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We don’t like it when the same news gets posted twice on ONTD, but when it comes to books, the same story can be told in many different ways and still charm the reader. This month, let’s read a retelling!

Post link!

Apologies everyone. I had a bit of a month with moving and other stuff. We'll try to get the post up within the next few days!

Ah, good timing. I was just coming to see if there was a new post. Moving sucks! I hope July is less hectic.

I'm hoping all of these count, but I was planning on reading Sherry Thomas's A Study in Scarlet Women (a reimagined Sherlock), Catherynne M. Valente's Deathless (a retelling of the Death of Koschei the Deathless fairy tale), and if I have enough time, Uzma Jalaluddin's Ayesha at Last (it feels wrong not to include one of the 800 Pride and Prejudice retellings.)

I've been so excited for this month because I have so many books on my list.

My library hold on The Silence of the Girls was available earlier than expected so I grabbed a copy and am two-thirds of the way through it. It's a really easy read and I'm really enjoying it so far.

The other books on my list for this month are:
- The Children of Jocasta
- The Woman on the Orient Express
- The Constant Princess
- The Penelopiad (but I might save this for the War theme in October)
- A Thousand Ships

It's very Greek mythology-heavy but it's one of my fave genres and the recent trend of telling the stories from a female or minor-character perspective has enriched the genre and ways to tell the stories.

Books I'm not reading for this month but I highly recommend are The Song of Achilles and Circe.

i have no idea what to read this month! i'm looking forward to the post so hopefully it will give me some ideas.

I'm reading The Silence of the Girls this month and have read already over 100 pages, the book's alright but I find some of the text cringy.

I'm hoping Wide Sargasso Sea will count? I've seen it described more as a "response" to Jane Eyre than a retelling, but I'm excited to read it- I always thought that Mr. Rochester's wife was the most interesting character.

I've been sitting on Circe for ages just for this month!

Hannah, Wide Sargasso Sea counts :)

I'm going to read Spinning Silver for my local town's book club! Apparently it's a loose re-telling of Rumpelstiltskin. If not, I'll probably re-read the Cinder series and finally get around to reading the 4th and final book, Winter.

I'm going to read the Silence of the Girls since I've had it sitting on my nightstand since I pre-ordered it last year lol. I also have Ransom by David Malouf on my shelf, another Iliad retelling, but I'm more excited about Silence of the Girls lol. Lots of retellings from women in Greek mythology are coming out/have come out recently, which is awesome!

I'm almost done March's book so we'll see if I can catch up/read a bit quicker this summer lol.

I started reading Spinning Silver on the train this morning. I'm only two chapters in but I'm already sucked into it.

I'm super behind on this challenge (whomp) I'm going to read Circe for this month.

I was thinking about reading Hagseed but not really feeling it so I might just reread Deathless or The Bear and the Nightingale.

I am currently reading Dorothy Must Die, a re-telling of The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy turns evil and rules Oz with an iron fist.

So far, it's really good but the writing can be a bit cringey at times.

I'm currently reading The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy, which is a Pride and Prejudice retelling. I'm reading the pre-published version so the writing is a little sophomoric but I'm still enjoying it.

I still need to catch up on last month, but for this month I'm going to have some fun and finish up the third and fourth books in Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series. The whole series is a weird mashup of YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy fairytale retellings.

Cress is a loose retelling of Rapunzel and Winter is a loose retelling of Snow White.

If I have time, I might also read Song of Achilles and Circe, but we'll see!

I think I may read Ayesha at Last this month. I wasn’t sure what to pick, but had considered Unmarriageable since it’s a P&P retelling, not realizing that AaL is as well. And we share the same name! So, done.

I stopped reading a few months ago so I’m pretty behind, and will need to do some catching up. But I did read three books over the last ~week while I was sick, so I’ll have to see if any of them fit a prior topic.

I picked Alice, I hope that works for the theme.

I read Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Graphic Novel: A Modern Retelling of Little Women.

A wonderful modern-day adaptation of my favorite book. I'm glad it ended at that part in the story, I think it was the perfect time frame for this GN. I loved, loved loved the added diversity to the plot. Well done!

I read Little Darlings which is apparently a take on the whole "faeries took your baby" / changeling folklore and it was disappointing lol.

I started Wilder Girls the other day though which someone called a "feminist Lord of the Flies" and idk how accurate that is but I'm enjoying it a good amount, especially considering I don't usually fuck with YA.

I read Ibi Zoboi's Pride and I enjoyed it, even though the slang got on my nerves at first. This happens to me in fantasy/sci-fi too, so ymmv but after the first half of the book, I finally stopped noticing it so much.

I ended up reading The Dark Wife, a f/f retelling of Hades/Persephone. There's no abduction here, just some love and a goddess trying to find freedom and fairness with unfair gods.

Of course, had to get a P&P retelling in there too, lol. I read Darcy's Winter Ball: A Pride and Prejudice Variation and Pemberley: Mr. Darcy's Dragon (not a euphemism). The former, was short and sweet. Very much tidy everything up with bows. The latter, was some interesting world building with dragons mixed with P&P. I liked that some side characters were given more time in this novel such as Mary and the Gardiners. ( I've already been rec'd Temeraire, #1 :) to check out for more dragon lore)

I read Wide Sargasso Sea, which I thought was beautiful!

I had two other books come in from the library this month that just happened to meet the theme: The Porpoise, a retelling of Pericles, and Stepsister, a post-Cinderella story from one of the stepsister's perspectives. I hated The Porpoise. Stepsister is... meh. Maybe if I was still a teen and not someone with a failed folklore degree in my past I'd have liked it more, but it just didn't go hard enough

I got Circe from my library a whole 4 days ago and am barely into Chapter 1. I did re-read Bridget Jones' Diary this month, which was good because it's a short, quick read and I was too exhausted to read this month.