As you might remember from a previous Book Tales in July, I’m participating in the AnderWereld Reading Challenge: you get 25 themes and you have to pick a book for each. You can find the first nine books I read 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 2: The second set of 9
10. A short story
For this first category, I chose A Plague of Zombies by Diana Gabaldon. This story is set in the Outlander universe but is part of the spin-off series about Lord John Grey. It’s included in the anthology Seven Stones to Stand or Fall, which contains short stories from both series. In this particular one, we meet Lord John in Jamaica where he’s asked to put an end to a slave rebellion. He expected the heat and the exotic animals, but he was totally unprepared to be faced with the undead. If you did not see that coming in a historical adventure novel, don’t worry, neither did I 🙂 . Like all Lord John stories, this reads like a train and is filled with adventure and his wry sense of humour. I personally prefer these over the more descriptive novels of the Outlander series itself.
Three out of five gemstones!
11. A book that was totally different than what you expected
As you might remember from part one of this challenge, I recently discovered Sarah J. Maas, and A Court of Thorns and Roses. I really liked it, but I was not blown away by it either (Read my review here.). Hence my surprise when I read A Court of Mist and Fury and fell totally in love with it. Set in the aftermath of the events of book 1, Feyre and Tamlin have to come to terms with the horrors they survived. Because of this, there’s a strong PTSD component to this book. But then, circumstances change and Feyre ends up in the Night Court with the mysteriously handsome Rhysand.
I simply adored the Court of Dreams (which is a statement that will most likely hold for 95% of the ACOTAR fanbase, I suspect). Their interactions, their friendship, Velaris, it’s all so beautiful and magical. The presence of Rhys doesn’t hurt either of course. I had not expected this story to take the turns it did, and it really surprised me and made me fall in love with this series.
My review can be found here, but for now I can already disclose my evaluation: five out of five gemstones.
I’m confident that this book will make the Dragon Award 2021 top ten! (Will be published in December)
12. A book with a female main character
Let’s face it: if you read YA, it’s not that hard to find books with female main characters. Finding one with a male one would have been much harder. So I just continued with my binge-read of Sarah J. Maas, and read A Court of Wings and Ruin, in which Feyre is still the main character.
War is approaching fast and threatens to destroy everything that is dear to Feyre. Can she figure out which High Lords to trusts and which have hidden agendas?
I quite liked this third part too! I wasn’t as blown away by it as I was by the second instalment, but still, it was impossible to put it down.
My review can be found here, but I can already say that I gave this part five out of five gemstones too.
13. A book out of your comfort zone
Difficult category! I wanted to pick one that was different enough from what I usually read but that wouldn’t bore me to death either. On our trip in Wallonia, I thought I had found an ideal one: La Petite Sirène by Sylvain Johnson. A horror version of The Little Mermaid, in French. That seemed interesting enough and out of my comfort zone because I do not normally read horror, and it’s been ages since I read a French novel.
Well. That was a mistake. I’m not at all conventional and I pride myself on being quite open minded, but this book was disgusting. Plainly disgusting. And disturbing. In the first couple of pages, there’s infanticide, rape, bullying, and extreme violence. Not for the faint of heart. I had expected vicious mermaids that ate humans or something. I had not expected to read something that purely tries to shock and, apparently “show the horrors of humanity”.
I would not recommend this book at all: one out of five gemstones since I cannot give zero.
14. A book that does not take place in the Western Culture
Back to good books now 🙂 As you might recall from my review, I really loved We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal. Luckily for me, part two was recently released: We Free the Stars. I was so excited! And with reason: it was great. I had again a bit of trouble getting into the story because of the rather complex style, but once I was in, I was once again sold. I adore these main characters so much. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more romance though, but it’s simply not that kind of story, I guess.
Like part 1, this is set in a land inspired by Ancient Arabia, but filled with magic and fantastical creatures. It’s a setting that will make you dream.
My review can be found here. Without a doubt: five out of five gemstones.
15. A book with a long title: more than 6 words
You probably do not realise how difficult this category was. I didn’t either, until I started to look for long titles. Most of them are six words! So frustrating. However, I finally found a longer one: The Manifesto on how to be Interesting by the amazing Holly Bourne. She’s without a doubt one of my favourite YA-contemporary authors.
This book tells the story of Bree, a high school student who dreams of becoming a writer. Unfortunately, all her manuscripts have been turned down. When her teacher tells her this might be due to the fact that her life is not interesting enough (Worst. Advice. Ever.), she decides to start a blog and investigate what it takes to become “interesting”.
Honestly, this book was not easy to evaluate. I liked reading it, but at the same time, I had so many ethical questions pop up that I could never truly enjoy it. I would still recommend it, but please check out the trigger warnings first!
My review will follow soon: three out of five gemstones.
16. A story set in a school
For this next category, I chose a re-read of a book that I did not finish when I was a teenager: Fallen by Lauren Kate. I distinctly remember that I stopped reading quite early on in the story because I thought it was cold and cruel. I must have been a dramatic teenager. I agree with young-me that it is not the most heart-warming story but I think I missed the most important part about it: it’s plainly boring.
It has a lot of potential though: it tells the story of a girl sent to a boarding school for “problematic” children because she was connected to a fire in which another kid died. At school, there’s a mysterious boy who seems to trigger a long forgotten memory, but she never quite grasps why he seems so familiar.
It would have been an interesting story, I guess, if the title, the names and the first chapter hadn’t spoiled it as of the very beginning. So once again, I did not finish the book. I was so bored that I didn’t bother to read the final chapter. Can you imagine 🙂
I gave this one gemstone out of five.
17. A book written by a black author
For this category, I picked the first Fairyloot book I’ve ever read: The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna. This book tells the story of Deka, a young girl who is found to be “impure” because her blood runs gold. This is a sign that she’s a demon, which is a sure death sentence in her village. However, she’s presented with a choice: stay in the village and meet her fate, or join the army of the emperor to defend the realm against the monsters that are gaining power.
Although the premise is certainly interesting, this story did not manage to capture my attention either. To be fair though, I suppose this book is targeting a quite young YA audience. Therefore, I will not assign any gemstones.
18. A book in an unusual format
This category was surprisingly harder than expected. I don’t seem to own many books in unusual formats (for which I’m rather glad, to be honest. They look so messy when put next to usual formats). So I picked the one I found that I hadn’t read: A Guinea Pig Pride and Prejudice (adapted from Jane Austen‘s work).
This book was original to say the least. It’s tiny and printed in landscape and each set of pages consists of a quote from the original text and a picture of dress-up guinea pigs. Not sure who was waiting for this, but I have to admit it’s cute.
Two gemstones out of five.
Want to know which other books I picked? Follow my blog on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest to get notified when part 3 is published!