Wonder Never (The Fairytale Diaries #2) (16 page)

All the returned victims shared a memory of dying. None could recall how exactly the witch brought them back or why. They simply chose to bury the truth deep, keep their secrets, and move on.

Only one was lost forever, Chief Jiminy of Faraway, Washington; presumed dead and honored as a hero.

The tale is told, and if they didn't live happily ever after, that's nothing to do with you or me.

Hint List: Fairy Tale References

Here is a handy key that tells which stories were retold in each section, and all the specific hints within my tales that reference the original tales. This section is provided so you can check if you were right after you read the book. So no cheating; don't read the hint list first! See if you spotted any other hints that aren't listed here.

Part One: Wondernever (Alice in Wonderland)

*The name "Wondernever" for the magical land is a cross between Wonderland and Never Never land from Peter Pan

*The opening line is a variation of a famous fairy tale beginning

*The character from book one, Aspen Briar, is spotted dressed in the classic costume of Alice in Wonderland, and she claims her name is Alice

*The character Ansel is the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland who claims to be late for a very important date

*Josh imagines her tears splashing on the ground, referencing the flood of tears in the original tale

*The willow tree creates a sort of room, representing the small room Alice finds herself in before her journey to Wonderland

*The tree has a small door, just as the room from the original tale did. However, here, the door leads to the candy and juice with notes instructing to eat and drink, which is another direct reference to Lewis Carroll's tale

*Josh experiences a sensation of shrinking and growing while traveling to Wondernever, to represent Alice's trials down the rabbit hole

*In Alice in Wonderland, she winds up drifting in a river to Wonderland, which is how Josh arrives in Wondernever as well

*Emerson Heart, who is sitting on a toad stool, is of course, the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. He and Josh have a variation of the famous conversation the caterpillar has with Alice

*Josh finds Alice in a strange house which mirrors the one in the original tale; the home of the duchess who is minding a squealing pig while a man pours pepper in a giant pot and sneezes uncontrollably

*Josh meets a woman in the woods who represents the mad hatter

Part Two: The Golden Ball (The Frog Prince)

*Clementine's mother's necklace represents the golden ball that the princess plays with in the original tale

*Selling the golden ball necklace to the pawn shop represents dropping it in the pond

*Alfred Green with his "croaky" voice helps her get the golden ball back, just as the frog did in the original tale. He dresses in green to represent the frog

*In return for paying her pawn fee, Alfred asks for company and a place to stay for the night, just as the frog did in the original tale

*Clementine tries to go back on her agreement with Alfred, but her dad makes her uphold her word, which is true to the original tale

*Alfred eats from Clementine's plate at dinner, as the frog ate from the plate of the princess in the original tale

*In the original tale, the frog comes into her room, and the princess angrily smashes it into the wall which breaks the spell on him. Other popular retellings of the tale depict a kiss from the princess breaking the spell. So, Clementine does both. She shoves him into a wall where he cracks his head and collapses, then she gives him a kiss. This breaks the spell on Alfred and he transforms into a handsome teenaged boy

*Tree frogs singing in the night were mentioned as just another hint of which story was being told

*Alfred's friend Henry is also a character from the original tale, who was a friend of the frog prince, also under a spell. When the princess broke the spell, "Iron Henry" was able to be freed of iron bars on his heart and he returned the princess and prince to his homeland

Part Three: Restless (The Princess and the Pea)

*Julienne's mom and dad are metaphorically referred to as a "king and queen of their own fanciful love story." This is how it's established that Julienne is a "princess"

*Aspen Briar's (or Alice) Aunt Melanie played Maleficent in book one. Here, we find her playing the role of Queen of Hearts from Alice and Wonderland. BUT, she also gets to play the part of the queen who is looking to "test" princesses to find the perfect match for her son

*In the original tale, the "test" consisted of placing a few peas under a pile of mattresses. If the princess could feel the peas, that proved her authentic. In this retelling, the thing buried in the pile of mattresses is a butcher knife

*In the original tale, the delicate princess awakes battered and bruised from sleeping on top of the uncomfortable peas, just as Julienne is sliced up from the knife

*In the end, Melanie asks her son why he must always "come off with their heads?" Another hint that she is the Queen of Hearts

Part Four: Beastly (Beauty and the Beast)

*The creature in the beginning is referred to as "beastly," a hint that he is the enchanted Beast. Only in this retelling, he is a demonic ghost creature

*The servants have been turned into furnishings, nodding toward the Disney telling of Beauty and the Beast

*In the original telling, the witch curses the prince because he's basically a jerk. In this retelling, we learn that a witch haunts the Wondernever forest and curses anyone who roams off the path in her neck of the woods

*He uses an enchanted mirror to watch Enchantica, another nod to the Disney telling of the tale

*We learn that Gisèle's father is an eccentric artist who travels to art fairs, not unlike the Disney dad who is an odd scientist that travels

*True to the original telling, Gisèle, the "beauty" has two mean sisters

*Gisèle loves reading

*Gisèle's father disappears, and a deal is made for her to take his place and allow him to go free

*Similar to the original tale, the beast hopes to make Gisèle love him and willingly stay with him forever

Part Five: Wishes (Aladdin)

*Alan (name similar to Aladdin) lives with a poor widowed mother

*He's in love with a rich girl, far outside his means that has a father that doesn't want Alan to be with her, true to the original telling

