These are all books where characters are dealing with overwhelming personal loss, the books detail their emotional struggles and how they persevere through horrible circumstances. The links will lead you to Goodreads to check them out.
This is how my heart felt after reading these books.
1. The Fifth Wave (The Fifth Wave #1) by Rick Yancey
After the 1st wave,
only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after
the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule
applies: trust no one.
Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker.
Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.
I
don't know how people are able to deal the rapid fire loss of eveything
familiar and normal. But Mr. Yancey does a wonderful job of immersing
readers in that uncomfortable place. The sequel to this is even better
than the first and definitely worth checking out.
2. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer
Nine-year-old Oskar
Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer,
pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer,
jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. When his
father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade
Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his
father's closet. It is a search which leads him into the lives of
strangers, through the five boroughs of New York, into history, to the
bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima, and on an inward journey which brings
him ever closer to some kind of peace.
The
narrator of this story is a very intelligent and engaging young man,
who is coping incredible loss while learning from the loss of others.
Has some wonderful moments, and great writing.
3. Angelfall by Susan Ee
It's been six weeks since the angels of the apocalypse destroyed the world as we know it. Only pockets of humanity remain.
Savage street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night.
When angels fly away with a helpless girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back...
Savage street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night.
When angels fly away with a helpless girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back...
This
was not at all what I expected out of Angel lore.
I was pleasantly
surprised by the world building and awesome writing. The love between a
family is enough to drive them forward. The follow up is Awesome too!!
4. Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1) by Pierce Brown
The Earth is dying.
Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to
extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the
planet and allow humans to live on it. The Reds are humanity's last
hope.
Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie. That Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.
Until the day that Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.
Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie. That Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.
Until the day that Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.
This is an amazing story of perseverance, its full of action, humor emotion and Awesomeness!! How Have you not read this yet? Read My Review Here
5. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.
But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...
This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth.
But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...
This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth.
How you deal with grief and how it can manifest, into a very tangible part of your life is explored through this narrative. This is a short but very emotional read, have tissues handy. Check out my review Here!
6. Oryx and Crake (MadAddam #1) by Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake
is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the
future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a
plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last
human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the
beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers,
Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of
Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city,
until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic
engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is
both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.
This has a wonderful mix of sci-fi and emotional turmoil, that makes you question how far your humanity or lack thereof will take you.
7.The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Despite the
tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel
has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon
diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly
appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be
completely rewritten.
This is a incredibly popular and heart filled book, that deserves the hype. Although the dialogue reads like people much older are talking rather than the teens described,it's still awesome. Definitely something you should check out.
8. Unwind (Unwind Dystology #1) by Neal Shusterman
The Second Civil War was
fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is
inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the
ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child
"unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into
different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too
difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not
enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and
raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to
survive.
This world is a place where your parents can decide your not worth more than the some of your parts literally. The morality described is twisted but the use of current news articles to remind you we're not as removed from this world as we think.
9. The Book Theif by Marcus Zusak
HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE
1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.
Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.
SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION - THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH
It's a small story, about:
a girl
an accordionist
some fanatical Germans
a Jewish fist fighter
and quite a lot of thievery.
ANOTHER THING YOU SHOULD KNOW - DEATH WILL VISIT THE BOOK THIEF THREE TIMES
HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE
1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.
Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.
SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION - THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH
It's a small story, about:
a girl
an accordionist
some fanatical Germans
a Jewish fist fighter
and quite a lot of thievery.
ANOTHER THING YOU SHOULD KNOW - DEATH WILL VISIT THE BOOK THIEF THREE TIMES
Death makes a very blunt, but interesting narrator. People love this book, and it is definitely worth checking out because of the premise alone. But I don't recommend it, without my reservations, see my review Here.
10. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
In 1923,
fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in
Philadelphia, hoping for a chance at a better life. Instead, she marries
a man who will bring her nothing but disappointment and watches
helplessly as her firstborn twins succumb to an illness a few pennies
could have prevented. Hattie gives birth to nine more children whom she
raises with grit and mettle and not an ounce of the tenderness they
crave. She vows to prepare them for the calamitous difficulty they are
sure to face in their later lives, to meet a world that will not love
them, a world that will not be kind. Captured here in twelve luminous
narrative threads, their lives tell the story of a mother’s monumental
courage and the journey of a nation.
This is a very harrowing journey and emotional tale, that highlights many characters going through their inner mental stuggles which at times overpowers them physically.
Link your Top Ten Tuesday posts below, and let me know what you thought of the books mentioned. Thanks for stopping by!!