Retellings Quotes

“He wanted something agreeable, something sweeter around the edges, but I was never very good at sweet.”
― Nghi Vo, The Chosen and the Beautiful

“For when the world was darkest, I remembered you.”
― Heather Dixon Wallwork, The Enchanted Sonata

“I pretend to be human, but the mirror does not lie.”
― Jessica S. Olson, Sing Me Forgotten

“THE STAGE:
The stage is empty, and you watch as the figure of Medusa steps into the gas-light. Her body is dressed in a crimson traversed by the golden branches of willow trees, colour and light held into shape by sharp black borders. Lifting languidly her hands, she reaches towards you. Her emerald vipers, in the cohesive movements of unseen mechanisms, weave loops about her head. Music is beginning, and from the shadows off-stage the narrator speaks. “Medusa had a beautiful name and a lovely voice, though no one cared to listen; seeking only the gaze of those famous eyes.”
Perseus walks onto the stage, cloaked as though he were the blazing sun. Now what you have to understand is his voice – it is like nothing you could tie down. It feels peaceful to hear it, to see him flow into the song with his fine, clear looks and his finer, clearer voice. Is the head quite forgotten? Not quite but the horror exists alongside the beauty and they flow like twin rivers, and neither is able to wash the other from you.”
― Tamara Rendell, Mystical Tides

“You were not raised to be safe. You were raised to be heroes.”
― Laura Sebastian, Half Sick of Shadows

“I would be Medusa, if it came to it, I resolved. If the gods held me accountable one day for the sins of someone else, if they came for me to punish a man's actions, I would not hide away like Pasiphae. I would wear that coronet of snakes and the world would shrink from me instead.”
― Jennifer Saint, Ariadne

“Fear was as much a motivator as hate. Fear made monsters out of men.”
― Emma Theriault, Rebel Rose

“No one looked like her, which she'd thought didn't matter, since skin shouldn't matter. Who cares if others judged her for it? Those who saw her only for her skin were themselves blind.”
― Soman Chainani, Beasts and Beauty

“Never mind being born with a silver spoon in his mouth; try a golden shovel. It was one thing we did not have in common. I grew up in happy obscurity under the moon, but Perseus had been drenched by the strongest beam of sun.”
― Jessie Burton, Medusa

“A peal of mirth almost escaped me at the notion of shaming the blood-soaked House of Atreus, as if it had even been clean.”
― Susan C. Wilson, Clytemnestra's Bind

“Mystical Sled Ride

Knik to Willow, the race is on,
across the Tundra, miles from home,
Girl in Red flies through the snow,
shimmering dreams of ice-rainbows.
Sinuous bodies seem to fly
like a wolf-pack going by!
How they thunder as they run
steaming fur, in icy sun.

Knik to Willow, the race is on,
across the Tundra, miles from home,
Girl in Red, how swift she speeds,
climbing mountains for the lead!
Snowy lakes, and frozen streams,
over land of Inuit dreams,
slippery trails on icy ground,
pelting paws thunder their sound!

Knik to Willow, the race is on,
across the Tundra, miles from home,
sunburst, golden, brief respite
in winter woods,
as day meets night.
Hear the music floating by,
Girl in Red soars to the sky!
Bodies, legs and lightest paws,
across the line to great applause!

Knik to Willow, now darkness falls,
see the mushers fight for all!
Persistence, courage, strength and care,
mushers see it through, and dare!
Running fast, but running late,
the world it watches, still awake.
The brightest lantern is their guide,
stars gaze down – no longer hide.

