happily for 16 years, despite her fate, getting to know her people until events propel her out of the castle and into the enchanted forest.
Cameron Dokey
Cendrillon is left in the house by the sea following her mother’s death in childbirth – her father is so overwhelmed by grief he can’t be near her, or her mother’s grave.
Raised in isolation, with Raoul, a boy her father brought to the house, Cendrillon’s life is turned upside down when her new stepmother and stepdaughters arrive, leaving her father at court.
The women go to court in answer to the king’s ball invitation. There Cendrillon meets her father, and Raoul discovers his heritage.
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Cameron Dokey
Based on the story of Shahrazad, from the Arabian Nights.Shahrazad is threatened with death, and her only way to survive is to keep the king, Shahrayar entertained by telling him stories.And by doing so maybe, just maybe, she will win his heart.
Cameron Dokey
Mina has been raised by her mother, Queen of the Night, on the understanding that she will be going to her father, for him to arrange her marriage, when she is 16. But her father abducts her the night before her birthday. Her father - Mage of the Day - doesn't realise that Mina is strong-minded, so is surprised when she runs away. Along the way she is rescued by her friend Lapin and Prince Tern.
Told from various points of view - Mina, Lapin, Tern, Gayna (the Mage's foster daughter) and Statos (handpicked by the Mage to be Mina's husband).
Terri Farley
Gwen was 10 when she has an experience on a beach which has a profound affect on her life. She has grown up in the city and is now called back to the beach home to assist her grandmother. She returns knowing that whatever she encountered that night, the truth will be revealed.
Neil Gaiman
In this tale our hero, who is more than he thinks, ventures to find his heart's desire. But it's not necessarily what he originally set out to find. The world of Faerie has ways to change people.
The Egerton Hall trilogy
Adele Geras
Three teenage girls share a room while at boarding school. These are their stories based upon fairytales.
The tower room
Megan falls for Simon, a young science teacher, who scales the scaffolding to meet with Megan.Based on Rapunzel.
Watching the roses
Alice hasn’t left her bedroom, or spoken, since the night of her birthday party. Can her friends Megan and Bella help find out what happened, and help their friend heal?Based on Sleeping Beauty.
Pictures of the night
Bella is spending her summer hols singing in a band in Paris, and sharing a house with the seven male band members. But Bella must beware of her jealous stepmother Marjorie. Based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Also published in one volume as Happy ever after
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Margaret Peterson Haddix
So Cinderella went to the ball and won the love of Prince Charming and they lived happily ever after. That's the story we know. But is that what happened? What if Prince Charming was an empty-headed snob? And what if Ella has more brains than she is given credit for? And if there was no Fairy Godmother just Ella's determination to make a better life?
Shannon Hale
The priests have divined that the prince’s bride will come from Mount Eskel. Now all the eligible girls from Mount Eskel are taken to the Princess Academy, just set up, to learn the ways of the Court just in case they are chosen. Once there Miri learns to love learning – becoming the Academy Princess, the best of the girls, is her goal. But does she want to become a princess for real?
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Mette Ivie Harrison
Mira is apprenticed to a witch and soon becomes like a sister to the other apprentice – but the other apprentice has a cruel streak and Mira is soon trapped in the form of a magic mirror. As the years pass Mira does what she can to survive, and when the chance comes that she may be able to break free from the mirror she grasps it – but at what cost? A clever twist to a fairytale world.
Nancy Holder
Isabella is captured by Wusamequin, a Mohican medicine man. In time Isabella must choose between her father, and Wusamequin, who has her heart.
Tom Holt
Tom Holt has a weird take on a lot of things, including some traditional tales. If you need a laugh, are prepared for weirdness - try some of his novels. They're sort of like Terry Pratchett's Discworld. These are just a selection of his twisted retellings:
Grailblazers - the Holy Grail is still missing, the knights are planning on delivering pizzas, and Atlantis threatens the world
Faust among equals - the management have bought out Hell - but the most wanted man in History has escaped - he's on the hunt for his girlfriend, Helen of Troy
Djinn rummy - He's a Force Twelve genie who has been trapped in a bottle of aspirin for years - trouble is bound to happen
Snow White and the seven samurai - the humans have hacked into the wicked queen's ancient Windows system.