*Roxan is described as dark and exotic which hints to the Arabic origin of the tale

*As originally told, Aladdin was drafted by an evil sorcerer who poses as his uncle to help him on a treasure hunt, and then left alone to die in a cave. My retelling is similar only Alan is attacked in an abandoned warehouse and then rescued by Gene Fay, who of course represents the magical genie from the bottle

*After Alan sits thinking of all the things he wishes for, help arrives

*Gene Fay claims to be able to grant Alan's one great wish

*Gene Fay drives a small gold car, representing the genie's lamp

*In the original tale, the sorcerer returns and in cahoots with the genie, sends Aladdin and his bride to a magical, distant land. This is why we find that Alan's wicked uncle is a resident of Wondernever

*Aladdin is able to find his way back to his home with his beautiful wife, but as we know, in this retelling, Alan only makes a failed attempt to escape

*In the woods, Alan and Roxan encounter Chessy Heart who is a character representing the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. The characters have an exchange similar to the famed conversation between Alice and the cat

Part Six: Beans (Jack and the Beanstalk)

*Both Aladdin and Jack are poor boys who live with widowed mothers in their original tales, so in this retelling they have become twin brothers

*Jack's mother insists he sell their milk cow

*While on the road walking the cow, he meets and old man who offers him beans in exchange for the cow, true to the original tale

*The mother angrily casts the beans into the yard

*A magical beanstalk grows just like the original tale, and in this retelling, it leads Jack to Wondernever and to the home of a giant

*The treasure room contains a golden egg laying goose and a harp that plays by itself just like the original tale

*The giant's "kind" wife helps Jack, however in this retelling, her kindness is a farce

*The giant demands to know, "what's that smell?" This is a nod to the famous "fi-fi-fo-fum" rhyme from the original tale

Part Seven: Nose Grows (Pinocchio)

*Mattia's last name, "Pinoak" is a clue that this is Pinocchio. We learn later that Mattia also plays the part of Peter Pan

*Mattia tells tales on his kindly benefactor, Vinicio

*Chief Jiminy, the police chief from book one reappears here. In the original tale of Pinocchio, the boy gets Gepetto in a lot of trouble with police. He also kills the cricket (later called Jiminy in the Disney retelling)

*Vinicio tells Jiminy that Mattia was "stiff like wood" when he found him; another hint that Mattia is Pinocchio

*The character, Karenza, represents a fairy from the original tale who promises to take care of Pinocchio and Gepetto, just as she does for Mattia and Vinicio. We will also learn she plays the part of Tinker Bell from Peter Pan

Part Eight: Never Never (Peter Pan)

*The last name "Darling" tells us right away that this story is Peter Pan

*Another character from book one reemerges here, police officer "Sergeant Hook." Sound familiar?

*As is the case in the original tale, there are three Darling children. Two boys and one girl

*Mattia and Karenza show up to try and lure the children to "Neverland." They seem to "levitate" outside the window of the room where the Darling siblings sleep, just like the original tale.

*In the original tale, the boys are eager while the girl is hesitant. Also, in the original tale, the fairy character is far less perky and sweet like we know Tinker Bell to be in the Disney telling. She is rude and off putting

*Settie is told to "follow the second star to the right and straight on to the gate." This is a nod to the Disney telling where the children are told "second star to the right, and
straight on till morning" to direct them to Neverland

Part Nine: Burn Your House Down (Three Little Pigs)

*Three Little Pigs is yet another tale with children of a single parent. The pigs leave their mother to build their own homes. So, the Bouchard triplets have recently graduated high school and are getting their own places

*Joelle and Adélaide choose a house together which is obviously described to resemble the house of twigs, and the house of straw from the original tale. Josh makes the comment that one stiff breeze could blow the house down to pay homage to the big bad wolf who huffs and puffs in the original tale. Except in this tale, the house is burnt instead of blown down

*Abraham Bar played the role of Little Red Riding Hood's wolf in book one, so it is only appropriate that he should return to play the wolf again in Three Little Pigs. We also find that he stars in the Boy Who Cried Wolf

Part Ten: Lies and Other Tragedy (The Boy Who Cried Wolf)

*Mattia Pinoak plays yet another role, this time of the boy who cries wolf

*He spends the day calling in false tips to the police and highly enjoys his tomfoolery, just as the boy in the original tale does

*The "wolf" is dispatched to take care of him. That's what he gets for lying!

Part Eleven: Poke the Dragon (Gingerbread Man/Jabberwocky)

*Josh says, "It’s another world, and nothing about it makes sense." This is a direct reference to Alice in Wonderland because the whole point of Wonderland is that nothing makes sense

*When Josh confronts the queen of Wondernever, she threatens to bake him with cinnamon and ginger. Alice appears and screams for him to run as fast as he can. Just a nod to the Gingerbread Man

*As Josh, Bernadette, and Alice flee, Melanie gives chase and more and more Wonderneverians take pursuit. This is another reference to the Gingerbread Man

*The witch who has traversed tales throughout this retelling, whom we formerly thought as evil, transforms into a giant dragon like the one found in Lewis Carroll's followup poem to Alice, entitled Jabberwocky. In the end, it is her own people that the dragon/witch exacts vengeance upon, allowing the captive Enchanticans to escape

*The last line of the book is another variation of an old fairytale ending