Literally Leander discussion

Hey, fellow readers!

My friend and I started a book club where we read retellings. We are about to pick the book we will read for October. Since our meeting will be close to Halloween, I want to read something spooky. I am looking for either 1) retellings based on horror novels or fairytales, even if they are not a horror book themselves (e.g., This Monstrous Thing), or 2) scary retellings, even if they are not based on a scary book or fairytale (e.g., Alice in Zombieland). Even though Literally Leander is a YA book club, I also enjoy reading middle grade novels, so am open to middle grade suggestions as well. I'd love to hear any suggestions you may have!

I honestly couldn't find much. I went through my retellings shelf and picked out a couple that might interest you.

- The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein: a retelling of Frankenstein
- Forest of a Thousand Lanterns: a Chinese-inspired retelling of the Evil Queen's origin story
- Cruel Beauty: a mix of fairytales like Beauty and the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin
- Wintersong: a retelling of Labyrinth (but without David Bowie), I would categorize it more towards mature YA or new adult
- Bright Smoke, Cold Fire: a Romeo & Juliet retelling, but with zombies

A YA book of Guillermo Del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth was released a few months ago: Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun. It has fantastical elements in it though it's not a retelling from what I can tell.

Kristen wrote: "I honestly couldn't find much. I went through my retellings shelf and picked out a couple that might interest you.

Thanks for the suggestions, Kristen! The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein was already one I was thinking about suggesting to my friend. I heard Kiersten White discuss it at a conference this past spring and am interested in reading it. I also added Forest of a Thousand Lanterns to my TBR list. The premise sounds intriguing. I'll take a look at your retellings shelf and see if anything else sticks out to me.

Elvia wrote: "A YA book of Guillermo Del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth was released a few months ago: Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun."

Thanks for the suggestion, Elle! We have that book at LPL, so I'll take a look at it. I think my friend would consider reading it even though it is not a direct retelling.

I read and enjoy a lot of middle grade books as well. The first one that came to mind was The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie. It’s based on the Chicago legend of Inez Clarke.

Kimberly wrote: "I read and enjoy a lot of middle grade books as well. The first one that came to mind was The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie."

Thanks for the suggestion, Kimberly! I added it to my TBR list.