I did it! I completed the AnderWereld reading challenge of 2021! For each of the 25 themes, I picked and read one book. In this post, I’ll discuss the final 7 books. The first set of 9 can be found here, the second here.
AnderWereld
AnderWereld is a great bookstore specialising in Fantasy, Science Fiction and Young Adult fiction in both Dutch and English. Next to an online store, a physical shop in Alphen (Netherlands) and their presence on Fantasy events, they also offer cool book boxes. You can even ask them to create a second hand book box especially for you!
Challenge part 3: The final 7 books
19. A story filled with magic
This might be an obvious statement coming from someone with a blog called Tales from the Dragon’s Lair, but selecting a story filled with magic wasn’t that hard. You might remember that I recently discovered the work of Sarah J. Maas, so I was happy to continue the A Court of Thorns and Roses series and read A Court of Frost and Starlight. This novella is the final part of the series (up to now anyway) in which Feyre is the main character. The story setting is much more intimate, and the storyline is less epic and focusses on the aftermath of the war and the way in which the realm and its inhabitants try to heal. It reminded me a lot of a typical Christmas special of a TV series.
Once again, I really enjoyed Maas’s story. It might not be as exciting as the previous three parts, but the subdued atmosphere seems right after everything that has happened. It provided closure and it really bridges the gap to the new narrative point of view of the fourth novel.
Interested? I recently published my (spoiler free) series review of the first 3,5 books.
Once again, 5 out of 5 gemstones:
20. A book bought at AnderWereld
Bloodline by Kate Cary is a young adult retelling of Bram Stoker‘s Dracula (first part of a duology). It tells the story of John, a soldier haunted by the memories of World War I, and, more precisely, of his commanding officer, Quincey Harker. In his nightmares, Harker becomes a superhuman monster out for human blood. But John is convinced that it’s simply shell-shock. But then, Harker makes a reappearance into John’s life and starts to woo his sister. Are his nightmares just that, bad dreams? Or are they linked to something far more sinister?
I’m always up for a good vampire story, but, unfortunately, this wasn’t one. Although I greatly appreciated the way that Cary used the same literary devices as Stoker by telling the story through a collection of letters, diary excerpts, and various other documents, the story itself stayed too close to the original for my tastes. It was exactly the same story, but with young characters and written for a teenage audience.
As I lacked originality, I only gave this book 1 out of 5 gemstones:
21. A book for teenagers
At the beginning of the year, my book club selected Renegades by Marissa Meyer as our next read. I was a bit wary about this, because I’m really not into superheroes. Like, not at all. On top of that, I received a Dutch edition and I hardly ever read translations. So this group read wasn’t really starting of well for me.
The book is the first part of a trilogy about epic battles between good and evil, between superheroes and supervillains. But teenage style. It tells the story of a young villain who decides to enact revenge on the superheroes who failed to protect her real family and who oppose her new family of supervillains. How she does that? Why, by joining the superheroes, of course!
Unfortunately, this book could not make me forget that I really dislike superheroes. On the plus side, the translation turned out to be brilliant. I wasn’t bothered by it even once, which is a superhero feat on its own. But putting all of that aside, I simply was not the right target audience for this book. In my opinion, it should really be marketed for young teenagers.
My full review can be found here, but as I cannot evaluate this book fairly, I won’t be allocating any gemstones for this one.
22. A book with an LGBTQ+ character
LGBTQ+ representation is one of the things I value greatly in stories, so it wasn’t exactly hard to find a book for this category. I picked Boy meets Hamster by Sera (Birdie) Milano (first book in a duology).
The least you can say about this book is that it’s unexpected. It’s funny, it’s original, and it’s a great feel-good story about finding your very first love. All while being thwarted by a giant hamster. Told you it was original 😉
The book follows Dylan, a fourteen year old looking desperately for his first kiss during a cheap family holiday at a Caravan Park. Luckily for him, the boy in the caravan next doors is gorgeous. But time and time again, Dylan sees his romantic dreams turn to ashes thanks to the intervention of the park’s Hamster Mascot.
My review can be found here, but I can already spoil that I absolutely loved this story and gave it 4 out of 5 gemstones:
23. A book by an author who passed away
All my classics are still stuck in moving boxes, so this category was actually harder than I thought. In the end, I picked a book I received in one of AnderWereld’s personalised mystery boxes: Bring me the Head of Prince Charming by Roger Zelazny (died in 1995) and Robert Sheckley (died in 2005).
Without a doubt, this book should get the price of “most original title” and “most original storyline”. It’s the first book in the Millennial Contest trilogy and tells the story of a demon who has decided that he wants to win the Millennial Evil Deeds Award. Isn’t that a great idea for a story?
Although I greatly appreciated the humour and the fun writing style, I couldn’t completely get into it at this time. Therefore, I will not assign any gemstones just yet, but will revisit this novel later on. I’m sure it’ll be a gem when read at the appropriate time.
24. A book with an animal as one of the main characters
When I was a child, I adored The Incredible Journey. As an adult, I still do, although I’m now officially unable to watch the ending without being reduced to a crying mess. When looking for a book to fit this category, I suddenly realised I had never read the original by Sheila Burnford. Let just say that this was a bit of a let-down, in all honesty. The story is extremely slow-paced and dialogues are not prominently featured.
For those unfamiliar with the story, The Incredible Journey is a children’s book about two dogs and a cat who travel across the wilderness to find their owners. I’ll keep this book in my collection as it has such a high emotional value, but I don’t think I will read it again.
But once again, seeing that I’m not the intended target audience, I will not be allocating any gemstones.
25. A book with a title that contains one of the elements
At first, this seemed a difficult category. Then I received too books more or less at the same time that have a title that contains the word “fire”. One of them was Fire with Fire by Destiny Soria (my review can be found here). For this final category, though, I chose the other one, namely Fire Wave by Ana Stanojevic.
I received an eBook copy of this story in exchange for an honest review (which can be read here). This exciting debut novel is filled with aliens and superheroines, perfect for the fans of Marissa Meyer and Marie Lu.
I gave it 3 out of 5 gemstones:
