lirazel | (no subject)

Lately, I've really been in the mood for a subgenre of fantasy I think of as smart old-school fairytale YA.

Some examples:
+ Robin McKinley's Beauty, Rose Daughter, Spindle's End, Chalice, Deerskin (I also love her other books, but they aren't on this list because they're a different subgenre in my mind)
+ Summers at Castle Auburn
+ The Perilous Gard
+ Book of a Thousand Days
+ Lud-in-the-Mist

Some that aren't quite in this genre but have similar feels:
+ Wise Child and Juniper
+ Spinning Silver and Uprooted

I am currently reading The Hollow Kingdom, which I think belongs in the "similar feel" category, but I'm not sure if I'm going to like it yet.

Does anyone have recs along these lines?

Some things to take into consideration:
+ I don't like 97% of contemporary YA (say, anything written after about 2005), but I am very willing to read MG if it's well-written enough
+ I have tried Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood and bounced hard off the style. I do not think she is for me.
+ I have tried Mermaid Moon within the last couple of days and had the same experience (though the styles are opposite!)
+ I don't want to read something super fluffy. I recently reread Ella Enchanted and it's still so lovable! But it's a little fluffier than what I'm wanting right now.

Threaded | Flat

Hmmm I haven't read all of your examples of the type but I thiiiink I have a sense of what you're going after, and it's a good genre! Some possible suggestions:

- The Wolf and the Girl, by Aster Glenn Gray
- The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, by Genevieve Valentine
- The Raven and the Reindeer, by T Kingfisher
- Bryony and Roses, by T Kingfisher
- The Terracotta Bride, by Zen Cho (MAYBE. I did not write down sufficient details when I read it years ago, and don't remember the details anymore, so I might be misremembering its genre feel!)
- The Princess Curse, by Merrie Haskell
- The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale

I have reviews posted to my dw of all of these if you want to know more about them -- or, you know, go ahead and ask me questions :)

You may enjoy Margo Lannagan's Brides of Rollrock Island! Selkies and a lovely style. She writes Australian horror when she isn't writing smart fairytale YA, which I think is a selling point.

I don't know what your Valente Tolerance™ is, but I adore her MG "The Girl Who…" series. The writing is more baroque than your listed examples, but the heart feels like it's in the same place to me. Does also include a selkie.

I've already recced you Shannon Hale's Book of a Thousand Days, I think, but the recommendation stands. No selkies, alas, but it is outstanding in other ways!

There's also selkie-adjacent MG novel Merrow, by Ananda Braxton-Smith. This is on the edge of actual fairytale, but I didn't feel cheated at all; I remember it as a wonderfully sensual read full of textures and scents, and a really compelling main character and relationship to myth.

Would Patricia McKillip's stuff be like what you're after? My personal favorites are probably The Tower at Stony Wood and The Bell at Sealey Head, but she has many to choose from!

97% is really specific. 😂

I wonder if you might like "Vessel" by Sarah Beth Durst but it's not quite any of that. I liked the whole thing but the ending.

And have you read....I'm trying to remember the title but can't. It's a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth but YA and more to do with identity. I tried searching my bookshelf but...I'll look again.

And maybe "Sorcery of Thorns" by Margaret Rogerson which you might like also because it has sentient books.

Because I just taught a short story from it, I'll give a shoutout to the (mostly) f/f fairytale retellings short story collection Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue! Also, I remember being really impressed by Chime and The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley, though it's been so long since I read them that I don't recall exactly why; I just recall the vibes being excellent and I'd like to revisit both someday.

But mostly I am just commenting here to say HELL YEAH @ this genre!!!!

I wonder if "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" might fit? It's aimed at a younger audience than titles like Uprooted, but I found the story very moving and enjoyed it a good bit... There are "scary"/unpleasant bits but then again they're understated enough that I'm not sure it'll quite hit the "not too fluffy" requirement, haha. Hope you get many good recs!

Second Patricia McKillip. Also, while they're not specifically YA, maybe the books in the old rewritten fairy tales series edited by Terri Windling? https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/798.Fairy_Tale_Series

Possibly Sold for Endless Rue (Rapunzel) by Madeleine Robins

This doesn't quite fit because it's not second-world in the same way as the others (and also I may have recommended it to you before), but Anne Ursu's middle-grade Breadcrumbs is my favorite Snow Queen bar none.