Welcome to our Fairy tale Adaptations book club! This go round we’ve selected four books that showed their author’s take on various fairy tales and folktales. Each of our books below have their own Discussion Posts and don’t forget, we’ll be having our Zoom Book Club on Saturday September 18 at 7 pm EDT.
Other Discussions
- The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
- Deerskin by Robin McKinley
- Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
- Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
For those of you returning or who might be joining in for #CannonBookClub for the first time (hello new friends!) all are welcome, you don’t have to be registered for CBR13. The topics are numbered, and we ask that you refer to them below by that number to help people find the conversations they are looking for. If you are responding to someone else’s thoughts, please try to reply directly to them.
We will also be talking on our Social Media platforms, and of course in our Facebook group, Cannonball Read Book Chat, we’ll have some additional prompts so please join us there as well. Now, on to the questions!

- Do you think there ‘s any special power in taking a known story and envisioning it in a new way?
- How do the genies Alif and Dina encounter in the Empty Quarter upend your expectations of the typical genies of myth?
- There are themes of understanding and meaning throughout the story concerning language, stories, faith, people, and more. Where do you see these ideas affecting how Alif or other characters view and interact with their world?
- There are some diverse characters, including among the women in Alif’s life. How do these ladies play key parts in Alif’s life, character development, and general maturation as the hero?
- How do you think the technology in Alif’s world merges with the magic and supernatural elements you might expect in a fairy tale?
- Meet me in the comments, I have additional thoughts.