Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A book that started out as fan fiction

Oh, boy. I am of no help with this one! Although I did read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell which gave me a much better understanding of "fan fiction"! Unfortunately, it doesn't qualify for this prompt, as far as I know!

Here is a list of 10 popular books that started out as fan fiction stories: https://www.businessinsider.com/guide...

Edited to add: Wikipedia "fan fiction" article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fic...

Listopia is HERE

I can recommend Zero at the Bone (started out as Brokeback Mountain fanfic) and The Pursued and the Pursuing (Great Gatsby fanfic) as options. And wasn't The Love Hypothesis some kind of Reylo AU?

I think if you interpret it broadly enough, a lot could qualify. It's like the line about how there are 7 original plots, and everyone is just recycling them. I saw something online about how Dante's Divine Comedy is fanfiction of the Bible, The Lion King is fanfiction of Hamlet, etc. For instance, see this list: https://www.bustle.com/articles/15904...

Taking that approach opens a lot of doors (although maybe also makes this repetitive of the modern retelling prompt), but I think I might use this to go with The Chosen and the Beautiful, since one of my book clubs has picked that for our January book.

Joanna wrote: "I think if you interpret it broadly enough, a lot could qualify. It's like the line about how there are 7 original plots, and everyone is just recycling them. I saw something online about how Dante..."

Thanks for the bustle.com link. There are half a dozen titles on that list in Mount TBR.

Read Harder had a prompt in 2021 to read a fanfic, and that was the approach they took, like The Aeneid is Trojan War fanfic. I think I counted The Song of Achilles for mine. So don't think you're stuck reading Fifty Shades.

So, can we assume that books that are heavily influenced by another work of fiction count as fan fiction? (God, I hope I'm not starting a firestorm here....)

I'm thinking The Gargoyle which mentions and references Dante's Inferno a lot or The Thirteenth Tale which draws a lot from Jane Eyre....
Something like that??

Ughhhhh that bustle.com link, while adding to my tbr also just ruined City of Bones/ Shadowhunters books for me because I was late to the party and had no clue it was Draco/Ginny fanfic *shudders*

Sarah wrote: "And wasn't The Love Hypothesis some kind of Reylo AU?"

Yes, I've heard that it was, too.

I am not sure if The Dead Romantics started life as a Reylo fic, too, but the male lead is named Ben Andor (hmmmm....) and is described as looking just like Adam Driver, so....

This category states that it "started out as" fanfic but no where does it say it can't actually BE fanfic. I know this won't be a popular choice for everyone, but a long time ago, back before I was a mom, I spent a ridiculous amount of time reading Buffy fanfic. I copied my favorites into Word docs, I had a big spreadsheet tracking every single fic I read ... it was glorious! And it's all lost. So I just spent an hour or two googling and I FOUND several of the long fics that I still remember!

Some of these were so imaginative and well-written, I can't believe the authors didn't grow up to become, well, authors. It's entirely possible that these fics were turned into books and I just don't know.

In particular, Spiegel Im Spiegel by "fallowdoe," Phoenix Burning by "Yahtzee," and Nature of the Beast cycle by "Jo the librarian." I have no way of knowing if these ever became novels!! So, if anyone knows if these people ever became professional authors, let me know!!

I know Twilight has spawned an immense amount of fanfic, but one I really liked, that DID get self-pubbed later, was Dusty by "YellowBella" aka Innocents by Mary Elizabeth.

This one is hard for a non fiction reader such as myself so I expanded it to where it's all themes fanfiction.

As a result, I went with this book: Starship Therapise: Using Therapeutic Fanfiction to Rewrite Your Life

I think I'm going to read one of the Sherlock Holmes continuations, maybe the one by Anthony Horowitz.. after all, those are basically fanfictions

Sarah wrote: "I can recommend Zero at the Bone (started out as Brokeback Mountain fanfic) and The Pursued and the Pursuing (Great Gatsby fanfic) as options. And wasn't [book:The Lo..."

Yes, love hypothesis was reylo fanfic! I was lucky enough to know a person who knows a person that had the fan fiction. It’s typeset to print as a book but I have it. My friend bound it as a book for me. It so pretty. It was called head over feet.

I haven't read it yet, but I've seen some readers say Heartless by Marissa Meyer is fan fiction since it's not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, but an origin story for the Queen. And apparently Meyer wrote fan fiction in her pre-publishing days??

Any thoughts by those of you who have read it?

Chelsea wrote: "Ughhhhh that bustle.com link, while adding to my tbr also just ruined City of Bones/ Shadowhunters books for me because I was late to the party and had no clue it was Draco/Ginny fanfic *shudders*"

Yes, one of the biggest in the "Draco in Leather Pants" genre.

