Below I have posted a list of the books I feel are must reads in different categories. I am sure there will be more to add as time goes on, but for now these are my faves:
Dystopian
1. The Hunger Games(Suzanne Collins)- children between the ages of 12-18 are forced to fight to the death in a controlled environment.
2. Divergent(Veronica Roth)- In a new world, there are five different "factions", each devoted to a particular characteristic. But are these factions really what they seem?
3. Delirium(Lauren Oliver)- When love is considered a disease, falling in love is a crime.
4. The Stand(Stephen King)- Seriously, if you don't know this book you've been living in a hole.
5. The Road- although I absolutely love this book, the movie moved me to tears.
Zombies!
1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth(Carrie Ryan)- when you live in a fenced in world to protect you from The Unconsecrated, do you ever wonder if anyone else exists?
2. The Enemy(Charlie Higson)- very graphic, bloody descriptions of zombies heads exploding
3. The Walking Dead (Rise of the Governor) - if you love the show read these!
4. The Walking Dead (The Road To Woodbury)
5. The Passage- zombie-ish
6. The Girl with all the Gifts (M.R. Carey) zombie kids, it doesn't get any scarier than that!
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
1. Ready Player One(Ernest Cline)- people who live in a virtual world begin to compete in a game to become a gazillionaire once the owner of the corporation dies and he sets up the contest
2. Uglies(Scott Westerfeld)- everyone over the age of 16 must have a surgery to make them "pretty", but we find out the surgery is not what it seems.
3. The Dark Tower Series(Stephen King)- a mixture of stephen king's sarcastic humor with a tale as grand as The Lord of the Rings with some crazy sci-fi/western elements thrown in.
4. Daughter Of Smoke And Bone(Laini Taylor)- when the devil runs low on his supply of teeth, his "daughter" must travel through heaven and hell to find her own identity and rescue those she loves most
5. A Song of Ice and Fire Series aka Game of Thrones (George RR Martin)- can read like a history lesson at times and definite adult themes, but an incredible story nonetheless
Love Stories
1. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)- An amazing love story that will bring you to tears
2. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)- a girl fresh out of an orphanage goes to live with a sullen man as his daughter's keeper and gets more than she bargained for.
3. A Court of Thorns and Roses (Sarah J Maas) - this could just as easily have gone under the fantasy category but I feel like the love story takes center stage in this one
Everything Else
1. Where The Red Fern Grows(Wilson Rawls)- it made me cry when I was 12 and it still does. A compelling story of a boy and his dogs
3. This Book is Full of Spiders(David Wong)- funny and crazy scary at the same time
4. Flowers In The Attic(VC Andrews)- way way different from the movie
If you're looking for a new series to start, I highly recommend "The Fifth Wave" by Rick Yancey. It's the first of a series on what happens after 'aliens' invade earth. It's heartbreaking and a quick, action paced read.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the suggestion! I did read The Fifth Wave when it was released and I really liked the book, but I never had time to post a summary of it before. I may have to re-read that one and post a blog on it so I'm prepared for the 2nd book when it comes out, which is supposed to be in August I think.
ReplyDeleteJust wondering, have you read Enders Game? It's a great Sci - Fi book, or lord of the flies (not sure the category that one falls under) they're great reads
ReplyDeleteI never read Enders Game (saw the movie and loved it, but I'm sure it's not as good as the book since they never are). I did read Lord of the Flies and was completely freaked out by it when I was younger. Thank you for the suggestions!
DeleteYou HAVE to read Ender's Game! It probably won't be as good since you've seen the movie so you already know the big plot twist but that book is totally in my top 3 favorite books of all time.
DeleteOne of the best series is, in my opinion, the chaos walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. Book one is called 'The Knife of never letting go'. I don't want to give too much away, but it is set in a dystopian world where everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts, and is written following the story of a teenager called Todd.
ReplyDeleteI did read The Knife of Never Letting Go, and I remember I did absolutely love it but for some reason never picked up the 2nd book in the series. I may have to go back and give it another shot. Thank you for the suggestion!
DeleteYes! Great book. Unfortunately, I didn't think the rest of the series was quite as good as that first book.
DeleteAlso "A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness...only book that's ever made me cry. He's a great author.
I bought A Monster Calls a year or so ago just because of the beautiful artwork in it. Then I was kinda bummed when I saw how short it really was and then I read it and was happy I bought it again lol. Such a rollercoaster but I loved it.
DeleteIf you ever want a thriller that's modern day you should read this series called Asylum by Madeleine Roux. It's really good. Mini intro is there is this boy going to a college summer class. And the dorms are in an abandoned asylum, so pretty much it's these three friends trying to uncover the secrets to the asylum! There's three books and one mini book to the series. If you want any more ghost stories I have many recommendations.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the suggestion! My stepdaughter has been reading this series and absolutely loves it so I may have to steal it from her once she's done and see what it's all about :)
DeleteI feel mean by saying this, but Uglies is actually a dystopian and not sci-fi. There is a lot of tech in it that makes it a part sci-fi, but it is mainly dystopian. The story is set in a world that is controlled by a society and is near-perfect (which is what dystopia is). The society takes control of everything, and puts people into groups (in this case, the pretties, the uglies and specials).
ReplyDeleteI hope I didn't annoy you by saying that ^
I'm not annoyed by that at all, thank you for the feedback! I debated over which category to place the series in since it felt like both to me but I got such a "5th Element" vibe from it that I decided to go with sci-fi since I had seen it labeled as both types before and there was so much sci-fi tech in it. You are completely correct in that it is a dystopian too though. :)
DeleteIf you like some paranormal romance that includes archangels and vampires, you have got to try Guild Hunter series by Nalini Singh. Also along similar lines is the Psy-Changeling series by the same author. Pretty awesome
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