Who loves reading books about myth and fairy tale retelling? THIS GIRL! 🙂 Some people might dislike retelling because they think it ruins the original plot, but I ain’t one of them. I #LOVE retelling! ♥
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We’d love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!
This week theme is Ten Reasons I Love X. That means I can rave about top ten reasons I love anything books related (or not)! Isn’t it cool? 😉 I admit, it was difficult for me to decide the topic. I thought about YA fantasy, ACoTaR, and Rick Riordan before settling down with this. 5 Reasons I Love Retelling ♥
(because 10 is just too many)
1. Myth and Fairy Tale = MAGIC
Any books based on myth or fairy tale are almost always magical! It’s obviously due to the fact that myths and fairy tales are magical in the first place, so those magical elements always show up in the book. I love magic! I mean… who doesn’t? 😉 these are some of my favorite magical retellings.
2. Familiarity
Most fairy tales are familiar to me because I grew up with them. When I was little, my mom and I used to read and watch Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, and basically every other popular fairy tales at that moment. So naturally, I know the stories by heart and I’m always excited to read the retelling version of the story. It’s just simply heartwarming ♥
3. I love discovering myth & fairy tale elements in the books
This is the part that I love most from reading a retelling. Finding out the classic elements. Like when I read the blurb of A Court of Thorns and Roses, I thought about how Sarah J. Maas planned to incorporate the classic elements from Beauty and the Beast to the story. and when I discovered how she did, it was just amazing!
4. It’s #FUN to see the writers get creative
Okay, this might be related to reason #3, but it really is fun to see writers get creative in incorporating the classic elements to their stories. The most creative fairy tale retelling I ever read is The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. The Lunar Chronicles consist of SO MANY fairy tales! There are Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Sailor Moon mix with futuristic science fiction. How could you get cooler than that!? The results were very original and creative!
5. Increases my knowledge
Every time I read a retelling based on something I’m not familiar with, I always make the time to read the original story. Who started to learn about greek myth after reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief? Um… just me? Well it’s true, I didn’t care a bit about greek myth until I read PJO. After that, I was obsessed. I scrolled through the internet to read and find out about all the greek gods and heroes. Same goes for the roman counterparts. There was also that time when I read The Wrath and the Dawn. I was pretty blank on arabian fantasy so I did my wikipedia research about One Thousand and One Nights before reading the book.
So how about you? What do you think of myth and fairy tale retelling? If you love it as much as I do, drop some comments so I could hear your thoughts! And what did you write for your Ten Reasons I Love X? Link me to your Top 10 Tuesday so I could check it out! 😀
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I love the creativity of retellings — like the shakespeare or Jane Austen or like you said, fairy tale ones. It’s amazing what writers come up with!
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I know righttt it’s so interesting to see how they spin the original stories into a new ones! 😀 ahhh right there’s also a retelling version of classic how could I skip that? 😛
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I LOVE that you picked this topic because I LOVE retellings! Even mythology retellings are fantastic! Great list this week!
My TTT
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Ahhh thank u so much!! 😀 Myth retellings are the best! I’m a die hard fans of (almost) ALL Rick Riordan’s book lol I will check out yours soon!
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Have you read Newfangled Fairy Tales? It was back in 1998 when it was published, but I just recently read them, and they had me in stitches or going “YES! YES! SEE?! THAT MAKES SENSE!”
Why I Love to Read Sci-Fi and Horror.
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I haven’t heard it before but I promise I’ll check it out soon! Thank u for the recommendation and for reading my post 🙂
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I love this so much!! Retellings are literally my favorite! I have probably read more retellings than anything else for exactly the reasons you’ve listed. I love seeing how each author reimagines my favorite stories. Great list! 😀
Here are my Top Ten!
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Thank you for reading! 😀 I know they’re the best right?! what’s your favorite retelling of all?
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Oh yes, great pick for this weeks prompt! Love that this prompt means nearly all our posts are about something different. I love your pick, retellings are some of my favourite books!!! I especially love watching an author get creative, and seeing where they take the story! And I also love when it feels familiar because it is a story you grew up with – those are ones I get the biggest urge to go out and buy, and usually end up loving the most. You can check my TTT post out here.
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That’s right we could really see the creativity of the bloggers out there! Ahh thank you 😀 I know right!!! What’s your favorite retelling of all?
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I love the familiarity of it all…but then the authors put their own twist on it and that just blows the book out of the water.
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Ouch you don’t like it? I personally love to see how they put the twist in the story 😛
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I think I worded what I wanted to say in the wrong way… I love the authors twist. I meant it blows the book out of the water in a good way! Like, the book is good with just the retelling then the author adds to it and bam, 100x better 🙂 I just had a poor way of wording it 😛
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OHHH right sorry it’s probably my fault though, english isn’t my native language so I’m not that excellent with metaphor, sorryyy 😛 sooo what’s your favorite retelling of all??
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Oh it’s totally not your fault. After I re-read my comment I got confused myself 😛 Hmm, my favorite re-telling would be The Wrath and the Dawn, but I actually haven’t read many of them. What is your all time fave? 🙂
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I’m torn between TWATD and ACOTAR. TWATD is perfect!! It’s everything I love from a book so I guess there’s my answer 😛
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Great list! I need to read more retellings, I don’t read enough of them.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/top-ten-tuesday-60/
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Ahhh you should! I got a bunch of recommendations on retelling 😀 thank u for reading, I’ll check out your TTT soon 🙂
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Care to share any? No problem. Thanks!
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Well, the first 8 would be the books I already put in this post, especially The Wrath and the Dawn. and then A Court of Thorns and Roses, and for myth retelling you should definitely read Rick Riordan’s books (if you haven’t before). Percy Jackson and the Olympians would be a good start but if it’s too childish you could try with The Lost Hero. Happy reading! 😀
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I love Rick Riordan’s books! Have read all of them, except the most recent ones. Definitely interested in The Wrath and The Dawn though, have heard such good things about it.
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The Hidden Oracle? You should read it soon!! It’s so hilarious I think Apollo might be the funniest main character of all LOL yesss it’s really great, I wasn’t interested in arabian fantasy before but TWATD really blew my mind! 😀
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I’m definitely planning on reading it this summer. He’s my favourite god that Rick Riordan writes, so I can’t wait to read it! That’s great to hear. I’ll have to get around to it at some point.
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Yayyy happy reading, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do or maybe more 😀
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I think there’s ONLY good reasons to love retellings 😀 I love how magical they are and they just warm my heart. I love princess tales and how the impossible becomes possible and the true love aspect. ❤ Great list!
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Ahh righttt the true love aspect! I love it too 😛 thank u for reading.
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I love the idea of retellings! Especially when they’re darker versions of the original 😅 I haven’t read as many as I’d like though, but hopefully I can change that soon.
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A dark retelling is so interesting!! Have u read Cruel Beauty? I heard it’s a dark version of Beauty and the Beast but I haven’t read it either. I hope so too! Thank you for reading 😀
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I haven’t read that one. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to because I’m not a huge Beauty and the Beast fan to begin with. I might be swayed if I see a good review from someone I follow 😅
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Ah yesss me too I count on reviews from people I look up to before deciding on what to read next 😛
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OH oh ME TOO!! ME TOO!! I absolutely adore retellings! I love the familiarity of kind of knowing where the story will go?? and also having the INSANELY AWESOME SURPRISES of the author’s plot twists and imagination! AHH. And I love The Wrath and the Dawn too. ❤ Although I still have to read The Rose and the Dagger. I am so slack, omg. Also I have a total weakness for Peter Pan retellings. Every time I hear of one I just IMMEDIATELY GET IT because I need all the Peter Pan!!
Thanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!
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I know right it’s an awesome feeling!! 😀 TWATD is definitely great! I didn’t know arabian fantasy could be so interesting like that oooohhh u should definitely get to it soon!! TRATD is as awesome and definitely more magical! ❤ ❤ ahh peterpan! What’s ur favorite retelling of all? You’re welcome and thank you for reading my post 🙂
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I love your reasons here! 😀 It’s true that there’s so much room for creativity in retellings, even when the story is so familiar. I haven’t read many fairy tale retellings to be honest, but I have a compilation of folk and fairy tales (both the originals along with some retellings) sitting on my bookshelf, and I’ve been meaning to skim through it. Thanks for the list. 🙂
C @ thoughtsfromlibraries.blogspot.com
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Thank u for reading! 😀 ah you should definitely start reading them soon! 😛
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I definitely love retellings as well! There are so many of them that I love – Cinder, ACoTaR, The Wrath and the Dawn, Cruel Beauty, Beastly, and others that are escaping my mind right now. Beauty and the Beast retellings are my absolute favorite though. 🙂 Great list too!
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Beauty and the Beast RULES!! It’s my favorite fairy tale of all 😀 Ah I’ve been trying to read Cruel Beauty but always got distracted, I couldn’t make it past the first chapter but I heard it’s great isn’t it? I love ACoTaR so much and ACoMaF even more!! 😀 thank you!
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This is a great post! I love retellings too. People may think that it’s a cop out because authors can’t come up with their own stories, but I disagree. Retellings take a lot of skill because they have to be executed while doing justice to the original, all while retaining authenticity! The Lunar Chronicles is the perfect example. Marissa Meyer did such a brilliant job, and I can’t wait to read her Heartless!
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Awww thank u so much! 😀 I know righttt it takes a lot of creativity! Yayy I love it but Winter is the best for me. Ohhh me too! retelling of the Queen of Hearts is gonna be super awesome!!
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Great list. #5 is a good point and actually turns #2 around. Sometimes reading something you find easily accessible can help you move on to something less familiar.
My TTT list
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Thank you for stopping by! 😀
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Great list! I do love a good retelling, Thanks for stopping by our blog.
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