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I love retellings of all kinds. Retellings of fairy tales, folklore, classic novels-- you name it, I'm interested in it. Whenever I hear about a new retelling coming out--even if it's an adaptation of an original story I don't love so much--I get super excited and add it to my wishlist immediately. Here are a few of my very favorite YA retellings:
What it's retelling: the legend of Robin Hood
Why it's awesome: A ship of ships, female bad-assery, genderbending, historical awesomeness, super scary villains, and a sequel that will punch your soul and punch it hard. (My reviews of Scarlet and Lady Thief)
What it's retelling: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Why it's awesome: Well, duh, because it's Bridget Jones. Not only does it have a hilarious and wonderful movie adaptation, but the book itself is hysterically funny, even if it is a loose modernizations of P&P and there's no way to actually have Colin Firth's face in the book.
What it's retelling: Cinderella
Why it's awesome: Because it's my childhood, that's why. This book was one of the first books I was ever obsessed with. Ella is feisty and brilliant and independent, Char is adorable, and in the end, Ella is her own hero. Plus the twist on Cinderella lore is genius.
What it's retelling: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emma Orczy
Why it's awesome: Genderbending. Shipping. Worldbuilding awesomeness. Spies and refugees and pretty covers and awesomeness again. (My review)
Why it's awesome: Another book I completely adored as a kid. The specifics of the plot are a bit fuzzy, but I do remember the twists being genius and original and the ending being fabulous and verrrry different from what you'd expect.
What it's retelling: the legend of King Arthur
Why it's awesome: I love Meg Cabot's standalones so much, and Avalon High is one of my faves. It's about a girl who gets caught up in the dramas surrounding the possible reincarnations of King Arthur... who happens to be the cuuuutest guy in school.
Why it's awesome: For so many reasons you should surely be aware of now. This is solid, oh-so-entertaining lite sci-fi, and I'm kind of obsessed with it. (My reviews of Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress)
What it's retelling: the myth of Persephone and Hades
Why it's awesome: Persephone retellings are always such a problem for me because oftentimes they lead to the victimization of the girl and the romanticization of the abductor, but Everneath is such a cool reinterpretation of that idea. Plus there's Jack and there's Cole and mostly there's Cole, and I do love me some Cole. (My reviews of Everneath, Everbound, and Evertrue)
What it's retelling: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Why it's awesome: Persuasionis one of my favorite Jane Austen novels, but it's very quiet and introspective. I worried that that would be difficult to translate into science fiction, but the strength of the characters, the depth of their emotion, and the brilliance of the worldbuilding make this book a win. (My review)
What it's retelling: Cinderella
Why it's awesome: Another classic from my youth. This is about what happens to Cinderella after going to the ball and meeting the prince as she discovers that being royal isn't all it's cracked up to--and neither is her future husband.
Why it's awesome: Okay, so apparently this book is based somewhat on Cinderella with a blonde girl going to a ball not to marry a prince, but to kill one, but honestly, I just like having a chance to push this book on you guys again. Because I love it. Also glass throne? Glass slipper? It's totally there. Go with it. (My review of Throne of Glass, the novellas, and Crown of Midnight)
Honorable mentions: Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay, Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, I Was a Rat! by Phillip Pullman (ESPECIALLY this one. I thought of it too late to make any graphics for this book, but it's brilliant).
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Woo! More Lunar Chronicles! That one seems to be making all the lists despite the fact that the lists are different! (It's on my sci-fi top ten too!). And interesting choices! I didn't even realise some of these were retellings.
ReplyDelete(My TTT: http://mgbookreviews.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/top-ten-tuesdays-all-time-favourite-books-in-the-sci-fispeculative-fiction-genre/)
Love this list! And YES! Avalon High FTW - I LOVED that book and how she adapted the Arthur legend for high school. :D
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YESSS RETELLINGS! I count THESE BROKEN STARS loosely just as you count THRONE OF GLASS so I agree with your choice. We have all of the same choices as far as ones I have read (except I'm an idiot that forgot EVERNEATH) but I still have to read a lot of yours like ELLA ENCHANTED, SPINDLES END, AVALON HIGH, FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS, and ACROSS A STAR SWEPT SEA.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think our mutual choice this week says something about us. Yup. Our friendship was fate.
Well, my point was that Sarah J. Maas actually SAID it was loosely based on Cinderella, whereas I'm pretty sure Spooner and Kaufman never set out to retell Titanic. But YES. Hilarious and fateful that we both did this!
DeleteI love that you've done retellings. I definitely need to read some of these books on your list. I'm reading Everneath soon and I can't wait!
ReplyDeleteSoooo this is only my favourite genre (is that a genre?) EVER. My obsession with fairy tales is...probably unhealthy. Spindle's End was one of my first McKinley's (after The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword, and I didn't realize Spindle's End was by the same author until long after I'd read it, surprisingly) and remains one of my favourites to this day. Yes - the twists to the fairy tale are FANTASTIC, hence it being one of my favourite adaptions! And as you put in Ella Enchanted...that's basically my childhood right there! And now that you mention the Cinderellaish things about ToG I totally can see them.
