This week I am reading Golden by Cameron Dokey, a retelling of the story of Rapunzel. I’ve actually read this one before, but it’s a really interesting retelling of one of my favorite fairy tales and a pretty fast read, so I decided to revisit it.

Rapunzel is a tricky story to novelize because a lot of it isn’t explained or doesn’t make sense. Why does Rapunzel have such epicly long hair? How did she even get into the tower if there are no doors or stairs? Why doesn’t her prince just bring a ladder or a rope instead of constantly climbing her hair and then leaving her stuck there (or bringing her small bits of silk to weave her own ladder)?

In this version, Dokey actually splits Rapunzel into two entirely separate characters. One, Rapunzel, is born bald and remains so growing up. The other, Rue, is the girl stuck in the tower. Both are daughters of the sorceress and they need each other to break the various curses in their lives, but they don’t even meet until after halfway through the book.

This is definitely an intriguing story and I’m enjoying rereading it. It gets me thinking about how I would flesh out Rapunzel into a longer story. It’s definitely a tale with a lot of possibilities!