As I get older, I’m finding myself identifying more and more with the fairy tale witches. The one in Rapunzel just wanted to keep her daughter safe! When I had my son, I understood her 1000%. This weekend, I was grumpy from sleep deprivation and just wanted to be left alone and sit by the fire and knit. But no! I had to go into the world and interact with humans! It was terrible.
Give me some books with feminist retelling of fairy tales with empathy for the witch. I’ve read Circe already and loved it.
by alpacalypse-llama
8 Comments
PS: No Neil Gaiman.
Check out *How to Be Eaten* by Maria Adelman. It’s a re-imagining of familiar fairy tales. The women are in essentially a group therapy setting and share their stories. It is funny and tragic at the same time. I quite enjoyed it.
Not a 100% match, but have you read _Women Who Run with Wolves_ by Clarissa Pinkola Estés?
I am not sure about the original Rapunzel tales, but the Disney movie one definitely was not keeping her safe.
Till We Have Faces by C.S Lewis
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett is Macbeth rather than a fairy tale but it’s been cited as inspiration by several real life pagan witches. I’m not sure if Pratchett ever claimed to be a feminist in actual words, although he did get invitations from some feminist groups after publishing Equal Rites.
Kinda fits the criteria: Thornhedge by T Kingfisher.
Wicked is literally this. But be warned, it’s nothing like the musical/movie. It’s very weird.