Fairytale-Inspired Books to Eat During Quarantine
Sometimes it feels like being at home all day is boring, dull, and the entire world seems to be squished down to the size of your house. Yeah, I get that feeling too. I’ve compiled a list of wonderfully-interesting pageturners that take the reader away to a different world, nestled in the cream-coloured pages of books.
Stepsister by Jennifer Donelly
“The wolves in the woods have sharp teeth and long claws, but it’s the wolf inside who will tear you apart.”
Stepsister is the feminist untold story of Cinderella’s stepsisters, carefully crafted in a fantastical world. The story follows main protagonist Isabelle, the ugly stepsister who cut off her toes to marry the prince. As her life takes a turn for the worse when how her family treated Ella, she’s ridiculed and bullied under the scornful eye of the town of Saint Michel. It seems that Isabelle is hopeless condemned to be the ugly stepsister and nothing more, but not everything is as it seems. I’d especially recommend this book to fantasy-lovers or those who love strong female characters.
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
“Never underestimate a girl from Kansas.”
If you’ve got a lot of time to kill, I definitely recommend the Dorothy Must Die series, from Danielle Paige, who also wrote one of my favourite graphic novels, Mera: Tidebreaker. There’s four main books, and a bunch of in-universe short stories, so you’ll have a lot of content to read, and every book is just as good as the last, with no “middle-book” problems. Dorothy Must Die is a modern-spin on the classic tale of The Wizard of Oz, and follows the story of Amy Gumm, a girl from Kansas who’s transported to Oz. Upon arriving in Oz, everything you know from the classic tale is turned upside down, and the sides of good and evil become murky.
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
“She was a monster, a bride of the darkness, and she rose to face her destiny as though it were the blood-red sunrise of a new day.”
Forest of a Thousand Lanterns tells the tale of Snow White’s Evil Queen, of who the Evil Queen was before. Set in a world inspired by Ancient China, protagonist Xifeng is a girl with a dangerous destiny. She’s destined to be Empress, but not because she’s the true born king or the rightful heir. Her destiny is hers only if she’s willing to embrace the evil inside herself, one fueled by the hearts of the dead. I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes prequels or doesn’t mind dark heavy material.
Happy reading!
The Roar 