Riot Recommendation

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

Vanessa Diaz

Managing Editor

Vanessa is a writer, reader and generally bookish Latina from San Diego. If loving Agatha Christie is wrong, she doesn't want to be right. Vanessa’s penchant for books, travel and tea is rivaled only by her serious addictions to milk, avocado and floral lattes. When not reading books or selling them, she can be found blogging, working on her first novel or cozying up at a library.

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.