The Book of Lost Things
by John Connolly (Atria, 2006); audiobook read by Nick Rawlinson (Isis, 2007)
A drawn-out coming-of-age quest through a dark fairy-tale land (perhaps a little too dark for readers the protagonist’s age). Granted, there’s a payoff at the end, but the pacing is questionable. Elements like the communist dwarves pad the story to little avail.
Muppets Meet the Classics: Fairy Tales from The Brothers Grimm
by The Brothers Grimm and Erik Forrest Jackson (Penguin, 2018)
It’s easy to see how this would work as an actual production. As prose, however, the reworking seems… pointless. The writing is decent enough but the deviations from the original fairy tales are unfunny, diminishing both the source material and the Muppets.
The Great Blueness and Other Predicaments
by Arnold Lobel (World’s Work, 1970)
One day during the Great Greyness a wizard invents colour. This fairy tale starts off with grey illustrations then makes memorable use of colours in explaining how the world (after several mishaps) came to be the bright, beautiful place that it is.
Monkey: Journey to the West
by Wu Ch’êng-ên, trans. Arthur Waley (Allen & Unwin, 1942)
For all its mischievousness and whimsy, this episodic sixteenth century Chinese fairy tale comes across as terribly belaboured in written form. When slogging through 350 pages it’s hard not to think that even Wu Ch’êng-ên would have preferred the cult television show.
The People in the Castle: Selected Strange Stories
by Joan Aiken (Small Beer Press, 2016)
This posthumous collection spans thirty-five years of Joan Aiken’s prolific career. The stories, though frequently lacking in closure, are beautifully written, with rich, dark ideas and a wondrous touch of fairy tale logic. Aiken’s characterisation of people (and notably, animals) is exquisite.