Top Ten Tuesday: Books For Fans of ABC's Once Upon a Time

"Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly countdown meme, hosted by the Broke and the Bookish!

This week's Top Ten Tuesday subject matter got me what might be classified as "irrationally" excited, due to the inordinate amount of culture I consume outside of my regular book habit, and how excited I was to attach that singular hobby to absolutely everything else. How was I suppose to stick on one TV show, one song or band, one musical, one whatever, for a booklist? I actually ended up just brainstorming a list of potential sources of inspiration, and then baby book lists off of each of those. 

While I was conducting this time-consuming exercise - as a means of procrastinating writing an essay, due Wednesday in English, of course! - I remembered that I had missed this past week's episode of Once Upon a Time... and immediately put aside everything to watch. I swear, it took me an additional ten minutes of the episode to finally hit upon the fact that I was watching my real inspiration. 

FAIRY TALE FAN

Fantasies from worlds even more magical than the Enchanted Forest

1. Throne of Glass, S.J. Maas

OUaT has no shortage of kick ass heroines working against massively dangerous magical foes, and they would definitely find themselves in good company with YA's current fantasy assassin-in-residence Celaena. 

2. Poison, Bridget Zinn

Ditto to Kyra, a kick-butt potions master with a flair for flying darts and with a magical pig as an accomplice. Snow would LOVE her.

3. Stardust, Neil Gaiman

A far out fantasy with elements that reference fairy tale standbys with passing glances, and integrate every baddy in the book, Stardust crafts a world just as amazing as the Enchanted Forest.

4. The Princes Bride, William Goldman

Cuttingly ironic and hilariously sarcastic, the sense of humor permeating this modern classic's tale of a Farm-Boy-turned-Dread-Pirate and the Princess Bride he loves fits right in with the wise-talking residents of Storybrooke.

MAKE IT MODERN

Classic tales get a makeover for the modern world

5. Catherine and Jane, April Lindner

Updated, modern takes of the classic Bronte sister's opuses Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre (respectively), these YA novels effectively transport the drama of fiction into heady and rocker-filled modern eras. 

6. Sisters Grimm series, Michael Buckley

You're never going to believe this: a Middle Grade series about the daughters of fairy tale royalty (the Grimm Bros, in this case), living in an East Coast town, complete with magical border, populated by some of fantasy's favorites, including resident royalty, like the amoral Mayor Charming, assisted by people like a kindly granny and the Big Bad Wolf, and antagonized by a wisecracking boy who never grew up (in this case, it's Puck, from Shakespeare, not Peter Pan). Best part: it was a national bestseller before OUaT ever premiered.

7. Beastly, Towering, A Kiss in Time, by Alex Flinn

Flinn's YA works are well recognized for their transposition of classic fairy tale characters and tropes into the modern teen Universe. 

RIGHT OFF THE PAGE

Where fiction meets fantasy, as two worlds collide

8. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde

A science fiction future-past (alternative history is just so much fun!) meets up with the page-hopping Edward Rochester and his darling Jane; meanwhile, our intrepid heroine Thursday Next battles love, mystery, and basically everything else endangering her small hometown. 

9. The Percy Jackson series, Rick Riordan

The rousing and well-reviewed Middle Grade juggernaut has spawned two movies, detailing the exploits of a boy who finds out he's descended from the Greek Gods. I'm sure Emma would find the situation a little similar... and can't you see Henry loving this series?

10. The Unwritten series, Mike Carey and Peter Gross

A dark and explicit series of graphic novels following the experiences of Tommy Taylor, a grown man who finds that the Harry Potter-likebook series his father published with him as the protagonist, may be grounded more in fact than fiction.

And, just as an extra, in honor of this current season's big baddie... 

11. Wicked, Gregory Maguire

Because everyone likes an alternative take on an old tale... and while OUaT's Wicked Witch is a Total Bitch, it's nice to reminded that we always have Elphaba to turn to when we need a bit of a different perspective.

What's in YOUR Top Ten?