the fifth season – jamishelves

MY TOP 10 FAVOURITE READS OF 2018

Well it’s the end of the year already! It’s that time when everyone is making their favourite books from the year. I’ve been holding off doing mine because I’m always scared I’ll read something in the final few days I’ll love and it won’t be included if I do the list too early … and this ACTUALLY happened this year with two December reads so I’m so glad I held off. But I don’t think I’m going to get the time to finish another book this year so I’m ready to write my list

It was so hard to narrow my list down! There was so many books I really enjoyed. But ultimately I managed to choose my ten favourite reads of 2018. Just as a note, these are not in any order or anything! I don’t even know which of the ten are my most most favourites.

Anyway, lets just jump right into it.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Before we get into the ten, lets do five Honourable Mentions because I loved these books and while they didn’t quite make the ten they deserve the attention anyways.

1: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty: This was so excellent, just as good as the TV show. I love the characters so much. This book tackles so many topics and does it so well.

2: Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson: I didn’t expect this book to stay with me for so long but I haven’t stopped thinking about this since I finished it. The mystery was so well written and I loved the setting. So so hyped for the sequel.

3: Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh: I loved this book! It’s a fantasy involving necromancers and the main character is bisexual! I really loved the characters and the central friendship group in this one.

4: Now I Rise by Kiersten White: I also read this whole series this year and this is my favourite of the three. Following Radu was great and I loved how exciting this was.

5: Peter Darling by Austin Chant: THIS WAS SO CUTE. This is a retelling of Peter Pan and I loved it soo much. The romance was adorable and I think about this all the time still.

THE OFFICIAL TOP TEN

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book absolutely enthralled me. It follows an old movie star called Evelyn Hugo who does a tell-all about her life with a journalist called Monique.

I loved this story so much. It had me feeling every single emotion under the sun. Evelyn Hugo was such a well written and complex main character, and I couldn’t put this book down. It made me laugh and cry and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

To Kill a Kingdom
by Alexandra Christo

This book took me by surprise, I didn’t expect to love it so much. It’s a dark retelling of The Little Mermaid with sirens, and a really great enemies to lovers romance.

I could not stop listening to this. It immediately plunges you into the drama. The worldbuilding was great but it was the ROMANCE that won my heart. This was such perfectly executed enemies to lovers and I freaking loved how slowburn it was. I need more books like this.

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

I’ve talked about this book on here so much recently. It’s about a woman called Kathy reflecting on her school years at a boarding school in the English countryside and how it may not have been everything she thought.

I found this so compelling. The characters were extremely flawed and messy but also this book evokes so much sympathy for them. I also thought this was such an interesting take on dystopian and definitely did something new.

Vengeful
by V.E Schwab

I actually ended up liking this more than book one! Vicious is about two roommates who gain super abilities and set out to kill eachother and it is one of my favourite Schwab books.

I loved how this explored relationships and the growth of Sydney. The character work was so excellent and I loved all the new characters. It was also well put together and had excellent writing as usual.

The Poppy War
by R.F Kuang

EASILY one of the best debuts I’ve ever read. This is an epic military fantasy following an orphan called Rin who is thrust into a deadly war. There’s shamanism, battles, military school and more.

I loved this so much. The world was epic and so well constructed. I loved the characters, especially Rin who is definitely not a conventional hero and Altan, who was an incredibly intriguing character.

The Fifth Season
by N.K Jemisin

This is probably the most original fantasy I’ve ever read and it’s extremely clever. It’s hard to explain the plot but it basically follows three women trying to survive the apocalypse and there’s magic.

I was soo stunned by the worldbuilding here and the serious attention to detail. This was so well crafted and fresh. It had a diverse range of characters, and the characters were so well written. Absolutely amazing!

Before the Devil Breaks You
by Libba Bray

The Diviners was a series I read from beginning to end (or the end of whats out so far) and it’s become one of my favourite series ever. This is set in 1920’s New York and follows a group of teens caught in a paranormal government conspiracy.

