Books Like Daughter of the Forest
If you finished Daughter of the Forest and want more fairy tale retellings, curses, witches, start here. Each pick shares at least two tropes with it, and we've rated every one for spice and darkness so you know what you're getting into.
For reference, Daughter of the Forest is:
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The picks
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1. Uprooted
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses, slow burn
Every ten years a wizard takes one village girl. This time it's Agnieszka, which nobody expected. The real villain is the Wood, which is properly creepy.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Slow Burn
- Witches
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Death of a loved one
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2. Juniper & Thorn
Shares: fairy tale retellings, witches, curses
A retelling of the Grimm story The Juniper Tree, set in an industrializing city with a monster loose in it. Marlinchen and her sisters are the last witches, kept locked up by their abusive father. This is gothic horror first. Check the warnings, they're heavy.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Witches
- Curses
- Revenge
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Physical or emotional abuse, Harm to children, Gore, Self-harm, Murder
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3. For the Wolf
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses, slow burn
Red, the queen's second daughter, is sent into the Wilderwood as a sacrifice to the Wolf and finds a grumpy Warden named Eammon bleeding into the trees to keep them back. Red Riding Hood meets Beauty and the Beast with forest horror. Slow and tender.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forced Proximity
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Gore, Graphic violence
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4. Losing Wendy
Shares: fairy tale retellings, slow burn
Peter Pan retold as a mystery, with Wendy Darling, winged fae, mating marks and something killing in Neverland. Enemies to lovers on a very slow fuse. Darker than the premise sounds, and not everyone liked where it takes Wendy.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Fae
- Fated Mates
- Enemies to Lovers
Content warnings
Murder, Graphic violence
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5. Tender Morsels
Shares: fairy tale retellings, witches
After years of abuse from her father, Liga is given a private heaven where nothing bad can happen, and raises her daughters there. Then the real world starts leaking in. Snow White and Rose Red, made very adult. Not for everyone.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Witches
- Found Family
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Physical or emotional abuse, Harm to children
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6. The Bear and the Nightingale
Shares: fairy tale retellings, witches, curses
Medieval Russia, winter spirits and a girl who refuses to stop feeding the household demons. Cold, beautiful and slow in the good way.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Witches
- Demons
- Curses
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Physical or emotional abuse
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7. The Bloody Chamber
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Ten short stories that take Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, Red Riding Hood and Puss in Boots and make them hungry, sexual and strange. Short enough to read in a weekend. Every dark fairy tale retelling since owes it something.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Vampires
- Curses
Content warnings
Murder, Physical or emotional abuse, Gore, Dubious or non-consent
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8. The Last Wish
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Linked short stories where Geralt takes monster contracts that keep turning out to be twisted fairy tales: a cursed princess, a Beauty and the Beast setup, a djinn. Start here, not with Blood of Elves. It's funnier and more melancholy than the games.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Morally Gray
- Curses
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Gore
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9. House of Hollow
Shares: curses, fairy tale retellings
Three sisters vanished as kids and came back with black eyes and no memories. Now the oldest is missing again. Gross, glittery body horror with a fae core. YA but not soft.
- Fae
- Curses
- Fairy Tale Retellings
Content warnings
Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Harm to children
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10. Kingdom of the Wicked
Shares: witches, slow burn
Sicilian witch summons a prince of hell to find out who killed her twin. Wrath is the best part, and the spice goes up a lot in book two.
- Witches
- Demons
- Enemies to Lovers
- Revenge
Content warnings
Murder, Gore, Death of a loved one
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11. One Dark Window
Shares: curses, slow burn
There's a monster living in Elspeth's head, and it talks. Gothic, foggy, strange in the best way. Feels like a dark fairy tale someone forgot to tame.
- Curses
- Morally Gray
- Forbidden Love
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Death of a loved one, Murder
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12. Deerskin
Shares: fairy tale retellings, slow burn
A retelling of Donkeyskin, the fairy tale most people never got told. Princess Lissar's father decides to marry her, and what happens is on the page. The rest of the book is about her slow recovery in the mountains with her dog. Gentle in tone, devastating in content.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Gods and Mythology
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Physical or emotional abuse, Animal death, Suicide or suicidal thoughts
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13. House of Salt and Sorrows
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Annaleigh lives in a seaside manor with her sisters, four of whom have already died, and the rest keep sneaking off to enchanted balls every night. The Twelve Dancing Princesses as gothic horror. The romance is light. The creep factor isn't.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Murder, Gore
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14. Nettle & Bone
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Marra, the forgettable youngest princess, decides her sister's abusive prince husband has to die. To pull it off she builds a dog out of bones and picks up a disgraced knight, a dust-wife and a fairy godmother. Funny, grim, with a little romance at the edges.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Found Family
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Murder, Death of a loved one
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15. The Bone Houses
Shares: curses, fairy tale retellings
In Ryn's village the dead get up at night and walk out of the forest. She's a gravedigger, so it's bad for business. A Welsh-myth road trip with a mapmaker and an undead goat. Creepy, sad and lighter than it sounds.
- Curses
- Found Family
- Fairy Tale Retellings
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Gore, Graphic violence
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