Letters to Zell

by Camille Griep

Overview

Everything is going according to story for CeCi (Cinderella), Bianca (Snow White), and Rory (Sleeping Beauty)—until the day that Zell (Rapunzel) decides to leave Grimmland and pursue her life. Now, Zell’s best friends are left to wonder whether their own passions are worth risking their predetermined “happily ever afters,” regardless of the consequences. CeCi wonders whether she should become a professional chef, sharp-tongued and quick-witted Bianca wants to escape an engagement to her platonic friend, and Rory will do anything to make her boorish husband love her. But as Bianca’s wedding approaches, can they escape their fates—and is there enough wine in all of the Realm to help them?

In this hilarious modern interpretation of the fairy-tale stories we all know and love, Letters to Zell explores what happens when women abandon the stories they didn’t write for themselves and go completely off script to follow their dreams.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781477829622
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/2015
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Camille Griep’s short works can be found in a number of fine online and print magazines. Born in Billings, Montana, she moved to Southern California to attend Claremont McKenna College, graduating with a dual degree in biology and literature. She used her writing skills to move through careers in marketing and financial analysis before taking a hiatus in late 2011 to devote herself to fiction. In 2012, she graduated from Viable Paradise, a residential workshop for speculative fiction novelists. Soon after, she joined the staff of the Lascaux Review, where she now serves as a senior editor. She lives just north of Seattle with her partner, Adam, and their bulldog, Dutchess. Letters to Zell is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/16/2015
Griep’s captivating debut weaves together traditional fairy tales with scenes of 21st-century Los Angeles to create an exploration of the conflicts between destiny and desire, with parental influence or absence as a strong subtheme. CeCi (Cinderella), Bianca (Snow White), and Rory (Sleeping Beauty), three princesses of Grimmland, are devastated when their friend Zell (Rapunzel) unexpectedly moves to Oz to manage a unicorn preserve. The three friends each write letters to Zell, both to deal with her abandonment of them and to keep her involved in their lives despite her physical absence. Through the letters, they all reveal the events, tensions, and misunderstandings that make up their lives, particularly CeCi’s trips to the human world, where she hopes to obtain a culinary degree, and Rory and Bianca’s attempts to reconcile their predetermined destinies with their own dreams. The rich and realistic depictions of these young women, and their touching efforts to navigate old and new relationships in a changing world, display a deep understanding of human nature and the ways that well-meaning attempts to help one’s friends can go awry. Agent: Cameron McClure, Donald Maass Literary Agency. (July)

Publishers Weekly

06/15/2015
Snow White (Bianca), Cinderella (Ceci), and Sleeping Beauty (Rory) miss their friend Rapunzel (Zell), who left Grimmland with her family to work on a unicorn preserve. They each take turns writing letters to Zell, telling her of their relationship woes and thwarted ambitions. All three young women have had their lives carefully arranged by fairy godmothers and are expected to fulfill their "pages"—the stories that we humans from the Outside love. But once the friends venture into the Outside, they want more than the happily ever after that is their destiny. VERDICT Readers who can't get enough of stories about fairy-tale characters will find that Griep's debut scratches the same itch as the movie Into the Woods, TV's Once upon a Time, or Bill Willingham's "Fables" comic book series. Her light and unobjectionable fantasy offers a peek into the emotional lives of fairy-tale heroines.—MM

Library Journal

Captivating...The rich and realistic depictions of these young women, and their touching efforts to navigate old and new relationships in a changing world, display a deep understanding of human nature and the ways that well-meaning attempts to help one’s friends can go awry.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Readers who can’t get enough of stories about fairy-tale characters will find that Griep’s debut scratches the same itch as the movie Into the Woods, TV’s Once Upon a Time, or Bill Willingham’s Fables comic book series. Her light and unobjectionable fantasy offers a peek into the emotional lives of fairy-tale heroines” —Library Journal

“Griep’s debut is a fresh, original take on a group of fairy-tale familiars...This fractured fairy tale will appeal to Gregory Maguire devotees as well as fans of television shows like Once Upon A Time and Grimm.” —Booklist

“Fantasy fans, Disney devotees, and former princesses will like this one.” —Seattle Times

“There’s nothing more magical and potentially summer-lengthening than a fairy-tale, and Letters to Zell contains four of them. The literary version of Once Upon A Time, this delightful novel follows Disney princesses as they question their happily-ever-afters and go in search of a new life. This book is a lot of fun, and will make you wish you could go work on a unicorn preserve like Rapunzel (or ‘Zell’).” —Bustle

From the Publisher