This was my favourite of the series so far. I loved how intense this book was and every single story arc. The character work continues to be PERFECT and I’m so intrigued about what will happen next.

Circe
by Madeline Miller

Circe was one of my most anticipated releases for 2018 because I loved The Song of Achilles soo much. This follows Circe and is basically just a retelling of her life.

As expected, the writing was so beautiful. Madeline Miller’s writing is always a highlight. This was so quiet but also so powerful, I loved following Circe as the main character and I loved how many Greek myths were incorporated into this book and Circe’s story.

I Was Born For This
by Alice Oseman

Alice Oseman is one of my favourite authors and I was thrilled to receive an early arc of this in March. This follows a band called the Ark, and one of their mega fans Angel, when Angel goes to see them play in London.

This was so much fun and I haven’t read many YA like this before which was fun. Oseman knows how to write teens so well and I loved the exploration of fandom and internet culture. Also, Lister Bird? we stan.

P.S I Still Love You
by Jenny Han

I read this entire series this year and I think P.S is my favourite though this kinda represents the series as a whole as a new favourite of mine.

I love Lara Jean so much and the romance in this series is so perfect. I loved the characters were flawed, but also so sweet. This book gave me so many feelings and heaps of nostalgia and I think Jenny Han writes so wonderfully. I didn’t expect to love this series as much as I did.

Alright, those are my top ten favourites of the year. It was so hard to narrow this down, ESPECIALLY the honourable mentions because I feel I had so many books that *just* missed out. What books were your favourite this year?

until next time

ADULT BOOKS FOR YA READERS

If you’re anything like me, then you might be a YA reader who’s trying to read more adult books. Recently (that being over the past like, 1 and a half ish years) I’ve been trying to branch out and read more adult books. That isn’t because I don’t like YA, but it is because I felt there was lots of books and topics in adult literature I wanted to explore more, and also because the age of some YA characters (especially in younger YA) isn’t really relatable to me at this point.

But one thing I really struggled with in trying to read more adult is knowing which books to read. There didn’t seem to be much of a transition space between YA and adult (don’t even get me started on the demise of NA) and so it was hard to find adult books that weren’t ‘too adult’ in a way.

So I decided to make a post today of adult books I feel are really readable if you’re used to reading young adult. These books are ones I’ve read that I found were good crossover books between adult and young adult! Lets get into it.

The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin

What is it about?: The Fifth Season in a high fantasy where the world experiences semi-regular apocalyptic events called “Seasons”. At the beginning of the book, another apocalyptic event has occurred by this one is looking worse than the others. We follow three main narrators, Essun, who’s looking for her daughter, Damaya, a young magic user taken to be trained at a Orogene school and Syenite, a woman half way through Orogene school who’s sent on mission with Alabastar, one of the most powerful magic users in the world.

Why did I choose it?: Even though this as an adult!antasy, I found it pretty accessible. Although Essun is an adult, Syenite and Damaya are both younger and most of the book is from Syenite’s point of view. Although the worldbuilding was quite complex, it still had lots of familiar fantasy touchstones that also appear in YA so it wasn’t too hard to follow. Also, this is just one of those fantasies ALL fantasy fans should read because it’s THAT GOOD.

Read my full review of this book here!

The Poppy War by R.F Kuang

What is it about?: The Poppy War follows Rin, an orphan and peasant living in the south of the Nikara empire. Desperate to escape her abusive adoptive mothers home, she takes the Keju test and joins military school in the North. From there, Rin is thrust into a war involving, gods, shamans and the vicious Federation of Mugen from across the sea.

Why did I choose it?: This book is definitely adult because of it’s violence and graphic content but the actual characters are all of YA age. Rin is a young adult and so are her friends. On top of that, lots of the plot, such as the military training school and the war plot felt familiar and the writing also felt quite similar to how a YA book is written. If this book wasn’t to violent it could easily be YA. I think that is why so many people on YA twitter (including me) love it so much. That being said, do check the tws as there are a lot, and I listed them in my review.

