A dark twist on an already dark classic

I had mentioned that as part of this project I wanted to examine some of the spillovers of this genre into adult fiction. I haven't gotten to cover that aspect nearly as much as I would have liked. However, I did want to make it a priority to check out the trend of redesigning classics with a paranormal twist. This trend is EVERYWHERE! I can't even begin to list all of the classics I have seen in this fashion. All of Jane Austen. Much of Shakespeare. Even good old Louisa May Alcott has been introduced to the paranormal. So many choices, so little time. So I choose to review one which I had recently read in the original, thus making the comparison more clear. Here it is:

Title: Wuthering Bites
Author: Sarah Gray
My start date: 11/12/10
My finish date: 11/19/10
Book count: 72

Ok, so it should be obvious from the title, that this work was meant to emulate Bronte's classic Wuthering Heights. And seriously, if you didn't get that just from the title, go back to the beginning of the blog and start again. However, I don't think I was quite prepared for just how closely this work planned to follow the original. I think what I anticipated from this trend is something more akin to Gregory Maguire's sensational series of twists on fairy tales, such as Wicked. In those, you know the basic story, but the content is completely reworked to come at it from a different direction. That is not quite what happened here. Instead, it was almost verbatim Bronte's original, with a thread of vampire themes woven much more subtly into the existing material. In fact, it was so verbatim, that although it wasn't what I expected, I almost have to give Gray good credit for being able to embed her changes into the text so delicately that it changes very little, and yet changes everything. If you like the classics, it is worth reading just to see how she does it. I am not sure how many of the others of this type are following the same model, or if some others are coming closer to the Wicked approach, but this one at least might be worth visiting.

Now, that being said, it is a good thing I really like Bronte's original, because what this essentially meant was that I read the (almost) exact same text twice within a matter of months. And Wuthering Heights isn't exactly a one sitting kind of read in the first place. For that reason, I would have liked the story line to vary a little more, simply to prevent boredom from setting in on my part. But that has less to do with the writing and more to do with the potential insanity of the reading schedule I keep. Bottom line, I won't be reading Wuthering anything again for a little while.

Conclusion, if you are interested in reading the classics but like a little variety and spice in life, this could be a fun approach!

Grade: B
Adult readable: yep, fun for all ages!

Ok, back to the YA series stuff.

Keep reading!
Sarah