2025 Reading Challenge discussion

I just finished an amazing Beauty and the Beast retelling, and loved it. I've read a few fairytale retellings over the past year but I need more recommendations. What are some of your favorites??

The retelling I just finished:

I enjoyed the 500 Kingdom Series by Mercedes Lackey. Especially the Fairy Godmother, and One Good Knight. The Fairy Godmother One Good Knight
Beauty by Robin McKinley is a good example of a retelling that stays close to the material that most of us remember while adding some of herself. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
Donna Jo Napoli's Beast is told from the perspective of the beast or prince. It gives an interesting glimpse into the mind of the prince, and what he is going through. If you like Beast Napoli has also written a retelling of Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, and a mermaid (siren) from Greek mythology.
Beast Zel Spinners
Sirena

Have you read The Lunar Chronicles (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter) by Marissa Meyer? I must admit that I have not (yet) read them myself, but they have very high ratings!

I'm not the biggest fan of retellings, but I do have a thing for anthologies.

Once Upon a Happy Ending: An Anthology of Reimagined Fairy Tales
Once Upon A Curse: 17 Dark Faerie Tales
The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales

I haven't gotten to all of them yet, and I haven't enjoyed all of the ones I have read in these collections equally. However, they might work for other so I definitely recommend giving them a try :)

Love the 500 Kingdom series by Mercedes Lackey! I read them all but the first two were absolutely the best. Loved the tongue-in-cheek tone of those books!

FYI, we are starting the Lunar Chronicles as a Series Buddy Read in June!

There are so many retellings of fairy tales I just got a beauty and the beast one the other day. Not sure how I'm going to like it. But I'm going to give it a try.

Ilona wrote: "Have you read The Lunar Chronicles (Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter) by Marissa Meyer? I must admit that I have n..."

I have them but haven't gotten to them, yet! I've heard they're awesome books but I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about the cyborg aspect. I'm usually not the biggest fan of futuristic concepts.

FlowerTaisen wrote: "I enjoyed the 500 Kingdom Series by Mercedes Lackey. Especially the Fairy Godmother, and One Good Knight. The Fairy Godmother One Good Knight
Beauty by Robin McKinley is ..."

These all sound cool. A few people recommended the 500 Kingdoms series so it's definitely on my list now.

Mary Pat wrote: "Love the 500 Kingdom series by Mercedes Lackey! I read them all but the first two were absolutely the best. Loved the tongue-in-cheek tone of those books!

FYI, we are starting the Lunar Chronicles..."

I guess I might just start the Lunar Chronicles in June, then, lol.

Heather wrote: "Mary Pat wrote: "Love the 500 Kingdom series by Mercedes Lackey! I read them all but the first two were absolutely the best. Loved the tongue-in-cheek tone of those books!

FYI, we are starting the..."

Should I add you to the list of participants for Cinder in June? :) If you like it, you can read the rest of the series with us. If you don't like it, you don't need to read any further!

Read:
by Marissa Meyer
by Jackson Pearce
by Rosamund Hodge
by Marissa Meyer
by Jane B Mason which is, BTW, aimed at a younger audience but it is enjoyable all the same.
by Maureen McGowan which I saw in the bookstore.

We did a retellings challenge in 2015 where we read the original fairy tale and a re-telling of that fairy tale! I used Lackey's books for the challenge. (See below.) It was very interesting to read the original stories!


The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen AND Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey

The Snow Queen - Hans Christian Andersen AND The Snow Queen - Mercedes Lackey

The Sleeping Beauty- Charles Perrault AND Sleeping Beauty - Mercedes Lackey

Beauty and the Beast - Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont AND Beauty and the Werewolf - Mercedes Lackey

Kristie wrote: "Read:
by Marissa Meyer
by Jackson Pearce
by Rosamund Hodge
by Marissa Me..."

I read Cruel Beauty -- LOVED it to death.

Mary Pat wrote: "We did a retellings challenge in 2015 where we read the original fairy tale and a re-telling of that fairy tale! I used Lackey's books for the challenge. (See below.) It was very interesting to rea..."

Oh that's an awesome idea

In addition to the Lunar Chronicles, I'd recommend Heartless by Marissa Meyer, which I can see others have already mentioned.
I'd also suggest Disney's Twisted Tales. I've only read As Old as Time: A Twisted Tale which was great but I am thinking at taking a look at the others in the series too.
I've read Beastly but personally I didn't like it. So you could say that's my anti-rec.

If you like Peter Pan, Peter and the Starcatchers is pretty great!

Here are some great lists on listopia that are relevant:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I can recommend Beauty by Robin McKinley, Uprooted by Naomi Novik, A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (but not the sequels) and Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. All of them are Beauty and the Beast retellings, ACOTAR also gets inspiration from East of the Sun, West of the Moon and Tamlin.

Oh I forgot about Uprooted - I love that book!

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge is on my favorites-of-all-time list ;)

Aless wrote: "Here are some great lists on listopia that are relevant:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9...
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5......"

Aless why not read the sequels to A Court of Thorns and Roses?

I was a fan of Sarah for the first 3 books of Throne of Glass series and for ACOTAR. Then Queen of Shadows (TOG 4) came out shortly followed by A Court of Mist and Fury. The quality of writing declined so dramatically for both it was like reading bad fanfiction. Several characters personalities get changed just to make a certain plot happen. Those 2 books felt like the same book in many ways with similar characters etc.
With ACOTAR specifically I liked how Feyre was shown as a weak, imperfect human against the strong magical beings, that goes out the window in book 2. Sarah's sequels get longer and longer but she also makes 50% of the action happen in the last chapter.

I am aware a lot of fans still love her and the newer sequels so if that's anyone here that's ok, it's my personal preference as I like consistent good quality of writing.

Thank you for explaining your opinion in better detail. ACOTAR was my first Mass book, and I am listening to the audiobook of A Court of Mist and Fury now.

I read The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter and thought it was great! It's a collection of short stories that are retellings.

Dude, The Snow Child- not only is a fairy tale retelling, but it is an uncommon one. I really enjoyed it and HIGHLY recommend it.

I also like the Marissa Meyer books, but I love the Fantasy/Sci-Fi stuff too. I know they are not everyone's cup of tea. She also happens to be fairly local, so it is kind of a home state pride thing, lol.

You also might want to check out the Land of Stories series. I hear those are pretty good (I own them now, I just haven't read them yet).

I'm not that much into retelling but here's the list of all those (freebies) I have on my Kindle:
(first in series of different retellings)

Hot or erotica:

1) Black Heart, Ivory Bones
2) Snow White, Blood Red
3) Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears
4) Black Thorn, White Rose
All 4 are compilations of fairy tale re-telling edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Winding.
Also:
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen,
Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede, Hasan by Piers Anthony OR Deerskin by Robin Mc Kinley are titles you might enjoy. And Tanith Lee, as mentioned already, is amazing with her re-tellings.

Aless wrote: "I was a fan of Sarah for the first 3 books of Throne of Glass series and for ACOTAR. Then Queen of Shadows (TOG 4) came out shortly followed by A Court of Mist and Fury. The quality of writing decl..."

I'm going to politely disagree! ACOTAR was good but not my favorite of the series. Though the characters do dramatically shift in the sequel (and maybe you're right, that SJ Maas manipulated them to fit the plot), I think there's a lot of interesting psychology going on there.

But I digress. As far as fairytale-retellings go, ACOTAR is a lot closer to a Beauty and the Beast sort of story, whereas the sequels diverge into new territory. (view spoiler)[Hades and Peresephone in ACOMAF, though I'm not sure if that counts as a fairy tale? (hide spoiler)] I would definitely recommend ACOTAR for fairytale cravings.

I was just thinking of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire.

Perhaps not a true retelling, but the land of Oz from a different perspective. I've seen it on Broadway but never read the book.

i dont know how to follow posts but i am interested in these aswell ^^

You can set your settings to receiving updates by mail and/or notification Debbie.

The Lunar Chronicles is one of the best series I've read so far for retellings, The Ever Afters by Shelby Bach or The Sisters Grimm by Micheal Buckley are some other good ones (they're middle grade).
Wonderland by Emory R. Frie was amazing.

Shannon Hale, Gail Carson Levine, A. G. Howard, and R. C. Lewis are really good fairy tale retelling authors as well.

If you don't mind short stories:

From longer works, I loved this Snow Queen retelling