For a while now I’ve been noticing a lot of Retellings in the book community. The discussion around them has been a lot more prevalent in the past few years than it was 10ish years ago.
So I made a graph (linked below), with all the most popular Retellings books, the first in a series and standalones. It clearly shows that from 2011 on, and especially in 2018, Retellings have had a huge boom in popularity. But I’m not entirely sure why.
Beauty from 1978, Elle Enchanted from 1997, and Beastly from 2007 are the only popular Retellings I could find pre-2011. After 2011, it’s been nonstop.
Any ideas why?
[https://app.gemoo.com/share/image-annotation/579018887419506688?codeId=DGVoOangQwAyo&origin=imageurlgenerator](https://app.gemoo.com/share/image-annotation/579018887419506688?codeId=DGVoOangQwAyo&origin=imageurlgenerator)
by PhotographFast1943
4 Comments
There have always been tons. They are easy to sell and easy to find an audience for.
I would add The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec to this list as well. What stands out to me is that Song of Achilles is first on the graph you compiled. While I don’t care for that book myself (I love the Iliad, and Achilles & Patroclus are queer enough in their queerplatonic partnership without making them lovers), it seems to have paved the way for quite a few lovely historical retelling novels. From a feminist perspective, it was the first of a small wave of novels intentionally designed to center queerness and the female voice within the worlds of classic literature. I suspect that a desire to revisit great stories and update them with diverse voices drives a lot of what you’re seeing here.
From a less feminist perspective, films and tv shows are doing the same thing (so many reboots! Extending sooo many franchises!) and I’ve been chalking that up to a collective fear for the future that is somewhat soothed by nostalgia 🤷🏻♀️
Out of curiosity, how did you decide which books to include in your graph?
People have been doing retellings for as long as there have been tellings. Do you mean specifically within YA?
> Beauty from 1978, Elle Enchanted from 1997, and Beastly from 2007 are the only popular Retellings I could find pre-2011. After 2011, it’s been nonstop.
My dude, how could you forget one of the most popular; WICKED! Hell, that might trump the books you listed, besides maybe Elle Enchanted.
That was released in 1995, and Maguire followed it up with many others like Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister in 1999, Lost in 2001 and in 2003 he did Mirror, Mirror, not to mention the sequel books he wrote to Wicked.
But these sort of stories have ALWAYS been popular. If you’re including something like Song of Achilles on your list then you can link back to the Percy Jackson books which debuted in 2005.
We really could go on and on here.