Are you a fan of the classics and looking for a new book to read? Or maybe you’re reading a classic for school and stuck on the old-timey language? Either way, the library has a great selection of classic rewrites that will expand on stories you already know or help you relate to more modern characters and conflicts. Check out our selection of classic rewrites that will make you fall in love with stories based on authors like Shakespeare and Jane Austen!
An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X. R. Pan (Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare)
Hunter Yee is a skilled archer who is haunted by his family's past mistakes. Luna Chang is a high schooler who dreads graduation and her parents' expectations. When they meet, they must defy their families, redefine their lives, and escape danger.
Romeo and Juliet is an infamous story, but this book is a fresh perspective on the dynamics between the main characters and their families’ expectations, all set within a modern fantastical world. If you like magic, mythology, romance, Asian representation, and family dynamics, you’ll love this book!
For more Romeo and Juliet adaptations, check out These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong.
Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
Oliver Bennet, trapped by societal expectations to live as female, discovers the possibility of love and freedom when he forms a connection with Darcy, but is faced with the choice of living a secure but inauthentic life or risking everything for true self-expression and love.
This book imagines Elizabeth Bennet as a closeted transman and Mr. Darcy as a young man not interested in women, adding depth and further conflict to the story. If you like LGBTQ+ characters, romance, and social drama, this book is for you!
One For All by Lillie Lainoff (The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas)
In 1655, sixteen-year-old Tania is the daughter of a retired musketeer, but she is afflicted with extreme vertigo and subject to frequent falls; when her father is murdered she finds that he has arranged for her to attend Madame de Treville's newly formed Académie des Mariées in Paris, which, it turns out, is less a school for would-be wives, than a fencing academy for girls--and so Tania begins her training to be a new kind of musketeer, and to get revenge for her father.
This book follows the daughter of a Musketeer as she learns what life is like as a woman Musketeer. If you like revenge stories, female friendships, strong female protagonists, and disability representation, this book is for you!
Anne of West Philly by Ivy Noelle Weir (Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery)
In this modern retelling, Anne is fostered into the West Philly home of siblings Marilla and Matthew, and while she initially has a hard time at school, she ends up joining the robotics team and competes for a spot in an elite STEM program.
Reimagining Anne of Green Gables as a modern girl in the city, this graphic novel explores how Anne’s life would be different if she lived in the 21st century. If you like family dynamics, friendship, robotics, and graphic novels, this book is for you!
His Hideous Heart: Thirteen of Edgar Allan Poe's Most Unsettling Tales Reimagined by Various Authors
Edgar Allan Poe may be a hundred and fifty years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young adult fiction. Whether the stories are familiar to readers or discovered for the first time, readers will revel in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales, and how they’ve been brought to life in 13 unique and unforgettable ways.
Edgar Allen Poe’s dark and spooky stories get a modern twist in this anthology, placing Poe’s characters and plots in settings like futuristic sci-fi and blackout poetry. If you like horror, thrillers, short stories, poetry, or LGBTQ+ characters, this novel is for you!
The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake (Twelfth Night by Shakespeare)
Inspired loosely by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, teenaged Violet is shipped off to Maine after her brother's hospitalization, where she searches for the lost shipwreck that her great-great grandmother survived and for answers about her family's long struggle with mental illness, all while falling in love.
This book takes Twelfth Night’s LGBTQ+ undertones and brings them into the modern age with realistic characters, and, to top it off, a search for a real shipwreck. If you like friendship, romance, representation of mental illness, LGBTQ+ characters, and more, you’ll like this book!
For more Twelfth Night adaptations, check out Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth.
If you liked any of the books listed here or are looking for a specific classic, search the catalog with #yaclassicsretelling for an even bigger list of rewrites! And, if you’re ready to jump headfirst into the classics themselves, browse our Paperback Classics collection in the Adult Fiction section.