Girls falling for fae, queens falling for princesses, and boys waking the prince of their dreams with true love’s kiss — those are the kinds of stories you’ll find in the beautiful assortment of fairytale retellings below. These books feature a wide assortment of identities across the LGBTQ spectrum. Whatever your favorite fairytale, whatever sort of love story you hope to read, there really is a story for everyone. And with Pride Month in full swing, take a moment to something magical, timeless, and altogether new with one of must-read queer retellings.
Cinderella
The Snow Queen
Snow White
Snow-White and Rose-Red
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Sleeping Beauty
Peter Pan
Little Red Riding Hood
Other Fairytales
Big fan of fairytales and fairytale retellings, are you? You might want to check out these 8 LGBTQ fairytales from 2020, 10 queer retellings you need to read, the best Cinderella retellings, 25 best comic and graphic novel fairytale retellings, and 14 LGBT retellings of classics.
TW for sexual assault and rape
I love the emphasis on mother-daughter relationships and the conflicting pressures put on women in this retelling. Bashardout deftly weaves together the mythology of Snow White along with The Snow Queen in this beautiful retelling .
TW: rape, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation
Four girls at the elite Grimrose Académie search for answers in the death of their friend and discover a disturbing connection to fairytales. Cursed to live out their fairytale counterparts’ brutal endings, Ella, Yuki, Rory, and Nani must find some way to break the cycle for good…before they repeat it.
TW for transphobia
Release date: November 2, 2021
This is a novelette — or even a short story — more so than a novel, but too good not to include on this list, and a great option for anyone looking for a quicker read.
Another gorgeous retelling by Melissa Bashardoust, and easily one of my favorite books on this list (which is saying something). A princess cursed with a poisonous touch has lived her life hidden away in the palace, allowed to venture only as far as the gardens. It’s a lonely existence. But for Soraya, it’s the only existence she’s ever known. As her brother’s wedding approaches, she faces a choice: to stay in the shadows or venture beyond the palace walls. Because in the dungeons, a demon holds the secrets to her curse. And in the palace halls above, a young soldier watches her, not out of fear, but longing.
A queer, polyamorous retelling of Swan Lake featuring an enchanted forest, warring nations, and a nonbinary heir to the throne. Murray’s easy inclusion of so many LGBTQ identities in such a queer-accepting world makes this a really lovely and uplifting story.
There is a Wild Man in the woods of Greenhollow. His name is Tobias, though few would know that. He lives a quiet life, tethered to the trees, with his cats and his dryads. But then Greenhollow Hall acquired a handsome new new owner — an owner curious about the old secrets of the woods. As Henry digs deeper into the past, Tobias is forced to reckon with a history best left buried.
In early ’90s Portland, two siblings are torn apart. Iph has always tried to protect her sensitive younger brother, Orr, but this summer their father has decided its high time for him to toughen up at boot camp. Determined to find him, Iph runs away only to cross paths with a bicycle riding, queer Robin Hood, who offers her a place to hide out while she searches for her brother. Orr, meanwhile, has already escaped camp and fallen for an all-girls punk band, moving into the closet of their ramshackle pink house. In their first summer apart, both siblings have to find their own place in the world — and each other — before a fantastical transformation splits their family apart. Summer in the City of Roses weaves together fairytales and Greek myth into a beautiful tale of self-exploration and self-discovery.
