anassarhenisch:

the-knights-who-say-book:

do characters in modern fairytale retellings know their life is a retelling? bc they act like they don’t even notice. i’ve never read a retelling where the main character is like “huh… wait a minute… my name is ELLA and i have TWO STEPSISTERS who are SUPER MEAN and i’m about to go to  BALL…. this is ringing a bell”

like, i want a retelling where the mc realizes what’s going on and is like “oh shit i am NOT having this” and then like, uses their knowledge to their advantage? like they realize that if their life is a cinderella retelling then their step siblings are probably going to destroy the beautiful dress they painstakingly sewed, and they should probably make sure the dress is safely protected at a friend’s house

OH. or a retelling where even though they do this, the retelling insists on happening anyway?? they save the dress, but then their step siblings tear up the painting they’ve been working on instead. they wear boots that can’t fall off to the dance, but somehow they lose one big dangle earring as they run away. the Retelling will Not Be Stopped, Ella-who-insists-on-going-by-their-middle-name-but-no-one-listens-to-them, the Retelling Must Have Its Sacrifice

Indexing by Seanan McGuire sort of does this? It’s an urban fantasy set in a world where fairy tales are basically viral and will overwrite human lives in order to reproduce. The people affected aren’t normally aware of this, but our heroes, from an agency tasked with stopping the fairy tales, are. They include a Snow White, a Wicked Stepsister, a Shoemaker’s Elf, and a Pied Piper, and a large part of their job is exactly what you described.