Riot Recommendation

30 of Your Favorite Folklore/Fairy Tale Retellings

S. Zainab Williams

Executive Director, Content

S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.

This giveaway is sponsored by Tor Teen, proud publisher of Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter.

In Vassa’s Brooklyn neighborhood it’s easy to stumble into magic, it’s stumbling away again that’s hard. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters—and innocent shoppers. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission. But Vassa has Erg, a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and ferocious cunning. With Erg’s help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch’s curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. But Babs won’t be playing fair…


There are so many ways to turn a familiar, timeless tale on its head and spin out something refreshingly new. We’ve seen it done with stories from the Brothers Grimm to Chinese mythology and more. We asked you to tell us your favorite folklore and fairy tale retellings and you responded. Here are 30 of your favorites!

The Golden Braid by Melanie Dickerson

The Queen of Spells by Dahlov Ipcar (Tam Lin retelling)

Deathless by Catherynne Valente

Ash by Malinda Lo

Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Rump by Liesl Shurtliff

One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman

Beauty by Robin McKinley

The Princess and the Frog by Robin McKinley

The Rose and The Beast by Francesca Lia Block

The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

The Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley

Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire

The Reluctant Queen Sarah Beth Durst

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Spindle Fire series by Lexa Hillyer

Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prunes

Gretel in the Dark by Eliza Granville

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Ella, the Slayer by A.W. Exley

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

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