That's Retelling

Title A Mirror Mended Author Alix E Harrow Series Fractured Tales #2 Book #1 is A Spindle Splintered  (a Sleeping Beauty retelling) Content Warning Implied cannibalism of children, kidnapping of a child, terminal illness, LGBTQ+ rep, fade-to-black sex scenes, non-consensual kiss Goodreads Synopsis A Mirror Mended is the next installment in USA Today bestselling author Alix E. Harrow's Fractured Fables series. Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty, is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues. Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can't handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for he...

Title The Girl and the Seven Thieves Author Olivia Snowe Illustrator Michelle Lamoreaux Content Warning Attempted murder, non-consensual kiss Goodreads Synopsis Eira and her stepmother don't get along, but she never expected to be left in a New York City alley. When seven thieves find her, she'll have to try to trust them. ( Goodreads ) Story Review *** (3 stars out of 5) This book is a Middle Grade retelling of Snow White. For my taste it's a little formulaic and far too short to really develop any real sense of the characters. I also think it wraps up the evil stepmother much too neatly. I did like the idea of the thieves, since they also have a reason to want to hide away from society. The addition of actual magic kind of took me out of the setting, so I wish that part had been handled differently. *Spoiler Warning* Do not read beyond this point if you have not read the book and you care about spoilers.

Title Snow, Glass, Apples Author Neil Gaiman Illustrator Colleen Doran Content Warning Not safe for children: graphic depictions of sex, nudity, gore, implied incest, sex with a minor, necrophilia Goodreads Synopsis A chilling fantasy retelling of the Snow White fairy tale by bestselling creators Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran. A not-so-evil queen is terrified of her monstrous stepdaughter and determined to repel this creature and save her kingdom from a world where happy endings aren't so happily ever after. From the Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy, Nebula Award-winning and Sunday Times-bestselling writer Neil Gaiman (American Gods) comes this graphic novel adaptation by Colleen Doran (Troll Bridge). ( Goodreads ) Story Review ***** (5 stars out of 5) This is an extremely dark (not safe for children) retelling of Snow White, where the stepmother is cast as the storyteller and Snow White as a vampire who uses seduction as a means to drink blood. I really enjoyed how plausibl...

Title Snow White: A Graphic Novel Author Matt Phelan Content Warning Death of a parent, murder, attempted murder, minor amounts of gore Goodreads Synopsis Award-winning graphic novelist Matt Phelan delivers a darkly stylized noir Snow White set against the backdrop of Depression-era Manhattan. The scene: New York City, 1928. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words "Another . . . More Beautiful . . . KILL." In a moody, cinemat...

"The Queen asks the magic mirror," Schneewittchen (1910), Franz Jüttner (German, 1865-1925), Scholz' Künstler-Bilderbücher, Mainz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Today's focus is Snow White  collected by the Brother's Grimm. Aarne-Thompson-Uther classifies this as  Type 709 (Snow White) . According to the  Thompson Motif , this has sub-types Z65.1. Red as blood, white as snow; D1323.1. Magic clairvoyant mirror; D1311.2. Mirror answers questions; L55. Stepdaughter heroine; M312.4. Prophecy: superb beauty for girl; S322.2. Jealous mother casts daughter forth; K512.2. Compassionate executioner: substituted heart; N831.1. Mysterious housekeeper; F451.5.1.2. Dwarfs adopt girl as sister; D1364.9. Comb causes magic sleep; D1364.16. Hairpin causes magic sleep; D1364.4.1. Apple causes magic sleep; S111.4. Murder with poisoned apple; S111.2. Murder with poisoned lace; F852.1. Glass coffin; E21.1. Resuscitation by removal of poisoned apple; Q414.4. Punishment: danc...