I found Rodham, which seems to be real person fic about the Clintons. I'm going to give that a read. If I don't like it, I might just read some fanfic instead.

I actually have some fanfiction bound in book form on my bookshelf, so I might just grab some of that and read it this year.

Michelle wrote: "I think I'm going to read one of the Sherlock Holmes continuations, maybe the one by Anthony Horowitz.. after all, those are basically fanfictions"

This is such a good idea. I love Horowitz's other books, but have never read one of the Sherlock Holmes ones.

I'm going with Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner (from Star Trek) which looks hysterical. It's written like it's his autobiography, but it's entirely fiction. He basically wrote a fanfiction about himself and I love it.

Alex wrote: "I'm going with Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner (from Star Trek) which looks hysterical. It's written like it's his autobiography, but it's entirely fiction. He basically wrote a fanfict..."

I’ve eyed that for a while. I might take a gander.

Alex wrote: "I'm going with Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner (from Star Trek) which looks hysterical. It's written like it's his autobiography, but it's entirely fiction. He basically wrote a fanfict..."



Oh wow that looks like so much fun, and I'd never even heard of it!!! (It's also set in the 90s, for any of our 90s babies looking for a book set in their decade.) It gets middling reviews though.

Alex wrote: "I'm going with Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner (from Star Trek) which looks hysterical. It's written like it's his autobiography, but it's entirely fiction. He basically wrote a fanfict..."

I've seen that around. Keep debating on it though.

"Angel of the Crows" by Katherine Addison started as Sherlock Holmes wingfic.

I'm going with Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It has been on my TBR/Wishlist for a while.

- Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren

Dedra ~ A Book Wanderer wrote: "I haven't read it yet, but I've seen some readers say Heartless by Marissa Meyer is fan fiction since it's not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, but an origin story for the Queen...."

I read Heartless for a category a few years ago and REALLY liked it. I don't know that it started as fanfic in the traditional sense, but I don't think Meyer would back off from the statement that she is a huge fan of the Alice books and they inspired her to write Heartless. In that respect, there are a TON of spin-off novels related to Alice or Wonderland, and you can take any of them because they're not usually retellings (a different category) as much as reworkings or continuations/backstories, which is what fanfics usually are.

I'm pretty sure A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik was a Harry Potter Fic.

What about all the books that revisit the worlds of Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, etc.? Just a few: Emily's Journal, Wide Sargasso Sea, Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field, The Other Bennet Sister, Longbourn, etc etc. Surely we can assume these were written because the authors were fans of the originals?

Kaia wrote: "Yes, one of the biggest in the "Draco in Leather Pants" genre."

I definitely read a few Drarry fics of the "Draco in leather pants" variety, but I had DracoxGinny filtered out on all my Ao3 searches and wouldn't have ever come across it! Bringing up some memories now!

Chelsea wrote: "Ughhhhh that bustle.com link, while adding to my tbr also just ruined City of Bones/ Shadowhunters books for me because I was late to the party and had no clue it was Draco/Ginny fanfic *shudders*"

Whoa, really? I'm late to the party too but I refuse to see it.

What is The Dead Romantics fanfiction of?

Dedra ~ A Book Wanderer wrote: "I haven't read it yet, but I've seen some readers say Heartless by Marissa Meyer is fan fiction since it's not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, but an origin story for the Queen...."

I can definitely see it because it does have characters from the Alice in Wonderland, plus characters that she did make up to make the Queen of Hearts be a bit more sympathetic. It also does flesh out the character a bit more than the original author did.

In all honesty, I think anything taking elements from a different story (Alice in Wonderland, mythology, etc.) can be considered fanfiction only because it's rewriting a story like fanfiction does to make it a bit more modern or creating a backstory for a villain or hero. (Take Wicked for example, or even Little Thieves.) So I would definitely count Heartless as starting out as fanfiction.

Rachel wrote: "What is The Dead Romantics fanfiction of?"

Apparently it's a Reylo fanfic, according to my google-ing.

M wrote: "Rachel wrote: "What is The Dead Romantics fanfiction of?"

Apparently it's a Reylo fanfic, according to my google-ing."

Oh, cool. I knew The Love Hypothesis was, but hadn't heard that about The Dead Romantics.

I might read some actual fanfiction - namely, I lack the patience to haunt / Instead, I hunt by dwellingondreams, as I read some of their other fanfiction ages ago, loved it, and meant to read this one eventually. Now it is completed and very very long so I will probably have to tackle it carefully!

