Books Based on Myths & Fairytales

hi guys today I'm here to talk to you about books that are based on myths and fairy tales I've already uploaded a video showing my fairy tale collection which I will link here and in that it's got all classic fairy tales as well as modern short story collections based on fairy tales so you can go and check that out as well but this is for novels and for poetry based on fairy tales and myths now it gets kind of tricky when you try and categorize it because obviously as well as fairy tales you've got magical realism and then you've also got fantasy so for instance you get writers such as Neil Gaiman who often things like Stardust take themes from mythology like JK Rowling as well with Harry Potter and central's and stuff classical fantasy creatures off authority and legend and place them in their books and I haven't included stuff like that in here what I'm trying to do is pick books that follow specific fairy tale tropes and I think you'll know what I mean as I continue so either their new fairy tales that an author has created or there are actually retellings of a fairy tale that is very well known and loved so I will get on and show you what I have the first one is bitter greens by Cape Forsythe which I haven't read yet it's a new purchase and it's a historical fantasy novel about Rapunzel and it's set in the time of louis xiv it's about a girl called margarita who's stuck in a tower and she's got long red hair and she's trying to escape i'm really looking forward to reading this one the next one is greta in the dark by eliza Grandville which I mentioned in my psychological thrillers recommendation video which I'll link down below it's loosely based on Hansel and Gretel because it has definite themes of hunger and starvation it has fairy tale elements and magical realism in it it's a very creepy book and I do recommend it the next book is the book of I know I said the book of strange few things because I'm so used to saying that this is the book of lost things by John Connelly which is the gorgeous book it's about a boy called David whose mother has died it's also set during wartime and he just wants to escape from his life he's in this new environment where his dad has married this new woman he hates a wicked stepmother etc etc and then one evening a plane crashes in his back garden and he goes to investigate and he finds this magical world that he's able to escape into is very dark and dangerous and not the world of the fairy tales he remembers reading when he was it's ruled by a faded king there are wolves who want to eat him it's a great mishmash of fairytales I really enjoyed it I read it about five years ago this is another on my TBR and it's called in the house upon the dirt between the lake and the woods by Matt bell the gorgeous cover it says in this epic mythical debut novel a newlywed couple escapes the busy confusion of their homeland for a distant and almost uninhabited lakeshore but as their everyday pregnancy fails the child's obsessed husband begins to rage at this new world the song spun objects somehow created by his wife's beautiful singing voice the giant and sent it bare that rules the beasts of the woods the second moon weighing down the fabric of their starless sky and a labyrinth of memory dug into the earth beneath their house I think this sounds really great and I'm looking forward to reading it soon we've got three books in there inspired by Greek mythology we've got the Penelope aired by Margot Atwood which is about Penelope whose wife or Decius this girl meets boy but iris makes it's about ovens I presume it's about love and transformation and finally we've got wait by Jeanette Winterson which is about Hercules and Atlas going on from Greek mythology we've got a song for Ella grade by David Armand which inspired by Greek myths it says Claire and Ella and their friends are bound by ties so strong that they seem invincible then the strange have handsome Orpheus rolls onto the beach and he sings them all into an astonishing new understanding of themselves Ella is the one who was caught hardest fastest deepest and Claire who feels the pain of looking on another one on my TBR I mentioned it in my naked hardbacks video because it's gorgeous another one inspired by Greek mythology is the drowning of Arthur Braxton by Caroline SHM ales is about a teenage boy called Arthur Braxton who runs away from school he hides out in an abandoned bathhouse it's in an audio bathhouse and there he finds a naked woman swimming and nothing will be the same again this one is sign because Caroline's a lovely folks mine it says Jen wishing your happily ever after with love from Caroline because that we all want happily ever after the darkest part of the forest by Holly black is a new release and it is a why a fantasy fairy tale about a prince that is asleep in a forest that nobody can wake up I have quite a few poetry collections that I could have mentioned but I've limited myself to four to begin with we've got brand new agents by Kate tempest which I mentioned before Kate's poetry collections are retellings of Greek myths in general she's got another one out called hold your own which is more specifically about that this is Eleanor East Eliza and the bear this is Eleanor's second collection and it deals with morphing creatures and mythological creatures imagine cities and the psyche of changelings John Clegg's book antler is also based around fairy tales it says the poems and atlas stalk their quarry over difficult ground prehistoric landscapes blend with genuine and an imaginary anthropology the real world becomes distorted who dark mirrors of folk tale and myths fraudsters liars and con men lurking perpetually in the shadows and the last one I'm going to mention is Gayle King vibrantly Cavallaro which I'm actually giving away a copy of in my February book haul that giveaway closes on March the 20th and is open worldwide so I'll link that down below