I love modern retellings of old fairy-tales. At this point it's like the early women as action heroes you talked about in another entry: there aren't enough of them for me to really pick and choose, so I have to take all I can get.
That said, I much prefer the novel-length adaptation. There are a fair number of them, but I can't remember a lot of titles or authors. One that does stick in my mind is Robin McKinley. She hasn't written a lot of fairy-tale novels, but interestingly she has written the same one twice. Many years ago she wrote Beauty, a very, very good novelization of "Beauty and the Beast." And then just a few years ago she wrote Rose Daughter, an entirely different adaptation of the same story. Both very good, both with no resemblance to one another except that the central character is a strong, intelligent woman. I think I like the first one better, but I wouldn't quibble with another who preferred the second.
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That said, I much prefer the novel-length adaptation. There are a fair number of them, but I can't remember a lot of titles or authors. One that does stick in my mind is Robin McKinley. She hasn't written a lot of fairy-tale novels, but interestingly she has written the same one twice. Many years ago she wrote Beauty, a very, very good novelization of "Beauty and the Beast." And then just a few years ago she wrote Rose Daughter, an entirely different adaptation of the same story. Both very good, both with no resemblance to one another except that the central character is a strong, intelligent woman. I think I like the first one better, but I wouldn't quibble with another who preferred the second.