Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier

Heart's Blood is Juliet Marillier's newest fairy tale retelling, and she's turned out a masterful Beauty and the Beast, keeping the bones of the story while bypassing the cliches of one of the most frequently retold tales there is.

Honestly, this may be my new favorite Marillier book (although Daughter of the Forest, as my first book of hers, will always hold a special place in my heart). With her usual graceful prose, she's created an original and strange telling of the familiar story. I don't want to give too much away, but I REALLY loved the concept behind this one.

So as far as plot goes, all I want to say is: Juliet Marillier's Beauty and the Beast.

As far as the writing goes, well, I'm completely in love with Marillier's style, and this one was more quick paced than some of hers -- while I love her writing I do occasionally find parts of the story to drag a little, not so in this one. She brought in a lot of unexpected elements, was really creative with the story in a way I haven't seen in other versions. I think a lot of retellings like to really focus on character development while keeping an old story absolutely in it's original frame. This version is just... more creative -- which is not to say she shortchanged her character development at all.

Agh! Just go read it! You won't regret it!

Out of the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst

This continues the tale of Julie, 11-year-old daughter of Rapunzel, and her "brother," Puss in Boots. Having undone the wish that brought the Wild (a fairy tale forest that forces people to act out stories again and again) into power, Julie thinks that things will go back to normal, until one of the Three Blind Mice accidentally (he's blind, after all) runs into the Wild where it's stored under her bed. But instead of growing, the Wild takes the opportunity to trade -- as the mouse enters, Rapunzel's Prince, Julie's father, is set free, and the consequences take both Julie and Rapunzel by surprise.

Tons of fairy tale characters and events, a race across the country, and a surprising foe keep this story zipping along. I admit I did get a little exasperated with the boneheadedness of one of the characters, but that part of the story doesn't last too long and I enjoyed the rest of the book.

This is aimed at younger kids, probably in the grade school range, but I also recommend the duology (start with the first one!) if you love creative mashups of fairy tales.

More information about Sarah Beth Durst's writing and fairy tale adaptations at her website: http://www.sarahbethdurst.com/

Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst

I picked Into the Wild up after hearing about Sarah Beth Durst's newer book, Ice.

Into the Wild is aimed at grade-schoolers, and the language reads like it. I tend to like my fairy tale remixes to be a little more mature, but taking this for what it's intended as, it's very well done. At first I thought the stories/type characters would stick pretty closely to their origins, but Durst managed some nice twists that left me feeling like she wasn't just rehashing the usual material.

The story is about 12-year-old Julie and her mother, Rapunzel, as well as several other friends who escaped "the Wild" and now live in the real world (such as the flighty "Cindy," selfish "Goldy" and Julie's "brother" Puss in Boots). Until someone breaks into the well at the Wishing Well Motel and makes a wish -- which sets the Wild free to grow and shape their lives again.

In the end I thought it was a nice blend of several stories, with some new ideas. I enjoyed the characters and I think Durst has a nice little package of a story here. Nothing too in depth, but perfect if you're just looking for a light read.

There is a sequel, Out of the Wild, which I haven't checked out yet (but I will). This might be slightly misleading, because the story isn't left hanging with characters in dire straights; however, the possibilities for the sequel are fairly clear.

The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan

Matt Phelan is one of my favorite illustrators, so when he announced the publication of his first graphic novel, The Storm in the Barn, I was, to say the least, very excited to see it.

Set in the Kansas Dust Bowl years, this story weaves together history and mythology, borrowing from tall tales as well as straightforward historical accounts of the time and place. 11-year-old Jack has grown up in a world without rain, and is struggling with his family and classmates as much as the weather. His sister Dorothy is ill, but finds moments to comfort him with tales of "the other Dorothy," as the children read through the Oz books. In the end, Jack must find a way to save his family and their land before they lose hope entirely.

You can get a good idea of the set up of the story, the mood, and the artwork of the book from this book trailer (book trailer yay!):

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels is one of the few retellings of Snow White and Rose Red that I've come across, and it's a very interesting and creative treatment of the story.

The book is tagged as being aimed at grade 9 and up, and I would be very hesitant to recommend it to anyone younger than that. Although not gratuitous, there is some serious brutality at the beginning of the story. The story begins with Liga, a traumatized young woman, and the author does not skimp away from her trauma. I think that in spite of the horror of what happens (without giving too much away), it justifies the choices of Liga, who is given the option of taking herself and her daughters into a private heaven instead of raising them on earth.

And then we enter the story as we know it; Snow White and Rose Red (aptly renamed for this telling) grow up with their mother through an idyllic childhood, all around them love them, including the animals, who come when they are beckoned. Liga and Branza (White) are content and happy, but fiery Urrda knows there is something missing from their easy, lonely life, and when she seeks it their world begins to crumble.

I really liked the way the world was built, the way the story was fleshed out to be, although magical, also believable. I struggled more with the author's manipulation of the story once she got past the original frame of the story, and still had to figure out how to end her story. It is well done, but it definitely ended, for me, on a melancholy note.

Definitely worth reading if this is one of your favorite stories, but again, very much with the mature content. Aside from a few strange quirks of language ("ivorily" being a word that struck memorably me as out of place and extraneous, for example), it's a well executed adaptation of the story.