Top 5 Wednesday: Retellings

Hey guys and welcome back to my blog! I'm Genni and today I will be participating in Top 5 Wednesday, a weekly meme hosted by Lainey at gingerreadslainey. Make sure to check out her youtube channel here! These aren't in any particular order.

5.) Dr. Franklin's Island by Ann Halam
This novel by Ann Halam isn't that well known, but I discovered it back in middle school. Dr. Franklin's Island is based off of The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells. Needless to say, the book is pretty creepy and gets kind of gross (in a good way!) about half way through.  Since then, I've actually read this book two other times! I do have some problems with it, but overall it is a really interesting story that hooks me in every time I read the book. Every single time I reread this book I found something more about it that I didn't notice the time before.

4.) Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
I bet you can't guess what Of Beast and Beauty is a retelling of. You guessed it! Cinderella.  No, it is a loose retelling of Beauty and the Beast. There are the same underlying themes and parallels throughout the whole entire book and I like the spin that Stacey Jay put on the classic fairy tale. In fact, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book back when I read it and the it exceeded my expectations.

3.) Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer
Between the Lines isn't necessarily a retelling of anything in particular, but takes underlying themes from several fairy tales. In fact, this book kind of pokes fun at the tropes and stereotypes found in all the common and most well known fairy tales. If you haven't read this book and its sequel novel, Off the Page, definitely do so! I had such a great experience reading the two books!

2.) The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
How could I not mention Lunar Chronicles on my blog?! It's one of my favorite series of all time and each book in the quartet introduces two new main characters based off of fairy tales. Cinder and Kai, from the first novel Cinder, are based from Cinderella. Scarlet and Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, Cress and Thorne from Rapunzel, and finally Winter and Jacin from Snow White. The plot is this whole entire series gets more and more intricate in all the right ways and is amazing. The characters are what really drives the series and makes it so well done.

1.) Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan

Last but not least is Percy Jackson & the Olympians! PJ & O is to me what Harry Potter is to a lot of people. Most people don't realize this when they are reading it (I didn't when I did at first!), but the story is loosely (see: very loosely) based on The Odyssey and Odysseus' journey. Except, Percy Jackson isn't such a egotistical player. All five of these books have Greek mythology in them as well as the spin off series, Heroes of Olympus.

So that's my top 5 Wednesday! Do we have any books in common? What are some of your favorite retellings?

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you guys soon with another post!

Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!