Review | Alice in Tumblr-Land by Tim Manley | 2015 Fairytale Challenge

Alice in Tumblr-Land

by Tim Manley

My Rating: 

The Ugly Duckling still feels gross compared to everyone else, but now she’s got Instagram, and there’s this one filter that makes her look awesome. Cinderella swaps her glass slippers for Crocs. The Tortoise and the Hare Facebook stalk each other. Goldilocks goes gluten free. And Peter Pan finally has to grow up and get a job, or at least start paying rent.

Here are more than one hundred fairy tales, illustrated and re-imagined for today. Instead of fairy godmothers, there’s Siri. And rather than big bad wolves, there are creepy dudes on OkCupid. In our brave new world of social networking, YouTube, and texting, fairy tales can once again lead us to "happily ever after" — and have us laughing all the way. 

I have to admit I thought Alice in Tumblr-Land was one of those books I'd never review because it didn't leave me with a lot of things I wanted to say, but as I'm taking part in the 2015 Fairytale Challenge it seemed a shame not to review it now!

This little book can be summed up in three words: just plain fun. If you're in the mood for some entirely modern fairy tales - the kind that aren't trying to be dark or 'edgy' - then this is the book for you! I read this in under an hour; it's the kind of book you can either speed through and enjoy like I did or, if you prefer, you can dip in and out of it and enjoy it at your own leisure.

Of course just because this book is a lot of fun it doesn't mean it doesn't have anything to say. Despite being short and funny, there's a lot in this book about growing up, identity and sexuality that I honestly wasn't expecting - in fact this is one of the most diverse collections of fairy tale retellings I've come across, and for that I appreciated and respected it a lot more than I initially thought I would!

So if you're looking for a collection of retellings that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you go 'aww' then this is the collection for you!

Once Upon A Time... | 2015 Fairytale Challenge

This year I'm taking part in The Daily Prophecy's Fairytale Challenge, which is basically a challenge to read as many retellings as you can/want. This month Mel has given us the fun challenge of talking about our earliest memory regarding fairy tales and why we love fairy tales and retellings so much!

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales."

~ Albert Einstein

I know this is a huge cliché in the reading world, but I can't remember not being able to read. I'm not trying to say that I emerged from the womb a literary genius, but that my parents read to me each night from such an early age that I was destined to be a book lover. My Dad, in particular, didn't grow up in a family that read much, so I think he really wanted to instil a love of books in me.

When I was little I was raised on fairy tales; whether it was the Brothers Grimm, Disney, or Hans Christian Andersen, it didn't matter, I loved them all! My earliest memories of fairy tales stem back to when I was around five years old, and I had a little collection of Ladybird Books that I loved. I often took them into school to show my friends, and I was very protective of them.

My priorities haven't changed much.

Other than the little book I had that was all about the human body - I remember that book convinced me we were all cyborgs for a while because it described the body as a 'marvellous machine' - the three fairytales I remember reading the most are Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel and The Little Mermaid.

These stories fascinated me because they didn't shy away from that dark edge that so many of our old stories have. As much as I love Disney (and Disney's Beauty and the Beast is still my favourite film of all time!) I never owned the Disney storybooks; I watched Disney, but I read the Brothers Grimm. 

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

~ Neil Gaiman

I'm pretty sure this was the edition I had!

Rumpelstiltskin was, and probably still is, my favourite fairy tale. I love how creepy it is, and even though Rumpelstiltskin himself gave five year old me the heebie jeebies he still interested me.

I also loved Rapunzel - as amazing as Tangled is (I'd much rather watch that than Frozen) the original is pretty darn cool - and Snow White and Rose Red. In fact growing up with two older sisters meant I often had a fondness for stories featuring sisters. There's one story in particular I'd love your help with!

There's a story I can remember from my childhood but I can't remember what it was called and, if I'm completely honest, I can only remember the beginning and the end (and not the important bit in the middle!), and what makes it all the more frustrating is that no one else seems to have heard of it. 

The story features two sisters and their mother. The mother and one of the sisters are awful people. They're wicked and cruel, so much so that whenever her daughter speaks a toad falls out of her mouth. The other sister is nothing like her family; she is beautiful, loving and kind, so much so that whenever she speaks a drop of gold falls out of her mouth. After that I forget what happens (really helpful, I know) but I do remember that by the end of the story the kind daughter has married the Prince, and her mother and sister are punished for their wickedness by being put in barrels lined with iron nails and rolled down a hill.

Please tell me someone knows the story I'm talking about, because I've been searching for it for years!

"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."

~ C.S. Lewis

When I was seventeen my love for fairy tales, somewhat quashed by puberty and the feeling that I should have grown out of them by now, was rekindled when myself and seven others put on a production of three of the Grimm's Fairy Tales for our Drama A Level. We performed Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Cap and Hansel and Gretel, and it was fantastic; each story was around 5-10 minutes long, and we performed them all while dressed as a selection of macabre toys!

Since then I haven't let myself shy away from my love of fairy tales. In fact luckily for me I wound up studying retellings during my first year of university when we looked at Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories and Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories. During my second year of university I was introduced to literary theory, and did a project on postmodernism and fairy tales/mythology. In my third year one of my friends worked on a really interesting dissertation about how all modern day horror films can be traced back to the Brothers Grimm, while my dissertation argued that many dystopian stories can be traced back to theology and the story of the Fall.

Needless to say, I'd been waiting for the bandwagon long before it rolled around when retellings became the next literary trend and, luckily for us, they're going to be a trend that sticks around. For as long as there are fairy tales and folk tales there are going to be new ways to tell them, because there's a reason we still read these stories to our children, there's a reason why we still learn from them. They're part of our culture; Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm didn't stay in their rooms and think of all these stories themselves, they travelled around Europe and collected these stories from communities who thrived on the art of oral storytelling, and for whom these stories were lessons as much as they were entertainment. 

"Fairy tales represent hundreds of years of stories based on thousands of years of stories told by hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of tellers."

~ Kate Bernheimer

It's the same with The Thousand and One Nights, The Sagas and The Mabinogion - tales from West and South Asia, Scandinavian and Germanic history, and Celtic Wales respectively - all of the stories were told around campfires long before they were written down, and if a story can survive so long without ever making a mark upon a page, just imagine how long they're going to be around now that we've written them down.

From Cinder to Wicked to Cruel Beauty, we're in the middle of a Fairy Tale Renaissance, and as long as there are retellings to read I'll read them, but I'll always return to my first love: the Grimm's Fairy Tales.

"If I'm honest I have to tell you I still read fairy tales and I like them best of all."

~ Audrey Hepburn

Review | The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood | 2015 Fairytale Challenge

The Penelopiad

by Margaret Atwood

My Rating: 

"Now that all the others have run out of air, it's my turn to do a little story-making."

In Homer's account in The Odyssey, Penelope--wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy--is portrayed as the quintessential faithful wife, her story a salutary lesson through the ages. Left alone for twenty years when Odysseus goes off to fight in the Trojan War after the abduction of Helen, Penelope manages, in the face of scandalous rumors, to maintain the kingdom of Ithaca, bring up her wayward son, and keep over a hundred suitors at bay, simultaneously. When Odysseus finally comes home after enduring hardships, overcoming monsters, and sleeping with goddesses, he kills her suitors and--curiously--twelve of her maids.

In a splendid contemporary twist to the ancient story, Margaret Atwood has chosen to give the telling of it to Penelope and to her twelve hanged maids, asking: "What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to?" In Atwood's dazzling, playful retelling, the story becomes as wise and compassionate as it is haunting, and as wildly entertaining as it is disturbing. With wit and verve, drawing on the story-telling and poetic talent for which she herself is renowned, she gives Penelope new life and reality--and sets out to provide an answer to an ancient mystery.

This year I'm taking part in the Retelling Challenge hosted at The Daily Prophecy, so it feels right to review a retelling in the first month of the year!

Over the past few years retellings have been hugely popular in many different mediums. Whether it's a book like Cinder or a film like Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters we just can't get enough. Despite their recent popularity retellings aren't new; most myths, legends and fairytales have several incarnations from the moment of their conception, which is why so many of us around the world have different ideas as to how Rumpelstiltskin or Little Red Cap ends. 

Now retellings are branching out in the literary world, and it's great to see! There are fairytale retellings like Cruel Beauty and Strands of Bronze and Gold, but now even classics are getting a new lick of paint with books such as Isaac Marion's Warm Bodies, based on Romeo and Juliet, and Diana Peterfreund's For Darkness Shows the Stars, based on Jane Austen's Persuasion.

And, as can be seen in The Penelopiad, mythology isn't getting left out either!

The Penelopiad tells the story of Homer's The Odyssey through the eyes of Odysseus's long-suffering wife Penelope. In this book Penelope is given the chance to tell her side of the story, and throughout her account her twelve maids, hanged by Odysseus at the end of The Odyssey, act as a haunting Greek chorus.

Before reading The Penelopiad I hadn't read any of Atwood's fiction - I still haven't read The Handmaid's Tale, but I'm hoping to cross it off my TBR this year! - and I was nervous I wasn't going to like what I read because she was an author I'd heard so much about and wanted to like. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed.

I loved the way Atwood played around with the story of The Odyssey, and particularly with our perception of Odysseus, throughout the book. She certainly gave Penelope a voice worth listening to, and I empathised with her throughout. My favourite sections of the book, however, were definitely the sections in which Penelope's maids took to the stage; they spoke so eerily and lyrically that I found it even more enjoyable to read their sections out loud to myself.

The Penelopiad didn't blow me away, but I loved how Atwood interpreted the original story and loved even more that she gave poor Penelope a voice of her own. It was a quick, easy and enjoyable read, and I definitely recommend it - especially to any of you who are taking part in the Retelling Challenge this year!

The 2015 Fairytale Challenge!

Throughout 2015, Mel from The Daily Prophecy will be hosting the Fairytale Challenge!

• The challenge runs from January 1st to December 31st 2015
• The goal is simply to read retellings (fairytale or not!) throughout 2015. The book doesn't have to be published in 2015 and rereads count! 
• There are 6 different levels you can aim for:
  - Prince Charming (1 - 4 Books)
  - Magic Mirror (5 - 9 Books)
  - Big Bad Wolf (10 - 15 Books)
  - The Wise Princess (16 - 20 Books)
  - Wicked Fairy Godmother (21 - 25 Books)
  - Bluebeard (26+ Books)

You can join this challenge up until December 31st 2014 by leaving a link to your introduction post here!

I grew up on Grimm's Tales, so I've loved fairytales and fairytale retellings for years. So, naturally, I just had to take part in this challenge. I won't be limiting myself to just fairytale retellings, as much as I love them, because there are so many amazing retellings out there that focus more on folk tales and even classics and I want to read as many of them as I  can!

Here are the retellings I'd like to read in 2015:

Fairest

by Marissa Meyer

Winter

by Marissa Meyer

Retelling of: Snow White

For Darkness Shows the Stars

by Diana Peterfreund

Retelling of: Persuasion

Of Beast and Beauty

by Stacey Jay

Retelling of: Beauty and the Beast

The Mirk and Midnight Hour

by Jane Nickerson

Retelling of: Tam Lin

Faery Tales

by Carol Ann Duffy

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monster

by Ben H. Winters

Retelling of: Sense and Sensibility

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club

by Genevieve Valentine

Retelling of: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

Warm Bodies

by Isaac Marion

Retelling of: Romeo and Juliet

Cruel Beauty

by Rosamund Hodge

Retelling of: Beauty and the Beast

&

New Stories from The Mabinogion

This month I started my new job at Seren Books, an independent publisher in South Wales, who over the past few years have published retellings of the eleven stories in The Mabinogion, old Welsh folk tales based on Celtic mythology, and in 2015 I'm going to try and read them all! I'm particularly eager to read The Meat Tree by Gwyneth Lewis, White Ravens by Owen Sheers, and The Prince's Pen by Horatio Clare.

If I saw even one other person read a Mabinogion retelling I'd be thrilled; it'd be wonderful to see everyone reading retellings that aren't the typical Grimm's Fairy Tales retellings.

If you'd like to know more about the New Stories from The Mabinogion series, you can find out more here!

Are you taking part in the challenge throughout 2015?