Top Ten Tuesday: Authors to Follow on Social Media

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

This week’s topic was:

November 23: Characters I’d Love An Update On (Where are they now that the book is over?)

But I feel like I’ve done several lists like that before (here, here), so I decided to go in my own direction. These are authors who I think are great “follows” on social media.

Carol Beth Anderson– Anderson is a fantasy author who posts microfiction quite a bit on her twitter. She’s great for sharing author resources and writing advice.

[blog][twitter][instagram]

Katherine Langrish– Langrish is a fantasy and nonfiction author who tweets lots of interesting articles and links to her blogs about fairy tales and folklore. [twitter][blog]

Thomas Kane- Kane is another fantasy author who has been incredibly supportive of the #WritingCommunity on twitter. I first encountered him on a writing forum and he’s been an amazing resource in terms of writing and publishing. [twitter][blog]

Anne Lamott– Anne Lamott is a novelist and writing guru who shares writing and life advice on twitter. She’s not shy about sharing her opinions, but I feel like she’s usually coming from a good place. [twitter][facebook]

Terri Windling- Windling is a fantasy author, as well as an editor, artist folklorist and fairy tale historian. I love her blog, which is an amazing source of information. On twitter she shares interesting tidbits from her life in an English village, where she lives with her husband and dog. [twitter][blog]

Kate Forsyth– Forsyth is an author of fantasy and historical fiction. Her blog, What Katie Read, shares the books she’s been reading, and her Writing Journal features tips, announcements and musings on writing and life.

[twitter][reading blog] [writing journal] [instagram]

Alexandra Silber– Silber is an actor/singer/blogger/author of historical fiction and memoir. She shares her thoughts and opinions on her blog and social media accounts. She tends to be very candid and vulnerable in a way that I admire but could never emulate! [twitter][blog][instagram]

Catherynne M. Valente– Valente’s work is mostly fantasy though the subgenres vary pretty widely. She tweets about just about everything, from random, thoughts to interesting anecdotes, to what she’s watching, reading, and thinking. [twitter][instagram]

Stephen King- Love his work or hate it (I tend to be sort of 50/50) I do like to see his opinions, and jokes and thoughts on twitter. I think he seems to love stories so passionately – his own and other people’s – he genuinely seems to enjoy discussing them and sharing them with others. [twitter]

Katherine Harbour– Harbour is a YA fantasy author, who actually isn’t on social media very much, but I’m including her on this list, because it’s a highlight for me when she is! She shares her favorite reads and thoughts about writing and stories on her blog, which I have permanently bookmarked! [twitter][blog]

Neil Gaiman– Gaiman is a fantasy author whose work ranges from short fiction to epic novels for audiences ranging from children to adults and everyone in between. Truthfully, I don’t always love his literary work, but I do sometimes. And I do enjoy following him on social media where he shares what he’s up to, and info about various adaptations of his work for film/tv/theatre/whatever. [blog] [twitter]

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish Had Sequels (The Sequel)

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

This week’s topic was:

July 13: Book Titles That are Questions

But I feel like I just did a book title list recently and I wanted to mix it up a little. So I found an old topic that I thought sounded interesting.

Standalone Books That I Wish Had Sequels

I found this kind of tough, because most of these I like as standalones, even if I want to know what happened next. Some I left off, because even if they had open endings, I don’t think they’d work with a sequel. I did something like this a while back, but on that one I included books that ended a series that I wished weren’t the end. I also counted sequels by other authors. So I decided to make a new list with actual standalones. Sequels by other authors don’t count on this list. I tried to be fairly general in my comments and not include specific spoilers, but just be warned…:

1. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell- OK this actually does have a sequel that was authorized by the author’s estate, but for the most part, it’s not great. Also based on the rules I made up for this list, sequels by other authors don’t count. I would have liked Scarlett’s next chapter as imagined by Mitchell herself. But it’s also not like I felt that the original book left me in the middle of nowhere. It just left me wanting to know more.

2. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern– I was once again torn between this and The Night Circus for this list. Both have such vivid settings that could be explored further, and neither ties things up in a bow, so there could conceivably be more to the story. I finally decided to go with this one for this list because the setting (literally) lends itself to millions of stories. Also, I put The Night Circus on my first list.

3. A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux- I was torn between this book and Deveraux’s other romance with elements of time travel, Remembrance. I just went with this one because it was the first that popped into my mind. In both cases, Deveraux twists the expected “happily ever after” a bit. Not that they don’t have happy endings (it is the romance genre after all!) but not in the ways the reader would expect, so more questions begin to emerge.

4. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel- This one ends on a hopeful note. It’s a post-apocalyptical novel, so there isn’t much hope through most of it. When it emerges at the end, my biggest question was, “how do people deal with this?” It’s a big change from the status quo for the characters, learning to exist in a world where things may improve. I wanted to know how they handled it!

5. The Glass Town Game by Catherynne M. Valente- This is a strange book. It’s supposedly intended for a middle grade audience, but plot deals with the Bronte siblings falling into the fantasy world that they wrote about in their juvenilia. I’m not sure how many middle graders are familiar with the Brontes, let alone their lesser know juvenile works! But I enjoyed it nonetheless. Knowing biographical information about the real life version of characters made me wonder how their book versions would handle some of what I knew was facing them. I was also interested in their evolution from the children depicted in the book to brilliant writers. But a sequel with that stuff would probably take it even farther out of middle grade territory.

6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett- I’m fine with where it ended, but I’ve always been curious about what the future holds for Mary, Dickon and Colin. Another author did write a sequel but I’m not counting sequels by other authors for this list.

7. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman– I’m kind of curious what happens to Bod when ventures out into the (non-graveyard based) world. How do his daily interactions with the living go? What becomes of him as an adult? Does he find a job? Get married? Live “normal” life? Or does he do something different?

8. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke– I have a conflicted relationship with this book (mostly because I found it way too long!) but it does leave off with a lot of unanswered questions.

9. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen– Let me just preface this by saying that I’m totally fine with this not having a (official) sequel (there are many, many sequels and spin offs and fanfic by other authors!) But I’ve always wondered what became of Kitty and Mary after their sisters got married. I mean, the fact that Lizzie and Jane married money means that they won’t be homeless when their father dies (presumably they could stay with one of them!) but what did they do with their lives? Did they ever marry? Did they do something else? If so, what?

#WyrdandWonder Challenge (Part III)

My next set of prompts for May’s Wyrd and Wonder Challenge

May 20	Fantasy creature on the cover (bonus points if it isn’t a dragon) Well, the most recent fantasy book I read with fantasy creature on the cover, was Crown of Crystal Flame, by CL Wilson. It’s the final book in Wilson’s Tarien Soul series and it has a Tarien (sort of like a giant cat with wings) on the cover in the background. The first book in the series, Lord of the Fading Lands shows a Tarien a bit more clearly.
May 21	Fantasy in translation Fridays are all about celebrating fantasy from around the world – this week focuses on books that weren’t originally written in English The one that leaps immediately to mind is The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, because it’s a favorite (well really the whole Cemetery of Forgotten Books series counts) The fantasy elements are stronger elsewhere in the series, but as I said, this one is my favorite, and it has those elements as well, to a lesser extent. It was originally written in Spanish. Another book that, well, let’s say it made a strong impression on me was Troll: A Love Story by Finnish author Johanna Sinisalo. Actually I’m a big fan of magical realism, which I suppose is a subgenre of fantasy. It has strong associations with Latin America, so a lot of the books are in translation from Spanish. Some favorites are Like Water For Chocolate, Eva Luna, and The House of the Spirits. I suppose many classic fairy tale collections count as well. The Brother’s Grimm and ETA Hoffman were originally in German. Hans Christian Anderson was Danish. Charles Perrault was French. They all originally wrote in their native languages.
May 22	Get in the sea Seaborne fantasy, mermaid tales, the lady in the lake – make it watery for World Maritime Day …or if you’re feeling bitter, what fantasy would you consign to the depths and why? I really enjoyed Carolyn Turgen’s Mermaid. It’s based on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid (which is very different from Disney’s version!) and follows the point of view of both the mermaid and the princess who the mermaid’s beloved marries.
May 23	Book rainbow book spines arranged in the colours of the rainbow Some of the colors didn’t photograph as well as I would have liked, but I didn’t have a chance to play with the lighting.
May 24	On the shelf how long has that been on your shelf / TBR?? a book / books you really should have read by now I think these have been on my shelf for the longest: White As Snow by Tanith Lee To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis The Blue Girl by Charles DeLint Hopefully I can get to them soon!
May 25	Chosen one #TropeTuesday Double-edged prophecies, irresistible destiny, a plot stick you just can’t dodge – let’s end the month on a classic Well, this month these are the books I’ve read that use that trope: Crown of Crystal Flame by CL Wilson– This is the final book in the Tarien Soul series and the heroine, Elysetta, has every characteristic of a “chosen one.” She has a mysterious past, she was found in the woods as a baby, she has a supernatural/fantastic origin story, and she is destined to either save, or destroy, the fey. Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness-This is the second book in the All Souls series and I think that Diana has some “chosen one” characteristics too. She knows she’s a witch but she didn’t have any sense of connection to her heritage before the first book in the series. In this book, she starts her magic training, and it turns out she’s a “weaver,” a rare kind of witch that can make up spells. It’s been hinted that she might save supernatural creatures from extinction. She’s also married to a vampire, and there are prophesies about their offspring.
May 26	All the feels We all love an emotional rollercoaster – a book that gave your feelings a full on work out I’m often an emotional wreck as I read, so this might be a long-ish list with major spoilers. Be warned… The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman- The end when Bod leaves the graveyard, and the ghosts who raised him, and goes out to pursue his future as a living person. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro– I’m counting this as a fantasy, even though you could make the argument for it being sci-fi. Really just the whole thing once we learned what the characters were and their inevitable fate. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon- A lot of books in the Outlander series have given me all the feels on a semi regular basis, but this one totally destroyed me when Jamie sends Claire back through the stones, to the future (they both think forever), and goes off to die (they think) at the battle of Culloden… Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling– This was another series where I got emotional at many different points (the end of The Prisoner of Azkaban, the end of The Goblet of Fire, the end of The Half Blood Prince…) but if I had to pick one part of the series, it would be this book. When people we love die in battle, when Harry goes into the forest, Dobby, Snape, and really everything! The Keeping Place by Isobelle Carmody- Once again, the Obernewtyn series has given me all the feels at several points. But this one features the Misfits getting betrayed by people they thought were allies. Many important and beloved characters are murdered in an ambush I didn’t see coming. My friend, who recommended the series warned me that we’d lose some people in this one, so I was semi-prepared, but the scope and depth of the betrayal was what destroyed me.

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Quotes About Hope

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

May 25: Book Quotes that Fit X Theme (Pick any theme you want, i.e., motivational quotes, romantic dialogues, hunger-inducing quotes, quotes that fill you with hope, quotes on defeating adversity, quotes that present strong emotions, healing, etc. and then select quotes from books that fit that theme.)

Foe this one I decided to go with quotes about hope. Because we always need a little hope:

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” This is used in Coraline by Neil Gaiman, but the source is actually debatable.

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if only someone remembers to turn on the light.” From Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling

“So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.” From The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.” From The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

“Hope like that, as I thought before, doesn’t make you a weak person. It’s hopelessness that makes you weak. Hope makes you stronger, because it brings with it a sense of reason. Not a reason for how or why they were taken from you, but a reason for you to live. Because it’s a maybe. A ‘maybe someday things won’t always be this sh*t.’ And that ‘maybe’ immediately makes the sh*ttiness better.” From The Book of Tomorrow by Cecilia Ahearn

“Reader, do you think it is a terrible thing to hope when there is really no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since, in the end, it really makes no difference to anyone but you?” From The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

“And remember: you must never, under any circumstances, despair. To hope and to act, these are our duties in misfortune.” From  Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

“That’s what winter is: an exercise in remembering how to still yourself then how to come pliantly back to life again.” From Winter by Ali Smith

“My belief is that if we live another century or so — I am talking of the common life which is the real life and not of the little separate lives which we live as individuals — and have five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own; if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think; if we escape a little from the common sitting-room and see human beings not always in their relation to each other but in relation to reality; and the sky, too, and the trees or whatever it may be in themselves; if we look past Milton’s bogey, for no human being should shut out the view; if we face the fact, for it is a fact, that there is no arm to cling to, but that we go alone and that our relation is to the world of reality and not only to the world of men and women, then the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeare’s sister will put on the body which she has so often laid down.” From A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

“It’s not that we had no heart or eyes for pain. We were all afraid. We all had our miseries. But to despair was to wish for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable…What was worse, to sit and wait for our own deaths with proper somber faces? Or to choose our own happiness? So we decided to hold parties and pretend each week had become the new year. Each week we could forget past wrongs done to us. We weren’t allowed to think a bad thought. We feasted, we laughed, we played games, lost and won, we told the best stories. And each week we could hope to be lucky. That hope was our only joy. And that’s how we came to call our little parties Joy Luck.” From The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

