Tag: Fairy Tales

…On the Wall

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews19 Comments

I told you how excited I was for Mirror, Mirror, didn’t I?  I had another excellent time at the movies this weekend!  Whatever’s going on in Hollywood lately, they have put out excellent movies this past month.

Mirror, Mirror is a very funny retelling of Snow White, putting it squarely on the track for the Once Upon a Time Challenge‘s Quest on Screen.  As the original story has it, Snow White has grown up under the control of her wicked stepmother, who is desperately jealous of Snow White’s beauty.  The Queen is inspired to take more drastic steps when a handsome prince arrives and is a little too interested in beautiful Snow White.  The Queen sends Snow off to the woods to be killed–and sets about to marry the prince herself.  Snow meets up with seven dwarfs who turn out to be bandits, reads them a lecture on not robbing poor people, then bands forces with them to fight the Queen instead.

From the beginning, what drew me to this movie the most was Julia Roberts as the wicked queen.  She was delightful–one of those terribly sweet and poisonous villains.  And oh-so-campy!  She looked like she was having enormous fun with the part.  She gets some snarky lines and occasionally brings a note of practicality to the fantasy world.  For instance, when the prince goes on about Snow White’s ivory skin, the Queen points out that Snow is eighteen and has never been outside, so of course she has good skin!  She’s not an epic fantasy villain evil queen, but she’s a very funny one–vain, condescending, self-absorbed, insulting, and utterly unable to concentrate while looking at Prince Charming’s bare chest.

Actually, it was Prince Alcott (which just made me think of Louisa May–anyone else?), played by Armie Hammer.  You might know him as the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network.  Only one of him this time, but still very attractive, and shirtless more than once (he keeps having unfortunate run-ins with those bandits…so it’s all very plot-relevant, really).  As a character, he’s a bit of a boor at times, but seems to have a good heart.

Lily Collins played Snow White (utterly unrecognizable from her role in The Blind Side), and she was a refreshing take on the character.  This was a sweet but also smart and scrappy Snow White.  And the dwarfs, while not as entertaining as their counterparts in Once Upon a Time, were nevertheless quite amusing.

And of course, no proper Wicked Queen would be without a down-trodden flunky, played in this movie by Nathan Lane.  He’s squirmy, devoted and lacking in all self-respect, as a down-trodden flunky should be.

Another fun side to this movie were the visuals.  I loved the set-design–the Wicked Queen has this gorgeous open-air bedroom with breathtaking views that I really want (aside from the practicalities of it).  The dwarfs apparently had the same architect as Peter Pan, with an underground home that you can reach through a hollow-tree, which looked both cosy and claustrophobic.

Then there were the costumes.  Oh, the costumes.  So many hoop skirts and massive bows and mounds of fabrics and headpieces that must have required special training in balancing.  Utterly fantastic.  There’s a masquerade at one point, and there are so many wonderful headpieces–and the prince has incredibly amusing bunny ears.

This is not a deep movie or a terribly complex movie and it doesn’t have terribly complex characters, but if you want some light-hearted fun with attractive costumes and an attractive leading man, it’s a good day at the movies!

Movie site: http://mirrormirrorfilm.com/

Beauty and the Roses

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews24 Comments

It’s always a joy to come back to a beloved book, and find out you still love it on a reread.  But it’s even better when you find out you love it even more.  That happened to me with Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley.  I’ve read it at least once–maybe twice–and I always liked it.  But this time I really loved it.

Rose Daughter is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and my first book for this year’s Once Upon a Time Challenge.  I was excited to jump into the challenge, which is why you’re getting a third book review this week!

I don’t have a lot to say about the plot, because mostly there aren’t surprises here (except when there are, and that’s too far into the book to discuss without ruining it with spoilers!)  There’s a ruined merchant and his three daughters, there’s a mysterious castle with a mysterious Beast, and there are roses.  Lots and lots and LOTS of roses.

You may be thinking–didn’t McKinley write another story with this plot?  A few less roses, but still the same story?  She did–Beauty.  But the amazing thing is how different the books felt to me, even though they are essentially the same plot.

I’ve said before that I am hugely impressed by the different writing style in McKinley’s different books, and that’s very true in these two.  Beauty is practical.  There’s magic, but it’s magic that exists in a very reasonable, understandable world, with real people and commonplace concerns.  Even the magic has a slightly homey feel to it, from winds that scold and candles that whisper “Psst, wake up!” when one of their number forgets to light.

