Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

Use this space to discuss books you’re reading or that might fit the 21st Read Harder task. Sign up for our new Read Harder newsletter to get recommendations for each task delivered straight to your inbox! https://bookriot.com/newsletter/read-...

I'm thinking about doing The Beauty's Brother for this one, which is an m/m Beauty and the Beast retelling. I'm not sure yet though, as I'll need to worry about getting a hold of a copy. I'll be paying attention to recommendations for this one.

I have so many I want to choose for this one
Malice Sleeping Beauty Retelling
She's Too Pretty to Burn Dorian Gray Retellng
Great or Nothing Little Women Retelling
Wrath Goddess Sing Iliad Retelling
The Wife in the Attic Jane Eyre Retelling

Also recommend Girl, Serpent, Thorn which is a Persian version of Sleeping Beauty

I'll probably go with Malice or Briarley for this one, but there are so many options.

Silver in the Wood The Green Man
Peter Darling Peter Pan
The Route of Ice and Salt Dracula
Down Among the Sticks and Bones Jack and Jill

Nghi Vo's book would probably satisfy this, as this Gatsby is gay. Also some sort of infernal magician.

Wahoo I found one. Pride & Prejudice has always been my favorite classic so I decided to look for some queer versions and stumbled across this one:

Gay Pride and Prejudice

I have the physical copy of Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett on my bookshelf so I'm going to slot it here.

There's a list here, if like me, you are struggling to find a book for this prompt.

https://bookriot.com/queer-fairytale-...

Boy, Snow, Bird is a Snow White retelling

I like to squeeze in graphic novels where I can, so I'll be reading The Prince and the Dressmaker.

I think I'll probably be picking up The Magic Fish or finally getting to The Song of Achilles

A few that I've read and really enjoyed are
Little Thieves Which is a Goose Girl retelling that also satisfies the ace protagonist category
A Spindle Splintered Queer sleeping beauty
The Dark Tide I'm not sure whether or not this one is officially a retelling of Tam Lin, but you could absolutely make that argument
I'm planning on reading Ash, which comes highly recommended

Cherri wrote: "Boy, Snow, Bird is a Snow White retelling"

It's been awhile since i read it, but i don't remember Boy Snow Bird as being queer.

I think I'm either going to read The Song of Achilles or Sistersong for this one.

I'll also be reading The Route of Ice and Salt! Translated from Spanish, it's a queer retelling of Dracula

Emily wrote: "There's a list here, if like me, you are struggling to find a book for this prompt.

https://bookriot.com/queer-fairytale-..."

ooooh The Magic Fish sounds beautiful!

Song of Achilles has been on my list for a while but since I haven't read it yet, I'm not sure if its content satisfies the queer aspect of this challenge. Thoughts?

Lee wrote: "Song of Achilles has been on my list for a while but since I haven't read it yet, I'm not sure if its content satisfies the queer aspect of this challenge. Thoughts?"

Definitely, it’s a love story between Achilles and Patroclus.

The Goddess of Nothing At All, Ripples & Waves: A Queer Retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, or A Study In Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes

Upon further consideration, I’m going with Peter Darling by Austin Chant. Peter Pan was one of my favorite books when I was little.

I'm almost certainly going to read Great or Nothing - I love Little Women so much.

I'd like to read Blanca & Roja, which I'm told is kind of a mash-up of Snow White and Swan Lake, but its gotten harder to find at any of the libraries I use so I may not end up doing it.

I read Malice last year by Heather Walter which would fit this task.

I ended up reading an e-ARC of Rabbit Chase by Elizabeth LaPensee, art by KC Oster. It's a retelling of Alice in Wonderland with a nonbinary Anishinaabe protagonist.

I'm probably going to read more in this task though, I've honestly been eyeing a lot of retellings since there's so many of them, and I'm hoping to get to more this year.

Palo Alto County library has a great list for this one too:
https://indypl.bibliocommons.com/list...

I just finished This Is How You Lose the Time War ... and I think it would qualify? Has anyone else read it? Do you agree?

Is anyone else really confused by A Blade so Black being on the email suggestions? There's literally one gay kiss in it. I was so ready for gay Alice.

Janell wrote: "I just finished This Is How You Lose the Time War ... and I think it would qualify? Has anyone else read it? Do you agree?"

Queer, yes - retelling, no. It's fun and different though.

I did The Route of Ice and Salt, which wasn't what I was expecting (LGBTQ+ rep)

I'm going with a volume of Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series. It's a retelling of the Odysseus myth!

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter is queer two or three times over and a retelling of Sherlock Holmes in Cthulu-esque alt Victorian London.

Kelly wrote: "The Affair of the Mysterious Letter is queer two or three times over and a retelling of Sherlock Holmes in Cthulu-esque alt Victorian London."

Oh! I have this book and didn't realize it was considered a retelling. This is perfect! Thank you for the rec!

I just finished Peter Darling for this one and it was really good.

Would She Who Became the Sun work for this, y'all think? Set in an alternate China, it's a fantastical, genderqueer retelling of the founding of the Ming dynasty. I loved it. It's one of my favorite reads so far this year (4.5 stars). It's a fantastic adventure story.

Laura wrote: "Is anyone else really confused by A Blade so Black being on the email suggestions? There's literally one gay kiss in it. I was so ready for gay Alice."

I thought it was a Romeo and Juliet retelling?

Just noticee this went to the wrong person 😩 it was supposed to be to Lexi in terms of This is How You Lose The Time War

Read A Spindle Splintered.

I read A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow for this, and enjoyed it. It's a novella, so a quick, fun read.