So I have recently been reading Hungerstone, a Carmilla retelling set in England during the Industrial Revolution era. And it's not bad, per se, but it's also not particularly inventive or got anything to say beyond slightly dramatic, Tumblr-esque quotes about female rage and womanhood is horror etc etc.
This, in turn, got me thinking about What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher, which was perfectly adequate as a retelling of The Fall of The House of Usher, but didn't necessarily reinvent the story in any interesting way (or maybe I'm just biased, because I love mycological horror–but this book had such a boring take on it).
And I have to ask, which one do you guys think is worse: a retelling that totally distorts the point of the original text (for example, the recent surge of P&P retellings which reduce Elizabeth and Darcy to grumpy asshole billionaire x sunshine feminist girl next door), or a retelling which understands and appreciates the spirit of its parent text but really does nothing special with its own narrative as a reinterpretation?
book retellings: which is worse according to you?
retelling where author dilutes or distorts the themes of the original story
retelling where author understands original story, but adds nothing new to it
Voting ended onMay 13, 2025
Note: this pertains to book retellings only, and not to TV and cinema. Also note, adaptation from one format to another =/ retelling.
‘She wasn’t a good mother’ great are we evaluating this character trait as one of her many facets or are we just damning her for not being the most maternal womanliest woman who ever womaned
An extensive list of the sources I have found on Internet Archive
Last updated 12/23/24
It would be quite selfish of me to keep these to myself, wouldn't it? This list will be updated frequently, in accordance to what I have found. These were found while doing my own research for various topics, and taken from the bibliographies of many books. Some of these I will have cited in posts of mine, many others will not appear anywhere in my work. Mostly primary sources, but quite a few books make their appearance.
Lefkowitz, Arthur S. George Washington's Indispensable Men
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Massey, Gregory D. John Laurens and The American Revolution
Moultrie, William. Memoirs of
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Parton, James. The Life and Times of Aaron Burr
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Ramsay, David. The History of The Revolution of South Carolina
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Steiner, Bernard Christian. The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry
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Tarleton, Banastre. A History of The Campaigns of 1780 and 1781, in The Southern Provinces of North America
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Ward, Christopher. The War of The Revolution
Washington, George. Papers of
Agricultural papers
Revolutionary war series
Volume 8
Volume 11
Presidential series
Volume 7
Volume 15
Retirement series
Volume 3
it’s kinda sad how hamilton and burr disagreed a bit in act one, but when you hear the overlap, it’s like a memory playing as burr spoke, assuming hamilton was going to shoot him
dammit mind stop that
kianamaiart
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
gummygunk
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
titsay
