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 41  There are a total of 198 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "An arrow to the moon"
Star rating for An arrow to the moon
Description:
"A lyrical and magical novel about two teens who fall in love despite their families being caught in a bitter rivalry."--
Book cover for "Beasts of prey"
Star rating for Beasts of prey
Author:
Series:
Beasts of prey volume 1.
Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
Sixteen-year-old indentured beastkeeper Koffi and seventeen-year-old warrior candidate Ekon forge an unusual alliance and venture into the Greater Jungle to hunt down a monster that has been menacing their city for a century. Includes author's note.
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 "The blood spell"
Star rating for The blood spell
Series:
Ravenspire volume 4.
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
A dark romantic fantasy inspired by "Cinderella" finds Blue de la Cour, a girl hiding the magic in her blood from a cruel custodian, teaming up with a bride-seeking prince, Prince Kellan who she despises in order to stop a series of disappearances throughout the kingdom.
Book cover for "The bone spindle"
Star rating for The bone spindle
Series:
Description:
When she pricks her finger on a bone spindle, treasure hunter Fi is stuck with the spirit of Briar Rose, a prince under a sleeping curse, and must team up with a tough-as-dirt girl warrior to free the prince--and herself.
Book cover for "Briar girls"
Star rating for Briar girls
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Lena has a secret: the touch of her skin can kill...But after a devastating mistake, she and her father are forced to flee to a village near the Silence, a mysterious forest with a reputation for luring people into the trees, never to be seen again...Until the night an enigmatic girl stumbles out of the Silence...Miranda...is on a quest to wake a sleeping princess believed to hold the key to liberating the Gather from its tyrannical ruler and she...
Book cover for "Bright ruined things"
Star rating for Bright ruined things
Description:
Growing up on a island where the powerful Prosper family controls both the magic and the spirits who inhibit it, eighteen-year-old Mae longs for magic of her own to impress her best friend Coco and her crush Miles, but when the spirits start inexplicably dying, Mae and her friends start to the unravel the mysteries of the island and a secret from Mae's past. Loosely based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and set in the 1920s.
Book cover for "The curse of the thirteenth fey"
Star rating for The curse of the thirteenth fey
Author:
Description:
Accident-prone, thirteen-year-old Gorse, the youngest fairy in her family, falls into a trap while on her way to the palace to bless the newborn princess, Talia, but arrives in time to give a gift which, although seemingly horrific, may prove to be a real blessing in this take-off on the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty.
Book cover for "A curse so dark and lonely"
Star rating for A curse so dark and lonely
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Eighteen for the three hundred twenty-seventh time, Prince Rhen despairs of breaking the curse that turns him into a beast at the end of each day until feisty Harper enters his life.

10. 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.
Book cover for "Endless water, starless sky"
Star rating for Endless water, starless sky
Series:
Description:
In the last days of the world, the walls of Viyara are still falling and the dead are rising faster than ever. Juliet is trapped, ordered by Lord Luco of the Mahyanai to sacrifice the remaining members of her family, the Catresou, to stave off the end fo the world. Though they're certain his plan is useless, Juliet and her former friend Runajo must comply tie Lord Ineo's wishes unless they can discover a different, darker path to protecting Viyara....
Book cover for "Forest of a thousand lanterns"
Star rating for Forest of a thousand lanterns
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Beautiful eighteen-year-old Xifeng, raised by a cruel aunt who says the stars destine her to be Empress of Feng Lu, chooses to spurn the man who loves her and exploit the dark magic that can make her dream real.
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 "The Guinevere deception"
Star rating for The Guinevere deception
Average Rating:
3.2 stars
Description:
Sent by a banished Merlin to protect King Arthur, a sixteen-year-old impersonating the deceased Guinevere struggles to fit in at Camelot where the magic she practices is banished.
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 ivory key"
Star rating for The ivory key
Series:
Description:
Since the murder of the maharani of Ashoka--the country that controls all magic--the relationships between the royal siblings have fractured. At only 18, Vira has ascended to the throne, a role few in her council believe her capable of. Meanwhile, her twin brother, Ronak, is plotting to break free from a tactful marriage and taking their half-brother, Kaleb, (wrongfully imprisoned for the maharani's assassination) with him. The siblings' unease comes...
Book cover for "Kingdom of the Wicked"
Star rating for Kingdom of the Wicked
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
"Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe - witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family's renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin...desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister's killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that's been long forbidden. Then Emilia...
Book cover for "Labyrinth lost"
Star rating for Labyrinth lost
Series:
Brooklyn brujas volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Alex is a bruja and the most powerful witch in her family. But she's hated magic ever since it made her father disappear into thin air. When a curse she performs to rid herself of magic backfires and her family vanishes, she must travel to Los Lagos, a land in-between as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland, to get her family back.
Book cover for "Lakesedge"
Star rating for Lakesedge
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"When Violeta Graceling and her younger brother Arien arrive at the haunted Lakesedge estate, they expect to find a monster. Leta knows the terrifying rumors about Rowan Sylvanan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem. As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably...