Over And Under Again

1. Her first major novel (Northanger Abbey) was written solely because she was so salty about how dramatic and cliche and formula Gothic novels were. You know what I mean. Every castle is foreboding. Every villain is awful but can’t bring himself to kill the heroine because she’s Too Pure. Every middle-aged female companion wants to do the heroine in. The heroine is Pure and Perfect and Is Good At Everything Young Women Should Be and recites quotes and/or the Bible whenever she’s in danger and that makes everything better. All butlers are evil. Jane Austen wrote a book specifically to go “THIS is how NORMAL people react to things!!!”

2. “She never changed her opinion about books or men”

3. “As a girl she wrote stories, including burlesques of popular romances” and you know what that means. Jane Austen started off writing smut fanfiction. If that’s not writing reassurement that you can be great no matter what you choose to write, I don’t know what is.

In both Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice a teenage girl is the prey of an older man who has no real interest in her and completely intends on having his fun and walking away. This kind of thing only affected the woman in that era, “ruining” her while he got to walk away unscathed. 

This post explores how disabled characters are often ‘cured’ by the end of the story and how this affects readers.

“That feeling of identification lasted right up until the point where he got out of his wheelchair and threw off his disability.”

It’s unrealistic to have this as a common trope as a lot of disabilities aren’t curable, which can give readers false hope, along with also taking away the identification disabled readers feel to a disabled characters. A lot of disabled people don’t want to be cured either.

“After all, this is our normal. This is who we are. And we can be perfectly happy just the way we are, thank you very much.”

It’s also negative to insinuate an ending is only happy if a character’s disability is cured.

I’ve had several people ask for some YA retelling book recommendations, so here are a few of each! I marked my favorites with an asterisk:

Cinderella

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine*

Cinder by Marissa Meyer*

Gilded Ashes by Rosamund Hodge

Cinderella and the Colonel by K.M. Shea

Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George

Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

Bewitching by Alex Flinn

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas (the sequels get way better)*

Snow White

Winter by Marissa Meyer*

The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

Stitching Snow by R.C. Lewis

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

Mirrored by Alex Flinn

Beauty by Nancy Ohlin

Nameless by Lili St. Crow

Devoured by Amanda Marrone

Beauty & the Beast

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge*

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beast by Brie Spangler

Beauty and the Beast by K.M. Shea

Beauty by Robin McKinley

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas*

Of Beast & Beauty by Stacey Jay

Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier

Sleeping Beauty

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay (about Aurora’s daughter)*

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

Gathering Frost by Kaitlyn Davis

A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas

Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey

Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley

Rapunzel

Cress by Marissa Meyer*

Reign of Shadow by Sophie Jordan

The Golden Braid by Melanie Dickerson

Towering by Alex Flinn

Zel by Donna Jo Napoli

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

Entwined by Heather Dixon

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

The Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn

The Phoenix Dance by Dia Calhoun

Peter Pan

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Never Never by Brianna Shrum

Everland by Wendy Spinale

Second Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

The Neverland Wars by Audrey Greathouse

Never Ever by Sara Saedi

The Child Thief by Brom

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson

Aladdin/1,001 Nights

The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury*

The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh*

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Red Riding Hood

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer*

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Hansel & Gretel: Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

The Little Mermaid: Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon

The Frog Prince: 

Cloaked by Alex Flinn

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Water Song by Suzanne Weyn

Rumpelstiltskin: A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

The Snow Queen

Cold Spell by Jackson Pearce

Winter’s Child by Cameron Dokey

Stork by Wendy Delsol

Crown of Ice by Vicki L. Weavil

Why is this still a thing? I just saw yet another article trying to recommend a few female authors as though they’re some rare species. The suggestions turned out to be just as boring as every other list: Rowling, Austen, Rowling, Bronte, Rowling.

I don’t know why people keep struggling to come up with 5 amazing female authors (or even making these lists. Like whyyy). So let me now walk over to my bookshelf and rattle off some names of my favorite modern female authors… (also, enjoy my attempt to break my endless “YA fantasy” books into groups). 

