Tuesday 15 December 2015

Top Ten Tuesday // 7 books I loved to the point of building shrines in their honour and commemorating their days of release with copious amounts of cake and sprinkles.





Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the lovely people at The Broke and The Bookish  that simultaneously includes lists and books rolled into one. (it's basically a wonderful creation in itself people, let's be honest) This week's prompt: Top Ten Books I Read in 2015.


Top Seven Best Books I Read in 2015 
(in other words.. THE LIST.)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Um.. duh? I can bravely say with little doubt that Six of Crows is the best book I read this year. There I said it. It's out there. I can't begin to explain how utterly amazing this is. If you've read my posts since my review of Six of Crows you probably have heard this rant already. I'm pretty sure the backstories, characters and The Barrel in this book are the things that did it for me. They were the three things that made me raise my hands in surrender and say: "Yep, you got me." The characters (not just Kaz) are so complex and brilliant you will wonder how a human mind created them. And the backstories, urgh, torment and torture and shattered dreams. URGH. Amazing. I know a lot of people had problems with the dominance of the backstories but I personally loved every bit of them. You're just gonna have to read it for yourself. Come back and weep to be about how Kaz is singularly the best character you've ever read about. Go. I'll be waiting. 



   Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Like I said in my previous TTT, Victoria Aveyard was my biggest surprise of the year. Red Queen is terrific and I had few, if any problems with it. I thought I would be reading another typical YA dystopia but what I got instead was Red Queen. ALSO GLASS SWORD IN TWO MONTHS GUYS AHHHH.



    Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Okay. With The Lunar Chronicles, I took the road less traveled. I fell in love with Scarlet (the book, although the character is amazing too) within 5 pages of the story. It remains my favourite book of TLC to this day. I loved the French setting, I loved Wolf, and I loved Scarlet (the character). It helped immensely how most of the story were centered around these 3 things, so I was basically kept blissfully happy throughout the entire read. In fact, I found myself irritably scanning through the parts without these 3 things. Which I'm incredibly guilty about but I mean, come on guys, Scarlet and Wolf are adorable.



    Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I live for beginnings. I don't know about you, but the beginnings of stories have a special place in my bookish heart. Also, world-building. Which usually happens at beginnings. Can we take a good long moment at how unique the world in TLC is, with it's androids and maglevs and cyborgs. (Cinder's technology in itself is fascinating) Also, HOW INCREDIBLE is Marissa Meyer to weave the classic fairytale so seamlessly into her own retelling? Most times, I don't realize the weaving has occured until several chapters later and suddenly I'm like WHOAAAA. WHOAAAAA. Genius I say. Genius.




    Saga #3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Out of the 5 volumes of Saga that are currently released, and the 4 that I've read so far, volume 3 is by far the best. One of the best parts about Saga (aside from the INCREDIBLE storyline and GORGEOUS art) is the structure of the pages. Mini cliffhangers are created by having a moment of suspense at the page to the right, so the reader (who probably has bloody fingernails from the constant gnawing) has to flip the page to figure out WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON. Which adds to the torture, but yes, the brilliance of it all. There were several of these page structures throughout volume 3, and while I had a severe heart condition afterwards, it was amazing. Really. 



      Vampire Rites Trilogy by Darren Shan

If the first bind up of the Darren Shan Saga was amazing, this was even more so. We learn even more about the world of vampires guys HOW CAN YOU REFUSE SUCH A THING. Also, The vamprire trials that Darren had to go through were the result of much gasping and very loud cheering afterwards. Needless to say, people steered clear of me and my shocking tendencies while I read this one. 



     Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

I love books that question my beliefs. That rock my understanding of certain ways and muddle my thoughts on the world. Not many books do. But Forbidden, holy moly, was like a typhoon met a tsunami in my brain and everything was thrown off course if not destroyed for a span of a month. (or several) It's your typical, perfectly normal teenage love story. Except it's not typical. Except it's not normal. Except it's between a brother and a sister. Except it's AMAZING. It's also very, very confusing and by the end of the book the word 'incest' seemed like such a horrible word to describe the wonderful and beautiful relationship between the two characters. I was left wondering, am I okay with this? Is this normal? What does this even mean? URGH MY BRAIN. 




SO what about you guys? Which books floated your boat this year? Did you participate in this week's Top Ten Tuesday? Tell me tell me *grins*




4 comments:

  1. I haven't read any of the books mentioned on your list, but I'll have to look into a few of the titles!

    Here's a link to my Top Ten Tuesday post for this week: http://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2015/12/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-best-books-i.html

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  2. I'm reading "Saga" volume 3 right now! These books are so weird and so addicting! As soon as I finish one I must have another. Don't know what I'll do after volume 5 when I actually have to WAIT for the next one?!

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  3. Love The Lunar Chronicles series! Super cute blog!
    New follower :)
    Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings

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  4. OH MY GOODNESS LUNAR CHRONICLES YES!!!!! I still don't know what to think a both Red Queen, though. For about a month I went back and forth eve week as to whether I hated it or loved it, and then for another couple of months I thought it was meh, but recently I've just been confused! I need to reread it. I've been meaning to read Six of Crows, too! Since it's at the top of your list, I'll have to add it to my TBR. :-)
    -Amy
    abookwormsperfectapple.wordpress.com

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