Favorite Fairy Tales

“Aren’t you too old for Disney World?“

I was 13 years old the first time I had my heart broken. It happened when my grandma spoke those words to me. Too old for Disney World? Is that even possible? Even if it is, I thought I had at least 4 more summers of Splash Mountain, The Haunted Mansion and It’s a Small World. The thoughts of never again being able to sit in one of the Mad Hatter’s spinning teacups was completely devastating.

Spoiler Alert: At 19 years old, I still wholeheartedly believe that Disney World truly is the happiest place on Earth.

I hate to hear people say things like, “aren’t you too old for that?” I don’t think there should be an expiration date on things you love and enjoy. In fact, I think there are a lot of things from childhood that stay in our lives forever. It’s nostalgic and you can’t help but smile thinking about the “little things” that you cherished from growing up. Most of my favorite memories occurred in the first ten years of my life.

With that being said, I still love fairy tales. I always have. I don’t know what it is about them, but I adore fairy tales. There has been a recent wave of popular TV shows centered around fairy tales including Grimm, Once Upon a Time, and Beauty & the Beast. Hollywood has been churning out scores of movies based on fairy tales for years. The best among these, in my opinion, include Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland, and of course Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I haven’t been to see Maleficent yet, but I have every intention of doing so.

I’m sure most of you have seen a Hollywood movie or TV series based on a fairy tale, and perhaps even read one of the original stories. Many of the stories, in their original form, are actually quite dark. In the original version of Cinderella, one of the evil stepsisters cuts off one of her toes in order to make the shoe fit her. The Grimm Brothers, who are responsible for many of the fairy tales that you know and love, have written over 200 stories – You can read a lot of the stories here.

One of my favorite stories from Grimm’s Fairy Tales is called Godfather Death. I encourage you guys to read this one. I should warn you, this one is a fairly dark story, if you didn’t gather that from the title. I hope you guys enjoy this story as much as I do. I had actually started writing a story based around this Grimm fairy tale a while back. Unsurprisingly, it has been filed away with countless other stories I have begun with every intention of finishing, but have yet to do so.

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So now I ask: Are you a fan of fairy tales? Do you prefer the original stories or the refashioned tellings that you can see on the big screen? Which stories are your favorite, and which are your least favorite? Leave a comment and let me know! Thank you for reading!

Hush, Hush – By: Becca Fitzpatrick (Book Review)

Being home for summer, you have to get creative to keep yourself entertained. And I figured a good way to keep busy would be to start putting a dent in the infinite stack of books I have purchased but not read.

I decided on Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. I bought this book a while back. It was on sale for $5 at Barnes and Noble in honor of the upcoming release of the final book in the series. The book had a really interesting cover and a great sale price. The synopsis written on the back cover was interesting enough for me to seal the deal.

So here’s the plot, in a nutshell: Awkward high school girl, Nora Grey, is assigned a new lab partner in biology. He is elusive, uncooperative, and refuses to answer any of her questions. She figures out that his name is Patch, but that’s about all she learns. He’s tall, dark and handsome, and despite being endlessly frustrating, she finds herself strangely attracted to him. He begins showing up at the same places she is, claiming it was coincidence. She later finds out that he is something more than what he seems. Their romance plays out in a gloomy, rainy locale (for example: Maine or Washington.)

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Nora Grey is basically a reinvented Bella Swan. Nora is more annoying than the book version of Bella, but less annoying than the movie version of Bella. Patch and Nora meet in biology class, just like Edward and Bella. Patch descends into frustratingly mysterious behavior, also just like Edward. Nora’s friend Vee Sky is seemingly intended to be the comedic relief, but just comes off as kind of annoying, not unlike Jessica Stanley in Twilight. Nora gets into trouble when she travels to a nearby town, Portland, only to be rescued by her elusive love interest. Maybe it’s just me but that sounds strikingly similar to when Bella gets scared in the alley while on a trip to Port Angeles, only to have Edward come to her rescue in the nick of time. There was no secret in beginning Twilight or Hush, Hush that the male leads were superhuman.

I don’t know about you, but when I read Twilight, I knew Edward was a vampire from the beginning. I read the book before all the hype began to generate from the movie, so there weren’t endless spoilers everywhere I turned. It just wasn’t that hard to figure out. As for Hush, Hush, all you had to do to realize that Patch was a fallen angel, was look at the cover of the novel. If there was any doubt left in your mind, the summary on the back would surely clear it up for you.

There were some good things about this book, and some bad things. I think Becca Fitzpatrick does a good job of creating this Hush, Hush world that readers just fall into. Some may disagree, but this book was a page turner for me. I finished it in just a couple hours. While it was easy to read, that doesn’t mean the story was great. It most definitely doesn’t mean that the story was original. I am certain I would’ve appreciated this book if it was the first of its kind. I read Twilight when I was about 12 years old, and I was completely enamored by it. I had never read anything like it. Now, 7 years later, Barnes & Noble has a section dedicated solely to “paranormal romance.” Hush, Hush just seems stale. It was entertaining and I enjoyed reading it, but books like that are a dime a dozen. There wasn’t really anything special about it. I intend to read the rest of the books in the series (Crescendo, Silence, and Finale.)

This is the summary from the back of the novel, if you want a better idea of what the story is about:
When Nora and Patch are forced together as lab partners, Nora would rather fall to her death than put up with his elusive answers to her questions, his teasing, and his infuriatingly handsome face and hypnotizing eyes. It seems Patch was put on earth just to drive her crazy. But before long, Nora’s defenses start to break down as her curiosity about Patch heats up. Why does he always seem to be wherever she is and know exactly what she’s thinking? How does he know what to say to both attract and repulse her? And what is up with those V-shaped scars on his chiseled back? As their connection grows stronger, Nora’s own life becomes increasingly fragile. Nora needs to decide: Is Patch the one who wants to do her harm or the one who will keep her safe? Has she fallen for one of the fallen?

Upon doing a little research for this post, I learned a film adaptation of Hush, Hush is in the very early stages of production (fingers crossed for Thomas Dekker to play Patch.) Patrick Sean Smith, writer behind ABC Family’s Greek, has been commissioned to write the script for the film. If you want to get ahead of the movie hype, now is your chance.

If you enjoyed Twilight, and are just looking for a quick, easy read, Hush, Hush isn’t a bad choice. If you’re looking for groundbreaking literature, I don’t think I need to tell you to look elsewhere.