Retelling

Local Heavens by K.M. Fajardo Genres: Adult, LGBTQ+, Literary Fiction, Retelling, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Speculative Fiction Published by Bindery Books on October 13, 2025 Format: Hardcover Pages: 465 Source: Aardvark Book Club, Fae Crate A corporate hacker. An elusive billionaire. A society trying to survive the American Nightmare.  New York City, 2075. Filipino-American Nick Carraway has just moved to the heart of the fractured New Americas, where he’s struck by the city’s contradictions—shining corporate towers casting bleak shadows over the slums of a crumbling middle class.  When Nick meets alluring new-money Jay Gatsby, he falls for Gatsby’s frank charm and confident aura. But in a city where the wealthy flaunt tech-enhanced bodies to cheat death, surfaces aren’t all they seem—and as a corporate- sanctioned cyberspace hacker, Nick knows that no secret can stay buried forever. He’s the reason they don’t. And his latest assignment? Investigate Gatsby himself.  As Nick becomes entangled in the dark affairs of the elite—and the devastating fallout of their actions on the city’s most vulnerable—he must reckon with the limits of compassion and accountability across class and status. What takes precedence: Love, or truth? Heart, or soul?  A brilliant reimagining of Fitzgerald’s classic tale of glamour, …

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Dark Academia, Fairy Tale, Low Fantasy, Retelling Published by Tor on July 31, 2025 Format: Hardcover, Special Edition Pages: 357 Source: Owlcrate From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White” steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind.  Healer Anja regularly drinks poison.  Not to die, but to save—seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.  But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.  Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.  Or it might be the thing that kills them all. “Mirror mirror on the wall, give me a tale, creative from them all.” (please excuse the clunky line, I thought it would make a fun opening). Anywho, pitched as an original …

After the Forest by Kell Woods Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Low Fantasy, Magic, Historical Fiction, Retelling, Young Adult Published by Titan Books on September 25, 2023 Format: Hardcover, Special Edition Pages: 463 Source: Illumicrate Ginger. Honey. Cinnamon. Flour. A drop of blood to bind its power.  1650: The Black Forest, Wurttemberg.  Fifteen years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their mother and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people recovering in the aftermath of a brutal war. Greta has a secret, the witch’s grimoire, secreted away and whispering in her ear, and the recipe inside that makes the most sinfully delicious – and addictive – gingerbread.  As long as she can bake, Greta can keep her small family afloat. But in a village full of superstition, Greta and her intoxicating gingerbread is a source of ever-growing suspicion and vicious gossip.  And now, dark magic is returning to the woods and Greta’s own powers – magic she is still trying to understand – may be the only thing that can save her … If it doesn’t kill …

A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek Genres: Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Low Fantasy, Magic, LGBTQ+, Retelling, Young Adult Published by Penguin Format: Hardcover, Special Edition Pages: 390 Source: Illumicrate Magic has long been outlawed in Auréal. Odile has always know she’d be the one to restore it.  Raised by a sorcerer, Odile has spent years preparing for the heist of a lifetime. It’s perfectly simple: impersonate a princess, infiltrate the palace, steal the enchanted crown and restore magic to the kingdom.  But when the king is unexpectedly murdered, she’s forced to recruit the help of Marie, the real princess, and the two begin to unravel a web of lies and deceit that leaves Odile uncertain of whom to trust.  Soon though Odile must decide — her mission or the girl she’s falling for?  The fate of the kingdom depends on her making the right choice.. An ambitiously creative and well-rounded sapphic retelling of Swan Lake, A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek is a wonderful low fantasy story featuring a great mix of storylines and elements. While many retellings either struggle with adhering to their source material or end up predictable given their well-known general plots, A Treachery of Swans …

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher Series: Sworn Soldier #1 Genres: Adult, Fiction, Gothic, Horror, Psychological Horror, Retelling, Thriller, Suspense, Speculative Fiction Published by Tor Nightfire on July 12, 2022 Format: Hardcover Pages: 165 From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Fall of the House of Usher.”  When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.  What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.  Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all. Foreboding and just slightly unsettling, T. Kingfisher’s What Moves The Dead is an atmospheric modern retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s famous short story The Fall of the House of Usher. If one is familiar with the literary classic source material, you can …