Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I’m On The Fence About



Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is books I’m on the fence about reading. We’re supposed to talk about new releases, but honestly, I don’t pay a ton of attention to what’s coming out, so I’m going to focus on backlist books. Push me off the fence! Let me know which of these I should read and which I should strike from my list.

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Books I’m On The Fence About







1. Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong




Three years after losing her brother Luka in a school shooting, Skye Gilchrist is moving home. But there's no sympathy for Skye and her family because Luka wasn't a victim; he was a shooter.

Jesse Mandal knows all too well that the scars of the past don't heal easily. The shooting cost Jesse his brother and his best friend—Skye.

Ripped apart by tragedy, Jesse and Skye can't resist reopening the mysteries of their past. But old wounds hide darker secrets. And the closer Skye and Jesse get to the truth of what happened that day, the closer they get to a new killer.

















2. Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna #1) by Kendare Blake



Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

Yet she spares Cas's life.















3. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell



Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as “the radio people,” Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.

For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics—and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly’s life, affecting all the people Holly loves—even the ones who are not yet born.

A Cambridge scholarship boy grooming himself for wealth and influence, a conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting from occupied Iraq, a middle-aged writer mourning his exile from the bestseller list—all have a part to play in this surreal, invisible war on the margins of our world. From the medieval Swiss Alps to the nineteenth-century Australian bush, from a hotel in Shanghai to a Manhattan townhouse in the near future, their stories come together in moments of everyday grace and extraordinary wonder.















4. Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill



In a world in which baby girls are no longer born naturally, women are bred in schools, trained in the arts of pleasing men until they are ready for the outside world. At graduation, the most highly rated girls become “companions,” permitted to live with their husbands and breed sons until they are no longer useful.

For the girls left behind, the future—as a concubine or a teacher—is grim.

Best friends Freida and Isabel are sure they’ll be chosen as companions—they are among the most highly rated girls in their year.

But as the intensity of final year takes hold, Isabel does the unthinkable and starts to put on weight. And then, into this sealed female environment, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride.

Freida must fight for her future—even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known.















5. Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett



When Margaret's fiancé, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody. Over the span of decades, his younger siblings—the savvy and responsible Celia and the ambitious and tightly controlled Alec—struggle along with their mother to care for Michael's increasingly troubled and precarious existence.

















6. Broken Things by Lauren Oliver



It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods. 

Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.

The only thing is: they didn’t do it.

On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.















7. The Fourteenth Goldfish (The Fourteenth Goldfish #1) by Jennifer L. Holm



Eleven-year-old Ellie has never liked change. She misses fifth grade. She misses her old best friend. She even misses her dearly departed goldfish. Then one day a strange boy shows up. He’s bossy. He’s cranky. And weirdly enough . . . he looks a lot like Ellie’s grandfather, a scientist who’s always been slightly obsessed with immortality. Could this pimply boy really be Grandpa Melvin? Has he finally found the secret to eternal youth?



















8. The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal



Just before dawn on a Sunday morning, three teenage boys go surfing. While driving home exhausted, the boys are involved in a fatal car accident on a deserted road. Two of the boys are wearing seat belts; one goes through the windshield. The doctors declare him brain-dead shortly after arriving at the hospital, but his heart is still beating.

The Heart takes place over the twenty-four hours surrounding the resulting heart transplant, as life is taken from a young man and given to a woman close to death.




















9. One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus



Pay close attention and you might solve this.

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.

Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. 

Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. 

Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.

Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.

And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.














10. The Nix by Nathan Hill



Meet Samuel Andresen-Anderson: stalled writer, bored teacher at a local college, obsessive player of an online video game. He hasn't seen his mother, Faye, since she walked out when he was a child. But then one day there she is, all over the news, throwing rocks at a presidential candidate. The media paints Faye as a militant radical with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother never left her small Iowa town. Which version of his mother is the true one? Determined to solve the puzzle—and finally have something to deliver to his publisher—Samuel decides to capitalize on his mother's new fame by writing a tell-all biography, a book that will savage her intimately, publicly. But first, he has to locate her; and second, to talk to her without bursting into tears.

