Rennert is most energized by fantastical work that does two things at once: builds inventive, multi-layered worlds and engages with real-world stakes or social questions. She is especially drawn to reimaginings rooted in traditions that haven't been over-mined — non-Western mythologies, less-represented folklore — and to stories that subvert or reframe familiar tropes in genuinely surprising ways. Think literary ambition inside a commercial genre engine.

This is arguably her deepest passion, shaped by her literary PhD. She wants retellings that feel inevitable — stories only the specific author could tell, drawing on their personal or cultural relationship to the source material. Priority source traditions include 19th-century British literature, Shakespeare, Dante, fairy tales, and Asian mythologies. The bar is high: the retelling must reinvent the original, not merely revisit it.

Her confirmed recent deal in this space makes her enthusiasm concrete. She draws a deliberate line: she wants work where the fantasy architecture is primary and the romance is woven through it, rather than a romance plot that uses fantasy as window dressing. The distinction matters — if the love story could survive without the fantastical premise, it may not be what she's after.

She flags YA and crossover/NA as a current priority. She wants fully realized, emotionally complex protagonists — characters who are simultaneously sympathetic, frustrating, and surprising. Insider/outsider dynamics, narrative risk-taking, and a voice that is genuinely idiosyncratic rather than generically 'teen' all resonate with her.

Her guiding principle here, borrowed from Michael Connelly, is that a great crime novel is about how a case works on a detective — not how a detective works on a case. She prizes psychological depth, authentic tradecraft or setting, morally ambiguous protagonists, and immersive world-building. Unreliable narrators are a standing weakness. Gothic suspense set outside the usual Western European frame is a specific gap she wants to fill; she has explicitly named Japan as a dream setting.

Having lived in Japan across multiple extended stays, she has a personal and scholarly investment in Japanese culture and actively solicits novels set there or deeply engaged with Japanese history or society — across any age category or genre. This is one of the clearest and most specific gaps on her list.

She wants romantic comedies where the central premise is as strong as the central relationship — the concept has to pull its own weight alongside the chemistry. A charming romance built on a thin idea won't clear her bar.

She points to the tone and energy of the Bridgerton TV adaptation as a reference point — lush, emotionally engaging, and unafraid of heat. The TV show, not just the books, is the touchstone, suggesting she values the elevated production quality and modern emotional sensibility of that adaptation.

A category she has added to her current agency page but which appears in fewer past signals — suggesting it is a genuine newer interest. She cites A.S. Byatt's POSSESSION as the benchmark: intellectually rigorous, steeped in literary culture, and psychologically layered.

She represents illustrators and author-illustrators, and graphic novels are a current area of active interest. This is specifically for creators who are doing both the writing and the art — she does not list interest in graphic novel writers seeking a separate illustrator.

General literary fiction is welcome when it has genuine commercial architecture underneath — a strong hook, a propulsive plot, or a high-concept premise. Pure prestige literary fiction without commercial traction is a harder sell on her list. She loves unreliable narrators and hidden worlds across all adult fiction.

She represents MG and it falls within her stated children's specialization, but it receives less explicit emphasis in her current wishlist compared to YA and adult categories. Query with a strong concept and voice, but temper expectations relative to her higher-heat categories.