Summary: Grendel presents itself as a parallel novel to the first ever epic of Beowulf, telling the story of the monster Grendel. Grendel lives in an isolated cave with his mother, whom throughout the novel, he is unable to communicate with. Eventually, Grendel begins to wander further outside the cave, encountering humans. At first, he tries to befriend them. However, he is only seen as a monster and the humans attack him.
Our Violent Ends, by Chloe Gong, is the sequel to These Violent Delights and a continuation of the retelling of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. After Juliet’s supposed betrayal, Roma is on a spree of vengeance while Juliet tries to maintain her role as heir within the Scarlet Gang. But as both Gangs face blackmails that threaten to release more monsters, a collaboration of the heirs is proposed and the two back where they started.
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong is a teen fiction book but is a retelling of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The book follows Roma Montagov and Juliet Cai, the two heirs of the most fearsome gangs in 1926 Shanghai. It follows them in both the present and the past as the two struggle with their romantic relationship, as well as the threat of a monster lurking the streets. I personally loved this book; its plot, characters, and the world itself. It takes Romeo and Juliet’s main plot points and changes t
Madeline Miller’s Circe is a retelling of the ancient Greek myth of a witch with the powers of transformation. Born to Helios, the Titan god of the sun yet evidently without any powers of her own, Circe has a childhood in the shadows, largely unnoticed unless harassed. She discovers her magical abilities after picking flowers grown from the blood of gods and is cast down from the halls of the gods for her offense. Stranded on an island and forbidden to leave, a cast of characters from Greek mythology enter her story.
Darling is a story about Wendy, your average new girl in town. She misses the life she left behind and wants to finally meet her online friend despite her parent’s refusal. But instead, she quickly finds herself swept up into a night of chaos. After a strange encounter she ends up spending the night with Peter and his gang. But it doesn’t take long for her to realize that there’s something off about Peter. That maybe his gang isn’t as much of a family as they originally seemed.
One year has passed since the destruction of These Violent Delights, and Shanghai is on the brink of upheaval. Whispers of civil war hang in a mist over the streets, and the Scarlet Gang is stretched thin between the leadership of Juliette and her ruthless cousin Tyler, who threatens to usurp her.
When Robin of Locksley dies in the Crusades, Lady Marian of Edwinstowe is left without her best friend in a world that expects her to be little, quiet, and defenseless—everything she is not. While trying to help her maid’s brother, Marian is mistaken for the dead Robin— and she doesn’t correct them. With taxes rising to pay for the King’s crusade and the people of Robin’s land starving, Marian teams up with outlaws Will, Alan, and John under her new identity to do as she believes Robin would have done to help his people.
In the third book in A.G. Gaughen’s reimagining of Robin Hood, the main character, Scarlet, previously known as both Maid Marian and Will Scarlet, has escaped imprisonment by her uncle, Prince John. Kept from her grandmother, Elinor of Aquitaine, and her love, Robin of Locksley, Scarlet must travel with new and old allies to stop Prince John from foiling King Richard’s return home.
Everyone knows the story of the pied piper right? How a mysterious man came into town and lured away all the rats by playing his pipe. But the townspeople refused to pay him, so he stole away all the children that night and they were never seen again. Right? But this book tells a different story. One you never expected.
When Ishmael wakes up from stasis aboard the Pequod, he is amazed at how different this faraway planet is from the dying Earth he left behind. He is here to work, risking his life to hunt down enormous ocean-dwelling creatures to harvest and send back to the resource depleted Earth so he can save enough money to get his foster parents off Earth before it is too late. But time and again the chase boats are ordered to leave easy prey behind so they can pursue a dangerous and elusive monster, few people who have seen it have lived to tell the tale.
