I've gotten into "clean"/no-spice indie fairy tale retellings. I can separate the art from the artist and don't mind consuming media made by people I disagree with, but I can't help but notice that the vast majority of the most prolific and popular indie authors in this genre are conservative Christians, and some of them are VERY homophobic(Madisyn Carlin has some views expressed on her blog that are quite horrific). I'm a queer/asexual woman who reads "clean"/no-spice as a personal preference because it's easier for me to relate to than spicy romance, but I'm sex-positive for everyone else. I'm curious if there's any "clean"/no-spice indie/KU-oriented fairy tale retellings that are LGBT-inclusive or aren't written by conservative Christians.
by Rissie15
4 Comments
I’m sorry, I’m not sure if this is indie, but you might like the work of T Kingfisher. These are the retellings I’m aware of:
Bluebeard (The Seventh Bride),
The Snow Queen (The Raven and the Reindeer)
Beauty and the Beast (Bryony and Roses)
Sleeping Beauty (Thornhedge)
Not sure if they’re on KU but if you’re in the US it’s a good bet you can get them for free on a library app like Libby, that’s how I read them.
Also, it’s somehow no surprise that a Madisyn is a conservative Christian.
I like the novels of Robin McKinley! Beauty is a fun and very “clean” retelling of beauty and the beast, and I LOVED spindles end. Naomi Novak also has to great fairy tell retellings that have great world building and are really interesting/alive — I prefer uprooted but others love spinning silver best!
Indexing by Seanan McGuire.
Naomi Novik Spinning Silver and Uprooted.