Never Afters

You already know part of their stories. This is what happens next.In Never Afters, Kristyn McDermott upends everything we know about fairy tales by asking a simple question: what happens to the heroines after their tales are over?An aging Gretel runs a bakery in a remote town, enduring the antics of her drunken brother and the siren song of the witch's grimoire searching for a new mistress.Bluebeard's seventh bride survives his reign of terror, but now occupies a manor filled with ghostly wives who crave vengeance. Queen Cinderella is exiled in her own palace, replaced by a younger, prettier girl who can bear her King an heir. Through her journals, she charts how she lost her power...and what she'll do to regain it. Rapunzel confronts the trauma and sorrow of a childhood locked in a tower when she learns Mother Gothel is dead, while Beauty and her once beastly husband find themselves estranged as their passion dwindles. Red Riding Hood discovers a long-kept family secret, while Snow White learns her prince is less charming than he first appeared. Dark, powerful, and brimming with magic, the seven stories in this collection weave a reimagined world in which fairy-tale girls grow up to find both love and heartbreak, family and friendship, and moments of loss and forgiveness.