The best book I read this month was a retelling of classic fairy tales. Mary McMyne’s The Book of Gothel reimagines the story of Rapunzel, while also weaving in retellings of Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood. Specifically, the book tells the story of the witch who took Rapunzel and, as you might expect, it’s not the fairy tale that has been handed down over the generations.

Set in the twelfth century in the Black Forest region of what is now Germany, The Book of Gothel follows the life of a young woman named Haelewise. We first meet Haelewise in the frame story, in the words she left behind in a manuscript being studied by a modern scholar. Ostensibly, the chapters that follow are the story that Haelewise recorded in her manuscript.

Haelewise lives on the outskirts of her town, physically and socially. Her mother is the town midwife and once followed the old (read: pagan) religion, both of which put her and her daughter under suspicion. Compounding this, Haelewise herself suffers from spells, signs of demon possession to the Christian townspeople. Haelewise seeks safety in a place she’d only heard about in legend: a magical tower in the woods where women are offered care and protection.

The story is a mix of social commentary, political intrigue, fairy tale magic, and historical fiction. (Hildegard of Bingen makes a guest appearance.) It is a story of women struggling for respect and autonomy in an increasingly patriarchal society. It is a story of love and adventure. It’s everything I look for in a retelling—imaginative, inventive, yet rooted in the source material. I thoroughly enjoyed it.