Short but sweet take on Rapunzel.

Rapunzel is my favorite fairy-tale, so you can imagine my skepticism learning the Rapunzel in this version has no hair. Absolutely none at all. But I was charmed by the author’s way with words, and by the end, she had me with her version of this story (even if I loved it for very different reasons than I love the original tale). I read the whole thing in about an hour and a half. It’s not very long, but it packs a nice little punch. Well worth the effort.

There are other changes to the tale, both of the superficial nature and a bit more significant. Rapunzel’s mother does crave an herb from a witch’s garden, and her father does steal that herb for her, but in this version the witch is not evil, although she does take Rapunzel from her parents. In this case, it’s because she believes the vain mother (who herself possesses vast quantities of beautiful golden hair) will not be capable of loving her daughter, who has aforementioned zero hair. The witch takes Rapunzel and raises her as her own child. When Rapunzel has grown up, however, the story takes a left turn, involving a tinker, witch-hunting, and a spell placed on the witch’s daughter.

In Dokey’s hands, the story of Rapunzel becomes one about different kinds of love, especially the love between a parent and a child. Dokey is also really good at taking fairy-tale constructs and turning them into fleshed out characters. I knew exactly who all of these characters were by the end of the book. I did check this book out originally as part of a fairy-tale retelling anthology called Once, featuring two other stories Dokey had written, re-telling Cinderella and Mulan. I didn’t have time to read them before I returned the book to the library, but I enjoyed this story enough that I am very likely to check out more of her stuff in the future.