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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Contemporary Fairytale


The Coop Book Tour
As children, we all grew up wrapped in the world of the fairytale. Its magic was simple, encapsulating all who dipped into the opening paragraphs. Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Grettel; they were and still are the staple tales passed down from parent to child, but these tales are evolving.

Hollywood has embraced this genre and stripped it back to its roots. In today’s movies, we see themes reminiscent of the fairytales darker beginnings, stories harking back to the days the Grimm brothers sought them out and captured them in time. These are not for children, there is no guarantee of happy ever after, no definite true love; they are gritty, disturbingly dark and more than ever, broaching on reality. Could it be that our contemporary take on the fairytale is dragging it kicking and screaming further into darkness?

This new found fascination is rolling in and with it bringing a tidal wave of adult interest. Then what for other fictional tales, novels on the fringe of the fairytale genre, are they going to find their place at last? Is this their moment? My debut novel The Coop sits close to this blurry line, how it got there I do not know. Perhaps it has something to do with my adolescent fascination with the original Grimms collection and the ink stain it left on my subconscious, or my inability to see our world for what it apparently is but whatever the reason, it was far from intentional. I wrote a story that grew as the words filled the page, it became what it wanted and that was not pigeonhole perfect. But looking around me now, I see a change and I like it, after all, no-one ever said that fairytales were for children. The Coop certainly isn’t.

About the Author:
Rebecca Reid was withdrawn from school due to illness at fourteen. Being limited in the things she was able to do, she wrote all the time − poetry, stories, feelings, thoughts. At 16 she had her own page in the local weekly newspaper, the Bangor Spectator, in which she covered anything and everything: fashion, beauty, film, teen issues etc. At 17 she became a model, doing catwalk, photographic work, and TV. In 2008 she graduated in English from Queens University, Belfast, and she was awarded an Arts Council writing grant in 2009. Married in 2007, she lives in N. Ireland with her husband and their three daughters. The Coop is her first novel, and part of the Thickets Wood Trilogy.
Follow Rebecca on Twitter:  www.twitter.com/thicketswood
Visit Rebecca Reid on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccareid.thicketswood
Pick up your copy of The Coop at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009BBGY0E

About the Book:
A psychological thriller about the destruction of innocence.
Enter The Coop, a dark and mysteriously misleading psychological thriller.
A girl, apparently imprisoned in a room, is the thread of mystery running parallel to the tale of Thatchbury village.
Meet Howard and Lilly. They take you on a journey through Thatchbury where Mathew, the child from the coop, shoots Jodie Tiding, and so unravels the history of his loveless raising, her innocence and the dramatic events leading them to disaster.
The Coop is a darkly compelling vision of the layers of consciousness. Although conceived as the first novel in a trilogy, The Coop stands alone as a brilliant individual work of fiction.



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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love stories that make me feel strong emotion... whether psychothrillers or otherwise. Great post!