Rose Daughter is surreal.  The Beast lives in a constantly changing castle where laws of time and space simply don’t apply.  The magic is somber and imposing and a deeply serious business, powerful and ominous.  Even the world outside the castle feels more like something wild and strange, a world where everyone’s names reflect who they are (Beauty’s sisters are Jeweltongue and Lionheart), and there are mysteries and magic and curses.

While I always liked Rose Daughter, I also preferred practicality to surrealism.  I’m not sure what happened since my last reading, if it’s just that I got older or if it’s that I read more Brothers Grimm, but I loved the style of Rose Daughter this time.  It really may be that I came to it shortly after writing my own Brothers Grimmesque stories, and this is a Brothers Grimmesque book: the names, and flowery ornateness of the writing, smack of the Brothers Grimm (even though they didn’t write a version of “Beauty and the Beast”).

The writing is just gorgeous.  I love the descriptions, of feelings and flowers and smells.  There are long passages about flowers, but don’t be offput by that.  I’m not even fond of roses, but I never got bored by the book–and it kind of made me want to have a love affair with roses, even though I’ve been in a very happy relationship with daffodils for years.  Based on other reviews, it seems to make many people want to go out and plant rose bushes.

I think, in my heart of hearts, I do still love Beauty better.  I like that Beauty a bit better than this one, and I definitely like her romance better.  Much as I love Rose Daughter, the relationship with the Beast just didn’t appeal to me as much.  But I do love Rose Daughter, and it is a truly, truly beautiful book.

McKinley wrote an Author’s Note about the inspiration that led to Rose Daughter, and mentions that it came twenty years after Beauty–so maybe the story will come back to her in a new form in another twenty years.  That was in 1996, so if that prediction comes true, we only have four years to wait!  If I could, I’d put in my preorder today.

Author’s Site: http://www.robinmckinley.com/

Other reviews:
Angieville
Dodging Commas
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
Others?

Diving Into Fairy Tales

On By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations16 Comments

It’s the first day of spring!  And that means that thoughts are lightly turning towards love, pilgrimages (see Chaucer), and fairy tales!  If you were here last year, you may remember the Once Upon a Time challenge, hosted by Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings (home of the Sci Fi Experience too).

The plan: read fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, fantasy…  And since that’s pretty much what I DO, I’m so excited!  I’ve not read many fairy tale retellings lately, so I’ve got them lined up.  In fact, I started (re)reading Robin McKinley’s Rose Daughter this morning.  🙂  Technically the challenge starts tomorrow, but, you know, close enough.  I’ll still be reading it tomorrow.

There’s a whole list of Quests, which I selected and pursued last year.  This year I’m embracing the casual nature of Carl’s “experiences” and deciding to let the chips fall where they will.  I’ll go for those books I have lined up, and see how it sorts out in the end.

So, keep your eye out for more fairy tales–coming soon!

The Witch’s Daughter

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fiction Friday5 Comments

Today’s short story is another one from my NaNo novel, told by my storytelling main character, Lyra.  You don’t have to know any background, except perhaps that her stories are heavily influenced by the Brothers Grimm, so feel free to skip on down to the story if you like.  There is a little context that may be interesting though.

The non-NaNo novel draft I’m working on is about Jasper, a wandering adventurer, and Julie, a girl he rescues who ends up traveling with him.  There’s also Tom, a talking cat.  In one chapter, they go to the castle of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, which then became the basis for my NaNo novel, telling the story from one princess’ point of view.  Lyra spends some time talking to Julie, and learns a little about her–her mother was a witch, her father taught her to read, she has a conceited orange cat and Jasper can’t read.  Lyra goes on to make up a story about Julie and Jasper to tell her sisters.  Because she doesn’t know much, it bears only slight resemblance to the story in my other novel.  But it was fun to take several of the same elements, and throw them together into a new story.

So here is Lyra’s mostly untrue story about a witch’s daughter and a wandering adventurer.

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The Witch’s Daughter

I told a tale that began once upon a time not too long ago, about a girl whose father taught her to read.  The girl’s father died when she was still quite young, which left her alone with her mother.  This was doubly sad, because her mother, it turns out, was a witch, in every sense of the word.  She was far more interested in her magic and her spells than in her daughter, and the girl was mostly left to herself.  She explored the crumbly old castle they lived in, and read every one of her father’s books.

In due time, the girl grew up into a young woman, one who dreamed of escaping her mother and finding her own path through the world.  Since she had never been beyond the castle and knew no one else, she was afraid to run away alone.  She was also afraid that her mother would catch her, as a witch has many resources to hand.  And if she caught her, there were far too many horrible things she could do.  But the girl was smart, and patient, and so she waited for her opportunity to escape.

