When Life feels out of control or unpredictable, rereading favorite books is a source of comfort to me. It feels like old friends settling in for a nice, long visit. Afterward, I feel recharged and better able to face the unpredictability of the real world.
Recently, I discovered that retellings offer similar comfort. With retellings, though, it’s not an old friend settling in, but a friend-in-common with a new perspective on all the old friends’ stories. It’s the comfort of knowing how the story will go with the added excitement of being “in” on an inside joke. I delight in a clever retelling!
My most recent foray into retellings was “A Study in Scarlet Women” by Sherry Thomas (the first in a series). I listened to it via Overdrive. In Thomas’s story, Sherlock Holmes is the pseudonym of Charlotte Holmes, the exceedingly clever, but recently disgraced, youngest daughter of the Holmes household. Both Sherlock and Watson are recast as women in this series. Together they must navigate the strict expectations of women in society and find ways to hide their gender as they solve mysteries and earn a living.
If you want to try retellings, in particular fairytale retellings, you’re in luck! It’s a popular subgenre and several Library staff members love to recommend these.
Our favorites include:
“The Bear and the Nightingale” by Katherine Arden
“Red Riding Hood” by Sarah Blakely-Cartwright
“Wicked Fox” by Kat Cho
“Aru Shah and the end of time” by Roshani Chokshi
“A House of Salt and Sorrows” by Erin A. Craig
“Orphan’s Wish” by Melanie Dickerson
“Warrior Maiden” by Melanie Dickerson
“The Sleeper and the Spindle” by Neil Gaiman
“The Wife Upstairs” by Rachel Hawkins
“Unmarriageable” by Soniah Kamal
“A Curse So Dark and Lonely” by Brigid Kemmerer
“Hood” by Jenny Elder Moke
“Sherwood” by Meagan Spooner