Fairy tales possess a timeless charm. Whether it’s a retelling of your favorite bedtime story like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty or a wholly new and original fairytale, the promise of “once upon a time” and a “happily ever after” is always enticing. And the novella, I feel, is the perfect form to deconstruct a classic fairytale or write your own—not so short that it leaves you wanting and not too long that it takes days to finish the story. It’s the ideal type of book to curl up with after a long and tiring day, or just whenever you want to escape into a dreamlike world for an hour or two.
If you have a soft spot for fairytale retellings that are on the shorter side, these entrancing novellas filled with magic, whimsy, and adventure have got you covered.
The River Has Roots
Part charming fairy tale and part chilling murder ballad, The River Has Roots is a dreamy ode to sisterhood filled with fey magic, riddles, and gorgeously poetic prose. This brilliant novella is set in the cozy town of Thistleford on the borders of Faerie and narrates the story of the Hawthorn sisters—one who’s content to stay in the town while the other secretly wishes to elope with a fey lover. But things come to a boil when a business-minded suitor arrives and refuses to take no for an answer. Heartbreaking and haunting, The River Has Roots is a deeply moving tale and definitely one of my favorite reads of this year, so far.
The Crane Husband
Kelly Barnhill’s exquisite novella The Crane Husband is a contemporary retelling of “The Crane Wife” that has a quietly menacing edge as it narrates the story of a family falling apart and children being forced to grow up too soon, against a backdrop riddled with the effects of climate change. The story focuses on a teenage girl taking care of the household and looking after her little brother as well as her talented artist mother—but this hard-won idyll is soon ruined when her mother brings a sinister six-foot-tall crane into their home. It’s a darkly emotional tale exploring trauma and abuse and the ways we strive to carry on despite the odds.
The Butcher of the Forest
If you’re in the mood for a densely atmospheric novella that reads like a dark Brothers’ Grimm fairy tale, you’ll definitely enjoy The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed. It’s features: a wild and shadowy forest, malicious fey who love bargains and a race against time to save the kids abducted by them. It follows Veris, an older woman tasked by a tyrant ruler to rescue his two children from the fey. But venturing into the magical woods means risking death each time so Veris has to tread very carefully. Tightly knit and blending grimdark fantasy with eerie horror, this one is perfect for readers who love twisted fairytales.
The Door in the Hedge
Robin McKinley is widely lauded as the queen of fairytale retellings, with brilliantly evocative books such as Beauty and Rose Daughter that retell Beauty and the Beast, as well as Spindle’s End which is a dreamy retelling of Sleeping Beauty. But if you’re not ready to check out her novels yet, you can try The Door in the Hedge to get a sense of her style. It’s a collection of four fairytales—with two original stories, accompanied by retellings of “The Frog Prince” and “The Twelve Dancing Princesses." Overall, The Door in the Hedge is a perfectly cozy and comforting bedtime read, filled with familiar charm, transporting the reader to a fairytale world as hinted in the title.
Thornhedge
T. Kingfisher’s quaint novella Thornhedge reimagines the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the fairy godmother. In this iteration, the fairy godmother isn’t a powerful and nefarious queen like Maleficent but a shy and kind-hearted creature called Toadling who was stolen by the fae as an infant and raised among them, and the villain is actually the princess who’s placed under the sleeping curse to contain her evil. There’s also a knight who is determined to wake the princess while Toadling must try her best to uphold the curse. Humorous and delightful, Thornhedge is a sweet and whimsy fairytale retelling that will surely cast a spell on your heart.
The Nonexistent Knight
The works of master storyteller Italo Calvino are often deeply allegorical, and his novella, The Nonexistent Knight, is no exception. This wryly funny story follows the adventures of Agilulf, a knight who exemplifies all the medieval ideals of chivalry and piety but doesn’t really exist—he’s just an empty suit of armor. Playful, ironic and bordering on the absurd, The Nonexistent Knight is also a deep-dive into questions about identity, theology and faith and will certainly stay with you for a long time. You may find this novella along with his other works, The Cloven Viscount and The Baron in the Trees, collected in a single award-winning volume, Our Ancestors.
Cinder House
This upcoming novella is a queer retelling of Cinderella where the eponymous character is simultaneously a girl, a ghost, and a haunted house. The story begins on a tragic note with Ella being murdered by her stepmother at the age of sixteen and forced to do domestic chores while trapped as a ghost in her father’s house. But Ella won’t just give up and passively accept her fate—she searches for ways to extend the limits of her prison, invisibly attends the opera, begins a correspondence on magical theory with an academic and bargains for three nights at the ball with a cunning fairy. Poignant and engrossing, the story easily functions as a metaphor for living with disabilities and chronic illnesses and is a careful exploration of agency and living on your own terms, with a thrilling romance also thrown into the mix.
