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Know of any princess stories that upset the Patriarchal applecart?
How about The Worst Princess, by Anna Kemp?
Its an absolute hoot!

Have you read the Once Upon A Time series? It's written collectively, and they're all retelling classic fairy tales. They're absolutely smashing, in my opinion. I highly recommend them.

The Cinderella Complex by Colette Dowling

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.

I agree with Ella Enchanted; it's a fun take on the classic story of Cinderella. The author also wrote Fairest, which is a twist on Snow White.

I personally love "Just Ella." It's kind of a "what happened after Prince Charming swept Cinderella away" story, but she's become highly disillusioned living in the palace. One of my favorite things about the book is that it gives an alternate version about the ball...with no fairy godmother.

The Little Princess. Because she isn't technically one; it comes with her experience.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. It's a collection of parodies of classic fairy tales, with anything potentially offensive removed. in one, Cinderella goes to the ball, against the advice of her fairy godmother, who tries to dissuade her from stuffing herself into uncomfortable clothing to conform to an unrealistic male-imposed standard of feminine beauty. Mayhem ensues. In another, Red Riding Hood goes off to bring some healthy snacks to her grandmother (who is an active senior citizen and perfectly able to take care of herself), and of course encounters the wolf. When the woodsman arrives to save the day, both Red and the wolf are offended by the insinuation that women and wolves can't solve their own problems without a man's help and... well, again, mayhem ensues.

I just read the sequel to "Just Ella" ("Palace of Mirrors") and found that one to be quite a good book as well.
@pt_12: I didn't even think about that! You're right though, Sara only pretends to be a princess
@anomalocaris: Those sound really neat, I'm going to have to give them a shot

I love any movies of classics with a twist. She's the Man, 10 Things I Hate about You, all based off of Shakespeare!

Whenever I used to read the Classic Princess stories to my little sister, I made sure to add my extra two pence about the ridiculousness of the story. Unfortunately, my sister didn't seem to find my attempts very funny. Anyhow, she's grown up now and can do her own reading.

Penelope by Marylin Kay

-- 06 Jun 2014, 16:44 --

I almost forgot, you should check out Angela Carter, she loved retellings fairy tale and myth, but with a feminist approach.
The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Horfman
The Bloody Chamber (short stories)
Nights at the Circus
The Magic Toy Shop

Also Murakami's After Dark is a retellings of European and Japanese fairy tales

Cinder and its series. Pretty darn good.

Oh man, I forgot about Just Ella and Ella Enchanted! Those are two of my favorites!

I really recommend The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye. When Princess Amethyst is born, her family invites every single fairy to be her godparents (despite her father warning that it's going to lead to nothing but trouble) because she's the seventh princess and therefore destined to be the most beautiful and lucky. Well, this ends up sort of backfiring when one of the fairies decide to give the gift of Ordinary to the baby. Years go by and Princess Amy grows up with an upturned nose, mousy brown hair and a funny, carefree and cheerful personality. Unfortunately, her (very concerned and well-meaning) parents don't quite see it that way and decide to lock Amy in a tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon in hopes that a prince would come to her rescue and be more or less forced to marry her. Well, Amy gets wind of this and decides to run away...

It pokes fun of the classic fairy tale tropes (like beautiful princesses who need to be rescued and have no personality whatsoever) with a love letter. Yeah, it's a very simple story but it's absolutely darling. I'd recommend this for younger readers (maybe ages 8-13) but I think any age would enjoy it.

ThatRobynGirl wrote:Have you read the Once Upon A Time series? It's written collectively, and they're all retelling classic fairy tales. They're absolutely smashing, in my opinion. I highly recommend them.

I heard that Once Upon a Time was a series before the show but I wasn't sure how good it was! Are they written in consecutive order or just separate stories of their own?

My sister was just telling me the other day about the Brothers Grimm's gory stories, I never knew some fairy tales were actually that horrific, it was pretty interesting to hear them after all the modernized versions.