Read my full review of this book here!

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E Schwab

What is it about?: In this series, four parallel worlds exist, and the only thing they have in common is that each world has a capital city called London. Every London has the same geography, but beside that they’re dissimilar. We follow Kell, from Red London, a world where magic is abundant. Kell is an Antari, meaning he can travel between the worlds. While travelling to Grey London, our world where magic has died, he meets Lila Bard, a thief who steals a valuable object from him. From here, the two become embroiled in a scheme that threatens to release dark magic into the world, destroying both Kell and Lila’s homes.

Why did I choose it?: V.E Schwab’s adults read so much like YA to me. I think it’s because V.E Schwab is really conscious about the fact her readers cross genres/age ranges so she tries to keep things accessible to everyone. The themes of this book are very similar to many YA books. Family issues, having to assume a leadership role, messing with dark magic and first romance are all on play here which makes it super easy to read for a YA audience.

Read my full series review here!

The City of Brass by S.A Chakraborty

What is it about?: On the streets of 18th century Ciaro lives Nahri, a girl who tricks people for a living and doesn’t believe in magic. Her life is turned upside down when she accidentally summons a djinn and is thrust into the magical world.

Why did I choose it?: At first when I started reading this I actually thought it WAS a YA! It reminds me a lot of An Ember in the Ashes just in terms of the djinn and the atmosphere of the story? But it also reminds me of And I Darken for the historical elements and the tone of the writing. This book has a lot of familiar YA touchstones and Nahri is pretty young which also makes it accessible as a crossover fantasy title. Although this has a lot of historical fiction elements it also has fantasy and magic and con work which makes it so fun and easy to read even though it’s adult.

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

What is it about?: Ten years after the events of Peter Pan, Peter returns to Neverland, unable to live life as Wendy Darling any longer. When he arrives, he finds the war with the pirates has taken a deadly turn and that the Lost Boys have also grown up. On top of this, Peter finds himself suddenly attracted to his old rival, Captain Hook, and unsure of the dynamic they now have.

Why did I choose it?: As mentioned above, V.E Schwab does genre hopping & wide audience appeal so well. Even though Victor and Eli are adults, their story starts in college which situated them in the familiar for me. The tropes and idea of the superhero story that this book plays on is also really familiar, so it didn’t really matter how old the characters were. It was more about the themes and the story then necessarily having to relate to the characters and their experiences/struggles.

Read my review here!

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

What is it about?: In an idyllic school in the rural English country side, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy first became friends. Now aged 31, Kathy reflects back on her time as Hailsham and the relationship between her, Ruth and Tommy. Slowly, Never Let Me Go reveals a unexpected and haunting series of events.

Why did I choose it?: This is both a dystopian & contemporary (it’s kind of hard to define within a genre) but it’s definitely an accessible read either way. For one, most of it is told in reflections by Kathy of when the characters were kids and teenagers, and most of the problems they face in later life feel more like a YA dystopian than an adult contemporary. This is such an interesting mystery but I definitely recommend going into it with as little knowledge as possible!

Read my review here!

UFO In Her Eyes by Xiaolu Guo

What is it about?: When Chinese woman Kwok Yun spots a UFO while bike riding, her life changes forever. As a result of the event, the government sends two agents from the National Security and Intelligence Agency to ask Kwok Yun and the other people in her village a few questions about the event, including what the UFO looked like, why Kwok Yun was near it’s crash site, and who the western man she helped after the event was.

Why did I choose it?: In some ways this book is like Illuminae and that is such a popular YA book. It’s all told in interviews/documents and observations and therefore is really interesting to read. Although the subtext of this book very much involves examining the Chinese government and the experiences of rural Chinese people, it’s still an enjoyable read without all that too and it’s extremely funny. Also, Kwok Yun is quite young and a bit of an outsider which makes her a similar character to many YA protagonists.

