10 Dark Fairy tale Retellings
Sage Kay
Writer, reader, outfit repeater.
$ Fairy tale retellings$ take the source material of a beloved, well-known story and give it a paint job (or a full structural renovation). Usually, the resulting story contains a fresh spin on the themes, setting, or characters of the original with the intent of telling a story that feels both familiar and brand new at the same time.
Dark fairy tale retellings, however, add an extra layer of freshness by taking a somewhat innocent fairy tale and adding some dark element to it. Think Hansel and Gretel except now Hansel and Gretel have guns and are witch hunters. When done right, these stories can both delight and traumatize with their unique spin on childhood classics. Here are some retellings that did it right.
10 Dark Fairy tale Retellings
Here are ten strong examples of dark fairy tale retellings to get your reading list shaking!
1. The Cursebreaker Series by Brigid Kemmerer | Beauty and the Beast
This three book series is basically Beauty and the Beast except the beast kills his entire family and destroys his castle. Main character Harper is constantly underestimated by her family due to her cerebral palsy diagnosis, but when she steps in to help a stranger from being abducted, she’s transported to another world in which the heir to the kingdom has been turned into a vicious beast.
2. The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Joury | Aladdin
The Forbidden Wish follows a powerful genie named Zahra who takes the goofy presence of Robin Williams’ Genie and makes him deadly and a little bitter. When Aladdin summons her from her cushy lamp, she’s forced to hide her powers in a world where magic is forbidden.
3. Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge | Little Red Riding Hood
This retelling uses the plot of Little Red Riding Hood as more of a catalyst for the plot rather than for the entirety of the plot itself. In it, Rachel is a 15-year-old girl who is said to be the future destroyer of all evil in their world. There’s only one issue: she’s way too reckless. After an attempt at finding a way to rid the world of evil goes terribly wrong, Rachel is forced to guard her realm and protect a prince she hates in order to atone for her mistakes.
4. To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo | The Little Mermaid
To Kill a Kingdom is like if Ariel's day job were stealing the hearts of princes for her royal family. Princess Lira is a siren whose mistakes lead her to being forced to kill one of her own. Because of this, she’s cursed to be a human forever unless she can manage to bring the heart of a prince to the Sea Queen by winter solstice.
5. Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron | Cinderella
Author Kalynn Bayron flips the Cinderella story on its head by abandoning it all together. Her story follows a queer Black princess named Sophia who has no interest in the princes who seek her hand. When she finds the tomb of Cinderella and meets one of the last descendants of this fairy tale princess, she learns that the story of the perfect princess that’s been used to control young girls for centuries might not have been the complacent role model they've been led to believe she was.
6. Malice by Heather Walter | Sleeping Beauty
Malice refreshes the fairy tale genre by giving a romantic matchup no one knew they always wanted between the princess and the evil sorceress. This story follows Alyce, a fairy whose family history of cursing all princesses to die without a true love’s kiss comes back to haunt her as she falls for Princess Aurora.
7. A Blade So Black by L. L. McKinney | Alice in Wonderland
This novel spins the story of Alice in Wonderland to be about a Black teen Nightmare hunter. After training to hunt the physical amalgamations of human fears, Alice quickly becomes a huge problem for the mysterious villain that appears to create these Nightmares. McKinney takes the characters and world of Alice in Wonderland and uses it to create a terrifying alternate reality in which Alice must kill to survive.
8. The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore | The Snow Queen (TW: SA)
The Mirror Season uses magical realism in a story loosely based on The Snow Queen, only using its mythology in the modern world. It follows two teens who were assaulted at the same party and their efforts to remember what happened and keep each other safe from whoever wants to keep that night a secret.
9. Darling by K. Ancrum | Peter Pan
This retelling of the classic Peter Pan story ages up the innocent Lost Boys and makes Tinkerbell punk. After main character, Wendy, is whisked away to Peter Pan’s magical underground, she is forced to figure out whether the true enemy is the mysterious Detective Hook or the secretive Peter Pan.
10. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy | Hansel and Gretel
Taking the cake as the darkest and most sorrowful on the list, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is set in Nazi Germany in which two Jewish children must trust a rumored witch to hide their identities from the men who are hunting them.
"Adult" fairy tale retellings
There's another type of fairy tale retelling—the spicy kind. Rule 34, my guys.
If something is public domain, you can pretty much assume you can find a smutty version. Check out this $ list of adult Disney retellings$ if it sounds like your speed!
No matter what your favorite fairy tale is, there is surely a dark retelling that can give you the twisted spin on a classic that you never knew you needed. Whichever you choose to read, be prepared to never see your favorite childhood story the same way again!
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