Welcome to today’s Let’s Talk Bookish where I am going to be talking about retellings and whether or not I think that there are too many of them.
If you don’t know what Lets Talk Bookish is it is where bloggers like myself talk about a topic of the week. It was created by Rukky over at Eternity Books and has been hosted by Aria over at Book Nook Bits ever since April of 2022.
Prompts:
There is no end to the fictional retellings out there. From fairytales to Shakespeare to mythology all over the world, many stories have been retold countless times in countless ways. Do you like reading retellings? What are some of your favorites? Are there any stories you’re tired of seeing retold Do you think that there can be too many retellings?
Do you like reading retellings?
I don’t mind a retelling. It’s nothing that I read constantly. Well, not one that I feel like I read constantly. I think that it is one of those things that I have to be in the mood for because once I get into a mood for something that is all I want to read. So here is to hoping that I get into a retelling mood because there are some retellings that I have on my Kindle that I haven’t read yet.
What are some of your favorites?
I have read a few so there aren’t many that I can choose from. But I know that I want to read books like Cinderella Is Dead and Clytermnestra’s Bind (Review coming Monday for Clytemnestra’s Bind). So my favorites can very well change because my reading taste is always changing. I will be the first to admit that retellings are a weak spot which is why there aren’t many.
Are there any stories you’re tired of seeing retold?
I would be biased if I said Beauty and The Beast. Just because whenever I want to read a retelling that is usually the one I go towards. Knowing that there are other retellings of books like Alice And Wonderland, Mulan, Cinderella, etc. So it’s not fair to me to say that I am tired of seeing a Beauty and The Beast retelling when that is the retelling that I tend to gravitate the most towards as of right now and not giving others a fair shot.
Do you think that there can be too many retellings?
Personally, yes. I think that there can be too many retellings. But I am not going to tell a reader that they shouldn’t consume over X amount a year. Because what I think is too many to read a year someone else will think differently. I will say that there is nothing wrong with a retelling as long as it is good. Just like genres like Romance, thriller, and Fantasy, there are good books and there are horrible books. And what I consider a good book someone else might think that it is a horrible book.
Take Heartless by Marissa Meyer. I wasn’t a big fan of it just because I am not a big fan of Alice and Wonderland. But that doesn’t mean that the fans of Alice and Wonderland don’t care about how the Queen of Hearts became the Queen Of Hearts. Or at the very least Marissa Meyers’s version of it. Because some retellings (not all) can help you read the original story written by the original author. So if Heartless helped you read Alice and Wonderland then congratulations.
Here is my post about if I think there are too many retellings. I would love to know what you guys think. Feel free to use the questions above if you want to answer this on your blog.
Kathryn Books 