Favorite Retellings
It’s not terribly uncommon for an author to take a classic story or fairytale and re-imagine it in their own way. Whether that’s modernizing the setting or swapping genders of certain characters they take something older and well-known and give it a twist. This happens with movies and TV shows as well like BBC’s Sherlock (Sherlock Holmes), and the movies Clueless (Emma by Jane Austen), and 10 Things I Hate About You (Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew).
This post is highlighting some of my favorite retellings in book form. I’ve mentioned a few of my favorites in previous posts including The Bear and the Nightingale (Russian Folklore), and Spinning Silver (Rumpelstiltskin) so those won’t be mentioned here again, but I talk about them in my Winter Recommendations if you want to know more.
The first book on my list is Cinder by Marissa Meyer - This is a Cinderella retelling in which the Cinderella character (Cinder) is a cyborg. In this world, Cyborgs are second class citizens. They are treated poorly and Cinder is essentially viewed as property of her (obviously evil) stepmother. Cinder meets Prince Kai one day when he asks her to repair his android and they have a mutual attraction to each other. When the plague (Letumosis, responsible for killing Cinder’s father) gets hold of Cinder’s step-sister and Prince Kai’s father, Cinder is sent away by her step-mother to be a test subject for the disease (a death sentence) and Kai must prioritize securing a wife. Things get even crazier from there. There’s an evil queen and a ball and a lot of secrets. This is actually book 1 of 4 in the Lunar Chronicles. Each focuses on a different main character although they’re all intertwined and each has their own fairy tale that they take after. I was a little late to the party with this series so by the time I started them the whole series had been released and I think I may have read all 4 in a month. They’re incredibly readable and quickly engaging.
House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig - This is a retelling of Grimm’s “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” which is not a tale I was particularly familiar with prior to starting this book. We follow Annaleigh who lives at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, her father, and her step-mother. There were originally twelve sisters, but four of them have died. The people in their village obviously start to believe that the family is cursed and Annaleigh suspects the deaths of her sisters are not just tragic accidents. The mystery escalates when she finds out that her sisters have been sneaking out to dance the night away at dazzling balls and she meets an entrancing stranger. This book is spooky and thrilling and I very much enjoyed it.
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallero - This is a story set in modern day at a New England prep school. It focuses on Jamie Watson and Charlotte Holmes, descendants of the famous crime solving duo of Sherlock and Watson. After both of them find themselves as students at the school there is a mysterious death on campus. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder and Charlotte must work quickly to clear their names. This is the first book in a series following these characters. The series had some great points and some slightly weaker ones, but overall I recommend them as a YA mystery series.
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh - This is a retelling of A Thousand and One Nights following the main character Shahrzad. She marries the young Caliph of Khorasan, Khalid, in order to avenge the death of her best friend. The Caliph takes a new bride every night and kills them by morning. When Shahrzad’s closest friend becomes his bride and then victim she volunteers herself to be his next bride, submitting herself to a certain death. However; she plans to beguile him with her storytelling for long enough that she can live to see him to his death instead. Everything starts off as planned, but as she gets to know him and the workings of the palace she finds there is way more to the situation than she imagined and her feelings for Khalid are not as cold and murderous as they once were.
Circe by Madeline Miller - This is a reimagining of the life of the sorceress Circe from Greek Mythology, particularly from Homer’s Odyssey. We follow her life and see events from The Odyssey and other stories from Greek Mythology but this time from her perspective all captured in engrossing prose that left me just devouring this book. Miller has also written a book titled The Song of Achilles that I have not yet read, but would love to someday get around to reading.
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi meadows- This is the first book in a series following famous Janes. My Lady Jane reimagines the story of Lady Jane Grey the uncrowned queen of England who reigned for nine days in 1553 before her execution at the Tower of London. This book takes that tragic story and injects a lot of humor and also some shapeshifting into the tale and it’s really just a lot of fun the whole way through. The authors followed this book with My Plain Jane and My Calamity Jane describing the lives of Jane Eyre and the wild west’s Calamity Jane respectively. I love these books. They're funny, and interesting, and a little weird, but also still full of history. I’ve gotten more than one question right on Jeopardy from having read these.
Pride by Ibi Zoboi - This is a modern day retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in New York. Zuri’s Brooklyn neighborhood is being rapidly gentrified and when the Darcy family moves in across the street with all their wealth she’s determined to have nothing to do with them. Similar to the original, Zuri has four sisters who add a lot of chaos to the story and overall it’s a clever retelling of a beloved classic. I have a particular affinity for the original work and it’s a harder for me to enjoy retellings and reimaginings of this particular story so I was very impressed at how much I enjoyed this one.
Have you read any retellings that you’ve particularly loved? Let me know!
