Please recommend me a book...I like fairy tales

[lucysmam]

& have borrowed 'Fairest of All' from a friends dd because I haven'r read a book in aaaaaages but I've half read it in the past hour and a half so will need something else soon.

Any suggestions for more grown up versions of fairy tales? Or something magical? :)

Beauty by Robin McKinley is really nice - I loved it as a teen and read it again last year: it's still got the sparkle. Adele Geras's The Tower Room trilogy is a retelling of Rapunzel, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty but set in the sixth form of a boarding school in the 1950s/60s. That's beautifully written. All of them are YA rather than 'grown up' versions but are excellent and not dumbed down.

Cross post with Frazzledasarock!

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge is an enjoyable read with a fairy tale feel to it. A mystery set in (if I remember correctly) Victorian times.
Intended for older children but definitely readable by adults.

Definitely spinning silver and you must try Katherine Arden winternight trilogy

The Temeraire series. The Armies and Navies of the Napoleonic wars are joined by an Air Force mounted on Dragons

You lot are ace, thank you very much!

I'm about to head up to bed but will look up these suggestions while I have my cup of tea in the morning!

Beauty by Sheri S Tepper.
The Wraeththu novels by Storm Constantine.
A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, and the two sequels.

aliasname great suggestion, I loved that book.

The Snow Child. Eowyn Ivey.
A couple who can’t have children find a girl from the forest in 1920s pioneer Canada.

Agree with the Lie Tree too, it’s like a fairytale.

ALL OF CHRISTINA HENRY’S BOOKS

sorry-notsorry for shouting

Well written re-imaginings of fairy tales. Lost Boy, The Mermaid, Alice- all excellent.

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Step Sister - uses Cinderella as a broad storyline but from the POV of one of the step sisters and follows what happened after they 'lived happily ever after'.

magic I came on to say the Snow Child. Beautiful, isn't it?

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman - so much better than the crappy film that was made of it! In fact quite a lot of Alice Hoffman's books have a magical feel to them. Blackbird House is another.

Gregory Maguire did a reworking of Cinderella set in 17th century Holland Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

His retelling of the Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the witch is one of the most thought provoking and brilliant books I’ve read. Don’t confuse the book Wicked with the drivel that is the West End musical. It’s a good show but so disappointing if you’ve read the book. It is very faithful to the original novel but much darker and more grown up and Oz is a terrifying totalitarian regime. I know it’s not based on a fairy tale, but well worth putting on your list!

cheshire. It’s a lovely book.

Naomi Novik's Uprooted is one of the most original books I've read in a long time. I keep going back to it I like it so much.

I also love Frances hardinge books they're quite unusual but good to read. Face of glass is another good one.

The Abhorsen books by Garth Nix are young adult but I enjoyed those too.

Little, Big by John Crowley

I have (eventually) gone for Beauty by Robin McKinley & will work my way through some of the others too.

I found some others that look appealing in the 'recommended' bar on amazon so have added them to my long ish list.

Thank you all again :)

Have you tried the dark Disney fairy tales?

They are in mostly black covers. It's all the Disney princess stories but written for adults and they are "dark" not traditional. I've seen them in the ASDA.

https://shop.scholastic.co.uk/products/131922?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxNL3iPi6AIVBdreCh3SLQpREAQYBCABEgIGMMDBwE

Here is a link

Matt Haig’s How to Stop Time

I second Naomi Novik’s Uprooted and Spinning Silver. Fab grown-up re-imaginings of well-known fairytales.

@thequeenbeyondthewall I have been looking at those too. I think my friend's dd has some of them so I'll ask her before I buy any of them.

The Book of Lost Things, it a fairy tale and references lots of existing fairytales.