Read my review here!

Vicious by V.E Schwab

What is it about?: Vicious follows Eli Cardale and Victor Vale, two brilliant men who ended up roommates in college. The two decide to write their thesis on ExtraOrdinaries, or EO’s, a group of people who, by urban legend, have unique super abilities. When their research moved from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Now, ten years later, Victor has broken out of prison with one goal, to find his old foe Eli, and to kill him.

Why did I choose it?: As mentioned above, V.E Schwab does genre hopping & wide audience appeal so well. Even though Victor and Eli are adults, their story starts in college which situated them in the familiar for me. The tropes and idea of the superhero story that this book plays on is also really familiar, so it didn’t really matter how old the characters were. It was more about the themes and the story then necessarily having to relate to the characters and their experiences/struggles. Although this definitely has prominent sci-fi / fantasy elements I counted it as a contemporary because the world itself is still mostly unaware of the superpowers within the world.

Read my review here!

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

What is it about?: Richard Papen starts at an elite boarding school and ends up joining an exclusive class studying the classics. Under the influence of their charismatic teacher, the students of the class start to experiment beyond the bounds of normal morality, drawing Richard into a web of lies, deceit and violence that profoundly changes him.

Why did I choose it?: This is considered a modern classic and pretty much everyone loved it. I love it too. The college setting is really great as a transitional setting between YA highschools and adult family living arrangements. The characters are also at a great in between age for people who are in that in between age like me! The setting up of the plot, with the dark academia and elite, ominous boarding school is also used a lot in YA so that felt familiar too which was great because it gave familiarity even though this reads more adult in tone and pacing.

Read my review here!

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

What is it about?: This is a retelling of The Iliad focussing on the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. It delves a lot into each of their backstories and explores how they met and eventually fell in love, and how the war and siege on Troy impacted their relationship.

Why did I choose it?: This is super popular among YA readers anyway even though it’s adult so it is an obvious choice. Both Patroclus and Achilles a quite young in this and it is a coming of age novel which therefore has a lot of familiar / similar themes to YA novels.

Read my full review here

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

What is it about?: Rosemary is a human, who has always dreamed of travelling space. So she jumps at the oppurtunity to join the Wayfarers, a diverse group of humans and aliens alike whose job it is to punch holes in space to be used as highways to travel space. The Wayfarers are hired to create a jump portal to the newest member to join the ‘Galactic Community’ Toremi, and so begins a slow, but introspective journey across space, where the crew members reflect on themselves and their place in the universe.

Why did I choose it?: This is an adult book but there isn’t really anything that makes it feel firmly situated in that age range. Although the characters are a little older, it’s not really of that much importance to the story. Mostly this is just about space, and cultures and learning to respect people and it’s super interesting. It’s really accessible as both an adult for YA readers, and also a sci-fi for non sci-fi readers.

Read my full review here

So there we go!

I hope some of these recommendations were helpful for you if you’re looking, like me, to try and read more adult. These are some books I both loved AND thought were great crossover books. I have a Goodreads shelf of adult books if you wanted to look at some more adult books I’ve read/plan to read!

T5W: Books You Liked with Tropes You Usually Hate

Top 5 Wednesday was created by Lainey at Gingerreadslainey and is now hosted by Sam from Thoughts On Tomes. Topics can be found at the Top 5 Wednesday Goodreads Group

Welcome back to my blog for another round of Top 5 Wednesday. Today we’re talking about tropes you hate, and books that did them well. This was so hard for me! I don’t really hate that many tropes at all! I like a lot of them! I feel like all tropes can be done well in the right circumstances. The only tropes I truly hate are insta-love and slave/owner romance, and I can’t think of any books where I liked those tropes anyway. But I did my best to come up with some books for this weeks prompt regardless.

