12 remarkable YA retellings Archives

Spinning Silver

by Naomi Novik

This ambitious fairy tale tackles antisemitism and builds a beautifully unique world, while threading the original Rumpelstiltskin tale through the story. With six different narrators, it may take you a few chapters to get acclimated, but patience is rewarded with a tale of two kingdoms, an impossible challenge, a peasant girl, and a high-stakes quest. Novik manages to tackle timely themes in a completely enchanting fairy tale. I love my magical reads with a dose of realism, and this one delivers.

So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix

by Bethany C. Morrow

This sophisticated “remixed” classic keeps the familial love of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and sheds the rest to tell a new story of four Black sisters starting over in 1863 North Carolina. Don’t expect a retelling, per se. In her fresh and nuanced version, Morrow keeps the Civil War setting while moving the March family south to the Freedpeople Colony on Roanoke Island, where they’re recovering from the trauma of enslavement (which Morrow offers glimpses of) and struggling to build new lives. The irrepressible March sisters—teacher Meg, writer Jo, seamstress Beth, and dancer Amy—are vividly characterized. Morrow retains many of the young women’s personality traits from the original, while plunging them into new situations and challenges in the colony. The sisters’ love anchors the story throughout, giving the book a gentle feel though Morrow’s update deftly tackles painful topics as she sheds light on lesser-known experiences of the Civil War era. Don’t miss the author’s note. For those familiar with or curious about Little Women and fans of Mitali Perkins’s You Bring the Distant Near.

Wintersong

by S. Jae-Jones

Liesl grew up hearing about the Goblin King who goes out riding in search of his bride. When the Goblin King steals her sister, she has no choice but to go after her. Liesl decides to make the ultimate sacrifice: her life for her sister’s. She’ll stay Underground and marry the Goblin King instead. It’s not long before she discovers it’s not the sacrifice she thought it would be and that there’s more to the Goblin King than she realized.

Wicked Fox

by Kat Cho

You don’t need to be familiar with the Korean legend of the gumiho (nine-tailed fox who devours the energy of men) to appreciate this story. Miyoung guards the secret of her gumiho identity at all costs. When she sees Jihoon being attacked by a goblin, she violates the rules of secrecy to protect him and loses her fox bead—her very soul—in the process. Prickly Miyoung and good-natured Jihoon have to band together while they figure out how to reunite her fox bead with her body but neither are prepared for what it might cost. Bold choices make this difficult to put down.

A Spark of White Fire (Celestial Trilogy Book 1)

by Sangu Mandanna

This is a YA space opera retelling of the Mahabrahata. No one knows Princess Esmae is still alive until she wins a competition and comes back to her family’s kingdom to claim what’s hers. She’s back for the sake of her family, even if her estranged family doesn’t see it that way. It’s about love and belonging and how to cope when your allegiance is torn. Plus, there’s a sentient warship named Titania. This is a fun, fast-paced read.

Cinder

by Marissa Meyer

Each book in the YA fantasy series The Lunar Chronicles puts a new spin on an old fairy tale. In this first installment, Cinderella becomes a kickass mechanic, despised by her mother and stepsisters because she’s a cyborg. Though it’s clear where the story is headed, spotting the imaginative ways Meyer reinvents the old fairy tale keeps the reader turning the pages. Fresh, fun, surprising, and compulsively readable.

Olivia Twist

by Lorie Langdon

In this genderbent retelling of Oliver Twist, Olivia is both a hard-scrabbling orphan posing as a boy and a lady trying to figure out where she belongs now that her uncle has taken her in. It’s hard to escape her past, however. She steals small trinkets from the wealthy while she's at their parties, then hocks them so she can give food and money to some orphaned boys she looks after. While at one such party, Olivia immediately recognizes the Artful Dodger who took her under his wing but Jack only ever knew her as the boy Ollie and has no idea who she's become, even if she does seem familiar. There’s danger and intrigue and you’ll fly through the pages to see whether this version of the story gets a happy ending.

Scarlet

by A. C. Gaughen

This inventive retelling of Robin Hood focuses on Will Scarlet, who is not only one of Robin’s best thieves, she’s also a girl. (Gasp!) She has reasons for hiding her identity—and they’re about to be put to the test now that thief taker Lord Gisbourne is on the prowl. Will she put herself first or the people of Nottingham she’s sworn to protect? Scarlet grows tremendously across the trilogy, making for a satisfying reading experience.

Pride

by Ibi Zoboi

From the author of American Street, a P&P "remix" that envisions Darcy and Lizzie as two Brooklyn teens. First line: "It's a truth universally acknowledged that when rich people move into the hood, where it's a little bit broken and a little bit forgotten, the first thing they want to do is clean it up." Zuri Benitez is the second daughter of a large Haitian-Dominican family that has lived forever on their block in Bushwick. When Darius Darcy pulls up to the expensively renovated mini-mansion across the street in a blacked-out SUV, she immediately hates him and the gentrification he represents. But Austen fans know that's only the beginning of the story.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely

by Brigid Kemmerer

I recommended this one to Keren on episode 193 of What Should I Read Next because of its clever twist on a familiar story. Harper, a modern day 17 year old girl, is going through a terrible time when she gets sucked into a fantasy world. Prince Rhen, heir to the throne of Emberfall, is cursed, turns into a beast, and destroys everything he holds dear (sound familiar?). This Beauty and the Beast retelling is delightfully modern, features a character with cerebral palsy, and straddles reality and fantasy in a refreshing way.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn

by Melissa Bashardoust

From the author of Girls Made of Snow and Glass, a brilliantly imagined sapphic fairy tale featuring dangerous demons, poisonous girls, and a kingdom in peril, inspired by the Persian epic the Shahnameh. The cursed princess Soraya has been living inside her family’s palace walls—touching no one—for eighteen years. As her twin brother’s wedding day approaches, the palace guards capture a demon who may be able to tell her how to break the curse and gain her freedom. But the answers she seeks plunge her into personal crisis and political intrigue, and Soraya is soon forced to question everything she thought she knew about herself—while facing choices that may endanger not just her own fate, but that of the entire kingdom. An enthralling fantasy with broad appeal, with lyrical prose and incredible worldbuilding.

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