Rapunzella, Or, Don't Touch My Hair - by Ella McLeod

About the Book

"You're fifteen. You spend your time at school and at Val's hair salon with Baker, Val's son, who has eyes that are like falling off a cliff into space. The salon is a space of safety, but also of possibility and dreams. When you dream, you visit an enchanted forest full of friends and wonder. You dream of witches and magic, of hair so rich and alive that it grow upwards and outwards into a wild landscape, becomes trees and leaves, and houses birds and butterflies and all the secret creatures that belong in such a forest. But when you wake, your memories vanish, and you are just you, trying to navigate relationships and learning who you will grow up to be. Is there a future where your dreams are more than just dreams?"--

Book Synopsis

Selected for the ALA 2025 Rise: A Feminist Book Project list!

Rapunzella is a genre-bending novel that weaves together a young girl's ordinary life and a wildly dangerous fairytale universe, celebrating Black hair and the power of coming into your identity.

"Recasting classic fairy tales in the context of Blackness, the marvelous novel Rapunzella, Or, Don't Touch My Hair celebrates Black women's solidarity and the magic that's innate in Black girls. . . . A love letter to Black women." Foreword, STARRED REVIEW

Zella is imprisoned in an enchanted forest made of her own Afro, and the might of the evil King Charming seems unstoppable. But is it? Can she use her power to change the future?

You're fifteen. You spend your time at school and at Val's hair salon with Baker, Val's son, who has eyes that are like falling off a cliff into space. The salon is a space of safety, but also of possibility and dreams. When you dream, you visit an enchanted forest full of friends and wonder. You dream of witches and magic, of hair so rich and alive that it grow upwards and outwards into a wild landscape, becomes trees and leaves, and houses birds and butterflies and all the secret creatures that belong in such a forest. But when you wake, your memories vanish, and you are just you, trying to navigate relationships and learning who you will grow up to be.

Is there a future where your dreams are more than just dreams?

Ella McLeod's debut merges poetry and prose in a stunningly lyrical, heart-piercingly honest exploration of a teenager coming into her power as a young woman.

Review Quotes

McLeod compassionately interrogates the relationship between Black women, their hair, and respectability politics, making for a fine tribute to chosen families, and to Black women in all their rich complexity.-- "Publishers Weekly"

This poetic mash-up of fairy tales and the real world is the perfect response to a society that undervalues Blackness.-- "Booklist"

Recasting classic fairy tales in the context of Blackness, the marvelous novel Rapunzella, Or, Don't Touch My Hair celebrates Black women's solidarity and the magic that's innate in Black girls. . . . A love letter to Black women.-- "Foreword, STARRED REVIEW"

Ambitious and original, this genre-bending YA debut braids fairytale, poetry and coming-of-age story into something elegant and unique.-- "The Guardian UK"

This is a lyrical exploration of a teenager coming into her power as a young woman and a unique celebration of the power of Black identity and Black hair.-- "Bookseller UK"

Told in verse and second-person prose, this story skillfully balances the whimsy of an enchanting fantasy world with a candid portrait of growing up and an incisive exploration of Black identity. . . . This imaginative, lyrical coming-of-age story celebrates Black Girl Magic.-- "Kirkus"

Rapunzella, Or, Don't Touch My Hair is a dazzling debut that marks a fantastic entrance into the world of fiction for McLeod.--Kaitlin Jefferys "Voice Magazine"

There are lines to love on every single page of this impressive debut.--Claire Hennessy "Irish Times"

About the Author

Ella McLeod is a writer, poet, and podcaster, who lives in South London with her fiancé and cat. She also co-hosts Comfort Creatures on the Maximum Fun Network. Ella loves Shakespeare, the Harlem Renaissance, mythology, and ramen, and firmly believes in the radical power of dreaming.