Title: An Unwelcome Guest
Author: Garth Nix
In: To Hold the Bridge (Garth Nix) & Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Easy reading, Fantasy, Witches
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Hot Key Books
Year: 2015
5th sentence, 74th page: ‘Won’t do any good, but I’ll call,’ said Jenny.

Garth Nix has a brilliant spin on the traditional tale of Rapunzel… and how to get rid of spoilt brats.

I love new spins on old stories. After all, there is something about faery tales that brings us back again and again and again. And An Unwelcome Guest is a brilliant way to reimagine Rapunzel. Nix’s spin on such a classic left me outright laughing and grinning. It was cute, funny and not at all what I was expecting.

Like the well-known Wicked, An Unwelcome Guest takes the villain of the tale of Rapunzel (the wicked witch) and makes her good. It then twists Rapunzel into a spoilt brat under some kind of weird compulsion. Her rescue into an attempt to kick her out. And the happy ending a small girl running away in tears with her soccer boots still on. Like I said, it was a great way to twist and turn a well-known faery tale into something more and in my opinion, thoroughly enjoyable. Certainly much more humorous than the original tale anyway.

Image source: Goodreads