East by Edith Pattou
I'm a sucker for fairy tales, and in East, a young adult novel, we have a great one. Pattou tells us the story of the polar bear king (if you haven't heard of this one, check out the Norwegian tale, East of the Sun, West of the Moon) who has to find love, but is thwarted by a queen, who happens to be a troll.
You get a little bit of Beauty & the Beast, a little bit of Cupid and Psyche, and a few lovely twists that Pattou devises on her own (I really like how she uses the compass rose!).
The novel takes us into various POV's that shift between chapters, and in a way, that helps this story. Because you have to really pay attention, have to read behind the lines, see what motivates each narrator, and figure out what is going on as you see the various points of view.
As far as fairy tales go, this is one of my favorite "re-tells".
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