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48 Recent and New Retellings (That Are Not Based on Greek Mythology)

Posted by Sharon on July 22, 2024
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Here at Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ World Headquarters, we like to think that all of our book roundups and recommendation articles are fun. And they are! Indubitably! But some are juuuuuust a little extra fun.
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This is one of those. Below, we've gathered up 48 new and upcoming retellings: books that take old classic stories (or myths or fairy tales or plays) and transport them into wild and wonderful new territories.?
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Retellings is typically the term used for these kinds of books, but often they¡¯re more like reimaginings, extended riffs, or wholesale transformations. These stories might shift the POV to another character or modernize the time frame of an older tale or change its genre entirely. For instance, Barbara Kingsolver¡¯²õ Pulitzer Prize¨Cwinning novel moves the action from Victorian-era England to contemporary Appalachia, while?Julia Armfield¡¯²õ upcoming Private Rites retells Shakespeare¡¯²õ King Lear in the mode of queer literary horror.
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A few notes: We¡¯ve trimmed the list a bit by excluding any books?that are based on Greek mythology. There are an awful lot of those¡ªenough to populate several separate roundups, in fact. We've also focused on books published since 2022 and?included both adult and YA titles. Below each book title, we¡¯ve indicated the name of the older story that¡¯²õ being retold. Finally, we¡¯ve added a bonus section at the end of the list for additional retellings being published later this year.
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Click on the book cover images for more details about each title. If anything looks promising, click the Want to Read button to add it to your personal shelf. ?


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Retelling of: David Copperfield
Retelling of: The Great Gatsby
Retelling of: Huckleberry Finn
Retelling of: Romeo and Juliet
Retelling of: Shakespeare's?Henriad
Retelling of:?The Scarlet Pimpernel
Retelling of:?Moby-Dick
Retelling of: Peter Pan
Retelling of:?Frankenstein
Retelling of: Carmilla
Retelling of: The Mah¨¡bh¨¡rata
Retelling of: The legend of Mulan
Retelling of: Sense and Sensibility
Retelling of: American folklore
Retelling of: Hamlet
Retelling of: Hamlet
Retelling of: 1984
Retelling of: Pinocchio
Retelling of: Arthurian legend
Retelling of: Sense and Sensibility
Retelling of: The legend of Chang'e
Retelling of: Shakespeare's sonnets
Retelling of: Macbeth
Retelling of: Moby-Dick
Retelling of: Carrie
Retelling of: Frankenstein
Retelling of: Pride and Prejudice
Retelling of: The Three Musketeers
Retelling of: The Selkie Wife folktale
Retelling of: The Scarlet Pimpernel
Retells: Mrs. Dalloway
Retelling of: Rebecca
Retelling of:?Little Women
Retelling of: Ulysses
Retelling of: The Baba Yaga folktale


Coming Soon

Retelling of: Macbeth
Retelling of: Macbeth
Retelling of: King Lear
Retelling of: Dracula
Retelling of: Mansfield Park
Retelling of:?The legend of Xi Shi



Which of these retellings have you read, and which do you want to read? Let's talk books in the comments!


Comments Showing 1-36 of 36 (36 new)

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message 1: by Law (new)

Law I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?


message 2: by Susan (new)

Susan Unfortunately I didn¡¯t finish Hello Beautiful, just couldn¡¯t get interested in it.


message 3: by Kristen (new)

Kristen Fort Ah yes, bring on the Shakespeare/Austen/gothic retellings!


message 4: by Brittany (new)

Brittany Allyn I personally hate Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ articles that are formatted like this. I¡¯m on the iOS app, so clicking back and forth from the books back to the list is tedious and sometimes crashes the app. Please do more articles where info on the books is in the article.


message 5: by Pastel (new)

Pastel *sweating* this list is just showing me how many classics I have yet to read


message 6: by Susan (new)

Susan Brittany wrote: "I personally hate Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ articles that are formatted like this. I¡¯m on the iOS app, so clicking back and forth from the books back to the list is tedious and sometimes crashes the app. Please do..."

I agree, I get tired of looking up each book, so I never look at them all.


message 7: by Jamie (new)

Jamie I can't believe I didn't pick up on the parallels between Hello Beautiful and Little Women! I almost want to re read it through that lens.


message 8: by Susan (new)

Susan Jamie wrote: "I can't believe I didn't pick up on the parallels between Hello Beautiful and Little Women! I almost want to re read it through that lens."

Maybe that¡¯²õ why I couldn¡¯t get interested in this book. I didn¡¯t pick up on the similarity.


message 9: by Dawn (last edited Jul 22, 2024 10:21AM) (new)

Dawn One for All is great. I'm about halfway through The Bright Sword and it's wonderful so far.


message 10: by Gabriela (new)

Gabriela Law wrote: "I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?"

I loved Hello Beautiful! It was a wonderful and very emotional family drama. And I hadn't read Little Women before.


message 11: by Kirby (new)

Kirby I love this list! I didn¡¯t even know that some of these were retellings. I read a lot of retellings as a teen and I¡¯m glad to see more of them in books for adults. One of my favorite books of all time is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. It¡¯²õ called Ayesha at Last.

??Here are some other retellings (for adults) I¡¯ve enjoyed:
Hester (retelling of The Scarlet Letter)
If the Shoe Fits (retelling of Cinderella)
Anastasia (reimagining of Anastasia's story)??