One dark night there was a terrible storm, and out of the midst of the storm there came a man on horseback who had lost his way.  He came to the castle to ask for shelter.  The witch saw that he was young and strong and there were many uses she could find for one such as him.  The girl saw that he was handsome, with hazel eyes.  The witch invited the young man in, and told him he must stay until the storm was gone. Continue reading “The Witch’s Daughter” →

Twelve More Dancing Princesses

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult2 Comments

Entwined by Heather Dixon is one of those books I saw make the rounds of several blogs I follow.  And of course I was intrigued–it’s another retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”  I reserved this at the library months ago, but the hold list was so long, it finally looked like it was about to come in during November.  Since I was spending November writing my own retelling of the same story, I didn’t want to read this then–I was sure I’d end up subconciously plagiarizing something!  So I put my request on hold, and finally read it in January, after finishing my own novel.

Entwined centers on Azalea and her eleven sisters, all named for flowers or plants and helpfully in alphabetical order: Azalea, Bramble, Clover, Delphinium and so on.  I frequently had to run through the alphabet to figure out the approximate age of, say, Jessamine or Kale.  The princesses’ mother dies early in the book, and the official rules of mourning restrict them from dancing for a year (among other things).  The girls discover a hidden passage leading off their room, relic of a magician-king from two hundred years ago.  They find an enchanted silver forest and a pavilion, whose guardian, the Keeper, tells them they are welcome to come and dance every night.

This book started slow for me.  The first half was only so-so, but it did pick up in the second half.  The turning point for me was when Keeper started threatening the soul of Azalea’s mother, to force Azalea to free him from captivity in the magic pavilion.  It was the first time Azalea seemed to have any significant motivation, and also when she finally figured out how creepy Keeper was–which had been pretty obvious to me from the beginning.  Prior to that, really wanting to dance just didn’t seem like adequate motivation to defy their father and go dancing every night in a pavilion owned by a very sinister stranger.

The romances also pick up in the second half of the book, for Azalea as well as Bramble and Clover.  This actually did a lot for Bramble and Clover as characters.  Prior to that, Clover was very quiet and Bramble was very immature.

That leads me to another point–this book made me think about what is perhaps the first fundamental question of retelling this story.  Namely, which sister to focus on?  The oldest?  The youngest?  Someone in between?  This is a larger question than it might seem, because there seems to be an unwritten rule that the heroine has to be around sixteen or seventeen.  If you give your seventeen-year-old heroine eleven younger sisters, simple math tells you that most have to be children.  Making her one of the younger ones means she can have adult sisters.  In a way, it’s a choice between giving your heroine a circle of peers, or making her a baby-sitter.  The fact that I put it that way probably tells you already that my heroine is at the younger end, #9, with sisters ranging between the ages of 15 and 25 (with a couple sets of twins).

Azalea is the oldest princess, and she spends a lot of time looking after younger siblings.  Most of them completely run together for me.  Even though Bramble should be about 15, she spends the first half of the book seeming very young.  It gets better when she and Clover get a little more screen time, a little more maturity, and can serve more as equals for Azalea.

Another major arc of the book was the relationship between the princesses and their father.  The King starts out as very cold and apparently aloof, but ultimately develops into a caring father (who simply doesn’t always know how to relate to his daughters).  Sometimes that transition is jarring, but it does come together in the end.

There are things I liked about Entwined too.  Some of the description was good, and I liked the treatment of the dancing.  Dixon clearly knows something about dancing, and there’s plenty of discussion about what kind of dance the princesses are dancing, and how they feel.  I do feel convinced about the importance of dancing to Azalea, and there’s good description of what it means to her–for one thing, it’s a connection to her mother, and it also gives her a sense of freedom and of magic.  I believe dancing is important to her–it just doesn’t seem quite important enough for some of the choices she’s making.

This was a good book, with a great climax, and nothing really wrong with it (other than some bland sisters, but with twelve there’s only so much you can do).  It didn’t quite spark for me, though.  Good–but not fantastic, and not particularly distinctive compared to other versions of the story I’ve read.  Aside, that is, from the cover–definitely one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a while!

Author’s Site: http://www.harperteen.com/authors/37209/Heather_Dixon/index.aspx

Other reviews:
Between the Stacks
Charlotte’s Library
While We’re Paused
Yours?