The following post is a collaborative post.
Mature-themed fairy tales that are as good as Disney
It’s common knowledge that fairy tales are made for kids. However, did you know that authors make fairy tale stories for mature people, too? Apart from Disney’s writers who create happy endings, there are some authors who craft stories with a darker twist. As many great books do, adult-themed fairy tales explore the deepest corners of the human mind and present stories that are often bizarre and unsettling.
Mature-themed fairy tales are not constrained within the walls of libraries; they go beyond the pages of books and into video games. Have you ever heard of American McGhee’s Alice? It uses the same character that followed a rabbit into Wonderland. However, instead of a kid-friendly version, the game is actually a third-person psychological horror action video game. Unofficially, it presents itself as the sequel to Lewis Carroll’s Alice novels.
Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood also have mature-themed games. While not as creepy as American McGhee’s Alice, they do target the more mature demographic as they’re hosted on the pay-to-play gaming site Pocket Fruity. The “Miss White” game uses themes and characters from the original Snow White while “Miss Red” uses illustrations of a more mature Red Riding Hood.
But modern, adult-themed fairy tale novels do not pattern model themselves on Disney characters. They’re stand-alone titles that can be enjoyed by adults even without knowing the backstories of Belle, Jasmine, and Ariel.
Below are some of the best, fairy tales that target the more mature audience.
The Night Circus
Written by Erin Morgenstern
The Night Circus takes readers into the strange and mysterious world of circuses that appear randomly at night and leave entire towns with the same unexpectedness. The novel perfectly depicts the surreal characteristics of the fairy tale, complete with plots that are never really explained fully. Books that have hanging plots can really be annoying but not in this fairy tale. Morgenstern excellently narrates the story as if magic was part of everyday life.
The Great Night
Written by: Chris Adrian
The Great Night is a mixed bag of heartbreaking, vulgar, strange, and funny. The fairy personas are quite similar to some Shakespearean characters but the rest are Adrian’s original creations. The novel is known in literary circles as the retelling of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Great Night presents the interaction on one, fateful night between the faerie kingdom that is about to be destroyed and three humans who are heartbroken due to lost relationships.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Written by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is the rockstar of the literary world, and his storytelling always makes his readers ask at the end of every page, “and then what happened?” The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a wonderful masterpiece that stitches together fiction and the land of the living.
The book begins with the unnamed protagonist returning to his hometown for a funeral. He revisits his old home and remembers a young girl named Lettie who claims that the pond behind her home is an ocean. He stops at the home where Lettie had lived and mysteriously starts remembering forgotten incidents from the past.
Do you have a favorite fairy tale that adults can enjoy? Share your thoughts in our comments section!
