Updating a piece of media to adapt the to modern culture can be done well. Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew transformed into 10 Things I Hate About You quite well. But there’s a growing trend of updating contemporary books with dated references to more modern ones.
“You guys want to come over and watch this cool TikTok I found?”
This line, from a recent reprint of Sara Shepard’s young adult thriller “Pretty Little Liars,” drew criticism online this spring after a reader said it “ruined the whole book.”
In the original edition, from 2006, the same passage referred to the reality show “Fear Factor.” The updated version, from 2022, replaces it — and other early-2000s markers — with references to Instagram, Snapchat and artists like Billie Eilish and Doja Cat.
In publishing, the practice of updating cultural and technological references in older books is called modernization. It is most common in, but not exclusive to, middle-grade and Y.A. fiction, and is distinct from sensitivity editing, which targets language deemed offensive and became a subject of debate following revisions to Roald Dahl’s novels.