Two dark fairy stories for your viewing pleasure

As you probably know, once you get to YA novels, fairy stories become less charming and rather more sinister. Case in point: these two stories, which are full of broken promises, devil’s bargains and magic gone awry. Which, of course, means that they are an absolute hoot.

The Iron Raven, by Julie Kagawa

The queen of fairy stories returns one more time to take us to the Nevernever. Kagawa’s written several books about the fey- this is a spin-off from her Iron Fey series- but this time, we’re battling anti-fey monsters from the viewpoint of Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, who started off as heroine Meghan Chase’s companion and has now graduated to a storyline of his very own.

Despite the fact that this is the six or seventh book set in the Iron Fey universe, it still remains as fresh and exciting as ever; Kagawa clearly has a lot of fun evolving the world that Puck and Meghan live in and going back to it has the feeling of coming back home after being away for a few years: comfortable and slightly indulgent. The storytelling is tight and exciting; Kagawa keeps the plot twists coming thick and fast. It’s a fun romp and lays the groundwork well for the rest of this third trilogy, which promises the end of the Fey world entirely. Let’s see how that turns out…

The only problem is that making Puck the hero doesn’t quite… work… somehow. After seven books of being famous for being a prankster, giving him a tormented backstory doesn’t quite gel so well with Puck’s inner monologue, especially after keeping him company for six books prior to this one. What we get is a weird combination of ultra-glib and Byronic hero, which made me wince. The same with the obligatory love story, which felt more shoe-horned in than sincere, and throws off the momentum of the plot.

Despite that, The Iron Raven is an easy, entertaining read that it’s easy to race through- and good enough to keep me intrigued for the next book in the series.

The Shadow in the Glass, by JJA Harwood

I’m not sure I’ve ever read such a dark retelling of Cinderella before- or any retelling of Cinderella, now I come to think of it. Cinderella is one of those fairy stories tends to be brushed aside in favour of the more interesting, easily-retellable fairy stories (Malice, a fantastic retelling of Sleeping Beauty, springs to mind).

But this book takes the myth and rips it into little pieces, before rebuilding them again into a huge, sprawling, twisted story of Victorian Britain, class inequality and sexism. A huge task, and one that it mostly rises to.

Our heroine in this story is Eleanor, a servant girl who was taken in by the mistress of the house before her death- and is now relegated to scrubbing pots and fending off the advances of her widowed husband. It’s a precarious position to be in, so when a fairy godmother appears and offers her seven wishes in exchange for her soul (!) Eleanor doesn’t hesitate before accepting.

This is the jumping-off point for a story that’s so dark and twisted that it’s more like a thriller than a fairy tale. Eleanor is a fascinating character, and not very likeable at all: keen to do the right thing on the surface, but other characters keep hinting at a dark element to her personality that throws the results of her wishes into a whole new light. And the book’s slow slide into violence as she attempts to scrabble her way to the top of society makes it sometimes pretty harrowing to read.

As a commentary on Victorian society, The Shadow in the Glass is extremely effective. As a traditional fairytale with a sympathetic heroine and a happy ending? Probably not so much.