Retellings have experienced a remarkable renaissance in recent years. But instead of simply retrodding familiar ground, authors are increasingly reclaiming these stories to explore narratives that have either long been overlooked or deliberately obscured. In a time when myths and stories are being co-opted to reinforce dangerous rhetoric, retellings that challenge traditional interpretations and create space for historically silenced voices become not only invaluable but imperative.
In the realm of Greco-Roman mythology specifically, we’ve seen a meteoric rise in novels giving voices to the women cast to the sidelines of epic tales (Natalie Haynes’s A Thousand Ships and Eilish Quin’s Medea immediately come to mind); and slowly but surely, we’re starting to see more books that finally give queer characters their rightful place at the center of the narrative, too.
I first learned about the sirens in high school when The Odyssey was assigned for an English class; like many authors before me, I found the side characters to be far more compelling than the poem’s main character Odysseus. How did his wife Penelope feel being left behind for two decades Why did Calypso fall in love with a man who supposedly spurned her advances over a period of seven years? And most importantly for my writing journey: who were the sirens?
Based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses interpretation of the myth of Persephone, my debut novel Those Fatal Flowers picks up where Ovid left off–in the aftermath of Prosperpina’s abduction to the Underworld. My main character Thelia is heartbroken over the loss of her first love and the role she unwittingly played in Proserpina’s kidnapping, and the novel follows her and her sisters, the sirens, after they’re banished to the island of Scopuli for failing to find her. It weaves this lesser-known myth with the mystery of Roanoke Colony to explore themes of loss, love, and feminine rage, and the transformative power of each.
As readers continue to devour these novels, the appetite for queer retellings has only grown stronger. This reading list highlights books that breathe new life into old stories focusing on a queer lens. From reimagined epics to radical reimaginings of familiar fairy tales, these novels demonstrate how familiar tales can be transformed to explore gender, sexuality, and identity in powerful ways. Each book offers a unique perspective on love, power, and transformation–some more literally than others—while honoring the complex legacy of tales that have remained with us through the centuries.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Arguably the catalyst for the popularity of the retelling genre, this reimagining of The Iliad is beloved for a reason–it’s heartbreakingly beautiful. Although the romantic nature of Patroclus and Achilles’s relationship isn’t explicitly stated in the Homeric tradition, the question of whether the two were more than just friends confounded even Ancient Greek authors. Plato named it a model of romantic love, where Aeschines asserted there was no need to label their relationship as a romantic one.
In The Song of Achilles, Miller does away with the ambiguity. Told from Patroclus’s perspective, the novel follows him as he’s taken in by Peleus, the King of Phthia, where he grows close to his son Achilles. When Achilles requests that Peleus allow Patroculus to become his sworn companion, the two become inseparable–to the point where the gentle Patroclus eventually follows Achilles into war.
Gentlest of Wild Things by Sarah Underwood
Gentlest of Wild Things is another story inspired by Greco-roman mythology, this one in the Young Adult space. This time, the myth of Eros and Psyche serves as the source of inspiration. The novel follows sixteen-year-old Eirene, whose town is controlled by one of Eros’s descendants, Leandros. When his wife dies suddenly, Leandros decides to marry Eirene’s sister, Phoebe. Determined to keep her sister safe, Eirene strikes a deal: if she can complete four elaborate tasks designed by Leandros, she’ll marry him instead. But as the tasks become more difficult, Eirene finds help from an unlikely source: Lamia, the daughter that Leandros keeps hidden away. Although not a strict retelling, this sapphic fantasy takes the familiar setting of Ancient Greece and uses it to explore themes of feminism and disability.
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
Shifting out of the realm of mythology and into folklore, Silver in the Wood is a loose retelling of the Green Man, an ancient figure from British folklore whose motif can be found in medieval church architecture. This lyrical novella follows Tobias, a man who has served as the Wild Man of Greenhollow for centuries. When Henry Silver, a folklore scholar and the new landlord of Greenhollow Hall, turns up at Tobias’s door, Tobias is forced to reckon with his past, and dark questions he’d rather leave unanswered.
In only a little over one hundred pages, Tesh creates an atmospheric world filled with magic that is both deeply emotional and startlingly beautiful.
A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
Sutherland’s lush A Sweet Sting of Salt gives readers a sapphic retelling of selkie folklore. Selkies are creatures who can shapeshift between human and seal forms by either putting on or removing their seal skins. In the most common version of the story, a human man forces a selkie into marrying him by stealing and hiding her seal skin, thus preventing her from returning to the sea.
When a cry awakens Jean, the only midwife in her isolated seaside town, during the middle of a storm, she’s shocked to discover a mysterious woman in labor. After Jean’s neighbor Tobias comes to collect the woman, Muirin, and reveals her as his new wife, Jean finds herself drawn to a woman as mystifying as the sea itself. Set in 19th century Nova Scotia, Sutherland breathes both a new setting and new life into traditional selkie tales. More importantly, she gives Muirin and Jean the ending they deserve.
Malice by Heather Walter
In the realm of fairy tales, Malice poses the question: what if Maleficent wasn’t actually the witch who cursed the princess, but Aurora’s love interest? Technically a sapphic retelling of Sleeping Beauty, Walter also pulls elements from both Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast to create a dark twist on classic fairy tales.
In Walter’s retelling, Princess Aurora is cursed to die on her twenty-first birthday unless she receives true love’s kiss, thanks to a spell placed upon her by Alyce’s ancestors. As Alyce learns more about herself and her dark magic, she discovers it might be possible to change the trajectory of her life while saving Aurora’s as well.
Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
In the world of Bayron’s incredible debut, Cinderella has been dead for 200 years, and her legacy has had devastating consequences for the kingdom of Mersailles. Girls born in the dystopian city of Lille are raised knowing that they need to secure a husband at the royal ball, and those who fail for three consecutive years are forfeit.
This novel follows Sophia, a queer black girl, on the cusp of her first ball. Sophia has no interest in finding a husband because she’s in love with someone else–her best friend, Erin. When Sophia’s night at the ball goes horribly wrong, she finds herself running for her life and ends up in Cinderella’s tomb. There, she meets someone who shows her she has the power to remake her world. Cinderella is Dead gives us a new “Cinderella” for the modern age–one with the agency she deserves.
The Salt Grows Heavy by Kassandra Khaw
This retelling of The Little Mermaid is unlike any you’ve ever read. In this version, the mermaid doesn’t come ashore to marry the prince of her own volition like her Disney counterpart does, nor does she change back into seafoam like Hans Christian Andersen’s. After her daughters devour and destroy the kingdom, the mermaid finds herself on the run with a mysterious plague doctor who has a darkness of their own.
This horror novella stuns with its gory images, but also manages to tell a beautiful love story in a small amount of pages. The writing is stunning, and the ending will make you weep.
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
A retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, this novel follows Alex Easton, a non-binary war veteran from the fictional country of Gallicia. After receiving news that their childhood friend (and perhaps one-time love interest) Madeline Usher is dying, Alex rushes to her ancestral home. But the House of Usher is a living nightmare: the grounds contain possessed wildlife, it’s surrounded by an eerie lake, and all around, a mysterious fungal growth abounds. With the help of a British mycologist and American doctor, Alex must unravel the house’s secrets before it destroys them all.
This dark and atmospheric retelling is just as spooky as the original, although you might not be able to look at hares the same way after reading it.