Knik to Willow, the race was on,
and now the sled dogs all are home;
meat is plenty for them all,
winners, losers, victors all.
When Northern Lights dance in the snow,
Girl in Red, just hear them go!
Howls pierce the air, like darts -
so fast they run, their beating hearts.”
― Suzy Davies, The Girl in The Red Cape

“We should not judge by appearances,” thought Stella. “Time shows us who we can trust. Then, folks show us their true natures. There’s nothing worse than false friends who lead us by the hand into all kinds of dangers.
They have two sides—one light, one dark. Nothing’s unusual about that. But false friends take us from our true paths. I’d rather have honest enemies or rivals. They challenge us and shape us. They help us more than they know. They give us courage—something to go against.”
― Suzy Davies, The Girl in The Red Cape

“You might as well ask me to pick a bride based on the size and make of her shoe.”
― Chanda Hahn

“This is how it started, 
with a sister weeping in her bed, 
a child so terrified she sold herself to a thief, 
a girl so lovely, the world went to war to possess her”
― Kester Grant

“it was raining love”
― Michael Hughes, Country

“Very few letters-in-bottles in those hard times were not touching. Especially so were those letters-in-bottles which fathers sent home.”
― Megan Lois Whitehill, Little Women: Mermaid Edition

“Somehow the sea-flowers finished Meg’s despondency. She tucked the glow blooms into her shell corset, and wove the fin fronds into her hair. Then she swam out and enjoyed herself, for she danced to her heart’s content.”
― Megan Lois Whitehill, Little Women: Mermaid Edition

“He is my quarry, my partner, my love.”
― Anna Fury, Hunt the Wood

“Children without shoes or socks dangled their legs from the balconies unable to fly, longing for the freedom of the skies. But their homes were small, cramped cages.”
― Suzy Davies, The Snow Queen

“E cos’era l’amore se non faceva altro che uccidere?”
― Chloe Gong, Our Violent Ends

“Olifur licked his lips and gave a small croak. “Please, sir.” His voice came out in a thin, wavering stream. “May I have some more?”
― Jenelle Leanne Schmidt, Steal the Morrow

“Stars shone for both scholars and paupers, pharmakides and priestesses, gods and mortals. They shone, but they never went backwards. They never vanished. Sometimes they’d flicker, like a candle, but they’d never be blown out completely.

Not until that fateful morning when Medousa bubbled up from the sea.”
― Alice Abyss, Pharmakides

“Your family isn’t just something you’re born into. It can also be something you forge.”
― KC Kingmaker

“Your family isn’t just something you’re born into. It can also be something you forge.”
― K.C. Kingmaker, Daughter of Sherwood

“Well, when everything is taken from you, all you can do is keep searching for new reasons to stay alive. New reasons to feel happiness. And, dare I say . . . new reasons to love again.”
― K.C. Kingmaker, Daughter of Sherwood

“I am tired of running.” I slammed the end of the staff into the ground again. “Now I fight.”
― K.C. Kingmaker, Daughter of Sherwood

“Rosco cawed like a goddamn crow. I shot a what-the-fuck-was-that? look in his direction, and his bony shoulders bobbed with a shrug. We hadn’t planned a signal. Stupid, on my part.”
― K.C. Kingmaker, Daughter of Sherwood

“Will pulled his blades out of the commander’s corpse, not even waiting for him to drop to the ground before lunging and stabbing the second guard in the stomach once, thrice, five times in rapid succession.

The second guard keeled over, blood trickling out of his mouth past Alan’s enclosed fingers, while his guts spilled out of him.

“Dammit,” I hissed, throwing my arms up. “What was the point of us disguising ourselves in their gear if you were just going to do that?”

Will shrugged, flinging the blood off his blades before sheathing them. “Don’t know. That was your plan. This was mine.”
― K.C. Kingmaker, Daughter of Sherwood

“Some places are so dark that even dreams cannot flourish there. I warned you once, queen, to be careful, and I will repeat this warning now. Take care not to venture too far into the darkness, for men have gotten lost and never found their way back. How much more valuable would a queen be to the monsters that lurk in the shadows."
-Hypnos”
― Heidi Hastings, Hades and Persephone: The Golden Blade

“If a woman receives only cruelty or indifference from her husband, father, brother, or son, why should she trust her well-being to any of them?”
― Susan C. Wilson, Clytemnestra's Bind