If you’re searching for that super elusive book written by a woman, try:

Dystopian

Veronica Roth

Lauren Oliver

Kristin Cashore

Veronica Rossi

Beth Revis

Marie Lu

Tahereh Mafi

Suzanne Collins

Susan Ee

Suzanne Young

Jennifer Wilson

Amy Engel

Fantasy

Samantha Shannon

Evelyn Skye

A.C. Gaughen

Jessica Khoury

Alwyn Hamilton

Marissa Meyer

Heidi Heilig

Libba Bray

Leslye Walton

Janet Lee Carey

Jennifer McGowan

Diana Peterfreund

JK Rowling

Janet B. Taylor

Laini Taylor

Robin LaFevers

Erin Morgenstern

Kendare Blake

Amie Kaufman

Kerstin Gier

Kiersten White

Melanie Dickerson

Melissa Landers

KM Shea

Alison Goodman

Elizabeth May

Kiera Cass

Renee Ahdieh

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Alexandra Bracken

Romina Russell

Deborah Harkness

Diana Gabaldon

Madeline Miller

Julie Eshbaugh

High Fantasy

Sarah J Maas

Maria V. Snyder

Mary E. Pearson

Sara B. Larson

Jennifer A. Nielsen

Shannon Hale

Stephanie Garber

Diana Wynne Jones

Stacey Jay

Erin Summerill

Leigh Barudgo

Hannah West

Sabaa Tahir

Victoria Aveyard

Rosamund Hodge

Melina Marchetta

Rae Carson

Naomi Novik

Susan Dennard

Wendy Higgins

V.E. Schwab

Gail Carson Levine

CJ Redwine

Katherine Roberts

Sara Raasch

Erika Johansen

Rachel Hartman

Juliet Marillier

Livia Blackburne

Sophie Jordan

Tamora Pierce

Sandra Waugh

Marie Rutkoski

Elise Kova

Angie Sage

Amy Tintera

Sarah Fine

Jodi Meadows

Cinda Williams Chima

Morgan Rhodes

Sherry Thomas

Danielle L. Jensen

Colleen Oakes

Melissa Grey

Sarah Ahiers

Lori M. Lee

Roshani Chokshi

Modern Fantasy

Cassandra Clare

Rachel Hawkins

Stephanie Meyer

Jennifer L. Armentrout

Kami Garcia

Claudia Gray

Julie Kagawa

Maggie Stiefvater

Kaitlin Bevis

Aimee Carter

Holly Black

Cynthia Hand

Richelle Mead

Temple West

Alex Flinn

Kresley Cole

Josephine Angelini

Lisa Maxwell

Zoraida Cordova

Contemporary

Rainbow Rowell

Jenny Han

Morgan Matson

Sarah Dessen

Kasie West

Jennifer Longo

Anna Breslaw

Sonya Mukherjee

Huntley Fitzpatrick

Melissa Keil

Brodi Ashton

Jennifer Niven

Katherine Catmull

Miranda Kenneally

Eileen Cook

Sandy Hall

Jenn Marie Thorne

Sarah Strohmeyer

Stephanie Perkins

Danika Stone

Elizabeth Eulberg

Jandy Nelson

Carolyn Mackler

Ali Novak

Ann Brashares

Tamara Ireland Stone

Gwenda Bond

Stacey Lee

Nina LaCour

(Sorry to Leigh Bird Dog and anyone else whose name autocorrect couldn’t deal with if I didn’t catch it).

Click here for a Pinterest infographic of these books!

Cinderella

Cinder

What is Hidden

Mechanica

Gilded Ashes

Princess of Glass

The Ugly Stepsister

Sleeping Beauty

Princess of Thorns

Gathering Frost

A Kiss in Time

Kill Me Softly

A Wicked Thing

A Long, Long Sleep

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty

Cruel Beauty

Of Beast and Beauty

Beastly

Heart’s Blood

The Little Mermaid

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids

Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale

Monstrous Beauty

Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of The Little Mermaid

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

Entwined

Princess of the Midnight Ball

The Princess Curse

Wildwood Dancing

Little Red Ridding Hood

Crimson Bound

Scarlet

Red Riding Hood

Princess of the Silver Woods

Sisters Red

Snow White

Stitching Snow

Fairest

Winter

The Shadow Queen

Snow: A Retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Rapunzel

Cress

Rapunzel Untangled

Towering

Zel

Alice in Wonderland

Splintered

Insanity (Mad in Wonderland)

Alice in Zombieland

The Goose Girl

The Goose Girl

Thorn

Dearest

Peter pan

Wendy Darling: Stars

Tiger Lily

Second Star

Never Never

Other Retellings

Spinning Starlight

A Thousand Nights

Valiant

Unenchanted

The Wrath and the Dawn

The Wild Orchid: A Retelling of “The Ballad of Mulan”

The Isle of the Lost

Uprooted

My Fair Godmother

Scarlet

Enchanted

My Unfair Godmother

Women have always been at the forefront of literature, the first novel (what we would consider a novel in modern terms) was written by a woman (Lady Muraskai’s the Tale of Genji in the early 1000s) take your snide “Isaac Asimov” reblogs and stick it

even in terms of male scifi authors, asimov was predated by Jules Verne, HG Wells, George Orwell, you could have even cited Poe or Jonathan Swift has a case but Asimov?

Seriously, what even XD. Idiots gotta idiot, I guess…