8 Enchanting YA Fairy Tales to Feast on This Fall

Simidele is Mami Wata, a mermaid. She’s also struggling with memories of her life as a human, before she swam the ocean depths in search of souls to usher to safety. Given that Bowen’s novel blends Yoruba cosmologies, mermaid lore, and histories of the transatlantic slave trade, these souls belong to those who’ve lost their lives aboard enslavers’ ships crossing the Atlantic. And when Simidele breaks all the rules and saves a living boy, there must be consequences. This engrossing tale will have you dreaming of mermaids…and luckily for you, the sequel Soul of the Deep was released in September.

“Everyone has their own way of telling our story.” Thus begins the story of Blanca and Roja, sisters whose fates are bound up in a desperate wish made long ago by a woman who wanted a daughter. After just a few short paragraphs, McLemore’s writing will have you absolutely captivated in this enchanting retelling of Swan Lake (with traces of Snow White). As with all good fairy tales, this story of family and love takes a turn when the magical destiny awaiting one of the sisters ensnares others and grows more dangerous as it changes.

Cinderella’s legacy is no happily-ever-after in Kalynn Bayron’s powerful retelling. Instead, two centuries later, an oppressively heteropatriarchal monarchy mandates that all teenage girls attend the Annual Ball so they can be married off. In a realm where domestic violence is rampant, this is bad enough. What’s worse is that Sophia’s attraction to women is a dangerous kind of desire in her world. When she flees the ball without her best friend and love interest, Erin, she finds herself at Cinderella’s tomb in the woods, where she meets Constance. As their love story burgeons, their plot to take down the monarchy comes with higher and higher stakes.

Wendy Darling (yup, that Wendy Darling) lives in Oregon, and all is not well in her small community. When several kids go missing on Wendy’s 18th birthday, it dredges up the trauma of her own brothers’ disappearances just a few years earlier. So when a mysterious boy named (you guessed it) Peter Pan turns up asking her to help him find his shadow to prevent more disappearances, Wendy decides to see if she can find some answers for herself. Lost in the Never Woods is definitely one of the darker tales on this list because of its exploration of trauma and mental health — ironic that the inclusion of real-world challenges makes it more frightening than if it stayed solely in the realm of the fantastic.

A mysterious prophecy, an emergency ball, and a kingdom on the brink of darkness lie at the heart of Gina Chen’s new novel. Violet is a Seer tasked with faking a prophecy about Prince Cyrus’ future bride. As if this wasn’t hard enough, the prince’s choice of mate was the subject of an unfinished prophecy uttered by another Seer on her deathbed — one that indicated the kingdom’s fate rested on his choice. It’s up to Violet to figure out how to save the kingdom, the prince, and herself in this fantastical fairy tale that will have you reading until the wee hours of the morning.

This Beauty and the Beast retelling centers on Yeva, a strong young woman who would rather take aim at her prey than exchange pleasantries with the ladies at court. Because of this, she’s not terribly broken up about it when her family is forced to relocate on the edge of town, however unfortunate the circumstances. However, his sudden disappearance leads Yeva to track the Beast, tracing her father’s footsteps to the mysterious kingdom that readers will find simultaneously familiar and freshly rendered.

The Dauntless Path trilogy began as a retelling of The Goose Girl. Interestingly, book 3, A Darkness at the Door (released this last summer) is set in the same storyworld but functions as a sequel to Book 2, The Theft of Sunlight. It reunites readers with Rae, who found self-acceptance in the previous volume, in spite of ableist mistreatment, in her quest for her best friend’s little sister who was taken by snatchers. Having been held captive on a snatcher’s ship, she ends up entangled with a dangerous Fae and joining forces with a thief to attempt to save the other stolen children. It’s a complex installment in Khanani’s powerful series.

No list of fairy tale retellings would be complete without Malinda Lo’s Ash on it. Even though this book was first published in 2009, it’s a classic queer retelling of Cinderella. The novel follows the eponymous Ash as she attends the royal hunts (thanks to her somewhat terrifying and creepily powerful fairy godparent, Sidhean) behind her awful stepmother’s back. It doesn’t take long for her to fall for the king’s huntress, Kaisa — a bold woman who’s unlike anyone else Ash has ever known. As their relationship develops, Ash has to reckon with her past in order to proceed with her future.