so you haven't entered already we wrote this collection about the Midwest in America mixing memories of adolescence with fairy tales that she knows and we appropriated them for females I think this is a really beautiful collection actually there was one other poetry collection I wanted to give a mention to you and this is Furies which is a poetry anthology of women warriors and it's a feminist poetry book that's highly influenced by myth in mythology taking characters from those tales and empowering them and writing about them in poetic form if you haven't read this then do check it out I just started reading it myself I'm thoroughly enjoying it I obviously couldn't not mention the lunar Chronicles by Marissa Mayer the first one being cinder these are modern-day fairy tales futuristic dystopian fairy tales the first one is obviously based on Cinderella it's about a mechanic who lives in a place called new Beijing she wants to go to the ball but she's not allowed because she's an Android and it goes on from there the second one is based on Little Red Riding Hood the third one is based on Rapunzel the fourth one is winter coming out in the winter this year and it's based on Snow White and is also a prequel which just came out in January called fairest which I haven't got yet obviously don't have it here but I've only read the first one so far but they are great fun and I am enjoying reading them these gorgeous books Wildwood and under Wildwood our children's books that are inspired by fairy tales about a girl called Prue whose baby brother is stolen by crows so she goes on adventure to try and find him and bring him back again she finds this wilderness full of mythical creatures and warring people and mystics and she has to fight to find her way through to find her brother and bring him home again then we've got a mile north of the character of rain which has influence of Japanese mythology especially the belief that all children are gods before the age of three so a place of that quite a bit and that's quite fun this is the drum tower by far nice machinery which I included in my February book also I haven't read it yet it says the drum tower is a story of a young girls courageous escape from her divided family and mysterious beginnings and escape that will take her through the streets of Tehran in man's clothing to the terrifying border with Afghanistan I believe that this has a lot of Middle Eastern mythology and fairy tales wrapped up in it as she is trying to solve the mystery of her family and I think that this is gonna be a really good read and I'm excited about it I also wanted to mention Andrew cows and the tiny white gorgeous it is as black and white paper cut out illustrations inside it it is about a bank robbery except thought your typical bank robbery someone comes into a bank comes up to the queue of people there and says he wants to steal the most important thing from every person in the queue and after he does this the disastrous consequences including a lady called Stacy who then starts shrinking down and down and down and down and that doesn't seem to be anything that she can do to stop it it's a fun little read Jeannette Winston's oranges are not the only fruit is certainly not a fairy tale but it does have fairy tales within it the main character uses fairy tales as an escape for herself it's a way to try and explain him the situation that she's in when she's handling traumatic times that she can't process properly so it has bits of fairy tales throughout which I really enjoy so I thought I'd give it a mention then we've got Katherine and Valente obviously this is the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making this is one of my new favorite books it is about a girl called September who gets taken on a green wind to the land of fairyland where she has to try and save the day obviously and it has lots of elements of fairy tales that we know and love is definitely inspired by Alice in Wonderland those things which are also inspired by fairytales and is such a beautiful book I absolutely love it haven't checked it out despite me rambling on about it all the time then please please please go buy a copy please then we've got a deathless by Catherine M Villante which is set in Russia it says that it's a fierce story of life and death love and power old memories deep myth and dark magic set against the dark history of Russia in the 20th century great cover - and finally the last one I want to mention is actually one that was recommended to me by you guys what have you recommended a book which was the sequel to this so I thought I would start with the first one and it's called Kim Wilkins the autumn castle a huge as well massive absolutely massive is set in Berlin in the autumn and it's about a woman called Christine who is living in an artist colony and she's haunted by memories of her childhood and then one day her life is rocked by the return of a childhood friend crimson haired beauty who presides over a land where a witch lives in a well and a wolf is the queen's counsel and faith turns on the fall of an autumn leaf now this sounds really cool I'm really glad that you guys recommended this to me thank you if you have any other recommendations for throw tale related things and please do leave them in the comments as I said this is not everything I have I also included short story collections and other things in my fairy tale collection which is over here as I said so you can go and check that one out to let me know if you've read any of these books or have any caught your eye that you think you might go and check out I hope you guys are having a really great week what was the book of stuff bye

Channel: Jen Campbell

Views: 11,101

Rating: 4.9817352 out of 5

Keywords: fairytales, fairy tales, myths, legends, myths and legends, mythology, greek mythology

Id: Bs5bO4nynxk

Length: 10min 27sec (627 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 08 2015