NPR has posted a review of Anne Fortier's novel Juliet, a modern, completely re-imagined take on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I'm not sure I'll read this—the cover is totally boring, and I am more than a little concerned by Fortier's comments about not wanting to be "weighed down" by doing too much research—but I am sincerely hopeful that this book will inspire a new craze for re-working Shakespeare, allowing poor, much-abused Jane Austen to rest in peace.

Labels: New Releases, Retellings, William Shakespeare

If you're looking for a genuinely creepy take on the vampire genre (versus, say, a mopey, dopey, heavy-on-the-sixpack-abs one), check out the trailer for Let Me In, the upcoming film remake of the 2008 Swedish movie Let The Right One In, which was based on a 2004 novel by horror writer John Ajvide Lindqvist. I've never had the stomach to read the book (there's more horror in it than just the vampire stuff, apparently), but I hear it's very good.

Labels: Horror, Movie Adaptations, Retellings, Vampires

Angelina Jolie to play the Wicked Witch of the West in a Wizard of Oz remake?

...I could see that, actually. I think she'd rock the green paint, but they might want to go for a more form-fitting outfit.

Labels: Movie Adaptations, Retellings

X-Men: Misfits is a shōjo-style retelling of Kitty Pryde's introduction to the X-Men written by Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman and featuring sharp, clean-lined artwork by Anzu. The story is set before Professor Xavier's accident, and focuses on 15-year-old Kitty, whose mutant power is the ability to phase through matter—helpful when she wants to hide from nosey classmates, but decidedly unhelpful when she runs the risk of falling out of an airplane! Kitty has always felt like a freak, but when she receives a scholarship to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters she discovers that there are other people out there with powers every bit as strange and disturbing as hers... and some of them happen to be super-hot teenage boys.

Telgemeier and Roman's take on this X-Men backstory features every shōjo cliché in the book: Kitty is the lone girl in a boys-only school, she is immediately befriended by a group of the best-looking and most powerful students, and she finds herself torn between half-a-dozen romantic foils. She's adorably klutzy, too (what shōjo heroine isn't?), although she falls through stuff rather than over it. Frequent manga readers might find such a derivative storyline irritating, but we suspect manga newbies will enjoy themselves—after all, there's a reason these plot elements became so popular in the first place, and this cute, girl-friendly title makes excellent use of them.

[Review based on publisher-provided copy.]

Labels: Book Reviews, Comics, manga, Retellings

When Mary Street’s The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy was first published in the U.K. in 1999, it looked like this:


Now, almost ten years later, it is finally being published in the United States. The new edition from Penguin looks like this:


Quite a step up, huh? The new version is a much better fit for Street’s novel, which is one of the best Pride and Prejudice-inspired titles I have ever read. Unlike many of the novels that have re-told Austen’s story from Darcy’s point of view, Ms. Street’s novel is G-rated, well-written, and sticks closely to the Pride and Prejudice storyline. (Unlike some people, Ms. Street obviously understands that most readers are only mildly interested in a creative interpretation of what Darcy does during the time he is absent from the original novel.)

The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy has its flaws: Street’s attempt to imitate Austen’s style results in a lot of strange grammar choices, and her vision of Mr. Darcy as a man of overpowering-but-ruthlessly-suppressed passion gets a little silly. (He’s like a pot about to boil over, all of the time.) Still, Ms. Street’s novel is extremely entertaining, and American readers should be delighted that this well-written Austen tribute is now available—and with such respectable cover art.

Labels: Book Cover, Jane Austen, Mary Street, Retellings

Austen fans take note: There are currently two books out entitled Mr. Darcy's Diary. One (which we are planning on reviewing in a few weeks) is by Amanda Grange, and one is by Maya Slater. We singled the Slater title out a few months ago for its appealing cover art, but if you're interested in, say, plausible characterization, you might want to stick with Grange's interpretation.

Novelist Wendy Holden recently wrote a review of the Slater book for the Daily Mail. According to Holden, Slater's Darcy is "emotionally literate and perceptive... interested in good cooking, sensitive to his men-friends and into social justice and ethical investing... cool with homosexuality...". Well, that all sounds nice. I'm not sure about the "emotionally perceptive" part (that doesn't sound much like Austen's Mr. Darcy), but, hey, I'm open minded about a little character tweaking!

Oh, wait. Apparently, "Darcy gets busy with two blondes during an orgy at Newstead Abbey".

...okay, I'm not that open minded. So I checked out the sample pages released by Ms. Slater's publisher, and by page 11 Mr. Darcy is spending quality time with a hooker named Clarabelle. Clarabelle has, and I quote, "fine paps to her".

Charming!

To read all of Ms. Holden's review, click here.

Labels: Jane Austen, Retellings