#WyrdAndWonder Challenge Catch up (Part II)

For Wyrd & Wonder’s Challenge

May 12	Desert island reads Eight (audio)books, one movie franchise or TV show and a luxury item – what are you taking? (fantasy choices only this month please!) See my answers here
May 13	Had me at hello Amazing cover art or a perfect pitch – a book you wanted to read before you even saw the synopsis (or where you immediately NEEDED to read the synopsis because your interest had been piqued) Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley- The pitch describes it as ” is described as “Jamaica Inn by way of Jeff Vandermeer, Ursula Le Guin, Angela Carter and Michel Faber.” I haven’t’ read it yet (it only came out earlier this year) but I really need to read this like, yesterday!
May 14	Fantasy voices from around the world Fridays are all about celebrating fantasy from around the world – this week focuses on the authors rather than the setting (non US / UK born; bonus points for also non US / UK resident) Recently someone in my book club read The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna. She had a mixed reaction to it, but some of what she said made me think it might be an interesting read, regardless. Forna was born in Sierra Leone. She moved to the US as a child due to political instability.
May 15	#StackSaturday A few of my upcoming reads
May 16	Page to screen What dramatization of a fantasy read have you loved (movie, tv, play, radio – anything goes) – and/or what would you really like to see get made? One of my favorite fantasy adaptations is Stardust, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. This is one of the few cases where I actually like the movie better than the book. I’d love to see a film/tv adaptation of Katherine Neville’s The Eight. I’d call it “light” fantasy in that it encompasses several other genres just as much/more than fantasy, but since it does include some fantasy (can’t say more than that without spoilers!) I’m counting it.
May 17	Can’t wait to read on your TBR or up and coming releases On my immediate(ish) TBR White As Snow by Tanith Lee To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis The Blue Girl by Charles DeLint The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna Harp of Kings by Juliet Marillier Upcoming releases (there are millions, so I limited it to the next 2 months) The Wolf and the Woodman by Ava Reid (publication June 8, 2021) Honeycomb by Joanne M Harris (publication May 25, 2021) The Hidden Palace (publication June 8, 2021) The Nature of Witches (publication June 1, 2021) For the Wolf by Hanna F. Whitten (publication June 1, 2021) The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
May 18	With friends like these #TropeTuesday Enemy to ally or otherwise unreliable / uncertain allies, backstabbing best friends… #TropeTuesday Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson has some of both. When the heroine, Camila brings her BFF back from the dead, she’s hoping for the name of her friend’s killer and a chance to say goodbye. But she accidentally brings back two recently dead mean girls from her high school, as well. The girls have to work together to solve their murders, and become allies. Also Camila’s friend doesn’t always 100% appreciate being brought back,, so there’s some tension there.
May 19	Who’s afraid of the suck fairy? The suck fairy visits old favourites and removes their sparkle, leaving you wondering what Past You saw in this book when you reread it. Have you had a visit from the suck fairy / are there books you’re afraid to reread in case they’ve been visited by the suck fairy? I’ve been wanting to reread Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle series for a while. They have a special place in my heart, but I’m nervous about rereading due to fear of the “suck fairy.” But a friend of mine recently reread them and said they held up pretty well, so maybe I’ll brave it at some point soon.

Movies That Were Better Than The Book

Yes, 9.8 out of 10 times the book is better. But there is that 0.2 time…

The Princess Bride by William Goldman- [book] [movie] I actually like the book more than most fans of the movie do in this case, but the movie always puts a smile on my face.

Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding [book] [movie] I liked the book a lot, but I think the casting pushes this over the top for me. Colin Firth was pretty much perfectly cast as Mark Darcy (I mean, the man is Mr. Darcy!) and I’m not usually a huge Hugh Grant fan, but I really liked him in this.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton- [book] [movie] Again, very good book. But some things work better on the big screen, and I think this is one of them. If nothing else, the music is so memorable. I hear it and right away think “Jurassic Park!” I remember seeing it for the first time and sitting there, stiff with tension as I watched, waiting to see if the characters I’d come to care about (I hadn’t read the book yet) were going to be eaten by dinosaurs.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman- [book] [movie] I think that this book has a very different feel to it. so it’s almost not fair to compare them. But the movie added some charm and humor and expanded things in a way that really worked.

