Girl Power: fairy tales and feminism

Guest post by Katharine Corr

To begin with: I’m not an expert on myths or fantasy literature. I studied history at university, not English. But – like most people, I suspect – I was brought up on fairy tales. Ladybird ‘Well Loved Tales’ are some of the first books I remember possessing: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White & Rose Red. I fell in love with those illustrations long before I could read the words.               

One of the things I liked about fairy tales as a child was how many of them were about girls. Sure, some of them concerned boys (Jack and The Beanstalk), animals (The Little Red Hen) or baked goods (The Gingerbread Man). But on the whole I was reading about female protagonists. It didn’t really bother me that Cinderella’s main skills seemed to be subservience and looking pretty; it was her story and her name on the front of the book, not Prince Charming’s.

Then there were all the subsidiary characters. The men in the stories tended to be attractive place-holders (Prince Charming, again) or curiously weedy and pathetic (pretty much any King or father you’d care to mention). But the women… I read about witches (good and bad), fairies, stepmothers and Queens. Women with real power, even if they were misusing it.

As I got older, I realised that these women were often more interesting than the pure-as-the-driven-snow protagonists (though intrepid Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, is an exception to this). Who wouldn’t sympathise a tiny bit with side-lined Maleficent’s desire for revenge? Who wouldn’t at least understand the Evil Queen’s wish to be ‘the fairest of them all’? And there are fairy tales which give the Fairy Godmother a more robust and interesting attitude to granting wishes. A lot of tales, due to the ‘damsel-in-distress’ behaviour of the heroine, have the reputation of being anti-feminist. But I can imagine the creators of these stories (of which more below) slipping these strong supporting women into their tales, giving them powers and freedoms which women have been denied for so much of history. Could this not be an early form of feminism?

Not all fairy tales fit this mould, obviously. For every Clever Gretel, the Grimm’s hungry cook who tricks her master, there is a Little Mermaid: a story that, like The Wild Swans (another Hans Christian Andersen tale) seems to suggest that the ideal woman is a silent one.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh on Andersen. But, I do wonder whether the best fairy tales – the ones with the powerful female villains that leap off the page at you – are the oldest ones. They may have been collected and recorded by men, but I’d be willing to bet that they were originally made up by women. I like to imagine a medieval mother, sitting in the shadows by the fire, laying aside her distaff and turning with a sigh to the insistent children sitting at her feet: ‘Very well, then. Once upon a time…’

Fairy tales have staying power: they endure. That’s why so many writers have chosen them as a starting point, reinterpreting characters and themes for their own times. And now my sister and I have done the same. Our Sleeping Beauty is an Anglo-Saxon prince, and his potential rescuer is an untrained, uncertain teenage witch. The story is inspired by the original tale, rather than being an exact retelling. But we still have curses, true love, and more than one powerful woman. We hope our fairy-tale-telling foremothers are looking on from somewhere with approval.

Katharine and Elizabeth Corr are sisters.  They both read history at university, worked in London, took a break from work to raise their families and now live in Surrey.  The pair decided they wanted to write novels and it seemed obvious that they should do this together.  In addition to writing, Katharine loves playing the harp and learning dead languages.  When Elizabeth is not writing she enjoys sketching, dancing round the kitchen and hatching plans for free time away from children and cats.  

                 

Sally Green Knocks It Out Of The Park With 'Half Lost'

'Half Lost' by Sally Green

Review by Christopher Moore

Summary:

Nathan Byrn is running again. The Alliance of Free Witches has been all but destroyed. Scattered and demoralized, constantly pursued by the Council's Hunters, only a bold new strategy can save the rebels from total defeat. They need the missing half of Gabriel's amulet - an ancient artefact with the power to render its bearer invincible in battle. But the amulet's guardian - the reclusive and awesomely powerful witch Ledger - has her own agenda.

To win her trust, Nathan must travel to America and persuade her to give him the amulet. Combined with his own Gifts, the amulet might just be enough to turn the tide for the Alliance and end the bloody civil war between Black and White witches once and for all...


Review:

I have been a fan of Sally's work since I first read Half Bad. I love her characters and the way she gets inside Nathan's head and vividly portrays the traumas and tortures he endures and the impact it has on his fragile mental health. Not to mention, major props to the designer of some of the best YA covers to grace bookshelves in the last decade.

Half Lost is the final book in the Half Bad trilogy and culminates in a battle between Soul (and his Council) and the Hunters versus Nathan and the Alliance of Free Witches. Sally's writing is gritty and the subject matter continues to push the boundaries and really force a reaction out of the reader. In particular, I adored the dynamic between Nathan and Gabriel. The contrast between characters - Nathan who is fiery, violent and aggressive while Gabriel is calmer, more pensive and caring - makes their scenes come alive and more exciting to read than the in-the-moment, action scenes.

