This was hard to title for me since I don’t know how to word it to get my point across accurately! Basically this is a list of things or ideas I want to see more of in books, I will be listing the book or books I originally saw them in if it applies too. Hopefully the list will kind of explain itself as you read I will also link reviews for the books mentioned if I have them!
Also if you have any recommendations for me where these elements are present please let me know in the comments!
Contemporary/Modern Royalty (Preferably YA)
I don’t know why but I cannot get enough of contemporary royal fiction and I feel like there are a lot but at the same time not a lot? I just loved “Royals” by Rachel Hawkins so much and I’ve been wanting to read something similar so badly! I’m a little picky with what I want to read though with royalty like I want it to be an interesting but I don’t want it to be too corny or boring. (I basically just want Royals #2)
I have heard of Princess Diaries (of course) and The Royal We which I’m not super interested in reading, but if you have any recommendations for contemporary royalty books that are either YA or NA please let me know! (I won’t read any erotica though so if that’s what you recommend, I’m sorry but that’s not my style).
Ancient Civilizations or More Unique Historical Fiction (YA)
It’s always so odd that we get fantasy YA books inspired by ancient civilizations or times but never really any historical fiction set there. And historical fiction in YA are always the early 1900’s or the Victorian era it feels like. So where are my YA historical fictions set back further in time? Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia? Or let’s see more Vikings or Mayans and Aztecs! That’d be so much more interesting! Also pirates too, Golden Age of piracy where are those books?
“And I Darken” is one of the few books I have read with this, portraying the Ottoman Empire and the old European country Wallachia. I need more!
Death Personified
I don’t know why but I love stories where death is personified and falls in love, maybe I just sort of romantically morbid. I can’t get enough of it, it’s one of the few exceptions I’ll make for a romance focused story.
I have read this in “East of West: Vol, 1” and while I thought the story was alright I really liked the Death aspect. Same with “Pretty Deadly: Vol, 1” which I liked a lot better, the story of Death falling in love in this graphic novel was done a lot more interestingly. I do own a copy of “Keturah and Lord Death” where Death is personified and I believe Keturah falls in love with him, still have yet to read it though!
Historical or Folkloric Genderbends
Once again I’m stealing this from “And I Darken”, why can’t we see more genderbent historical figures or folkloric figures? I mean a female Vlad the Impaler was awesome! How about a female Alexander the Great or female King Leonidas? Or a female King Arthur and a male Morgana? Why is no one making these things happen?! If anyone wants to write these stories for me, please do it!
Sci-fi Horror (YA)
I know this one isn’t as original as the others but it’s still something I want to see more of especially in YA. Sure there’s plenty of sci-fi, not plenty of horror, and definitely not enough sci-fi horror! Where are all of my ‘Alien’ retellings?! Space is a terrifying place it isn’t hard to make it into a horror show, let’s see more of it!
The perfect example is “Contagion” by Erin Bowman, it’s literally the perfect YA sci-fi horror! It blends together so many different threats and is super intense to read through.
YA Horror, Fantasy, or Sci-fi Anthologies
I feel like there really aren’t that many anthologies in YA and when there are they’re mostly contemporaries. I absolutely adored two YA anthologies “Slasher Girls & Monster Boys” which is horror and “A Thousand Beginnings and Endings” which is East and South Asian folklore and myth retellings. Both were absolutely fantastic and I need more anthologies like these!!!
Dark Retellings
There’s nothing more interesting to me than to read about an old childhood tale being turned on its head and twisted! It doesn’t necessarily have to be horror but anything more on the dark side, I think it’s an intriguing concept to twist our favorite fairy tales or stories into something a bit more sinister.
Perfect examples would be “Alice” and “Lost Boy” both by Christina Henry, those are some pretty dark retellings of both Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan respectively.
Would you read any books with these concepts?
Have you read any books with these concepts or something similar?
What are some plot concepts you’d like to see more of?
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I think the only thing on this list that I’m not over here like “yesss please!” over is contemporary royalty, and that’s only because I’ve hardly ever read it so I don’t know if I like it – but I assume that I would, since I enjoy books about historical royalty! But especially YES to hist-fic set in something other than Victorian England – don’t get me wrong, 19th century London is literally one of my favorite settings of all time, but my other favorite setting is ancient Egypt, and I don’t remember the last time I read a book set there, but it was probably a middle grade story as a kid!
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Yes, Destiny oh my gosh! I was the biggest Ancient Egypt geek when I was kid I mean I literally had these giant encyclopedia books about it and just consumed information so it’s of course one of my favorite settings as well and this just made my heart soar! I do think it’s a more Middle Grade setting, since that’s the only time I’ve seen that as a setting, but I would literally kill for a YA set there! How about a ‘The Mummy’ retelling? Can someone please make that happen because I’m here for it! 🙂
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YESSSS! Encyclopedias lmao! I LOVED encyclopedias as a kid. And yes, I would TOTALLY be down for a GOOD Mummy retelling. ♥
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I’m itching to read more books with all of these concepts! Haha. I haven’t read a Contemporary Royalty novel yet. I read Rebel Belle and wasn’t a huge fan of it, so I’ve been hesitant to read Royals!
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I haven’t read Rebel Belle yet, but I thought “Royals” was so amazing and I’m usually not one for contemporary romances at all but it had me won over! 🙂
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I am all for – Ancient Civilizations or More Unique Historical Fiction (YA). I think that would be awesome. I really enjoyed Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles and Circe. They way she weaves mythology and relatable human characteristics is phenomenal. I felt like I was reading a person sit in today’s world. Her writing is exquisite.
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I could gush all day about Madeline Miller! You’re right her writing and storytelling ability is amazing, I don’t think I could find a single thing wrong with her books even if I tried! 🙂
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I am so here for ALL OF THESE! I’d be interested in Modern Royalty, since, ya know, royal wedding and all.
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Yes, so glad I’m not the only one over dying for these types of books! There really aren’t enough modern royalty books out there in my opinion, I did a lot of searching and I mean they’re out there but they might not necessarily be really good, ya know? But I definitely recommend “Royals” if you haven’t checked that one out yet and need your royal wedding fix! 🙂
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It’s been on my list for ages, just trying to power through my TBR first! I’ve heard so many good things about it!!!
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I agree with more ancient civilizations and darker retellings 🙂 I feel like the darker retelllings, depending on the story, work much better with the original source material.
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Great list! The Book Thief and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series both have personifications of Death but they don’t fall in love 😁
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Thank you and I have heard of both but I’ll have to go check them out, especially the Discworld series thank you for the recs! 🙂
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You should try Devil’s Intern by Donna Hosie. Thats dark humor about teens in Hell and the best character is a Viking. The 3rd book in the series is from his POV and it’s one of the funniest, scariest, most moving books I’ve read.
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I have heard of that one before but hearing how much you enjoyed it I’ll have to go check it out again! I do enjoy dark comedies! 🙂
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Great post! And a lot of these I want to see more of as well: especially science fiction horror!. You might like the Expanse series of novels (it’s also a terrific tv series). While at the beginning of the first book it starts of like kind of a detective style noir novel, it changes gears later on and then turns quite creepy. Another one you might like is The Terror by Dan Simmons an historical type of horror book with some very dark elements.
Thanks for entering this post in the showcase 😊😊
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I feel like To Kill a Kingdom is a dark retelling of The Little Mermaid and I absolutely love it. I also like the Dorothy Must Die series which is a dark retelling of The Wizard of Oz. And one book that I can think of death personified is The Book Thief. But all of these concepts sounds really cool and I would love to see more of these as well!
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