Ten of My Favorite Retellings

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we're discussing our favorite genres. I couldn't narrow it down, so I decided to go with ten of my favorite retellings. 

1. A Study in Charlotte by Brittany CavallaroThis is the book that really inspired this list. I recently read it while on vacation and thought it was so clever. I love the Sherlock Holmes stories and love finding new retellings and reimaginings of it. Usually, though, it's just a new way to tell Sherlock's story. With this book/series, it's entirely new characters while holding onto the mysteries and deductive reasoning we all love so much from the originals.

2. The Song of Achilles by Madeline MillerI couldn't possibly write a list of retellings without mentioning the GOAT. Patrochilles is the ultimate ship, this book has beautiful writing, and if you live just to have your heart crushed like I do, why haven't you read this yet?

3. Blanca & Roja by Anna Marie McLemore

This is a retelling of Swan Lake and it's one of my all-time favorite books. I actually just read an interview with the author as a refresher before writing this post and I'm getting a little bit misty-eyed. I loved this story so, so much. I don't really have words to express how important Roja is to me. Everything about this book is just pure and unadulterated perfection.

4. Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

This is also another all-time favorite. I am absolutely obsessed with Beauty and the Beast as well as the story of Hades and Persephone (so much so that I'm writing my own version.) I always struggle with the retellings though. I feel like they miss the point of the story and they almost always fail to capture the characters' beastliness. But Cruel Beauty gets it in a way I've never been able to capture since.

5. The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes

So this book takes a much lesser known story, The Girl Without Hands, and wrenches it into our world and our time. This book really isn't for the faint of heart, but the juvenile detention center setting, the religious cult backgrop, and the fact that the main character's hands have actually been chopped off... well, I just couldn't say no. It was hard to read but well worth it.

6. Blood and Sand by C.V. Wyk

First of all, when is the sequel coming?? I'm dying over here! Anyway, this book answers the question "what is Spartacus was a girl?" And it does so in blindingly badass fashion. This is action-packed from start to finish and hits a lot of tropes I love, like warrior men and women romancing, bands of warrior men bound together by battle, and arena fighting. Give me this and a thousand more sequels.

7. And I Darken by Kiersten White

Another gender-bent historical reimagining! This time, Vlad the Impaler is a young woman and she's here to kill everyone and everything in her path. These books are beautiful and painful and there's really nothing else out there quite like them. I love the relationships between the three main characters, including the very troubled sibling bond between Lada and Radu. I still haven't read the finale because I'm just not ready to say goodbye.

8. Cress by Marissa Meyer

The entire Lunar Chronicles series for sure, but Cress holds a special place in my heart. I love Cress's character so much. There's just something special about a female character who is soft and loving and feels everything with her whole heart. She's an idealist and a romantic and I just love her so much, okay??

9. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

So it's possible that this is the problematic fave from this list but I can't help but stan for this trilogy. Very few books have gotten to me at such a deep emotional level the way this one has. I just wanted to protect Scarlet from everything but I couldn't. This series imagines Will Scarlet from Robin Hood as a girl (okay, apparently I really like this idea of changing the genders of male figures?)

10. Grim edited by Christine Johnson

Like all short story collections, there are a few duds, but this anthology of dark fairy tale retellings has quite a few gems in it too! Saundra Mitchell, Jeri Smith Ready, and Sonia Gensler all have stories in here that I can still remember like five years after reading. If you can't tell, I absolutely love retellings, so having this many in one place my was my happy place lol.

What are some of your favorite retellings?