Welcome back to Wednesday Links! How are we all doing? I can start to feel fall in the air and I’m so ready. Also, I’m eager for this jam-packed month to be over. Before my partner and I go grocery shopping, we pick the 3-4 meals we plan to cook in the next couple weeks. I found a harissa-spiced cauliflower soup recipe in the Cookish cookbook and I’m looking forward to that the most. I love … Continue reading Links: A GoFundMe, Sapphic Reading Recs, & More →
Beth and Amy is a pitch-perfect retelling of Little Women / Good Wives from the point of view of Beth, Amy, and occasionally Abigail March. It completely captures the personalities of the March girls and their friends and family, while bringing them convincingly into the modern era. I loved it. Amy is returning to Bunyan for her sister Jo’s wedding to Eric Bhaer, and is apprehensive about seeing Trey Lawrence again. She has had a … Continue reading Beth and Amy by Virginia Kantra →
Ten Things I Hate About You is one of my favourite films and a truly great reimagining of a classic play. It takes Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and strips out the misogyny, the violence, and the straight up gaslighting and abuse, while keeping the banter and the chemistry between Kate and Petrucchio. Ten Things I Hate About the Duke takes Shrew in one hand and Ten Things in the other, stirs them together, adds … Continue reading Ten Things I Hate About The Duke by Loretta Chase →
CW: self-harm, threat of sexual violence, passing reference to possible actual sexual violence against a young girl Have you ever said to yourself “I want to read a Robin Hood story, but full of lesbians and other queer people?” Well, good news! Because that’s exactly what Nottingham is! I couldn’t have come up with a more joyfully queer interpretation of it if I’d tried. That said, it’s specifically the queer rep that’s joyful and not … Continue reading Nottingham by Anna Burke →
TW/CW: Murder, graphic violence, racism, ableist language, mentions of rape and sexual assault. The Girl in Red by Christina Henry is the latest addition in her gritty fairy tale retellings. They aren’t part of a connected series, but Henry has done retellings of Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, and Peter Pan. This one retells Little Red Riding Hood where a young woman tries to get to her grandmother’s house following an outbreak of deadly … Continue reading The Girl in Red by Christina Henry →
TW/CW: Potentially disordered eating. Somewhere Only We Know is an adorable YA romance that feels very much like a modern Roman Holiday retelling between a K-Pop star and a freelance tabloid photographer. It’s light and incredibly sweet. This isn’t to imply that it lacks substance; there were just deeper issues that could have used extra exploration. Lucky is a K-Pop superstar who has just wrapped up a multi-city tour ending in Hong Kong. The following … Continue reading Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo →
The Princess and the Fangirl is a romantic YA retelling of The Prince and the Pauper, set at a science fiction convention. This book, the second in the Geekerella series, includes a f/f romance and a f/m romance but is primarily about the personal growth of the two heroines, Jessica and Imogene. It is lighter than a piece of glitter but does a good job of capturing the crowded, crazy convention world. You can certainly get … Continue reading The Princess and the Fangirl by Ashley Poston →
Fans of romantic YA and fans of dark retellings of fairy tales will want to check out The Sea Witch. The Sea Witch is both a YA retelling and prequel of The Little Mermaid. It abounds in fantasy and plot twists and romance, although it’s quite clear from the outset that this book will NOT have a happy ending. A cool ending, yes. A weirdly satisfying ending? Sure. A happy ending? Nope. The story takes place … Continue reading The Sea Witch by Sarah Hemming →
I enjoyed The Afterlife of Holly Chase very much – but I didn’t love it until the very last page. The end is what earns it a spot on my keeper shelf, and I won’t reveal the end, no, not even in a spoiler tag. You just have to trust me that it’s lovely. Holly Chase is a rich teenager who is a simply horrible person. At the age of seventeen, she is visited by … Continue reading The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand →
It frustrates me that I didn’t like Pride more than I did, because the concept is awesome. In this modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice, teenager Zuri Benitez, who is Afro-Latino, lives in Bushwick, New York, with her family. They live next door to a run-down mansion that is purchased and remodeled by a Black family from Manhattan. Zuri can’t stand her new neighbors, especially Darius Darcy. With his rich ways, he doesn’t fit in … Continue reading Pride by Ibi Zoboi →
If I Loved You Less takes on a tricky Austen story (Emma) and fails to hit the right tone in retelling it. In Emma, the heroine is clueless but well-meaning as she tries (and fails) to play matchmaker. She makes mistakes, but with the help of the love interest (her older neighbor, Mr. Knightley) she learns from those mistakes and grows as a person. Unfortunately, the heroine in If I Loved You Less is annoying … Continue reading If I Loved You Less by Tamsen Parker →
