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 26  There are a total of 196 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Anna K"
Star rating for Anna K
Series:
Anna K volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Told from multiple viewpoints, while seventeen-year-old Anna K seems above the typical problems of her Manhattan friends and siblings, finding love with a notorious playboy changes everything.
Book cover for "A blade so black"
Star rating for A blade so black
Series:
Nightmare-verse volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
An ... urban fantasy retelling of Alice in Wonderland... The first time the nightmares came, it nearly cost Alice her life. Now she's trained to battle monstrous creatures in the dark dream realm known as Wonderland with magic weapons and hardcore fighting skills. Yet even warriors have a curfew. Life in real-world Atlanta isn't always so simple, as Alice juggles an overprotective mom, a high-maintenance best friend, and a slipping GPA. Keeping the...
Book cover for "Bookish and the beast"
Star rating for Bookish and the beast
Series:
Once upon a con volume 3.
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
In this adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast," the teenaged star of a popular science fiction movie franchise hides out in a small town, following a tabloid scandal, and meets the bookish Rosie Thorne who is still grieving over her mother's death.
Book cover for "Cheshire Crossing"
Star rating for Cheshire Crossing
Author:
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
What happens to Alice when she comes back from Wonderland? Wendy from Neverland? Dorothy from Oz? The three meet here, at Cheshire Crossing -- a boarding school where girls like them learn how to cope with their supernatural experiences and harness their magical world-crossing powers. But the trio -- now teenagers, who've had their fill of meddling authority figures -- aren't content to sit still in a classroom. Soon they're dashing from one universe...
Book cover for "A clash of steel"
Star rating for A clash of steel
Author:
Series:
Description:
Xiang and Anh--ages sixteen and seventeen--hunt the South China Sea for the lost treasure of the fabled pirate queen Zheng Yi Sao.
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 "Girl, serpent, thorn"
Star rating for Girl, serpent, thorn
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Soraya, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch, has lived eighteen years in the shadows but as her twin brother's wedding approaches, she faces choices with unimaginable consequences.
Book cover for "Girls made of snow and glass"
Star rating for Girls made of snow and glass
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
This feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale traces the relationship of two young women who are doomed to be rivals. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.
Book cover for "Heart of the impaler"
Star rating for Heart of the impaler
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Beneath the shadow of impending war in fifteenth-century Wallachia, Ilona Csáki is betrothed to Prince Mircea, as her feelings blossom for her fiance's cousin Andrei and younger brother Vlad Dracula.

10. Hood

Book cover for "Hood"
Star rating for Hood
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Sixteen-year-old Isabelle learns that she is the daughter of Robin Hood when her mother, Marien, sends her from their priory to get an urgent message to her father, aided by the Merry Men.
Book cover for "The initial insult"
Star rating for The initial insult
Series:
Initial insult volume 1.
Description:
"Tress Montors family used to mean something until she didnt have a family anymore. When her parents disappeared seven years ago while driving her best friend home, Tress lost everything...Felicity Turnado has it all: looks, money, and a secret. One misstep could send her tumbling from the top of the social ladder, and shes worked hard to make everyone forget that she was with the Montors the night they disappeared...But Tress has a plan. A Halloween...
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 bright open"
Star rating for Into the bright open
Series:
Description:
In this queer reimaging of The secret garden, fifteen-year-old orphan Mary sets off to live in the Georgian Bay wilds where she discovers family secrets both wonderful and horrifying.
Book cover for "Lifestyles of gods & monsters"
Star rating for Lifestyles of gods & monsters
Description:
In a reality TV retelling of the myth of the Minotaur, seventeen-year-old Ariadne fights to save her brother, Asterion, and make her own destiny in a world of celebrity, surveillance, and feigned authenticity.

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 "The mirror season"
Star rating for The mirror season
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
After Ciela and Lock are sexually assaulted at the same party, they develop a cautious friendship through her family's possibly-magical pastelería and his secret forest of otherworldly trees.
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 "Night Spinner"
Star rating for Night Spinner
Series:
Night spinner volume 1.
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Before the massacre at Nariin, Enebish was one of the greatest warriors in the Sky King's Imperial Army: a rare and dangerous Night Spinner, blessed with the ability to control the threads of darkness. Now, she is known as Enebish the Destroyer--a monster and murderer, banished to a monastery for losing control of her power and annihilating a merchant caravan. Guilt stricken and scarred, Enebish tries to be grateful for her sanctuary, until her adoptive...
Book cover for "Pride and prejudice and Pittsburgh"
Star rating for Pride and prejudice and Pittsburgh
Description:
When disheartened Pittsburgh teen Audrey transports back to 1812 England, she expects to find love as a Regency romance heroine, but surprisingly, sparks fly when she meets Lucy Sinclair.