And here are some of my favorite YA retellings:?
Ella Enchanted (retelling of Cinderella)
My Lady Jane (reimaging of the history of Lady Jane Grey)
Cinder (retelling of Cinderella- all the books of this series are different retellings)
East (retelling of the story East of Sun, West of Moon)
To Kill a Kingdom (retelling of The Little Mermaid)
Heartless (retelling of Alice in Wonderland)
A Curse So Dark and Lonely (retelling of Beauty and the Beast)
For the Wolf (retelling of Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast)
Stalking Jack the Ripper (reimagining of Jack the Ripper history)


message 12: by Lisa (new)

Lisa Retellings are never as good as the original IMO.

A fun one you missed is The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins (a retelling of Jane Eyre)


message 13: by Jasmine (new)

Jasmine Law wrote: "I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?"

I really enjoyed James. Much more than Huckleberry Finn!


message 14: by Elentarri (new)

Elentarri Matilda wrote: "What's a retelling vs inspired by? "

Advertising... ?


message 15: by Law (last edited Jul 23, 2024 04:32AM) (new)

Law Law wrote: "I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?"

Can you recommend me a book to read from this list?


message 16: by Jasmine (new)

Jasmine Law wrote: "Law wrote: "I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?"

Can you recommend me a book to read from this list?"


I loved Demon Copperhead! And James was really good too.


message 17: by Konnie (new)

Konnie Maskell The list all have beautiful book covers! How to decide¡­.


message 18: by Ashley (new)

Ashley The only I have read so far has been The Weight of Blood.


message 19: by Annabelle Pip (new)

Annabelle Pip Some retellings are good and provide perspective but also how many retellings of similar books do we need? even in this list it is Macbeth, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice several times.


message 20: by ÊÙÀí (new)

ÊÙÀí Œm±¾ Dawn wrote: "One for All is great. I'm about halfway through The Bright Sword and it's wonderful so far."

Agree on One for All! Also would recommend Exit, Pursued by a Bear, which is (loosely) The Winter's Tale.


message 21: by Dr. Watson (new)

Dr. Watson I see Shakespeare is still going strong :D


message 22: by Wendy (new)

Wendy T Law wrote: "I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?"
They are both excellent. I just finished James¡­ I wasn¡¯t sure if it was something I would like, but I loved it¡­ couldn¡¯t put it down!


message 23: by Rusty (new)

Rusty Kirby wrote: "I love this list! I didn¡¯t even know that some of these were retellings. I read a lot of retellings as a teen and I¡¯m glad to see more of them in books for adults. One of my favorite books of all t..."

Kirby wrote: "I love this list! I didn¡¯t even know that some of these were retellings. I read a lot of retellings as a teen and I¡¯m glad to see more of them in books for adults. One of my favorite books of all t..."

You might like A Mirror Mended (Snow White) and A Spindle Splintered (Sleeping Beauty) both by Alix E. Harrow - loved them!


message 24: by Kirinna (last edited Jul 28, 2024 03:48PM) (new)

Kirinna "That Are Not Based on Greek Mythology" thank you so much for this!

I liked "The daughter of doctor Moreau", I'd say you should read the original first though as it "spoils" it but at the same time the retelling is very different and you will not feel like reading the same novel twice.


message 25: by Rhiannon (new)

Rhiannon Boyle Strange that Nghi Vo's The Chosen and the Beautiful wasn't included in this article... It's The Great Gatsby told from the POV of Jordan Baker who in this version is a magical, queer Asian woman.


message 26: by Maaian (new)

Maaian Brittany wrote: "I personally hate Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ articles that are formatted like this. I¡¯m on the iOS app, so clicking back and forth from the books back to the list is tedious and sometimes crashes the app. Please do..."

My issue exactly!


message 27: by Tanja (new)

Tanja Law wrote: "I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?"

James is pretty awesome. My favourite book this year so far.


message 28: by LeslieJane (new)

LeslieJane Excited to read For She is Wrath, The Bright Sword and Lady MacBeth!


message 29: by Heather (new)

Heather Washam I am a huge fan of Chris Whitaker. His newest novel, just released "All the Colours of the Dark". is absolutely wonderful. It is hard to find writing with characters more absorbing than his. He writes this using three and four page chapters making it unputdownable....despite its length.


message 30: by Shanna (new)

Shanna Early Law wrote: "I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?"

James is fantastic. Really well done.


message 31: by cypher (new)

cypher great list, nice to have


message 32: by Sierra (new)

Sierra Y I cannot wait for "For She is Wrath" to be released


message 33: by Kathy (new)

Kathy Cohen The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles is a retelling of the Achilles story from the Iliad.


message 34: by Katherine (new)

Katherine Greene Babylonia by Costanza Casati was amazing and should definitely be on this list! It's a retelling of the story of a legendary bad a** ancient Assyrian queen. One of my fav reads this year!


message 35: by Susan (new)

Susan Law wrote: "I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?"


James was incredible. I highly recommend it.


message 36: by Tamsyn (new)

Tamsyn Law wrote: "I'd like to read James and Hello Beautiful. Are they any good?"

James is one of my favorite books of the year! I liked Hello Beautiful, but definitely read James first. Looking forward to Bright Sword.


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