The Dark Side of Fairy Tales - Edge of the Falls Blog Tour

Today my blog is being taken over by Nazarea Andrews as part of her Edge of the Falls Blog Tour.

When I was fourteen, I started a phase—looking back, I’m not sure what started it, but I devoured every book of fairy tales I could get my hands on. Which, oddly enough for our tiny town library, was a lot.

What struck me then, and even more so now is that fairy tales aren’t happy stories. These are the stories we were raised on—if your anything like me, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast, ect, were the cartoons you watched and part of life.

But in reality—dude. Sleeping Beauty is twisted. The queen cursed a baby. And then, some random prince was obsessed enough with her to fight a dragon? Something wasn’t quite right there.

The thing is, every fairy tale has a dark side. Cinderella had the stepmother who was emotionally abusive and locked her in her room. Hansel and Gretel have a cannibalistic witch that the kids eventually burned to death. Red Riding Hood hacked open a wolf to get her mother. Beauty is forced to live with a monstrous Beast. Rapunzel is kidnapped and locked in a tower and when the prince tries to rescue her, he has his eyes picked out by crows.

So, seriously. Why are these the stories we’re drawn to? Why are we still reading Grimms, centuries later?

I’m a firm believer that fiction should reflect—in a distorted, imperfect way—the realities of our world. And the dark side of fairy tales does that—it shows the dangers in imperfect parents, the predators who prey on children, and that while not always pretty and clean—you can rescue yourself.

Life isn’t pretty. It’s messy and dark and dangerous. But it has it’s magical moments—the moments of falling in love with the last person you’d expect, the kind stranger who helps you to the most important event in your life—the bond between siblings. All of them are real. Life is dark. But it’s also gorgeous and if you don’t embrace the sometimes dark days, you won’t get to the beautiful moments, or learn how strong you can be.

Of course, when I was fourteen, I didn’t realize all this. I just liked the swan brothers being saved by their silent sister, the princes saving their sleeping ladies. And the delightfully darkness of the stories. I loved that, too.

 Nazarea Andrews is an avid reader and tends to write the stories she wants to read. She loves chocolate and coffee almost as much as she loves books, but not quite as much as she loves her kids. She lives in south Georgia with her husband, daughters, and overgrown dog. Her first book, Edge of the Falls, is available March 12. 

Sabah always knew where she belonged—with Berg—and what was expected of her—to care for the other children the Mistress took in.

But when a ban-wolf saves her life, things begin to change.

Arjun isn’t like the other ban-wolves, the savage creatures that are barely human. He’s gentle and furious and as Sabah spends time with him, she can’t seem to get him out of her mind. But in a world of darkness, control, and danger, is there a place for two outcasts?

A romantic retelling of Beauty and the Beast in a dark dystopia.