There is something exciting about a reworking of old familiar tale. I always approach those books with a mix of excitement and dread. What if they are rubbish? Well the two I just read fell into the good and alright categories.
I’ll start with Ash by Malinda Lo, a reworking of Cinderella, our heroine is not chasing after the handsome prince but rather the Royal Huntress. Many of the characters are familiar – mean step mother, ‘ugly’ sisters (ugly in personality rather than looks). The Fairy Godmother is replaced by a male Fairy who is far darker than anything imagined by Disney. The magical world mixes many of the myths and stories I’ve read or heard. Ash also learns that while your wish can be granted everything has a price.
I really enjoyed this story, I liked the twist on the traditional tale and I liked the dark side to the magic. My only complaint was that the ending didn’t quite work for me. I wanted Ash to be with the Huntress but found the solution too easy and simple, after all the talk of how nothing is without cost perhaps I had just expected her to pay a little more for her fairytale ending.
The second book is Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce. This time it’s Red Ridinghood who gets reworking. This time the wolf wins and eats Grandma, leaving two sisters – the older injured in the attack that killed her Gran is forever scarred both physically and mentally. meanwhile the younger is trying to find a way to be her own person without losing her sister. Then there is the handsome neighbour just returned and awakened to the beauty of the sisters. I enjoyed reading this more than i expected, I feared it would be a slightly Twilight-esque tale with little originality but was pleased to find this wasn’t the case. Having said that the books wan’t as great as the cover had made me hope. It was a interesting story but I’d guessed the ‘twist’ in the first quarter of the book and although I enjoyed reading the book it was very much in the way of a guilty pleasure, like watching a romantic comedy (you know what’s going to happen but it’s a fun way to spend an evening).
There is an interesting debate over at The Book Smugglers about why they didn’t like it. The passage where it is suggested that girls would dress differently if they knew about the wolves but instead deliberately tempt them to The Book Smugglers is like suggesting that the girls are asking to be attacked (they compare it to rape and no one asks to be raped). I don’t agree with the basic argument that these ‘wolves’ have human minds and as wild animals they cannot be judged by human standards. That passage didn’t bother me but I can see where they were coming from I think it depended on how you perceive the ‘wolf’.
