Rumple What?

By Nancy Springer

ISBN# 9781611875331

Author’s Website: http://www.nancyspringer.info/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Caro

Spoilers!

Synopsis:

We’ve all heard the fairy tale of the girl who could spin straw into gold, and the creature that would demand her first-born as payment for helping her achieve the horrible tasks put to her by her father.

Let’s face it, though, The Brothers Grimm couldn’t get the facts of a story straight if their lives depended on it, and this classic tale of excess and woe is certainly no different. Here, revealed for the first time, is the absolutely true account of the events surrounding the spoiled little gold-spinner and her entire wretched family and the poor, innocent imp cheated out of what was rightfully his.

A hilarious retelling of a classic fairy tale from legendary wordspinner Nancy Springer.

Review:

In this new adaptation of the fairy tale, we have all come to know, author Nancy Springer takes her time into giving us an inside look at the different point of views of the story’s main three characters; Rumplestiltskin, the King and the miller’s daughter, giving the characters a motive to act the way they did.

I actually found the short story very interesting. For example, have you ever wondered as to why Rumplestiltskin wants the miller girl’s first born child? Maybe he feels lonely and just needs the company of someone who won’t look at him as if he were an evil little thing and appreciate him for what he truly is, a misunderstood good person. Then we have the miller girl turned Queen, who matures not by becoming rich and royalty but a mother, a woman, like it is stated. Once she has the bundle of new life in her warm arms, she falls deeply in love with her child and is scared of Rumple taking her away.

Curiously enough, I found the King to be the truly bad guy of this story. He uses his future wife to pay off his debts and then doesn’t even care about protecting his own daughter. Unlike his wife, who literally, as the original fairy tale mentions it, she makes a deal with the devil for Rumple’s name. This might have turned out to be my favorite part of the story and a good plot twist from author Nancy Springer. She took a small detail from one of the last original paragraphs and turned it into the courage the Queen needed to find her new self.

At the end it leaves you with your own different point of view and understanding Rumple and his actions. Not to mention that you’ll have a laugh here and there hearing some of the names the Queen used to guess Rumple’s and the name he gives the child. If you have the opportunity, give this story a read, it will be quite refreshing. For those who have read the original story, Rumple What?, complements it perfectly.