To All The Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han- [book] [movie] I actually saw the Netflix film before I read the book. It was sweet and enjoyable and I looked forward to a similar experience in book form. Instead, I found a very irritating narrator who didn’t seem to learn/grow/develop/mature all that much before the end of the book.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest- [book] [movie] This is another case where I almost think it’s unfair to compare them because the movie does something totally different. It takes similar characters/premise and develops them in its own way.

Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg [book] [movie] Again, in this case the movie took the premise of the book and made it’s own thing.

Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown- [book] [movie] The book felt very “blah.” Not bad, just “blah.” The movie, and specifically Reese Witherspoon’s performance, elevated it.

So what movie (or TV series) do you think is better than it’s source material?

Top Ten Tuesday: Unconventional Ghosts

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

October 27: Halloween Freebie

These aren’t the kind of ghost stories that you’re used to. These ghosts all have something a bit different, a bit unconventional about them. But if you’re up for something different this spooky season, check them out!

1. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella– When Lara’s great aunt Sadie turns up and asks a favor, Lara’s in for a rough ride. Great aunt Sadie has been dead for a while, but she has some definite ideas about how Lara should live her life!

2. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger– When their aunt Elspeth dies, she leaves twins Julia and Valentina her apartment in London: there’s just one stipulation. They have to live in it together for a year before selling it, and their parents can’t come inside. Elspeth’s ghost is there too of course!

3. Rebecca by  Daphne DuMaurier– Rebecca is dead from the very first page of this one, and she stays dead throughout. But her specter haunts everyone from her housekeeper to her husband, to his new wife.

4. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield– I can’t say much about the nature of the ghost in this book without dropping some big spoilers, so I’ll just say it’s not what you’d expect.

5. Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan– Artist Eben Adams is fascinated when he meets Jennie, a young girl who chats about things that happened long before her time. But the next time he meets Jennie, she’s aged several years. He comes to realize that Jennie is a spirit outside of her own time, and she’s come looking for him. This also has a film version.

6. The Girl in a Swing by Richard Adams– Again, talking much about the nature of the ghost in this book would involve spoilers, but I do appreciate the ambiguity of the haunting here.

7. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz- The title character in this book is a short order cook who communicates with the dead. This is actually the beginning of a series but I only read the first book, since I felt it worked well as a stand alone and didn’t want to ruin that. There’s also a film adaptation.

8. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman- In Gaiman’s take on The Jungle Book, a living boy is raised by ghosts in a cemetery.

9. A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle– In this novel, two ghosts in a cemetery find the love of their lives, after their lives are over.

10. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders- In 1862, a year in the civil war, Abraham Lincoln lost his eleven year old son, Willie. Newspapers reported that the distraught president returned to the crypt to see his son’s body. From this seed of historical fact, Saunders creates a novel of voices from the Georgetown graveyard, where a struggle breaks out over young Willie’s soul.

Top Ten Tuesday: Best First Lines

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

Today’s topic was:

June 9: Books I’ve Added to my TBR and Forgotten Why (stolen from Louise @ Foxes & Fairy Tales)

But I really haven’t forgotten why I’ve added anything. So I decided to go with a recent topic that I missed:

Which books have particularly noteworthy opening lines?

I also  tried to avoid the typical ones that most people choose (A Tale of Two Cities, Anna Karenina, etc) So here are some of my favorites:

1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt– “The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we understood the gravity of our situation.”

 

 

 

2.The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford – “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.”

 

 

 

 

3. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smtih-  “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”

 

 

 

 

4. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee– “History has failed us, but no matter.”

 

 

 

 

5. The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern- “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”

 

 

 

6.Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez– “It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”

 

 

 

7. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman- “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held  a knife.”

 

 

 

 

8. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones– “In the land of Ingary where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of the three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.”

 

 

9.The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon– “I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.”

 

 

 

10.Kindred by Octavia Butler– “I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.”

Non Disney Fairy Tale Movies: The Sequel

A while ago, when our lockdown/isolation/shelter in place/quarantine began I wrote a post of some of my favorite non-Disney fairy tale films for all ages. Since we’re still spending a lot of time alone/indoors I decided to make a sequel. Like the first post, I make no guarantees that these movies are safe for the kiddos. I put a * next to the ones that I think are kid friendly and ! next to the ones that are alright for kids above 12.

