Book Recs that Put a Twist on the Classics

My upcoming release, The Betrayal of Eden, is a reimagining of the classic novel, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. While you may be familiar with retellings of fairytales (or Bible stories), retellings of classic literature is a whole genre as well that puts new twists on timeless tales. Here are some great classic novels and young adult retellings that have some similar twists to The Betrayal of Eden!

Dark Fantasy

This is a subgenre that reimagines the original work with a darker, edgier tone, often exploring themes of mortality, angst, the nature of evil, and challenging the idea of "happily ever after".

Heartless by Marissa Meyer is a villain origin story prequel for Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, where long before she was the terror of Wonderland―the infamous Queen of Hearts―she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.

Gender Swapped Hero

This is a trope in which a character or cast of characters’ biological sex is changed from the original work.

Olivia Twist by Lorie Langdon is a reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic tale Oliver Twist, exploring what might have happened if Oliver had actually been a girl disguised for her own safety, who grows up to confront her tangled past.

Expanded Into a Trilogy

Taking a single story and expanding it into a series—two or more books—provides an opportunity to flesh out the characters in a new way and reinvent more of the original work.

Power, romance, and destiny collide in this sweeping reimagining of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece Les Misérables, the System Divine Trilogy by Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell. (This is also one of my all-time favorite book series ever!)