Saturday, September 8, 2012

Tales from a Windy City

A wild and wicked wind has been wuthering* around our house today so we have withdrawn within.
And that's probably enough alliteration for now. It has however, been a perfect day for curling up and reading fairy tales, which is precisely what I have been doing.
I'd been meaning to read Cameron Dokey's fairytale retellings for the longest time and having settled down to 'just read one' I ended up gulping down... far more than I should have.
I started with Before Midnight which is presently my very favourite retelling of the Cinderella story and vastly superior to the original fairytale (Gasp, but true in my own honest opinion). Pure magic. With tears involved. It was all too short and I wept to dream again. Which is why kindle is so ridiculously temptatious. A click of the button and voila. Another dream to step within. I moved on to Dokey's retelling of the Sleeping Beauty, and while I will always love Robin McKinleys Rose Daughter with single hearted passion... Dokey's Beauty Sleep was also brilliantly done. Again my only complaint was it was too short. I wanted to stay with the characters longer. It was vivid and real and magical, humourous and oddly sly. Again at it's close I wept to dream again. And again kindle just lured. One click... just one click. Needless to say I continued through the retelling of Mulan (Wild Orchid, ) Rapunzel (Golden) and... um The Storyteller's Daughter. (Of which I will ramble at greater length anon, but let me just say Dokey very cleverly solved some very big problems with her chosen story) There may be more but I'm getting embarrassed at admitting I have NO willpower at stopping reading when I find a new love. None. Well, that's sort of obvious.
May I recommend Dokey's work - short (I could have happily lived within each story for two or three times the pages) but fresh and magical, with strong and likeable heroines and interesting twists.
Excuse me. I fear I have some re-reading to do. Also a rather messy household to set to rights.


*I love the word 'wuthering' it's so beautifully evocative. However (the shame) I hated Wuthering Heights and couldn't even bring myself to finish it. I loved all the other Bronte Sister works, Villette, The Professor, Jane Eyre, although the heros are decidedly dour. But I early came to the conclusion I had no desire whatsoever to spend time with Heathcliff and co. The Secret Garden also uses 'wuthering' and I admit to a strong preference for Hodgson Burnett's work (the shame...) Please tell me I'm not the only one! 

1 comment:

  1. Agree re Wuthering Heights - my reaction to almost everything the characters said or did was 'Oh please.. Have some sense for a change....'

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