Beauty and the Beast

! Beauty and the Beast– TV series from the late 1980’s. I wrote a post about this a while ago so, click the link to see it. I know that this was rebooted in the 2010’s at some point, but I wasn’t a fan of the remake. There is a lot of 80’s cheesiness to this show, but that’s part of the charm. It’s about a wealthy NY lawyer whose path crosses with that of a mysterious man-beast who lives in a secret network of tunnels below the city streets. It’s sort of a fusion of romance, fantasy and crime drama. It’s also the work of a pre- Game of Thrones George RR Martin.

! Penelope– This fantasy features a gender reversed Beauty and the Beast with a great sense of fun and fantasy. Penelope Wilhern is born under a family curse; she’s got a pig nose until she earns the love of “one of her own kind” (the reasoning for the curse is explained in the movie). So he mother tries to find ways to fix her up with blue blooded men. Enter Max, who hits it off with Penelope until he sees her face, and promptly refuses to marry her. This sets Penelope off on a journey of self discovery. The move is one of my “happy” movies: things I watch when I need a mood boost. [trailer]

! A Werewolf Boy– In many ways this is similar to Edward Scisscorhands (which I featured on my last list). It’s about a teenage girl who moves to the country and befriends a feral boy who she finds on the grounds of her new home. But his nature may be more animal than human and the beast in him threatens to emerge. [trailer]

Bluebeard

Image Credit: Britannica.com

Rebecca– This classic novel by Daphne DuMaurier has been adapted for the screen several times. But I think the best bet is Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film. Yes, plotwise there are some significant changes from the novel, but the film still follows the Bluebeard template (a woman married a widower and finds herself haunted by her predecessor) and most importantly, it gets the atmosphere of DuMaurier’s atmosphere heavy novel right. If you want some more Hitchcock films with Bluebeard echoes you can also take a look at Suspicion and Notorious,  but I find this one has the strongest ties to the original tale. [trailer]

Image Credit: Randompicturesblog.net

The Secret Beyond The Door– Celia marries Mark while on vacation in Mexico after a whirlwind romance. When she joins him in his New York home, she learns some things about her new husband that he left out during their courtship. For example he’s been married before. He also has a son. Celia’s predecessor died under mysterious circumstances, and she start to suspect that she might be next. [trailer]

Image Credit: Thestar.com

Gaslight-Paula and Gregory get married abroad after a whirlwind romance (notice a pattern here?!) When they return to London and settle into their new home, strange things start to happen. Paula notices missing pictures, strange footsteps at night, and gaslights that dim without being touched. Gregory claims to notice nothing. Is Paula losing her mind, or is Gregory up to something? Or both? [trailer]

Image Credit: filmlinc.org

Dragonwyck– Bluebeard inspired movies were apparently very big in the 1940’s! This one is based on Anya Seton’s novel of the same name about a young girl whose new marriage is threatened by her husband’s streak of madness. [trailer]

Hansel and Gretel

ImageCredit: ZekeFilm

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? This 1972 film is sort of a campy horror classic starring Shelly Winters. It’s about Mrs. Forrest (also known as “Auntie Roo”), a lovely old lady with a Christmas tradition of inviting orphans to her mansion for a party. But Auntie Roo has a dark side, and when Katie Coombs and her brother sneak into the party they must fight to get out alive. There’s a lot of camp in this one, especially by today’s standards, but that can be fun – and funny. And once you get past it there’s actually an interesting, dark take on the fairy tale. [trailer]

Image Credit: 366weirdmovies.com

Hansel and Gretel (2007 Korean) This is sort of a horror- fantasy that may appeal to fans of films like  Pan’s Labyrinth and The Orphanage. It’s about a traveler who gets lost in the woods. He’s rescued by a young girl and brought to her house. It’s a beautiful house, like something out of a storybook. But, as he discovers, it’s a house that hides horrible secrets, and possibly no way to escape. [trailer]

Swan Lake

Image Credit: Film School Rejects

Black Swan- I was hesitant to include this one  because it’s based on the ballet, Swan Lake, rather than a single tale. The ballet’s plot is based on a number of folk tales. Possible sources include “The White Duck” and “The Stolen Veil” by Johann Karl August Mursaus. But it could have been inspired by a number of animal bride/swan maiden tales. Regardless I decided it was fairy tale enough to count! The plot of the film follows a dancer whose upcoming starring role in Swan Lake pushes her to the brink of madness. In some ways the “fairy tale ballerina on the edge” story is very similar to The Red Shoes, which I featured on my last list. So if you like one, check out the other. [trailer]

Fairy Tale Mash-up (Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk and more)

