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 36  There are a total of 198 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 "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 "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"--
Book cover for "The Circus Rose"
Star rating for The Circus Rose
Description:
A retelling of Snow White and Rose Red in which teenage twins Ivory and Rosie battle evil religious extremists to save their loves and their circus family.
Book cover for "Crimson bound"
Star rating for Crimson bound
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Rachelle must protect the king's bastard son while searching for the weapons that will save her world from endless night"--
Book cover for "Cruel beauty"
Star rating for Cruel beauty
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Betrothed to the demon who rules her country and trained all her life to kill him, seventeen-year-old Nyx Triskelion must now fulfill her destiny and move to the castle to be his wife.
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.
Book cover for "Dorothy Must Die"
Star rating for Dorothy Must Die
Series:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:

The New York Times bestselling first book in a dark new series that reimagines the Oz saga, from debut author Danielle Paige.

I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero. But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds.

...
Book cover for "Everneath"
Star rating for Everneath
Series:
Everneath novels volume 0001
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she's returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she's banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting

...
Book cover for "Flame in the mist"
Star rating for Flame in the mist
Series:
Average Rating:
4.9 stars
Description:
The daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko is targeted by bandits who wish to stop her arranged marriage, a situation that compels her to infiltrate the gang, disguised as a boy, to track down the person responsible for the target on her back

11. Gilded

Book cover for "Gilded"
Star rating for Gilded
Series:
Gilded duology volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"Long ago cursed by the god of lies, a poor miller's daughter has developed a talent for spinning stories that are fantastical and spellbinding and entirely untrue. Or so everyone believes. When one of Serilda's outlandish tales draws the attention of the sinister Erlking and his undead hunters, she finds herself swept away into a grim world where ghouls and phantoms prowl the earth and hollow-eyed ravens track her every move. The king orders Serilda...
Book cover for "The girl who fell beneath the sea"
Star rating for The girl who fell beneath the sea
Author:
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
In this retelling of the Korean legend The tale of Shim Cheong, sixteen-year-old Mina is swept away to the Spirit Realm, where, assisted by a motley crew of demons, gods, and lesser spirits, she sets out to awaken the sleeping Sea God and save her homeland and family from deadly storms.
Book cover for "The goose girl"
Star rating for The goose girl
Series:
Books of Bayern volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
On her way to marry a prince she's never met, Princess Anidori is betrayed by her guards and her lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim the crown that is rightfully hers.
Book cover for "The healer's apprentice"
Star rating for The healer's apprentice
Series:
Hagenheim volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
In this story loosely based on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, seventeen-year-old Rose, a healer's apprentice, falls in love with the betrothed Lord Hamlin, who is seeking the sorcerer who cursed his future bride.
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 "Her dark curiosity"
Star rating for Her dark curiosity
Series:
Description:
Juliet struggles to forget Dr. Moreau's horrific legacy only to confront what she fears is one of her father's murderous creations and her own worsening illness.
Book cover for "House of salt and sorrows"
Star rating for House of salt and sorrows
Series:
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
On a remote island estate, Annaleigh Thaumas, the sixth-born of twelve sisters, enlists the aid of an alluring stranger to unravel the family curse before it claims her life.

18. Hunted

Book cover for "Hunted"
Star rating for Hunted
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Follows the experiences of an aristocrat's daughter, Yeva, who tracks a mysterious woodland creature her father has become obsessed with and that stands at the center of his failing sanity.
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 "The Last Best Kiss"
Star rating for The Last Best Kiss
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:

Jane Austen comes to modern-day Los Angeles in Claire LaZebnik's imaginative take on Persuasion, where seventeen-year-old Anna Eliot finds out whether there's such a thing as a second chance when it comes to first love. Fans of Polly Shulman, Maureen Johnson, Elizabeth Eulberg, Stephanie Perkins, and, of course, Jane Austen will love this irresistibly funny and romantic contemporary tale.

Anna is tired of worrying about what other people

...