Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Fairytale Retellings

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

This week’s prompt is Ten Fairytale Retellings I’ve Read/Want To Read. I absolutely love fairytale retellings, and there are a ton on my TBR list, so I’ve split the list into five that I’ve read and five that I want to read.

Note: I’ve definitely read more than these five, but they’re the first ones I could think of!

Five Retellings I’ve Read

1) Ella Enchanted – Gail Carson Levine (retelling: Cinderella) (aka one of my favourite books EVER)
2) Another Pan – Daniel & Dina Nayeri (retelling: Peter Pan) (you can read an old review here!)
3) Snow – Tracy Lynn (retelling: Snow White)
4) Spinners – Donna Jo Napoli (retellling: Rumpelstiltskin)
5) Masque of the Red Death – Bethany Griffin (retelling: Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque of the Red Death) (you can read my review here!)

Five Retellings I Want to Read

1) A Court of Thorns and Roses – Sarah J. Maas (retelling: Beauty and the Beast) (actually, I want to read all of her books, but this cover kills me)
2) Cinder – Marissa Meyer (retelling: Cinderella) (I’m including the rest of the Lunar Chronicles in this list, of course!)
3) Mechanica – Betsy Cornwell (retelling: Cinderella)
4) Splintered – A.G. Howard (retelling: Alice in Wonderland)
5) Dorothy Must Die – Danielle Paige (retelling: The Wizard of Oz)

Bonus: Five Retellings I’ve Reviewed on this blog

1) Spelled (ARC) – Betsy Schow (retelling: The Wizard of Oz and others)
2) A Whole New World (ARC) – Liz Braswell (retelling: Aladdin)
3) A Curse of Ash and Iron (ARC) – Christine Norris (retelling: Cinderella)
4) Dust City – Robert Paul Weston (retelling: Little Red Riding Hood and others)
5) The Fairest of Them All – Carolyn Turgeon (retelling: Rapunzel/Snow White)

What are some of your favourite fairytale retellings? Which ones should I check out?

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I’d Love To See As Movies/TV Shows

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

This week’s prompt is Ten Books I’d Love to See as Movies/TV Shows. Here’s what I came up with (in no particular order):

1) The Vampirates series – Justin Somper

I’m picturing this as a movie that eventually leads into a television series (kinda like what happened with Buffy the Vampire Slayer). From what I remember, the world is really well described, and it would be a perfect follow-up to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (are they ever going to stop making those movies??).

2) Every Breath – Ellie Marney

It’s the gritty YA book version of Sherlock, so it could just as easily be the gritty, YA movie version of Sherlock. The only problem is, I think a lot of Ellie Marney fans have their own perfect mental image of Mycroft, and I’m not sure any real life version would be able to compare.

3) The Artemis Fowl series – Eoin Colfer

There have been rumours of a movie adaptation since the first book came out (14 years ago!!). So far, that has not happened. I still remain hopeful that one day I’ll see Artemis, Holly, Butler, et al., on the big screen. And with all the special CGI effects they’re capable of these days, the underground world of the fair-folk would be glorious.

4) The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

Frankly, I’m surprised there isn’t already a movie. I think it might be in development, but no one’s been cast. I haven’t listened to the audio book version yet, but Andrew Scott (Moriarty from Sherlock) does the voice of The Man Jack, and now I can’t picture anyone else in the role.

5) The Marlowe School series – Daniel & Dina Nayeri

While I didn’t love the last book of the trilogy, and, frankly, all of the characters in the first book were terrible people, this could make a fascinating Supernatural-esque TV show. Sure, it would have to move away from the source material after a certain point, but don’t they always?

6) Masque of the Red Death – Bethany Griffin

After I read this, Vikki Van Sickle (who is an author and a very cool person in general) mentioned that she thought the setting would make a great amusement park. I completely agree, and I think it was atmospheric enough that it would make a creepy-cool movie (maybe combine it with the sequel?).

7) Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer – Jonathan L. Howard

Deals with the devil, charismatic vampires, a road show/circus – this book was so good, I’d love to see it as a movie! Plus, if it did well, there are currently three sequels to adapt!

8) The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern

I don’t know how much of the novel would be lost in a movie adaptation, but it’s so beautifully described, set designers and special effects people would have a field day! I’m thinking Tim Burton as a director, but that’s just me.

9) Children of the Red King – Jenny Nimmo

Obviously this would be a children’s series, but how much fun would it be to follow Charlie on his adventures? I’m picturing an animated show, sort of similar to the weird Jacob Two-Two cartoon they made a few years ago.

10) Magonia – Maria Dahvana Headley

I want a movie just so I could see the costumes. Again, gorgeous descriptions would make it relatively easy to adapt, and it would be a refreshing change from all the John Green adaptations that are happening (not that I have anything against John Green, but still. Give the rest of the YA world a chance!).

That was hard work! Let me know in the comments any books you immediately thought of for this topic.

Fiction Friday Round-Up – March 20, 2015

It was a three book week, which makes me feel accomplished (even though I had been reading one of those books for several weeks). Click the links for full reviews!

• The Monogram Murders – Sophie Hannah: “I’ve never read an Agatha Christie novel before, so I was pretty excited to try this one. Perhaps there is a reason I never bothered looking up Hercule Poirot.”
• Masque of the Red Death – Bethany Griffin: Not only does this book have a gorgeous cover, but it’s based on/influenced by a short story by Edgar Allan Poe…These are two surefire ways to pique my interest and I’m glad I picked this one up.”
• Why We Broke Up – Daniel Handler: “I’m actually surprised I liked it as much as I did, considering it was written in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. That normally drives me crazy, but, since there was proper punctuation, it was bearable. Plus, I’ve always liked the epistolary form.”

Masque of the Red Death – Bethany Griffin

Masque of the Red Death – Bethany Griffin

A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club, and Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find not just something to live for, but something to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

Not only does this book have a gorgeous cover, but it’s based on/influenced by a short story by Edgar Allan Poe (The Masque of the Red Death, obviously). These are two surefire ways to pique my interest and I’m glad I picked this one up.

I mean, for one, it has a steampunk vibe which is very cool.

But most importantly, a  handful of pages in, you’re introduced to Will who is described as having dark shaggy hair and tattoos, which immediately made me think of Oli Sykes.

Did I just use this book as an excuse to Google pictures of Oli Sykes? …Maybe.

And after that, I was basically Team Will. Until the end, when I gasped and now I don’t know what to think because I was not expecting his character arc to go in that direction. So now I’m torn between the two guys because, on one hand, I genuinely liked Will (and so did Araby), but on the other, Elliot might actually be more trustworthy. GAH, I don’t know who to root for!!

I liked Araby as a narrator, but she doesn’t do anything outstanding. Well, she tries, but circumstances prevent her from doing a lot of useful things. Still, you have to feel sorry for her, especially when you find out how her twin brother died. I do wish she had a little more backbone though; and, while her “vow” certainly increased the tension between her and the two guys, it was a little bit ridiculous.

For the most part, I liked the characters. There were a few surprises and a couple of “I totally saw that coming” plot points, but for the most part, it was well plotted out. My one issue was that sometimes the writing seemed choppy, like there were little to no transitions between moments or scenes. It didn’t take away from my understanding of the novel, but it did occasionally cause me to pause and question if I had accidentally skipped a paragraph.

I also have no idea what the timeline was (days? weeks?), but it doesn’t really affect the story. When you read a lot of YA, you get used to people proclaiming their love for each other after only a couple of days, so it doesn’t seem weird.

Now, out of curiosity (and because I actually quite like Poe), I decided to read his original story. For something so short (it’s about five pages long), it’s pretty creepy. I shivered a little and immediately regretted reading it an hour before bed.

Poe does visuals well, plus, being a Phantom of the Opera fan means I can easily picture the costume (i.e. what the Phantom wears during the “Masquerade” scene).

I think there will be more similarities between Poe’s original and Griffin’s sequel (Dance of the Red Death, which I have to buy), so that will be an intriguing read.