Hi everyone! I hope you are having a lovely week so far. I am so excited to share with you 'My Five Favorite Retellings by Christina Henry. A while back I reviewed Lost Boy by Christina Henry, you can view the post here. If you have already read my review, you may remember me writing this...
"I was very excited when I received this book in the post. Although I am someone who loves the Disney tales of these stories, I'm also quite interested in reading different takes on them. As we know, some the original stories of our favourite fairytales, before they were made in to Disney films, have changed a lot over the years, some very dark and quite different to how we know them today. Christina Henry has reimagined the world of Neverland from J.M. Barrie's dark classic of Peter Pan and we read the story from the perspective of Peter's first and best lost boy Jamie."
Well, in todays post, Christina Henry shares with you her favourite story retellings.
My Five Favorite Retellings by Christina
Henry
Retelling stories with your own
particular flair has been happening pretty much since people started telling
stories, period. Oral storytelling passed on from parent to child and then
their children is like a generations-long game of telephone – the story starts
out one way, some elements are retained, others tossed out, new events are
added and suddenly the story only resembles the original because the character.
Modern novelists have taken up
retellings in a different way – exploring the stories of characters that are
sidelined in their original versions, or re-interpreting the originals in an
entirely new light. My own book, LOST BOY, was born of one question – why does Captain Hook hate Peter Pan so
much?
As I read and re-read PETER PAN to
my Peter-obsessed son I kept wondering – why does this person, this adult, continue to hang about Neverland
harassing a bunch of kids? Isn’t he a pirate? Doesn’t he have pirate things to
do? And surely those pirate things would involve leaving the island and
stealing treasure, not trying to kill one eternally-young boy.
So I wrote LOST BOY to answer those
questions. Many of my own favorite retellings were born of a similar impulse, a
desire to know more than what was just on the page, or to re-imagine a classic
story in a new way. These are my favorites.
1)
WICKED: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF
THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST by Gregory Maguire
Maguire’s
modern classic imagines the L. Frank Baum’s story from the Witch’s point of
view, and in doing so ensures you’ll never see the villain of the story the
same way again. He also gives Oz a
marvelous political and social tapestry that fascinates me every time I read
this.
2)
THE BLOODY CHAMBER by Angela
Carter
I
often say that if you’ve read my books then it will come as no surprise that I
adore Angela Carter, whose beautifully dark and sensual interpretations of the
fairy tales we all know should be (in my humble opinion) required reading.
3)
THE DOOR IN THE HEDGE by Robin
McKinley
This
was one of the first “retelling” books I remember reading as a child. The four
stories that make up this volume are fairly straightforward interpretations of
classic fairy tales, but they add a depth and richness that was not present in
the originals. I remember, in particular, re-reading “The Princess and the
Frog” over and over again. This volume is an eternal classic, and one I return
to year after year.
4)
JANE STEELE by Lyndsay Faye
I
am quite the fan of all of Lyndsay Faye’s work but this – a reimagining of Jane
Eyre as a serial killer – might be my favorite of her books. Jane’s narrative
voice is so strong and compelling that you find yourself sympathizing with her
no matter how bloody her hands.
5)
RAILSEA by China Mieville
Mieville
is an author whom I truly believe can do anything he likes, and I confess that
I’ve never disliked one of his books yet. This rich and fantastic interpretation
of Melville’s MOBY-DICK as a universe of trains and giant moles is not to be
missed.
What are your favourite retellings of stories?
What are your favourite retellings of stories?