This week I've been reading some books from a genre I call Retold Fairytales. Basically they are a subgenre of fantasy, and true to their name they are expanded versions often with unexpected twists of fairy tales that were originally recorded by people like the Grimm Brothers or Hans Christian Andersen. This genre is certainly not limited to books, many movies are retold fairytales (thank you Disney) and with the explosion in the book market there is even a TV show that is bases on fairytale characters. I own quite a few of the books, and I've read and watched even more, and I've even written a short story that I've already posted here. Some of my favorite authors in this genre are Robin McKinley (Spindle's End), Cameron Dokey (Golden) and Gail Carson Levine (Ella Enchanted). This week as I was reading I was thinking about why I liked them. There are two reasons, one is the fairly superficial reason that they have a little romance (usually clean) and end happily... something to do with that happily ever after bit. The other reason is more interesting, and it has to do with my idea of the Imperfect Canvas. The point behind retold fairytales is that you can recognize which story it is but although you can predict and expect certain things to happen, good authors still make the characters fully developed and the motives for doing things change, and are unexpected, and it is cool how they manipulate the "restraints" of the original tale and craft into something new, meaningful, and creative. This is a very imperfect canvas, but I find it highly entertaining.
PS. I started listing authors but then didn't want to stop, so here are few more authors and retold fairytales that I've enjoyed. Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl), Susan Fletcher (Shadow Spinner), and Juliet Mariller (Wildwood Dancing).
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