Hello everybody! For today’s blogmas post, we’re joined by the brilliant Gina Blaxill, who has released All the Better to See You With in 2021, and is releasing a YA thriller that is one of my absolute most anticipated books of 2022. Anyway, onto the post!
What would I give my characters for Christmas? A very interesting question! My most recent book, All the Better to See You, is a Red Riding Hood retelling told by three narrators, so it only seems fair that I present a gift to each of them. On the face of it, the festive season isn’t something that goes hand in hand with fairy tales (too much darkness and wickedness), but I’ve always thought of fairy tales as wintery. Perhaps that’s because so many seem to feature fearsome woods, but there are some wonderful (and frightening) snowy tales from across the world: The Snow Queen (which Frozen of course is based on), The Star Money, and Hansel and Gretel is classically set during deepest darkest winter. There’s also (this is not a joke) a somewhat obscure Hans Christian Andersen tale called The Fir-Tree, which is literally about a Christmas tree musing about life. Which sounds pretty chill, but, spoiler alert, at the end, the tree’s branches shrivel up and are burned. Cheerful.
So, supposing the All the Better to See You characters were celebrating Christmas, or having some kind of seasonal celebration, here’s what I’d be giving them:
Red – aka Red Riding Hood – is a lover of nature and all things wild so I suspect the perfect gift would be something to enable her to get closer to the animal and bird life of the woods of Aramor, so perhaps some seeds and other tidbits to feed them?* Aramor is loosely medieval-based so we’re a couple of centuries off telescopes and binoculars being invented, which is a shame, as Red would love those.
* This obviously does not include the big bad wolf. No one with any sense wants to get closer to the big bad wolf and its big bad teeth.
Ellis, the miller’s son, is our boy narrator, and he’d be very easy to buy for, as he’s the active type. Something like a new bow, or some really top notch arrows, perhaps with some showy decoration, would go down a treat.
Last up is Sabine, who is Aramor’s resident mean girl and Red’s nemesis. She’s fascinated by rumours of the big bad wolf and urban legends and myths in general, so a book detailing those would be a good present. Like a lot of low born girls, Sabine can’t really read, so it would need to be illustrated – and also not something people would see in her possession and think “witch!” Oh, and they’d probably all love a good Christmas meal with all the trimmings.
Thank you so much for reading! Which gifts would you like to give your favourite book characters? Have you read any of Gina’s books? I’d love to chat with you in the comments!
Amy xx
Golden Books Girl 