Image Credit: Theatermania

!Into the Woods (original Broadway cast) Yes, Disney did eventually get to this one in the 2014 film. While that film has it’s good points, I (and many others) felt that it removed the musical’s teeth. And part of the point of the musical is that fairy tales have teeth. And claws. They’re dark, subversive, and not everyone makes it to happily ever after. But they (and Stephelan Sondheim’s beautiful music and brilliant lyrics) also teach us to see complexity. They show us that “witches can be right/ giants can be good/ you decide what’s right/ you decide what’s good.” Here we see a Red Riding Hood and Wolf dripping with innuendo, a Cinderella who finds married life somewhat lacking, and witch who does the wrong things for the right reasons, and the right things for the wrong reasons. It’s been said that The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim was a source of inspiration. If you dig into the lyrics you can analyze them like poetry. The level of sophistication doesn’t take away from the magic of these stories at all. Rather it adds to them, because there’s a sense of danger.   We’re left with a caution “Careful the wish you make/ Wishes are children/ Careful the path they take/ Wishes come true/Not free”

Other Non Fairy Tale Fantasy Films

These aren’t based on a specific tale or tales but will probably appeal to fairy tale fans nonetheless.

Image Credit: EmpireOnline.com

! Ladyhawke– This is an 80’s film in many ways but it’s a good one. I’ve wanted to rewatch it again ever since I read this incredible analysis. It gets into the folkloric roots behind the film and I highly recommend it to anyone interested. As for the film itself, in a nutshell the film is set in the 13th century and is about two lovers who are cursed to be together and apart: she is a hawk by day and he is a human. By night, she is a human and he is a wolf. They can’t really be in one another’s presence except for a brief moment at twilight and dawn. Unless a young thief can help them break the curse. [trailer]

Image Credit: Tor.com

! Stardust– This is based on the novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman but tonally it’s more in line with The Princess Bride (see below) and old Hollywood screwball romantic comedies like It Happened One Night. But it still works. The story is about a star who falls from the sky and is observed by several parties. One is a trio of witches who believe that eating the heart of a star will restore their youth. One is a prince who needs her power to secure the throne. One is a love-struck young lad whose beloved asks for a fallen star as a token of his esteem. But when he finds her, he finds, not a piece of celestial rock, but Yvaine, a young woman fallen from the sky with an injured leg and a sarcastic tongue. He must get her to his beloved, while keeping her from the others who want her for less noble means. [trailer]

Image Credit: NBC News

! The Princess Bride– I expect that most of us have seen this movie and so it needs no introduction, but if you haven’t seen this yet, do so immediately. Otherwise you’ll never know the meaning of phrases like “Hello, my name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die,” “Inconceivable!” and of course “As you wish.” Since you might have more free time on your hands than usual I would also recommend reading the book (even if you’ve seen the movie). If nothing else it will help you appreciate the artful use of the frame story in the film version as a way to incorporate the annotations in the book. [trailer]

Image Credit: rogerebert.com

Pan’s Labyrinth– This film makes me think about the purpose of fairy tales. They’re an escape, an enchantment, an education, a warning. They serve all of those purposes in this tale of a young girl in Spain circa 1944.  Ofelia’s new stepfather is sent to a remote forest to flush out rebels. He brings Ofelia and her mother. As she witnesses her stepfather’s sadism, brutality and abuse, Ofelia is drawn into Pan’s labyrinth, a magical world of legendary beings. [trailer]

Image Credit: Parkcircus.com

The City of Lost Children– A mad scientist named Krank has lost his ability to dream. He is attempting to fight off death by stealing children’s dreams. The storyline of the film itself follows Krank’s henchman, Scratch, who kidnaps a 5 year old boy. The boy’s father, (a strongman with a travelling circus) and his 9 year old friend Miette, team up to save him. At times this movie is dark and creepy enough to make you think it’s only intended for adults. But at times it allows its heart to show enough to make you think the intended audience might be slightly younger. The result is a visually arresting, sentimental, provocative, nightmare fantasy ride. [trailer]

Image Credit: baltimoresun.com

Beasts of the Southern Wild– Early fairy tales served less as entertainment and enchantment than as warnings. I think that’s how to take this film.  In fact, I think watching it at this point in time might be frightening for that reason. 6 year old Hushpuppy lives with her father, Wink in a remote Delta community. When Wink gets sick, nature seems to respond in kind: temperatures rise, ice caps melt, and prehistoric beasts run loose. When the rising waters threaten her community, Hushpuppy goes on a search for her long lost mother. Though this film was made in 2012, the tale of humanity’s seeming inability to live in harmony with nature taking a toll of people’s physical health, seems very apt for today’s world. [trailer]

Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween Freebie

For That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday:

This week’s topic was:

October 29: Halloween Freebie

So I decided to do short stories that are perfect for the season

1. Don’t Look Now by Daphne DuMaurier- This story features a lot of creepiness in under 50 pages. There’s a slow building sense of dread as a married couple, who have recently lost their daughter go on vacation in Venice and try to start anew. We have the sense early on that their misfortune isn’t over yet and we turn out to be very right. Then Venetian setting is gloomy and Gothic and the bereaved parents make sympathetic protagonists. There are several threats ranging from a serial killer to some weird psychic sisters, but the most dangerous threat may be what the protagonists can’t (or won’t) allow themselves to see.

1973 Film Adaptation 

2. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter- Angela Carter is known for her feminist take on classic fairy tales. In this story she takes on one of the creepiest fairy tales out there: Bluebeard is sort of deliciously Gothic to begin with: a girl marries a man who gives her the keys to all the rooms in his grand house, and tells her not to open one door. Of course she opens it, and she finds something very disturbing in there. This story has a creepy setting (a vast, decadent mansion/castle), a nasty villain, and lots of blood.

3. The Grown-Up by Gillian Flynn– This is the rare short story that was published as a stand alone. And it does stand on its own. We have a character who poses as a psychic is out to make a quick buck off a family who thinks they’re being haunted. She discovers that they are (in a sense) right, and that she may never be free of them. In some ways this is an homage to the Victorian ghost story, but Flynn gives it a contemporary twist.

 

4. The Landlady by Roald Dahl- You can see some of the creepy villains from Dahl’s children’s stories in the title character of this short story. She’s less over the top than some of the stuff that Dahl writes for younger readers but she still makes your skin crawl in a really primal way. I read somewhere that this was Dahl’s attempt to write a ghost story but it didn’t quite come out that way. IMO that’s fine, because it’s plenty creepy as it is!

Tales of the Unexpected episode based on The Landlady from 1979

5. The Bus by Shirley Jackson- I almost went with “The Lottery” which is Jackson’s best known short story but I find this one more “halloweenish” (and yes, I made that word up). It’s about an older woman who gets off the bus at the wrong stop and ends up somewhere somewhat familiar but very twisted. Another story that I almost chose was “The Summer People” but that also didn’t seem quite right for Halloween. But many of Jackson’s stories are thematically suitable.

6. The Truth is A Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman– This story was originally published as part of a collection and later performed before a sold out crowd at the Sydney Opera House in 2010 where Gaiman read the tale live as illustrator, Eddie Campbell’s, artwork was presented on large screens and accompanied by live music composed for the story and performed by the FourPlay String Quartet. But even if you just read the story as a story, its unsettling in its portrayal of greed and revenge. Fortunately the story is available with Campbell’s beautiful artwork.

7. The Horla by Guy de Maupassant– I read this in a college French class (it’s available in English though!) and I was really unsettled by it. It’s written as journal entries of a character who sees a boat and waves at it. The boat in question has recently arrived from Brazil and the man realizes that his wave may have inadvertently been taken as an invitation by something on that boat. As the narrator becomes obsessed with this thing that may have invaded his home, his body and his life, we begin to doubt his sanity. The fact that Maupassant was committed to a mental hospital about a week after finishing it, makes it even creepier.

1947 radio production read by Peter Lorre

 

8. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates- This story is really creepy in a way you don’t expect. Oates said it was inspired in part by serial killer Charles Schmid, who preyed on teen girls. But the focus isn’t really on the presumptive bad guy, Arthur Friend. Rather it’s on Connie, a rebellious, self absorbed teen who knows Arthur from a local restaurant. He seems nice enough when he shows up unexpectedly at her house one day, with his friend Ellie.  In only a few pages Oates takes us from Connie’s initial flattery at Friend’s attention, to her growing unease and outright fear as she comes to believe that she has no choice but to do what Friend tells her. As a reader, we can see how Friend preys on Connie’s naivete and vanity. It’s a reminder that the most frightening monsters often comes disguised as friends (pun intended) and the most harrowing journeys often take place in a single location in only a few minutes time.

1985 Film Smooth Talk based on the story

2014 short film Dawn based on the story

Wishing a HAPPY HALLOWEEN to all!