As Samuel begins to excavate her history, the story moves from the rural Midwest of the 1960s to New York City during the Great Recession and Occupy Wall Street to the infamous riots at the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, and finally to Norway, home of the mysterious Nix that his mother told him about as a child. And in these places, Samuel will unexpectedly find that he has to rethink everything he ever knew about his mother—a woman with an epic story of her own, a story she kept hidden from the world.















Did you read and love any of these? Do you think I should set any of them on fire and fling them into a black hole?







53 comments:

  1. Aftermath doesn't sound like a "typical" Kelley Armstrong book. However, it does sound kind of interesting. I'm one who would say skip Broken Things. I think I gave it 2/5. It was not one I enjoyed at all but maybe you'll fare better.

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    1. Thanks! I don’t think I’ve ever read a Kelley Armstrong book, so I’m not sure what she typically writes.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  2. Great list! I read One of Us is Lying last year and really enjoyed it, so I'd recommend it. I keep meaning to read Only Ever Yours, too, but I'm just not in the mood for dystopian anymore.

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    1. Yeah, the dystopia fad does seem to have passed. I kind of miss it. :(

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  3. I haven't read any of these, but I own Anna Dressed in Blood and Only Ever Yours, both of which I definitely want to read. Shannon raves about Only Ever Yours. And I have the sequel to Fourteenth Goldfish---the publisher sent it to me, but I never got to it because I hadn't read the first one yet. I still want to read them, though (along with all the other books in the known universe---and probably some in the unknown universe as well).

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. I have a few sequels sitting on my shelf that I can’t read because I don’t own the first book. How does this keep happening?!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  4. I haven't read any of these but do have Broken Things and One of Us is Lying and am excited for them.

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  5. I found Only Ever Yours to be a pretty frustrating read due to how little time the author spent explaining how that universe worked. Sadly, I wouldn't recommend it.

    This is my Top Ten Tuesday post.

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  6. I wasn't a fan of The Nix. It had a few moments, but overall it bored me.

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    1. I agree! It was waaaay too long and not very interesting. I really wish I had read something else instead. One of Us Is Lying and Imagine Me Gone are in my TBR pile and hope to read them soon

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    2. That’s disappointing. I don’t like long, draggy books.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  7. Well, I haven't read any of these, but The Fourteenth Goldfish sounds appealing. If you do choose to read any of these, I hope you enjoy them. But if your TBR list is a mile long like mine is, perhaps these are not worth the time investment, and you should stick to the books you know you want to read?

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    1. That’s what I’ve been thinking. My TBR list is so long that I probably shouldn’t bother with books that I’m on the fence about.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  8. I DNFed Anna dressed in blood. I wouldn't say there was anything wrong with it but I could quickly tell that is just wasn't for me. Lauren Oliver is not an author I ever liked so I don't read her stuff now.

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    1. I’ve never tried Lauren Oliver, even though I’ve seen her books EVERYWHERE.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  9. Hope love One of Us is Lying as much as I did if you decide to read it. I love how Oliver writes btu haven't been super excited about Broken Things either. I DNF Anna Dressed in Blood but wanted to try it again.

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    1. You’re the second commenter who DNFed Anna. That probably means I should take it off my list.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  10. I'm still curious about Aftermath and Broken Things. I'm about halfway through One of Us is Lying right now and I'm enjoying it!

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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  11. Interestingly enough, I just recently read a book that revolved around the after effects of a school shooting. The previous two books had focused on two survivors but this third book included the brother of one of the shooters. I thought it was fascinating to view the events and the aftermath through his eyes. He suffered every it as much as the victims, it seemed. I'm thinking Armstrong's Aftermath would be a great one.

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    1. I hope so! You don’t find many books that focus on the shooter’s family.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  12. I liked Broken Things and I LOVED One of Us is Lying. I have heard a lot of people say YA mysteries are a little to predictable for them. So, if you are a hardcore mystery reader, you might be disappointed, but I am all about the characters, and I was into them in both of these books.

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    1. I’m glad you liked them. I don’t read a lot of mysteries, but I do get irritated when they’re predictable.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  13. I haven't read any of these, but I would keep Only Ever Yours just for the cover!

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  14. One of us is lying was REALLY good. Anna Dressed in Blood however... not so much. I didn't like it at all.

