Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Fairytale Retellings

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the Broke and the Bookish.  Click here to join in the fun.

This week is top ten fairy tale retellings, whether you've read them or not.  Well, I bent the rules a little and actually pulled in a couple of movies.  I love, love, love retellings, though I'm rather picky about choosing ones to read or watch.  Here are my absolute favorites, in order.
10. Throne of Glass Series
I often forget that this is a bit of a retelling... really I think it's just based on an idea for a retelling.  If you hunt around Sarah J Maas' website long enough you'll find where she talks about this starting off as an idea of "what happened if Cinderella went to the ball to kill the prince".  So, yes, this is technically a retelling in my book.

9. The Bone Season
This is a beauty and the beast retelling of sorts.  I think the retelling part is pretty swamped out by everything else that happens, but regardless, this is one of my favorite books in the world.  The retelling bit was part of what got me interested in it, though.

8. Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series
So it's not a fairy tale, but I think this series does just a wonderful job of repurposing classic greek myths (which are practically fairy tales, if you ask me).

7. A Court of Thorns and Roses
This is another Beauty and the Beast retelling to make it on the list.  I recently read and loved this.  I think it does just one of the most amazing jobs retelling the story.  There are several iconic scenes from the classic Disney movie that just had me hard-core fan-girling.  Beyond that, it's a wonderful story.

6. Ella Enchanted
I feel like this is one of those books most people read when they were kids.  I have wonderful memories of staying up late and reading this with a flashlight under my covers.  It was such a wonderful story and I really need to find my copy and re-read it.

5. Starcrossed
Another not quite fairy tale, but Greek myth.  Again, I absolutely loved this book when I read it several years ago.  I keep meaning to actually buy it and then continue on with the series.  Basically, it's a sort of retelling of The Odyssey and worth the read even if you know nothing about that story.

4. Scarlet
It wouldn't be a proper retelling list without something by Marissa Meyer (spoiler alert: Cinder is number one on this list).  She's managed to write a series of incredibly amazing fairy tale retellings.  I like Scarlet a lot, though it's not my favorite in the series.  Wonderful Little Red Riding Hood retelling.

3. Shrek
Bet you didn't expect to see this on here... because it's not a book!  Well, I guess there is technically a book called Shrek that this movie was based off of (though I've not read it and have no plans to).  Not only does this allow for the many classic story book characters to fill up the side characters, but it's a backwards retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  Blew my mind when I realized that a year ago, actually.  This is one of my all time favorite movies, to be honest.  It never gets old.

2. Maleficent
I only saw this one a last month, but I absolutely fell in love with it.  I have no words to describe how wonderful it was.  If you haven't seen it, go watch it.  It's so perfect.  Perfect.

1. Cinder
This is my absolute favorite retelling for so many reasons.  I could just talk about this book forever.  Really, what makes it the best retelling, though, is how it would use things from the original tale and sometimes spin them into a surprise or sometimes stay pretty true.  If you haven't begun this series, you really should.  It blew my mind when I read it (and I had low expectations going into it) and will probably blow yours.

16 comments:

  1. haha nice list. I was very strict about keeping all of mine fairy tales and had a very tough time coming up with 10. But I keep seeing everyone's lists have pretty much all retellings. Wish I had done that. Great list!

    Here's my TTT

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    1. I know what you mean; it's super tough to find straight-up retellings for just fairy tales. Even looking for retellings in general seemed to be hard (I feel like I know a ton, and then when it's a TTT theme everything just leaves my head and I'm lost). Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. If I thought to include movies, Shrek would probably top my list!

    Check out my TTT.

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    1. It's such a classic at this point!

      Thanks for stopping by :)

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  3. Yes to Percy Jackson, Maleficent, Shrek, and Ella Enchanted! I haven't read the rest of these, but I absolutely loved those four.

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  4. I hadn't realized Bone Season was a retelling. I've been wanting to read that one for quite some time now. I'm also very curious about Sarah J. Maas and her books. I am sure I'll be giving her a try at some point. :-)

    The Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, in particular and Ella Enchanted made my "want to read list". I am probably one of the few that hasn't read Ella Enchanted.

    Malificent is such a great movie. I loved it too. :-)

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    1. Literary Feline--
      Ella Enchanted is such a quick read, and you'll really enjoy it :) The Bone Season is pretty good, though the sequel is much better in my opinion. Sarah J Maas is one of my favorite writers, so I hope you get the chance to enjoy her books as well.

      Thanks so much for stopping by!

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  5. I didn't include movies on mine but if I had Shrek would have been in there!

    Thanks for visiting Nashville Book Worm!

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    1. Shrek is just the best! Thanks for stopping by!

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  6. Cool list! I love the Percy Jackson series! I also recently watched Maleficent and it was amazing! I never read Ella Enchanted but I liked the movie haha

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    1. lovethyshelfblog--
      The movie is just as fantastic as the book, though there are different twists at the end. Thanks for stopping by :)

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  7. Awesome list. I really need to read the Throne of Glass series. I just read ACOTAR and it was AMAZING!! I want to read her other stuff for sure.

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    1. Cynthia--
      It's well worth reading that series. (I'm currently rereading it in preparation for the release of the fourth book and it hasn't decreased in quality) ACOTAR is absolutely fantastic and I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
      Thanks for stopping by!

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  8. I absolutely LOVE Throne of Glass, ACOTAR, and The Lunar Chronicles! Some of my all time favorites!

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

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    1. Some of my absolute favorite's as well! Thanks for stopping by :)

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