Spotlight on At Midnight ed. by Dahlia Adler

I don't normally do spotlights for books or bookish news posts anymore, but I had to for this book because I absolutely cannot wait for this book! My excitement is ridiculous, I'm telling you.

Last Thursday, Dahlia Adler - Queen of LGBTQReads, YA author of novels including Cool for the Summer, Just Visiting, and Home Field Advantage coming later this year, and editor of Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe retellings anthologies, That Way Madness Lies and His Hideous Heart respectively - revealed the cover for her latest anthology, At Midnight. A YA anthology of 15 diverse fairy tale retellings, At Midnight is publishing on 22nd November 2022 from Flatiron Books.

At Midnight ed. by Dahlia Adler

Fairy tales have been spun for thousands of years and remain among our most treasured stories. Weaving fresh tales with unexpected reimaginings, At Midnight brings together a diverse group of acclaimed YA writers to breathe new life into a storied tradition.

Fifteen celebrated authors reclaim classic fairy tales for a new generation

• Dahlia Adler, “Rumplestiltskin”


• Tracy Deonn, “The Nightingale”


• H.E. Edgmon, “Snow White”


• Hafsah Faizal, “Little Red Riding Hood”


• Stacey Lee, “The Little Matchstick Girl”


• Roselle Lim, “Hansel and Gretel”


• Darcie Little Badger, “Puss in Boots”


• Malinda Lo, “Frau Trude”


• Alex London, “Cinderella”


• Anna-Marie McLemore, “The Nutcracker”


• Rebecca Podos, “The Robber Bridegroom”


• Rory Power, “Sleeping Beauty”


• Meredith Russo, “The Little Mermaid”


• Gita Trelease, “Fitcher’s Bird”


• And an all-new fairy tale by Melissa Albert.

Once upon a time... 

StoryGraph | Goodreads

You've got to check out Dahlia's Twitter thread where she lists each story's title, and the spins on the original fairy tales we'll be getting in At Midnight. A gender-reimagined, sapphic Rumlplestiltskin from Dahlia herself, a hijabi Little Red Riding Hood from Hafsah Faizal, a trans Snow White from H. E. Edgmon, an Indigenous Puss in Boots from Darcie Little Badger, and many more! And if you're taking part in my Fairy Tale Retellings 2022 Reading Challenge, it counts for the prompt for a collection or anthology of fairy tale retellings, and several others! Honestly, it's going to be incredible! So get pre-ordering!

--
If you enjoyed this post, please consider following / supporting me:
Bloglovin' | Twitter | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Ko-Fi

Continue reading Spotlight on At Midnight ed. by Dahlia Adler

Ad: Titles with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Links with a circumflex (^) are Ad: Affiliate Links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I'll make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Most Anticipated Fantasy of 2022 - January to June

It's 2022! A brand new year that will bring us a hell of a lot of brand new books! So today I'm sharing some of my most anticipated 2022 fantasy novels - in which I'm including an horror and a dystopia, because they're sub-genres in my opinion - from January to June. There are others, but I think 27 are enough to be getting on with, don't you? So on with the books!

The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman* (4th January, Hot Key Books)

Four siblings. A country in ruin. One quest to save them all.

Vira is desperate to get out of her mother's shadow and establish her legacy as a revered queen of Ashoka. But with the country's only quarry running out of magic - a precious resource that has kept Ashoka safe from conflict - she can barely protect her citizens from the looming threat of war. And if her enemies discover this, they'll stop at nothing to seize the last of the magic.

Vira's only hope is to find a mysterious object of legend: the Ivory Key, rumoured to unlock a new source of magic. But in order to infiltrate enemy territory and retrieve it, she must reunite with her siblings, torn apart by broken relationships and the different paths their lives have taken. Each of them has something to gain from finding the Ivory Key - and even more to lose if they fail. Ronak plans to sell it to the highest bidder in exchange for escape from his impending political and unwanted marriage. Kaleb, falsely accused of assassinating the former maharani, needs it to clear his name. And Riya, the runaway sibling who cut all family ties, wants the Key to prove her loyalty to the rebels who took her in.

They must work together to survive the treacherous journey. But with each sibling harbouring secrets and their own conflicting agendas, the very thing that brought them together could tear apart their family - and their world - for good.

First in a duology from an incredible new talent, this Indian-inspired fantasy debut is epic, fierce and magnetically addictive, taking you on a thrilling journey where magic, a prized resource, is the only thing between peace and war. From Goodreads.

Bookshop^ | Goodreads

Continue reading Most Anticipated Fantasy of 2022 - January to June

Fairy Tale Retellings 2022 Reading Challenge

Welcome to the Fairy Tale Retellings 2022 Reading Challenge! As regular readers will know, I love a fairy tale retelling, and I generally try to read them throughout the year, and track what I've read. However, I didn't do very well last year, reading just two, and want to put more effort into picking up these kinds of stories I love in 2022. Inspired by some other reading challenges I've seen recently, I've decided to create my own!

As a mood reader, I'm not the kind of person who sees reading challenges as actual challenges, books I must read, but more of a tick box exercise where I can be more aware of what I'm reading. The challenges I generally take part tend to be more "read X amount of Z books," which isn't really any different than tracking what I read. But as I didn't do so well with reading fairy tale retellings last year, this year I've decided not only for this challenge to be actually be a challenge I try to achieve, but to also set prompts make it more fun, and have me reaching for some different stories. And thought others might be interested, too.

Continue reading Fairy Tale Retellings 2022 Reading Challenge

The Little Mermaid and Its Retellings

Painting of a mermaid I bought in in Denmark, where the Hans Christian Andersen is from.
My favourite fairy tale is The Little Mermaid. I was first drawn to the Disney movie as a child because Ariel had red hair like me, got to swim with all the fish - I love fish - and could sing. I knew Hans Christian Andersen had written the original story, and I knew that it differed quite a bit from the Disney version; that the prince didn't love the mermaid, that her sisters gave her a knife from the sea witch to kill the prince with, and that she instead killed herself. But it wasn't until I was a teenager that I actually read the original story, and I fell even more in love with The Little Mermaid. The tragedy of the story is what appealed to me most, how heartbreaking it is; this poor little mermaid who gave up everything for a chance at happiness, and ended up dying instead. There's something I've always found quite beautiful about a tragic story.

Continue reading The Little Mermaid and Its Retellings