YA Classic Retellings

YA adaptations or stories inspired from classic tales including fairy tales, fables, and classical literature. Not a complete or exhaustive list. *The Young Adult Collection is made up of books for a wide age range (12-18 years old) and includes a variety of different topics and interests. Not all titles will be appropriate for all readers.*

Showing 1 - 20 of 29  There are a total of 196 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Cinderella is dead"
Star rating for Cinderella is dead
Average Rating:
3.3 stars
Description:
"Queer black girls team up to overthrow the patriarchy in the former kingdom of Cinderella"--

2. Cursed

Book cover for "Cursed"
Star rating for Cursed
Series:
Gilded duology volume 2.
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"Adalheid Castle is in chaos. Following a shocking turn of events, Serilda finds herself ensnared in a deadly game of make-believe with the Erlking, who is determined to propel her deeper into the castle's lies. Meanwhile, Serilda is determined to work with Gild to help him solve the mystery of his forgotten name and past. But soon it becomes clear that the Erlking doesn't only want to use Serilda to bring back his one true love. He also seeks vengeance...

3. Cursed

Book cover for "Cursed"
Star rating for Cursed
Average Rating:
2 stars
Description:
Nimue grew up an outcast. Her connection to dark magic made her something to be feared in her Druid village, and that made her desperate to leave...That is, until Red Paladins slaughter her entire village, and Nimue's fate is forever altered. Charged by her dying mother to reunite an ancient sword with a legendary sorcerer, Nimue is now her people's only hope.

4. Curses

Book cover for "Curses"
Star rating for Curses
Description:
Forced to live as a beast forever unless she agrees to marry a man of her mother's choosing before her 18th birthday, Merit Cravan joins forces with a con artist who's her only hope in finding the best match.
Book cover for "Darling"
Star rating for Darling
Description:
"On Wendy Darling's first night in Chicago, a boy called Peter appears at her window. He's dizzying, captivating, beautiful--so she agrees to join him for a night on the town. Wendy thinks they're heading to a party, but instead they're soon running in the city's underground. She makes friends--a punk girl named Tinkerbelle and the lost boys Peter watches over. And she makes enemies--the terrifying Detective Hook, and maybe Peter himself, as his sinister...
Book cover for "Daughter of Sparta"
Star rating for Daughter of Sparta
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Guided by the handsome Apollo, Daphne journeys across ancient Greece to recover nine mysterious items stolen from Mount Olympus before the gods lose their powers and throw the mortal world into chaos in this reinterpretation of the Greek myth.
Book cover for "Debating Darcy"
Star rating for Debating Darcy
Description:
"A life-long speech competitor, Leela loves nothing more than crushing the competition, all while wearing a smile. But when she meets the incorrigible Firoze Darcy, a debater from an elitist private school, Leela can't stand him. Unfortunately, he'll be competing in the state league, so their paths are set to collide. But why attempt to tolerate Firoze when Leela can one-up him? The situation is more complicated than Leela anticipated, though, and...
Book cover for "For darkness shows the stars"
Star rating for For darkness shows the stars
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"Elliot North fights to save her family's land and her own heart in this post-apocalyptic reimaging of Jane Austen's 'Persuasion'."-- It's been generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology. Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago she refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing...
Book cover for "Golden boys"
Star rating for Golden boys
Series:
Golden boys volume 1.
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Gabriel, Reese, Sal, and Heath are best friends, bonded in their small rural town by their queerness, their good grades, and their big dreams. They are about to embark on the summer before senior year of high school, where each is going on a new, big adventure, from attending a design school in Paris to interning on Capitol Hill for a U.S. Senator. What will this summer of new experiences and world-expanding travel mean for each of them--and for...
Book cover for "Heartless"
Star rating for Heartless
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
In this prequel to Alice in Wonderland, Cath would rather open a bakery and marry for love than accept a proposal from the King of Hearts, especially after meeting the handsome and mysterious court jester.
Book cover for "Into the bloodred woods"
Star rating for Into the bloodred woods
Description:
On his deathbed King Tyran divides his land between his twin children, first-born Ursula, a werebear, and Albrecht; but Albrecht wants it all and makes war on his sister, killing her people and the werebeasts, becoming a tyrant to his own kingdom--but their family history is far more complicated and mysterious than he knows, and Ursula has powerful allies in the living forest that surrounds their lands, including her aunt Esme who has been in hiding...
Book cover for "Into the heartless wood"
Star rating for Into the heartless wood
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Deep in the wood lives a witch queen and her eight tree siren daughters. For centuries, they have harvested souls to feed the heartless tree, using its power to grow their ever reaching kingdom of ash, birch, and oak. Owen Merrick lives at the edge of the forest, mapping the stars for the king in his father's observatory. For years, he has resisted venturing over the garden wall, until one day he must enter the woods to find his missing sister. But...
Book cover for "The last true poets of the sea"
Star rating for The last true poets of the sea
Author:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Inspired loosely by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, teenaged Violet is shipped off to Maine after her brother's hospitalization, where she searches for the lost shipwreck that her great-great grandmother survived and for answers about her family's long struggle with mental illness, all while falling in love.

14. Lore

Book cover for "Lore"
Star rating for Lore
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals. They are hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality. Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world, turning her back on the hunt's promises of eternal glory after her family was murdered by a rival line. For years she's pushed away any thought of...

15. Medusa

Book cover for "Medusa"
Star rating for Medusa
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Exiled to a far-flung island, Medusa has little company except for the snakes adorning her head instead of hair until a beautiful boy named Perseus arrives, distrupting her lonely existence and unleashing desire, love, and betrayal.
Book cover for "My Calamity Jane"
Star rating for My Calamity Jane
Series:
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
Welcome to 1876 America, a place bursting with gunslingers, outlaws, and garou, better known as werewolves. After a garou hunt goes south and Calamity Jane finds a suspicious bite on her arm, she turns tail for Deadwood, where there's talk of a garou cure. But rumors can be deceiving, meaning the gang better hightail it after her before they're a day late and a Jane short.
Book cover for "My fine fellow"
Star rating for My fine fellow
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
It's 1830s England, and Culinarians--doyens who consult with society's elite to create gorgeous food and confections--are the creme de la creme of high society.
Book cover for "Pride and premeditation"
Star rating for Pride and premeditation
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
Seventeen-year-old aspiring lawyer Lizzie Bennet seeks to solve a murder before her rival Mr. Darcy beats her to it.
Book cover for "Raybearer"
Star rating for Raybearer
Series:
Raybearer volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Raised in isolation, Tarisai yearns for the closeness she could have as one of the Crown Prince's Council of 11, but her mother, The Lady, has magically compelled Tarisai to kill the Crown Prince.
Book cover for "Red Hood"
Star rating for Red Hood
Average Rating:
1.8 stars
Description:
"Since her grandmother became her caretaker when she was four years old, Bisou Martel has lived a quiet life in a little house in Seattle. She's kept mostly to herself. She's been good. But then comes the night of homecoming, when she finds herself running for her life over roots and between trees, a fury of claws and teeth behind her. A wolf attacks. Bisou fights back. A new moon rises. And with it, questions. About the blood in Bisou's past, and...