Looking for funny and subversive books that twist or exaggerated classic fairy tale story tropes. I've read works from people like Terry Pratchett, Peter St. Beagle, Patricia Briggs, and Diana Wynn Jones that fit this description. Any recs for works similar to theirs?
EDIT: I meant Patricia Wrede, the author of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Though I have checked out Patricia Briggs's works as well.
by VariousCampaign8708
14 Comments
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. A take on the Rumplstilskin story.
T Kingfisher has several like this
Nettle and Bone. It uses a lot of fairy tale logic, but the heroes are all underdog types who would be side characters in a traditional story.
The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde is a mystery about the death of Humpty Dumpty.
It’s slightly related to his Thursday Next series but you don’t need to read those to understand the Nursery Crime series
Patricia Wrede, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.
Are All the Giants Dead? by Mary Norton.
Chris Colfer’s Land of Stories series.
Lamb – Christopher Moore (the gospel according to Biff)
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister – Gregory McGuire (a retelling of Cinderella from the step sisters pov, written by the guy that wrote Wicked)
Books by Mercedes Lackey – especially in the Elemental Masters series
Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
Hemlock and Silver by T. Kingfisher
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Over the Woodward Wall by A. Deborah Barker
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
The Swan’s Daughter by Roshani Chokshi. Recent release. Based on the ugly duckling. Both hilarious and dark.
Years ago I took a children’s lit class as part of my teacher training program. I read a couple of classic fairy tales that had been re-written as parodies of the originals. One I remember was *The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs* by Jon Scieszka. If you google “childrens lit funny fairy tales” you can find many more.
Mercedes Lackey has a book that takes a different POV and puts a little twist on the story of the Swan Princess. It’s called The Black Swan.
The short story Curious, If True by Elizabeth Gaskell
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (Rapunzel, set in Venice).
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy – dark themes, but it does mirror elements of the fairy tale. …a historical fiction novel that reimagines the classic fairy tale as a harrowing story of survival during the Holocaust.”