Tilly Castillo thought she lost her chance to be a contemporary dancer, but when a summer job in New York City appears, nothing can stop her from saying yes—not her mother, not the other cutthroat dancers, and not even her fears of the big city. When I was 5, I told a fairytale lie. I was in kindergarten. The next day I told the kindergarten teacher, Ms. Guffey, that my mom sometimes cooked me in the oven and I was too afraid to go home and could I please please please spend the night with my best friend?
Escape from Reality: Fantastic Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups
Enchanting & Captivating Fairy Tales for Adults
That definition is true as far as it goes, but I know plenty of adults who still enjoy stories about witches and princesses, curses and spells, and happily ever afters. This collection of tales from Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Cunningham transforms the fables we have come to love by exploring the unexamined moments, forgotten backstories, or unintended consequences of choices and spells and curses. Cunningham uses his talents to embrace the darkness of classic fairy tales and bring them to life in new and unexpected ways. Loosely based on the showman P. Barnum and his popular Fiji mermaid sideshow, The Mermaid is a fascinating fairy tale mashup with a convincing historical backdrop. But is the world ready to see her? This is a thoroughly adult tale with no guarantee of happily ever after.
10 Fairy Tale Retellings That Are Deeper, Darker, and Sexier Than the Originals
A version of this article originally A version of this article originally appeared on appeared on 20somethingreads. Whether you read fairy tales as a child or whether you're simply aware of them because you are a person who is alive and does not live under a rock, fairy tales have played a role in your reading experience. Unfortunately, when Disney sunk his claws into them, he did a disservice that lasted for decades: Most of our perceptions have been colored by his saccharine, censored interpretations. Because of him, the words "fairy tales" invoke images of childhood and whimsy and musical numbers that are too catchy for their own good.
Books based on fairy tales and folktales have a special place in my heart. The Book of Two Ways. You Love Me. Leave the World Behind. A Deadly Education.
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