Escape from Reality: Fantastic Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups
by Devon A. Corneal
A fairy tale is often defined as a children’s story involving magical beasts, imaginary creatures, and fantastical lands. That definition is true as far as it goes, but I know plenty of adults who still enjoy stories about witches and princesses, curses and spells, and happily ever afters. Fairy tales offer an escape from reality, and I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t crave that once in a while. So for the children grown old among us, here’s a list of fables and folktales filled with royalty, impossible love, adventure, and a dash of magic.
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A Wild Swan
This collection of tales from Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Cunningham transforms the fables we have come to love by exploring the unexamined moments, forgotten backstories, or unintended consequences of choices and spells and curses. Cunningham uses his talents to embrace the darkness of classic fairy tales and bring them to life in new and unexpected ways.
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The Mermaid
Available from:Loosely based on the showman P.T. Barnum and his popular Fiji mermaid sideshow, The Mermaid is a fascinating fairy tale mashup with a convincing historical backdrop. A mermaid agrees to be part of Barnum’s American Museum in order to fund her travels to see the world. But is the world ready to see her?
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Tinder
Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Tinderbox," this modern adult tale combines soldiers, a princess, witches, wolves, death, a pair of shoes, a set of dice, a grey-cloaked man, and a quest to gain a heart’s desire. This is a thoroughly adult tale with no guarantee of happily ever after.
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Unbury Carol
Available from:Magical realism meets the Old West in this loose take on "Sleeping Beauty." Carol suffers from a bizarre condition in which she lapses into a death-like coma during times of stress. Only two people know of her illness — the husband planning to bury her alive and take her fortune, and the outlaw lost ex-lover racing across the Wild West to save her.
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The Children’s Hospital
Chris Adrian’s The Children’s Hospital is part Noah’s Ark, part dystopian tragedy, and part magical beings and beasts — all dueling for the reader’s attention. This is a newly invigorated incarnation of magical realism that brings the darkness and hope at the center of fairy tales to the fore.
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The Snow Child
A childless couple living in the icy woods of Alaska despair of having the family they dream of. One evening they build a snow child in front of their cabin, but come morning, their creation is gone. In its place, the couple glimpse a young girl running through the forest, accompanied by a fox. Can she be the answer to their prayers? Or is there more to her than they imagine?
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Practical Magic
Available from:Witches and spells and generations of curses are at the center of this modern fairy tale about two sisters who struggle to embrace their magical talents and traditions.
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The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride is the grown-up fairy tale of all grown-up fairy tales. Sword fights, adventure, a princess, a pirate, a despicable prince, a giant, torture, and true love. If you’ve only ever seen the movie, now is the time to read the book that started it all. What’s that you say? As you wish? Very well. Read on.
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Wicked
Gregory Maguire is the master of turning fairy tales on their heads and forcing readers to look at our favorite stories in a new way. Wicked was just the first in a series of books Maguire has authored that turn our sympathies to the misunderstood or maligned malcontents of tales like "Cinderella," "Snow White," and The Wizard of Oz.
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The Ocean at the End of the Lane
When a man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral, he discovers a family he knew as a child unchanged. His return uncovers long forgotten memories and exposes him to the evil forces that haunted him decades prior and the guardians that protected him then and now.
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Some Kind of Fairy Tale
Available from:A girl disappears in the forest only to reappear years later not looking a day older than when she disappeared. She claims to have been abducted by fairies, but is her story true? Or is there something darker at work?
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YA Reads You Might Also Like…
If you’re willing to branch out into YA, there are more fabulous fairy tales to be found. Check out Reign of Shadows, Kingdom of Ashes (“Sleeping Beauty” after the kiss), Mechanica (a tech-savvy “Cinderella”), Ash & Bramble (“Cinderella” deconstructed), The Great Hunt (a retelling of “The Singing Bone”), The Sleeper and the Spindle (a creepy “Sleeping Beauty”), The Girl Who Circumvented Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Briar Rose, and The Book of Lost Things.
Don’t let the kids keep the good stuff to themselves!