Do you love re-tellings? I hope so because today I’m excited to have debut author Kalynn Bayron on the blog to talk about crafting a re-telling. Her book, Cinderella Is Dead, is out TODAY (woo!!) and puts a fresh spin on the classic fairy tale. Make sure to snag a copy when you’re done reading below!
Crafting a Re-Telling
by Kalynn Bayron
Crafting a unique retelling of a classic fairytale can be a challenge. Part of my research while I was writing Cinderella Is Dead was to go back and find the earliest known versions of the Cinderella story and compare them with the popular version most of us are familiar with. I found that the story may have originated, at least in part, thousands of years ago in Egypt. The fact is that the version of Cinderella, and many of the other fairytales people are familiar with, are already retellings. That is the nature of storytelling. It is fluid and ever changing.
One of my favorite retellings of all time is Wicked (more so the stage production adapted from the novel). It’s the untold story of the Wicked Witch of the West and explores what her life was like before she meets Dorothy on that fabled yellow brick road. The reason Wicked sticks with me is because if I were to tell you that I was going to write a retelling of the Wizard of Oz, I think you might assume that I am going to take Dorothy and reimagine her in a way that is different from the original tale but still sticks to the same familiar beats of the story; A young girl from a rural area gets swept away by some act of nature, finds herself in a magical world where she meets strange characters and has to find her way home. There’s a lot there to work with, and this could be a really solid angle on a retelling but the reason Wicked sticks with me is because Dorothy is only mentioned in passing. Instead, the story focuses on the tale’s antagonist, the Wicked Witch. This reimagining shifts the focus to a part of the story that was mostly untold.
For me, the key to retelling a classic story in a way that feels new and fresh is to try and approach it in a way that hasn’t been thoroughly explored. What are the most interesting or obscure aspects of the original tale? Usually, those are good entry points for a retelling. When I was drafting Cinderella Is Dead, I was thinking a lot about Cinderella’s step family. When we meet them, they are already villains. But why? Why do they treat Cinderella the way they do? And are we being told the entire truth about them? Those questions lead me to an even bigger, more pressing concern and that was – who was telling this story and what might happen in a world where these events were taken as fact? This is where my retelling began and I think it allowed me to approach the story in a way that felt new and different.
On a personal note, another way of making a classic story new again is retelling it in a way that centers characters who share aspects of my own intersectional identity. Retelling these stories with fully fleshed out Black characters isn’t simply “painting the roses red”. Changing the identity of the characters fundamentally changes the story. For so long, the fairytales I saw in popular media were completely devoid of anyone who looked like me but I was able to change that with Cinderella Is Dead while also exploring how a queer Black girl would exist in a society that tells her, even through its most cherished fairytale, that there isn’t room for her. Want to craft a good retelling? Go where the untruths are. Go to the place that erases you and make yourself seen and heard. Unapologetically.
About the Book
by Kalynn Bayron
Published on July 7, 2020 by Bloomsbury YA
ISBN: 9781547603879
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 400
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.
Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew . . .
This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.
About Austine
I'm a 20-something research proposal developer with a background in the life sciences and education. Reviewer of books since 2011, amateur photographer by day, and aspiring author by night. I believe animals (and books) are better than people.
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