What is it about fairy tales that fascinates us? Why do we succumb to the lure of faraway places in literature, television, and movies? Why do we go weak-kneed at the sight of the sword-wielding princess, gasp at the splendor of the fire-spouting beast?
For me, there’s a simple answer: Magic.
Magic is that feeling of wonder and curiosity that made us believe we could fly as children. If I close my eyes and believe with all my heart, I know I can float right off this table, right up to the ceiling. Magic is “that place between sleep and awake, that place where you still remember dreaming” and Neverland doesn’t seem so unreachable. It’s a place where fairies dance in the firefly glow of summer nights, where the agony of this world fails to exist.
Not only do fairy tales have the power to capture our wonder as children, but so too do teenagers and adults remain entranced by them. Why is that? For some, our love of the fantastical hinges upon our desire to escape reality, to exchange bullies for trolls, a traffic ticket for a treasure map, research papers and spreadsheets for riddles.
For others, fairy tales reflect the structure of real life. What do I mean by this? Well, let’s look at it like this: A fairy tale can be divided into three sections, or acts. The Setup, The Complication, and The Resolution. OK, cool. So, how does this differ from any other bit of literature? Simple. Because in fairy tales, much like in the real world, we witness a disruption to our serenity, i.e., The Setup. Here we are, minding our own business in line at the coffee shop, when, a few feet away, we notice someone juggling a steaming paper cup, a cell phone, and a screaming toddler, and . . . bam!
Enter The Complication, as that someone crashes into us, dousing us with his scalding latte. There goes our morning! The latte-spiller apologizes as he hands us a soggy napkin while his toddler proceeds to gnaw on the buzzing Blackberry. By this point, our temper has risen almost as hot as the coffee—we won’t have time to run home and change before class/work/yoga. But after talking for a couple of minutes, we learn that the coffee-spiller is a single parent who has missed the past three work meetings due to the mucus-ridden phone-chewer. His stress unfolds in his red eyes, in his embarrassed apologies.
And by the time we return home that evening, we realize how much we appreciate the little things in life, the people who care for us, etc. Thank you, The Resolution.
Now, that’s an over-simplified, albeit lengthy example of a fairy tale’s structure as it relates to reality, but there you go. We recognize the impending conflict introduced to us in “Hansel and Gretel,” the malicious intent of the step-mother and the father’s disappointing acquiescence. We taste the danger presented to us in the second act with the introduction of the witch and her house of treats. And we cheer at the end when the children are triumphant.
There is something inherently palpable in fairy tales, in their conflicts and narrative arcs that we can make sense of in our own lives. Something magical that we can unfold within reality.
But what does this have to do with YA?
EVERYTHING, my friend. Everything. Because each year, YA authors, who cherish the classic tales as much as we do, are dishing out new versions of beloved fairy tales to sate our wanderlust, putting fresh twists on old classics. The Ultimate List of Young Adult Fairy Tale Retellings organizes works per their classic models and is definitely worth checking out if you need your next fantasy fix.
Some authors, like Kelly Link, create their own version of fairy tales, intersecting fantasy with more realistic conventions. Of fairy tales, Link notes in this article that they “are a very useful kind of storytelling shorthand. You can use fragments of them in ways that add dimension and weight to whatever other kinds of story you’re telling.”
Also worth checking out: Brittany Cavallaro’s A Study in Charlotte, a retelling of the classic Sherlock Holmes series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; Zoraida Córdova’s Labyrinth Lost, an exploration of Latin American mythologies coupled with a retelling of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz through a distinct latinx lens; Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses series, which reimagines Beauty and the Beast.
The Complication of life can weigh us down, but we can’t let that stop us from believing we can fly. The second star to the right is only a few page-turns away.