ReplyDeleteLove this list!!! This is definitely one of my favorite genres, if not my absolute favorite. I'd have to say that Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson is one of my favorite retellings of all time!
ReplyDeleteI love Fairy Tale retellings too!! I just love how you get to go more into the world of the fairy tales unlike the original stories which are usually pretty short! Great picks!
ReplyDeleteAngie
My Top Ten
I love fairytale retellings, so I better check some of these out! The Lunar Chronicles is at the top of my TBR list, though I'm skeptical because I'm not a fan of Dystopian.. Great list! :D
ReplyDeleteTop 10 Favorite Contemporary Romance Novels
Meet My Co-Blogger! :)
I wouldn't classify Cinder as dystopian. I think it falls pretty comfortably into the broad category of science fiction :) You should give the series a shot!
DeleteOoooh love this genre choice and many of the books on it! Great list!!
ReplyDeleteMy Top Ten Tuesday
SCARLET, CINDER & THRONE OF GLASS, YEAY. Retellings (especially fairy tales) is my favorite genre [together with Fantasy] Everneath is good too and I'm very excited to read Spindle's end.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a good idea! There's so many books here that I've never heard of and it gets me excited for them. I've been pushed to read Throne of Glass, which I still need to buy, alongside Cinder and such, but I never knew Everneath was based off the myth of Persephone and Hades, I thought it just had Mythology woven in, and I own that book, so I'm so damn excited to get to it now, yipee! Great list hun, I'm so going to be adding some of these later! LD
ReplyDeleteI love your list! I have the first book in the Everneath series on my bookshelf, but haven't gotten to it yet. I really need to, too. Those covers are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteTTT @ Krista's Dust Jacket
I absolutely ADORE your list!!!! Retellings are one of my absolute favorite genres, and this has reminded me how much I want to dive back into some Retellings this year!! The ones I have yet to read are Bridget Jones Diary, Across a Star Swept Sea, Avalon High, and the Lunar Chronicles. But they are all on my TBR list!
ReplyDelete~Taylor @ The Bookaholic
Top Ten Tuesday @ The Bookaholic
Great list! Love the choice of topic for this week. Bridget Jones' Diary is an obvious favourite of mine but these other titles are also familiar to me :)
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Oh my god, I did not know that The Darkness Shows The Stars was a Persuasion retelling !! I want to read it right now! Great list - have a good day. :)
ReplyDeleteOh wow this has to be one of the more unique TTT genres I've seen this week. And they all look so interesting. I never knew Bridget Jones was based on P&P!
ReplyDeleteLike almost everyone else I read, I did an insane rambly TTT on fantasy (http://thegreatgabsby.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/top-ten-tuesday-young-adult-and-fantasy-books/)
ps. Love that you made separate graphics for each book (and a TTT logo). Very impressive!
Retellings are some of the best things ever! I've read most of these, but I'm gonna have to read the others. And I had no idea about the Throne of Glass/Cinderella thing...
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see for me I would have just listed Cruel Beauty 10 times, but yeah I get it. Also the Lunar Chronicles, of course. Sneak that in. ALSO I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THRONE OF GLASS WHAT IS THIS. Would have never guessed it was a Cinderella retelling from reading it. So...not sure if that's a good thing or a really bad thing?
ReplyDeleteAmazing list!!! Great choice of topic, you have some of my very favorite books on here; I've read them all except Avalon High, Everneath, and Just Ella. Ella Enchanted was my favorite childhood book too! So great. And Spindle's End remains the only Robin McKinley I've read so far.
ReplyDeleteI can't resist retellings either, especially fairy tale retellings. They are the BEST! Only one I can think to add to the list off the top of my head is Cruel Beauty- I just finished it and loved it! I also bought an adult historical fiction retelling of Sleeping Beauty called While Beauty Slept. Hope it's good!
Wow! I didn't know these were retellings. You are BLOWING MY MIND all over your blog's walls. I just can't.
ReplyDeleteUm, but also, things I find amusing are Ironskin and (maybe) Everneath. Don't quote me on the latter, but I THINK both authors didn't set out to write a retelling and then people (agents, editors, crit partners, idk) were like "this is a great retelling" and they were like HUH and then made it one for real.
I never saw THRONE OF GLASS as a retelling, but whatever, because THAT SERIES. I didn't love the first two books in the Lunar Chronicles, but CRESS was amazing. And yesss, SCARLET! I'm super excited for Book Three! May it bring lots of happiness (yeah, right).
ReplyDeleteRachel @ Beauty and the Bookshelf
i find myself reading anything that is even remotely based on Pride & Prejudice. I actually read a NA book, which turned out to be pretty good (I dislike NA a lot). Cinder et al, is amazing & I cannot believe I waited so long to read it. I'm gonna go add some of these on GR. :) ~daphne
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! I also recommend Lili St Crow's "Nameless" (and she just released the second book in that world, "Wayfarer"). :)
ReplyDeleteGreat picks! I love your list, I haven't read many of these but I will definitely be adding most of them to my own TBR list. I am super excited to read Cinder, it looks so good. My TTT.
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