Each of the witches that Nathan encounters, whether Black or White, have their own agendas, their own individual abilities and their own personalities which really distinguish them from each other and lend the story additional levels of complexity. My favourite character has to be Gabriel but I'm very fond of Mercury and Van too. Sally's characters are flawless in the sense that while, yes, they are flawed people, Sally writes them into existence so they become something more than words on a page.

Nathan's journey takes him around the world and again, Sally captures the intricacies of the witch world while anchoring us in real places. My only criticism is that I wanted to see more of the witch world side of things. I feel like there's more there to be explored.

I have a feeling that the ending will divide readers so anyone that's read this review and has read or is reading Half Lost, tweet me your thoughts: YAblooker. Half Lost publishes on the 31st March 2016. Pre-order your copy now!

Rating: 4/5 Stars  ★ ★ ★ ★

Christopher Moore:

  

Christopher is a co-founder of the YAfictionados blog and is best known as the YAblooker. He is a twenty-five year old book blogger who has previously worked in marketing and consumer insight for various publishing houses and writes in his spare time. He loves to travel and will read anything YA-related and some general fiction and fantasy.

7 Reasons Kiki Sullivan's 'The Dolls' Is More Meh Than Magnificent

'The Dolls' by Kiki Sullivan

Review by Christopher Moore

Summary  (from Amazon):

When 17-year-old Eveny returns to the tiny Louisiana town where she was born, she discovers she is the powerful missing link in a trio of voodoo queens who have everyone under their spell. But they need her help. Because darkness is descending on Carrefour and even the Dolls' combined powers may not be enough to stop the killer in their midst.



1. Bland Characterisation

The most irritating thing about this book is the characters. They’re vapid caricatures with no distinguishing features. We’re introduced to Glory at the beginning of the story; the only character with a morsel of personality but what does the author do? Kill her off. Cheers for that.

Drew mentions that Pascal Auteuil looks like a model which prompted me to wonder, “wait, is Drew gay?” Spoiler: he’s not. Caleb “guns the engine” every time he leaves Eveny. He “half smiles” all the time (is only half of his jaw functional?). Electricity crackles between Eveny and Caleb. It always feels like “an eternity” between them. WARNING: You may need to brace yourself for possibly one of the most cringe descriptions in YA literature. Caleb has “ripped biceps, taut abs and caramel skin [that] sparkles with moonlight perspiration.”

2. Setting

The story is set near New Orleans, Louisiana, in a gated community known as Carrefour. It’s impossible to grasp any of the scenic details because the descriptions take us so out of the moment with lengthy descriptions that are difficult to absorb and pretty unmemorable. It does nothing for the story either. There’s no real evidence of any of the characters having Southern roots; no genuine attempt to infuse character with Southern accents or marry the characters with their culture.

3. Weird Descriptions

The basic physical descriptions irked me but what really sent me above and beyond boiling point was that everyone was beautiful and they all had caramel-coloured skin. Seriously? Are they clones? Caleb as the forbidden bad boy stereotype is predictable (are as his “half smiles”) and the clothes and character descriptions are formulaic and unimaginative.

4. The Hero

Eveny Cheval is the protagonist but she’s a web of mass contradictions. The same girl that detests the wealth of Chloe and Peregrine, who grew up with a fairly modest childhood, knows all about designer clothes? What? It’s not even the fact that she knows about Louboutins that bothers me; it’s more that the reader is being told that she’s an outsider and a bit of an outcast but she’s exactly like the Dolls. She predictably falls for Caleb, saying that he’s “insanely gorgeous”. She actually tells Caleb that he’s “sexy and intriguing”. Cringe. It's so difficult to feel anything for her.

5. The Dolls’ World

The magic was a bit lacking. The spells read like weak attempts at a Poetry 101 assignment. Furthermore, 75% of the story focuses on the ordinary. The story is less, one of magic, intrigue and murder, and more a narrative of high school drama.

6. Repetition

Eveny and the Dolls repeat the same stock phrases: 

• Cute
• Hot
• Gross
• Dorky
• Muscular
• Gorgeous
• Handsome 

It comes across a bit Mills and Boon at times.

7. Clichés

• The almost kiss 
• The “Hey, girl” girl
• The forbidden romance
• The beautiful, bad boy (with “caramel” skin)
• Forbidden love
• The outcast hero

What adds insult to injury is that The Dolls is compared to Mean Girls which features a stronger story, far more interesting characters and quotable phrases ("stop trying to make fetch happen!").

This pretty much sums up my feelings on The Dolls.

Rating: 1/5 Stars  ★