I am so grateful for friends with good taste! In the past few months I've been stuck in bed a lot, and a kind friend brought me by some books she thought I'd enjoy. Three of them were books by Cameron Dokey in her "Once Upon a Time" series. I was skeptical at first, I admit it. It can be easy to come across a lot of sappy, cheesy, same-old/same-old stories when it comes to the classic fairy tales. There are countless retellings of each one, but most are shallow at best and a waste of time at worst. I was so pleasantly surprised!
Cameron Dokey does a fantastic job re-imagining these classic tales and breathing new life into them. I happily rediscovered old favorites (Cinderella, Rapunzel, etc.) from creatively new angles, and then fell in love with stories I don't usually pick up (The Ballad of Mulan, Jack & The Beanstalk, Arabian Nights). Each story was taken apart and then put back together in a totally new form, yet there were no gaping holes and I still finished with the feeling I longed for. (And usually an insatiable desire to start a new one pronto!)
After practically inhaling the first three books (I think I read them all in just a few days), I asked for more, then discovered even more at my local library. I came home with eight new titles in my arms and couldn't wait to go to bed early to start in on them.
I will say, I was slightly disappointed with one story, and that was the retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Cameron Dokey's
Belle was quite similar to Robin McKinley's
Beauty, only I read McKinley's telling first and the story was told in greater depths. Other than that, Cameron still had her unique voice and sequence of events for her story, and there was a much-appreciated theme on the nature of true Beauty (with a capital B).
I didn't expect to love this one, but it became a favorite!
I loved getting to know Jack and his sister in this one. There was sooo much more to this story than you usually find!
Cameron has an amazing ability to give each story a unique voice. I was spellbound by this one.
Think Rapunzel is an abused girl alone with her long hair? Think again. This was like reading "The True Story of Rapunzel".
I loved that pumpkins still played a part in this tale, and even were the vehicle for bringing her to the castle. The rest, however, was completely redone. Brilliant job letting the story play out without making the stepmother and stepsisters complete villains.
If you've been looking for a new author to love, or a long string of stories to sink your teeth into, I'd suggest checking out a tall stack of these. I'm a lifelong Cameron Dokey fan for sure!
*I will just point out that there are a couple other authors that contribute to this series, so just look for that when checking out the books. I have tried some of them, but I feel like they don't do quite as good a job with the stories as Cameron.