    Here's our TTT: https://jennreneeread.blogspot.com/2019/02/top-ten-tuesday-i-want-to-read-this.html#comment-form

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    1. I’m pretty sure I’m going to take Anna off the list. Nobody has said they loved it yet.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  15. I thought Broken things was pretty good- not amazing but I liked it. And I liked One Of Us Is Lying a lot- I kind of echo Sam's comment above.

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  16. I DID NOT like Anna Dressed in Blood, it felt like it was just ripping off Supernatural. I liked Broken Things a lot but it was a little problematic.

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    1. Haha, I guess nobody likes Anna! That’s good because deleting it from my list will give me more space for other books.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  17. I really enjoyed One of Us is Lying and recommend it!

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  18. I hope you'll read Only Ever Yours, this book was like a slap in the face... honestly. I just really loved it and it baffled me and made me scared and just... I don't know, I found it to be such a strong, interesting book :)
    Happy reading! <3

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  19. I enjoyed One of Us is Lying when I read it. I'm also very curious about Broken Things and Aftermath.

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  20. If I was a kid, I'd DEFINITELY go for "The Fourteenth Goldfish"!

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    1. It does seem like a really unique book. I haven’t seen many reviews of it.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  21. Nope, didn’t read any of them and probably won’t.

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  22. Anna Dressed in Blood is one I am thinking about reading. I actually have Aftermath and Broken Things on my shelves to read but haven't read myself yet, so I can't sell them too you or tell you not to read them as I have yet to discover my own thoughts :P

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  23. Anna Dressed in Blood and The Bone Clocks were both fantastic. :)

    Lauren @ Always Me

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  24. I really liked Anna Dressed in Blood, but I DNFed the sequel. You can read it without having (wanting) to read the second book because the end tues everything up nice and tight. 👍✨

    I read a companion book of The Bone Clocks, set in the same portal world, and it was okay. 😏

    The goldfish book's middle 60% would not be interesting to a MG reader in my opinion, so I didn't rate it very high.

    Only Ever Yours had an interesting concept, but in my thoughts the sexual content was to detailed for YA. The main character could have easily been made 18 and this book promoted as Adult Fiction, or NA. 😕

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  25. Yoou HAVE to read Only Ever Yours. HAVE. TO. It is one of my all-time "shove on everyone" books. I can't even call it a favorite because it is so damn MESSED UP but it's just phenomenal. One of Us is Lying is good too!

    I am right there with you with Anna Dressed in Blood tbh. And Broken Things... I am on the fence about whether you should read it 😂 I liked it a lot, but I also thought the reveal was underwhelming? Sorry. I am useless. But read Only Ever Yours. I may tweet at you about it tbh.

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  26. I LOVED and I mean LOVED Anna Dressed In Blood. LOVED it, still love it and will always love it. My daughter just read One of Us is Lying and said it was good, not great. I want to read Broken Things and Aftermath. I hope you read one that is great.

    Mary

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  27. I really enjoyed Anna Dressed in Blood. I also enjoyed a different book by David Mitchell - The Slade House.

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  28. I say yes to Imagine Me Gone. I really liked it. I thought it was one of the best books I read that year. (2017 for me.)

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  29. Kelley Armstrong writes fast than I can keep up. You should give one of her books a try. It might as well be that one. But of all the books on this list, THE FOURTEENTH GOLDFISH is the one I hope you read. It's a delightful middle grade speculative fiction. Last year the sequel came out: THE THIRD MUSHROOM.

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  30. I kind of want to read Broken Things and One of Us is Lying. Lol. I haven't read any of these though - I am no help!

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  31. One of Us Is Lying, The 14th Goldfish, and Anna Dressed in Blood were all...okay. I do love Blake's fantasy series though.

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  32. I loved Aftermath, Anna Dressed in Blood, and Broken Things. I usually love all the books I read, though. Aftermath didn't get a lot of attention because it is about the aftermath of a school shooting, so it's the one I would recommend the most! Thanks for stopping by! Happy reading!

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  33. I liked Anna Dressed in Blood, but I feel like the blurb makes it seem more heavy on the horror side than it actually is. That said, there are some *very* creepy scenes, including gore etc., but I was def. expecting it to be creepier!

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  34. I personally feel like Anna Dressed in Blood was just a Supernatural ripoff, it annoyed me. I really liked Broken Things, but it does have some problematic content.

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