Young adult fiction that should be seen on screen…
I’m Bethan and I am one of the principal librarians for Swansea Council Libraries.
I love reading Young Adult fiction, especially fantasy fiction. I don’t like to put a label on things – a good book is a good book, even if you are not in the target age range by (ahem) quite a bit… With YA titles being adapted for the screen such as Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone and the recent announcement of the adaptation of Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorn and Roses, here are my choices of books or series that I would love to see brought to life…
Holly Black - The Folk of the Air series (The Cruel Prince / The Wicked King / The Queen of Nothing)
Intrigue, deception, murder… and all set in the High Court of Faerie. Jude is a mortal forced to live in Faerie by the fae that murdered her parents. She is raised and trained to survive life in the High Court, surrounded by creatures who are stronger and more beautiful than her, some of whom hate mortals. In best storytelling fashion, if you have a heroine, you need to have a potential villain and up steps Prince Cardan.
On screen, I like to think it would be a slightly more brutal Gossip Girl with faeries instead of New York socialites – the scheming is definitely on a similar level.
Krystal Sutherland – House of Hollow
Horror that touches on the weird side…think Stranger Things with Twin Peaks mixed in. The story revolves the Hollow Sisters and their mysterious disappearance and reappearance 10 years ago. In the present, it seems whatever happened then is catching up with them now. Dark, gothic and surreal, I imagine David Lynch or Guillermo del Toro would have great fun with this book.
Brigid Kemmerer – The Cursebreaker series (A Curse So Dark and Lonely / A Heart So Fierce and Broken / A Vow So Bold and Deadly)
I was late coming to this series, but then binge read it within a couple of days.
It’s a bit grown-up Disney, without the helpful birds and mice. I know Beauty and the Beast has been done a million times, but this is a different take on the traditional story – a real world heroine with real life issues sucked into a fantasy nightmare, complete with evil sorceress, a cursed prince and a loyal guard. It becomes so much more than the Beast story line and would make a wonderful movie trilogy.
Cassandra Clare – The Infernal Devices (Clockwork Angel / Clockwork Prince / Clockwork Princess)
The Shadowhunter World has already been adapted twice – a movie in 2013 and then, more recently with the series, Shadowhunters. Both were based on The Mortal Instruments series, set in the present and in my opinion, both were awful. Too much of the storyline was changed, characters were not what I had imagined etc. I want an adaptation of The Infernal Devices trilogy, set in Victorian England, full of steam punk loveliness, Shadowhunter ancestry and a guest appearance from my favourite warlock, Magnus Bane.
P.S. Heard rumours (from the internet) that my Infernal Devices wish may be coming true…