Riot Recommendation

Riot Recommendation: What Are Your Favorite YA Interpretations of Classics?

Vanessa Diaz

Managing Editor

Book Riot Managing Editor Vanessa Diaz is a writer and former bookseller from San Diego, CA whose Spanish is even faster than her English. When not reading or writing, she enjoys dreaming up travel itineraries and drinking entirely too much tea. She is a regular co-host on the All the Books podcast who especially loves mysteries, gothic lit, mythology/folklore, and all things witchy. Vanessa can be found on Instagram at @BuenosDiazSD or taking pictures of pretty trees in Portland, OR, where she now resides.

This Riot Recommendation of YA interpretations of classics is sponsored by Flatiron Books, publisher of Anna K by Jenny Lee.

Anna K: A Love Story coverDazzlingly opulent and emotionally riveting, Anna K: A Love Story is a brilliant reimagining of Leo Tolstoy’s timeless love story, Anna Karenina―but above all, it is a novel about the dizzying, glorious, heart-stopping experience of first love and first heartbreak.


We all have our own unique relationship with the classics: a work that beguiles and ensnares one person may intimidate another, what bores one reader to tears may be the inspiration behind their neighbor’s sleeve tattoo. No matter how you’ve approached classics in the past, it’s hard not to be excited about all the amazing YA retellings bringing fresh and (it’s about time!) inclusive perspectives to familiar stories. So come tell us: what are your favorite YA retellings of classic lit? Shout them at us on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #riotrecommendation, then we’ll round up your answers and be back next week to share a roundup with your fellow Riot readers. The classics are great, but we’re pretty excited to read some rad YA remixes.