I have recently become obsessed by first lines. Specifically the first lines of fairytale retellings.
As you may know if you've been reading my posts for a while, I'm currently working on my own retelling of Snow White. A few weeks ago, I got to a sticky point where I wasn't sure what the characters' motivations were anymore, so I went back to the beginning and started reevaluating my tale a bit. And I've been struggling with the best place to start it. I wrote some backstory, which was helpful, but mostly I've been cogitating over what the first line should be. Which is not helpful, I know, but I can't help myself. So I pulled all the fairytale retellings from my shelves and wrote down their first lines. Then I went to the library and found all the fairytale retellings in the YA section and wrote down their first lines. Here are the results of my "research" (read: procrastination).
Beauty, by Robin McKinley (Beauty and the Beast)
"I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour, but few people except perhaps the minister who had baptized all three of us remembered my given name."
Beauty Sleep, by Cameron Dokey (Sleeping Beauty)
"I've heard it said (though I can't say whether or not it's true) that all good stories begin in the same way, with the exact same words."
Belle, by Cameron Dokey (Beauty and the Beast)
"I've heard it said–and my guess is you have too–that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But I've never been certain it's true."
Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine (Cinderella)
"That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me."
Gilded, by Marissa Meyer (Rumpelstiltskin)
"All right. I will tell you the tale, how it happened in truth."
Poisoned, by Jennifer Donnelly (Snow White)
"Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie rode into the forest with the queen's huntsman."
Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley (Beauty and the Beast)
"Her earliest memory was of waking from the dream. It was also her only clear memory of her mother."
Shard of Glass, by Emily Deady (Cinderella)
"The rain came all at once."
Spindle's End, by Robin McKinley (Sleeping Beauty)
"The magic in that country was so thick and tenacious that it settled over the land like chalk-dust and over floors and shelves like slightly sticky plaster-dust."
Stepsister, by Jennifer Donnelly (Cinderella)
Prologue: "Once upon always and never again, in an ancient city by the sea, three sisters worked by candlelight."
First chapter: "In the kitchen of a grand mansion, a girl sat clutching a knife. Her name was Isabelle. She was not pretty."
The Blood Spell, by C.J. Redwine (Cinderella)
"The wraith crept through the darkness of its forest prison, hunger gnawing at its bones."
The Bone Spindle, by Leslie Vedder (Sleeping Beauty)
"In a faraway time, in a great kingdom of magic, a baby was born to the last king and queen of Andar."
The Shadow Queen, by C.J. Redwine (Snow White)
"Nothing had been right in the castle since her mother's death."
With these first lines in mind, here are the contenders for my Snow White retelling, Hunted:
1. The Robin McKinley: "At some point during my formative years, I somehow gathered that I was a curse upon my family. Not that I was cursed, mind you, but that I was the curse."
2. The Gail Carson Levine: "My name is Diana Stornoway, but you probably know me better by the stupid nickname my eldest brother gave me when he was ten and I was three: Snow White."
3. The Marissa Meyer: "I was afraid of mirrors as a child."
4. The Cameron Dokey: "Once upon a time, back when wishes always came in threes and the fair folk had not been banished from the land quite so successfully as they have been today, a goatherd's daughter sat outside her cottage in the heat of the day, sighing over her fate."
What's your vote? And who is your favorite author of fairytale retellings? Let me know in the comments below!
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