The Parameters

I’d like to lay out the guidelines I plan on using when choosing books to read and review as well as how I’m going to write those reviews. This will help limit my choices, because when it comes to retellings, there’s a lot out there and it can get a little overwhelming. First, in case it wasn’t obvious, I am limiting my reviews on this blog to books, more precisely books that are works of fiction. Movies, plays, musicals, um… interpretive dance–these are all out, not because I don’t think there’s a plethora of works of staggering genius out there, but because of the aforementioned not wanting to overwhelm myself and because I’m just more strongly pulled toward written works. 

Second, I’m limiting my reviews to books written within the past 60 years. The reason for this is that I’m highly interested in what the retelling brings to modern audiences. 60 years might even be a bit too much, but one of the first books I read to review was written in 1966, so I wanted my timeframe to be wide enough to include it. And 60 years is just a smidge longer than I’ve been alive myself (I’m 51), so I feel it’s fitting. Still, I suspect most of these books will fall in a much more recent range.

Thirdly, ‘loosely based’ is okay, but ‘inspired by’--not so much. There’s a difference between a retelling and a work that simply draws upon established tropes and I’d like to stick to stories in which you can find those threads of the previous story woven through. Again, it narrows the field of options, but also, it’s only looking at true retellings that offers any insight into what new perspectives the author brings to the story. In that vein, prequels and sequels are in a more vague territory and will be chosen or rejected on a case-by-case basis. If it feels like it strays too far from the original and becomes a wholly unique thing, I might not be as interested in it.

Fourth, I’m interested in fiction written for adults as well as children, from about middle grade on up. That is, books for the 9-12 set, up through YA (young adult) and adult fiction are all fair game. 

As far as how the writing of my reviews will go, I plan on following a particular format, which will both make the writing of each review easier and ensure that I don’t miss anything important that I might want to say about the work. The format I use will look like this:

• Summary A brief, spoiler-free summary of the retelling.
• Where does it come from? This section will talk about the original story that is being retold.
• What does it retain? This section talks about what the retelling holds on to from the original.
• What new things does it bring? This section details any new insights and perspectives brought to the table by the retelling.
• Is it worth it? This will be an opinion-based section that talks about whether the retelling is worth the reader’s time.
• You might like if… A quick section that lets you know if the retelling might be of interest to you if you like [fairy tales, dark fantasy, Jane Austen, etc.].