Also Throne of Glass started out as a Cinderella fanfic

Pooja wrote: "I might read some actual fanfiction - namely, I lack the patience to haunt / Instead, I hunt by dwellingondreams, as I read some of their other fanfiction ages ago, loved it, and meant to read this..."


TEAM FANFIC!!!

Pooja wrote: "I might read some actual fanfiction - namely, I lack the patience to haunt / Instead, I hunt by dwellingondreams, as I read some of their other fanfiction ages ago, loved it, and meant to read this..."

Awesome. I thought of going that route and I still might. I like reading books about fanfic though more. (Not books based on fanfic, there's a difference).

I'm going to go with It Happened One Summer. I can't tell if it actually started as a fanfic, but it's inspired by Schitt's Creek. I don't have high hopes for it, but we'll see I guess.

Why are so many of these books basically "Woman and man meet each other, they hate each other or the girl just hates the man and he doesn't know why, then they get into some sort of situation where they fall on each other or something, have lots of sex, and then fall in love".

Denise wrote: "I'm going to go with It Happened One Summer. I can't tell if it actually started as a fanfic, but it's inspired by Schitt's Creek. I don't have high hopes for it, but we'll see I gu..."

Lol, my suspicion is that most of these are people have a crush on the main character.

Doesn't sound much Schitt's Creek to me, but I might go with it myself as I still have nothing for this prompt.

Debbie wrote: "Dedra ~ A Book Wanderer wrote: "I haven't read it yet, but I've seen some readers say Heartless by Marissa Meyer is fan fiction since it's not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, bu..."

Sara wrote: "Dedra ~ A Book Wanderer wrote: "I haven't read it yet, but I've seen some readers say Heartless by Marissa Meyer is fan fiction since it's not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, bu..."

Oh, this helps! Thank you both. Sounds like I need to make Heartless a priority read next year.

Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald is a Sherlock Holmes fanfic. It started out as a short story but it also has a graphic novel adaptation. You can see where he mentioned that it's fan fiction here:

https://www.tumblr.com/neil-gaiman/67...

How she this for a fan fic — a reylo fic set in the world of harry potter. Only there are NO characters from Harry Potter. It was a really good one. Steamy with student/teacher trope. Called heartbreak prince on Ao3.

There’s also an inuyasha one called second alliance that’s over 400k. Kagome/sesshomaru canon divergence. Also steamy and trigger warnings for rapey stuff. Also on Ao3 and dokuga.

umpf - I am not pleased with this, as I have not liked fan fiction since it was written somwhere that Shades of Grey seems to have started like that? This ghastly book about a controlling boyfriend, who constantly tells her "good girl" as if she was a dog? Yes, I did try.

Alex wrote: "I'm going with Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner (from Star Trek) which looks hysterical. It's written like it's his autobiography, but it's entirely fiction. He basically wrote a fanfict..."

Woohoo! I was struggling with this, but I can get behind that one. Thanks!

turns out my writing buddies have a few were fanfic and now original novels. Here you go

Alliance in Blood by Ariel Tachna

Teaching Ben by Shae Connor

The Actor and the Earl by Rebecca Cohen

Joanna wrote: "I think if you interpret it broadly enough, a lot could qualify. It's like the line about how there are 7 original plots, and everyone is just recycling them. I saw something online about how Dante..."
That link is so helpful! Thank you! I had no idea about The Call of the Wild!

The thing that makes me most sad about this prompt is seeing that the fanfic which does tend to get punished all falls into the same trope of being relatively unhealthy, mostly sex fuelled relationships.

I’ve read so much amazing fanfic that explores so many complex themes, mostly by LGBTQIA+ authors. I tend to read fics that are over 100k words and most of them don’t even contain a sex scene, let alone focus on it throughout. Some of the fics I’ve read over the years have genuinely changed my life for the better. And yet, the stuff that gets published is After and 50 Shades of Grey. Sigh.

I read It happened One Summer and it didnt read as Schitt's Creek to me, and i loved it, but I love romance and spicy books, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

I might reread The Love Hypothesis for this (even if it was never Reylo in my head)

I have Beautiful Bastards, so i might also read that, or a Deadly Education, which was recommended to me in a non-fanfiction related way.

I saw Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell on the list.. do we know what is it a fanfiction of?

I also saw Kiss Her Once for Me... knowing the author and her journey writing this book, im 1000% sure it did not start as fanfiction. Its While you were Sleeping reimagined/inspired however, so i guess it depends on your interpretation of fanfiction.

Marie-Eve wrote: I saw Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell on the list.. do we know what is it a fanfiction of?

It's based off of a fanfic that Rainbow Rowell's character, Cath, wrote in the book 'Fangirl'.