1: The Abyss Surrounds Us + Enemies to Lovers
Unpopular opinion-ish .. I don’t like enemies to lovers much?? It’s okay, but I much prefer friends to lovers. Or rivals to lovers. And I think there’s a big difference between enemies and rivals to lovers, but this is true enemies. It’s one of the only true enemies to lovers I’ve got behind. I loved Cas and Swift so much, they’re completely on opposite sides but their romance was so good and I rooted for them so hard.

2: The Star Touched Queen + Insta-Love
This is pretty much the only book I can think of where I was okay with the insta-love. Daughter of Smoke and Bone also kinda counts but only in the later books (HATED the insta-love in book one) but I kinda didn’t mind it here?? I definitely understood the purpose of it and thought the set up was very beautiful when it was explained. This book is a loose Hades and Persephone retelling and yeah, it’s the only time I’ve felt a bit okay with insta-love.

3: The Young Elites + Secret Royalty
I really don’t usually like the secret royalty trope. I often think it’s so predictable, I’m never as shocked as I’m supposed to be about the “hey he’s the prince” reveal. But I liked it so much in this. Marie Lu really flipped this trope to make the secret prince a kind of anti-hero who’s quest to win back the throne is actually .. not lawful or moral. He isn’t really a rightful heir but he’s going for it anyway. And I loved it so much. I still wasn’t really surprised the the character was the prince but I thought Marie Lu did something so interesting with the trope so I loved it.

4: The Fifth Season + 2nd Person PoV
Don’t @ Me I understand this isn’t a ‘trope’ per say more of a stylistic technique BUT, I’m struggling with this topic so I’m going with it. 2nd person PoV is my LEAST favourite and I hate it in pretty much everything. I didn’t like it in this either at the start, but when some of the plot threads come together and you understand why it’s like that it blew my mind. It was such a clever use of this technique and I loved it in the end.

5: A Gathering of Shadows + Love interests kept apart for a book
So this is a trope that I really don’t like. It’s so annoying to me when the love interests are separated in book two so there’s all this pining and angst. It can be enjoyable, but sometimes it’s very annoying and kind of juvenile? But I loved it in A Gathering of Shadows. The pining and angst was just enough that I craved their reunion without being incredibly annoyed and I loved the reunion scene a lot. It made me ship Lila and Kell even more rather than hate them like I do sometimes when this trope happens.

Those are my picks for this week! This was the hardest Top 5 Wednesday I think I’ve ever done and that is so surprising. I didn’t realise how okay I was with most tropes until I had to start thinking about ones I didn’t like. It’s so hard!

what tropes do you hate, and do you have books that did them well?

until next time!

T5W: FAVOURITE BOOKS I’VE READ IN 2018 (SO FAR)

Top 5 Wednesday was created by Lainey at Gingerreadslainey and is now hosted by Sam from Thoughts On Tomes. Topics can be found at the Top 5 Wednesday Goodreads Group

We’re half way through the year and I’ve managed to read nearly 80 books so far, which is amazing!. So lets chat about my favourite books I’ve read this year (so far). It was so hard to narrow down my list to five but I did it!

I decided not to include books that were rereads, because the fact I read them already makes them an all time favourite. All these books are new to me titles. Lets jump into it.

I Was Born For This
by Alice Oseman

Oh my god this book was amazing and I refuse to ever stop talking about it! I adore Alice Oseman and this book not only lived up to my expectations, but actually SURPASSED them. I loved the characters so much and the plot was so unique and interesting. Alice Oseman deserves the world. Read my full review right here!

Before the Devil Breaks You
by Libba Bray

I LOVE this series so much!!! And I genuinely could have included all the books in this post but just think of this one representing the series as a whole. The characters are my favourite, they are so well written and I just want them all to be happy and safe. The setting and plot is so imaginative and unique and I just adore everything about this series and I’m so glad I finally picked it up.

Peter Darling
by Austin Chant

This was so unbelievably adorable and good and I’m not over it. I liked it so much more than I was expecting, like I knew I would like it but not that I would become OBSESSED. And I just wish this book was longer because I need more of this adorable Peter/Hook romance.