Recommended for ages 16+
Patrice Kindl
So, you do a good deed for a weird old lady and she gives you a gift – gold dust in your hair, crying diamonds, and you’re suddenly as beautiful as the dawn. Great, right? Wrong – just ask Alexandria – she’ll tell you all about it. Based on Goose Girl.
Mercedes Lackey
According to The Tradition Elena is to become 'Ella Cinders' but the prince isn't suitable. Instead, the Kingdom's Fairy Godmother turns up and makes Elena her apprentice. Sometimes the weight of The Tradition is strong, so strong Elena struggles against it - to make the stories better for the people involved. Sometimes she breaks free completely - all to make sure that the happy ever after is truly happy.
Followed by One good knight and Fortune's fool
Recommended for ages 15+
Other fairytale retellings by Mercedes Lackey are:
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Firebird – based on the Russian tale The Firebird
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Tracy Lynn
Once upon a time a young girl is born to a duke and duchess in a tiny Welsh village. Her mother dies at her birth, and her father is distraught. Left to her own devices young Jessica becomes friends with the servants and learns how to keep house. When her father remarries her stepmother teaches Jessica how to be a lady.
All is fine - but the stepmother can't have children, no matter what black art she uses - and Jessica is growing ever more beautiful. At the last, it is up to Alan, the stepmother's fiddler, to help Jessica escape. Abandoned and lost in London, Jessica befriends the Lonely Ones.
Robin McKinley
Beauty is a retold novel version of the story Beauty and the Beast. Honour (the main character) has always had a nickname she didn't like, Beauty. In a family with 2 beautiful sisters, she feels as though she is the ugly one of her family. One day, her father meets the Beast while lost in the forest. He enrages the Beast by trying to take a rose cutting for Beauty. Beauty must live with the Beast to save her father's life. Her love for the Beast increases over time, but so does her homesickness.
Best character: Beauty
Jean, 14
Robin McKinley
McKinley has reimagined many fairtales, but Deerskin stands out. Based upon Charles Perrault’s tale of 'Donkeyskin' – a fairytale seldom included in collections – McKinley’s retelling realistically explores the forbidden topic of incest in a fairytale format. The tale has a long history, there are versions found in medieval stories – the story of a princess whose widowed father becomes obsessed with her, and she runs away to avoid the incestuous marriage. In McKinley’s version the threat of incest is realised and the princess, Lissla Lissar, runs away with her dog Ash after being raped by her father. The pair are given space to recover their physical wounds, the power of forgetting the worst of their emotional ones, and are disguised so they can make a new life in a neighbouring kingdom.
This is a powerful novel, one which has occasioned much comment, including the online article “Donkeyskin, Deerskin, Allerleirauh: the reality of the fairy tale“ by Helen Pilinovsky.
McKinley discusses the origins of Deerskin on her website.
Recommended for older teens and adults
Robin McKinley
A collection of four stories based on various fairytales.
Robin McKinley
After many years of trying the King and Queen have a child, a baby girl. To celebrate they host a name-day but the evil fairy Pernicia is there to revenge a defeat suffered at the hands of the King's ancestress four hundred years ago. Young Katriona is at the celebration and somehow ends up holding the Princess. Hidden by fairies for many years Rosie grows up ordinary - mostly - and not like a princess at all. But what will happen when it's time for the curse to happen? A dramatic retelling of Sleeping Beauty.
Janet McNaughton
Jenny has lived a life of relative freedom in 12th century Scotland. When her sister Isabel returns home, dishonoured, after running away to wed a knight - Jenny has to give up her freedom in order for Isabel to be redeemed. But their father's hopes and plans turn to dust when Jenny falls in love with another - Tam Lin, fairy cursed and former lover of the fairy queen.
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Donna Jo Napoli
You know the story of Beauty and the Beast. You might even have read other versions of it, or seen the Disney movie. But Napoli has changed it forever - telling the tale from the Beast's point of view. How his pride led to his downfall, and how his intelligence led to his release.
Donna Jo Napoli
What would happen if you took an old fairy tale and told what happened before the known tale? This is what the authors, Donna and Richard, have done with Spinners. Spinners tells Rumplestiltskin's story, the strange little man who helps the millers daughter spin straw into gold.
