Why Retellings Are Popular

Well, am I a lucky girl or what?  My first posting on YATopia and I have the great honor of inviting Nazarea Andrews to do a guest post on Why Retellings Are Popular.  So take it away, Nazarea...

 

 

Why Retellings Are Popular

I'm supposed to actually talk about this so 'Because they're freakin' awesome' won't cut it.

But, seriously? It's because they're freaking awesome.

...

.....

........

Right. More talking. Ok, so I have a long standing love affair with fairy tales. Devoured every book of them I could--when I moved two weeks ago, the only book that I didn't pack was my copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

But my first real experience with retellings was my freshman year of college when my hall-mate gave me Daughter of the Forest. It's a gorgeous retelling of The Seven Swans and in a semester that included a full course load, a job, a social life and several 12-hour drives home, I devoured it.

Since then, retellings have become a staple in my library. Fairy tale retellings hold a special place, of course, but I love Greek mythology and classics and biblical retellings too--I'm not picky.

To be super honest, I love these stories because they're familiar. They're the same ones I grew up on, the ones that were my bedtime stories and littered my Sunday mornings and what I studied in high school. They are intimately familiar.

To me, a retelling is meeting an old friend after a few years--there is so much new, so much change, for the good and bad, and yet--under the dystopian setting, or the sci-fi, or even the modern high school, it's familiar. It's something I know I love. It's a story that touched me, years ago, slipping back into my life with all it's changes.

We don't ever really outgrow fairy tales and the stories of our childhood. Retellings are just an adult (or YA) way of reconnecting with the stories we loved.

One of my favorite quotes says it best: "One day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." C.S. Lewis.

NazareaAndrews is an avid reader and tends to write the stories she wants to read. She loves chocolate and coffee almost as much as she loves books, but not quite as much as she loves her kids. She lives in south Georgia with her husband, daughters, and overgrown dog. Her first book, Edge of the Falls, is available March 12.

Edge of the Falls synopsis:

Sabah always knew where she belonged—with Berg—and what was expected of her—to care for the other children the Mistress took in.

But when a ban-wolf saves her life, things begin to change.

Arjun isn’t like the other ban-wolves, the savage creatures that are barely human. He’s gentle and furious and as Sabah spends time with him, she can’t seem to get him out of her mind. But in a world of darkness, control, and danger, is there a place for two outcasts?

A romantic retelling of Beauty and the Beast in a dark dystopia.

Thank you very much, Nazarea!