As Yet Untitled

First, a disclaimer: I really enjoy retellings of old fairy tales, so I was predisposed to enjoy this book. I have done my best to be objective, but I thought you should know that.  What might have seemed contrived or even trite in this era of constant reboots turned out instead to be surprisingly refreshing and undeniably engaging in Genevieve Valentine's Girls at the Kingfisher Club . Valentine captures the panache of prohibition-era New York while maintaining a pure, genuine tone for her twelve heroines--all of whom are completely themselves. This retelling of the classic fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses is gripping, lavish, and heartfelt--to the point that I had a very hard time putting it down, and an even harder time accepting that I had finished reading it. Girls at the Kingfisher Club tells the story of twelve sisters, all disappointments to their father, a nouveau-riche businessman who needs a son to inherit his empire. So he locks them all upstairs in the...

A while ago I wrote a graduate research paper on the female role models presented to young women in fairy tales. I was (and am) very proud of this paper, because it explicates a point that I am adamant on: that despite what some feminists would have you believe, storybook princesses can actually provide solid female figures for young girls to look up to during one of the most turbulent times of their lives. So, here is my paper, in all its glory, for you to enjoy. If you don't make it to the end it won't hurt my feelings--it's a long paper. But I hope you will at least skim through it, and let me know what you think! The genre of fantasy fiction has been a staple of young adult literature for centuries, dating back as far as the 1600s. The (for all intents and purposes) contemporary paradigm of the modern fairytale got its start in the mid-1700s, with Perrault’s collections of moralistic fairytales, which eventually evolved into the Blue Fairy Book. As c...

I have recently become quite interested in the idea of modern fairy tales. That is, modern retellings of classic fairy tales, meant to be marketed to tween/teenage readers. It is fascinating to me that the crux of these tales stands the test of time and needs only to be updated for a modern audience. I believe that these adaptations are paving the way for a new breed of feminist, and that contrary to what some people may think, the heroines of these classic stories are actually excellent role models for strong young women. More on that to come. To that end, I recently finish reading Cinder by Marissa Meyer, the first in a quartet called The Lunar Chronicles .  It is, in a word, stellar. And it fits the mold of what I described above perfectly. Clearly this is a retelling of Cinderella , and in fact Meyer places quotes from the original story at strategic breaks throughout the book. But in this case, we are not in 18th century Europe, but Asia of the future. The book is set in a ...