It spins a grand tale of love and greed and about the consequences of promises made.
Reviewed by Karen at Otahuhu
Other Donna Jo Napoli fairytale retellings are:
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Sirena – based on Greek Sirens myths
Here, there be dragons (The chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica)
James A. Owen
John is sent a message from his tutor to visit him in London. Thus begins an adventure into the imagination as John, Jack and Charles meet Bert, Caretaker of the Imaginarium Geographica – the atlas of imaginary places. The young men find that the places are not so imaginary as they voyage there to stop the encroachment of the Winter King.
Edith Pattou
Rose is the eight child, born to replace her dead sister – making her, really, the seventh child. Due to her mother’s superstitions her birth has been shrouded in secrecy. All her life she has wandered, so when a great white bear arrives to take her away, she willingly accepts.
Will Shetterly
Ron’s come to Bordertown to find his brother. But Bordertown is more – and less – than he expected. It’s halfway between the human world and that of Faerie. It’s the sort of place that when you upset someone, it can be bad – as Ron finds out.
Ron’s story continues in Nevernever – where he has to try and live, and find a girlfriend, while being a werewolf!
A volume of fairy tales retold for adults edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, this is a wonderful collection. The collections have been described as 'disturbing', and so are many of the contributions to this collection.
Others in the series are:
Recommended for mature teens and adults
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J. Michael Straczynski, art by Michael Zulli and Steve Firchow
"Once upon a time, there was a castle...." This is how all of Old Mr Wubble's stories begin. Stories of the Castle and its Owners. This is a new story - the story of the Princess and how she becomes one of them - a delicate creature.
A stunning 'fairy tale' - both visually and verbally.
Kate Thompson
Have you noticed that there’s never enough time to go around – not enough time to do everything you have to do and still have fun?
When JJ’s mum Helen asks for more time for her birthday JJ sets out to find her some.
On the way he learns there is more than music in his genes, and some family history.
A mystical and magical tale deeply embedded in Irish mythology.
Debbie Viguié
One day, while out fishing, Finneas finds a child in the sea. He takes her home and he, and his wife Mary, love her like their own, even though she is very different. They name her Pearl, after the one thing she has with her. Years pass and Pearl grows up and befriends James, the kingdom's prince. But politics, schemes and Pearl's past, enter their lives - and Pearl must call on her power, her emotions, and magic.
Debbie Viguié
As a child Ruth was bitten by a wolf with green eyes, that had stalked her through the forest as she walked with her brother Stephen. Years later Ruth works as a blacksmith with her father while her brother Stephen, and her cousin Peter, are away fighting in the Crusades. Into her quiet life comes William, a nobleman who has a bad reputation - and a dark secret. William's secret could destroy them both, especially when people start to die as they go into the woods where Ruth's grandma lives after being banished from the village.
Suzanne Weyn
Rowena is one of twelve sisters – kept inside the walls of their father’s castle because he fears they will vanish like their mother. Bedivere is the only surviving knight of The Round Table, entrusted with the task of returning Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. Their lives entwine as love strikes – but how can they be together when the evil Morgan Le Fay is on hand to wreak her vengeance?
A magical combination of the fairytale of 'The twelve dancing princesses' and Arthurian myth.
Bill Willingham
Centuries ago they escaped from their Homelands to what would become New York, building their own community - Fabletown. Now one of them, Rose Red, is missing and Bigby (formerly the Big Bad Wolf), Fabletown's sheriff, sets out to solve the mystery.
Recommended for ages 15+
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The Enchanted Forest chronicles
Patricia C. Wrede 
Cimorene is sick of being the "perfect" princess. She tries to rebel, but is thwarted at every turn. Finally, in desperation, she voluntarily becomes a dragon's princess. This sparks an adventurous, humorous, and romantic life.
Jane Yolen
A stunning story, combining the fairytale of Briar Rose (or Sleeping Beauty) with the horrors of the concentration camps and the Holocaust.Becca’s grandmother, Gemma, has always told her grand daughters the story of Briar Rose, leaving the adult Becca with hints to the horrors in her grandmother’s past.
Recommended for ages 15+
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