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.

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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.

Ooh yes, agreed on Brides of Rollrock Island. It's beautifully written and definitely not fluffy.

My Valente tolerance basically ran out but I tried so much of her stuff because of "The Girl Who..." series and Deathless, which - Lauren if you haven't read it, I do think that's very much up your alley. Also, "The Girl Who..." series is very fun and has a dragon!

Oooh, Lannagan does sound intriguing!

It's been a while since I even read a Valente, so I'm probably prepared to give another one a try. :D Small doses, with that lady! And I have read her MG stuff yet.

I've already recced you Shannon Hale's Book of a Thousand Days, I think, but the recommendation stands.

That one's in my post! I just read it a month or so ago and loved it!

I remember it as a wonderfully sensual read full of textures and scents, and a really compelling main character and relationship to myth.

Oooh, thank you! For all the recs!