This week’s theme from The Broke and the Bookish is about books you’ve enjoyed recently that weren’t in your typical genre. Well, I’m not sure I have a typical genre, so I’m going to go with books I didn’t think I was going to enjoy quite as much as I did!
- Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo. From what I’d read about the Russian-ish setting and so on, and the liking other people had for the Bad Boy Darkling, I was really prepared to dislike this. And then I read it in an hour. Oops.
- Cocaine Blues, Kerry Greenwood. I tried to read it once before, and bounced off with many complaints about the writing. Then in the last year I had another go and… loved it and devoured all the books as fast as I could get my hands on them.
- Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie. Okay, everyone told me I’d love it, but after my partner wasn’t 100% sold on it, I was a bit doubtful.
- The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley. Same with this one. My partner didn’t even finish this one, I think.
- The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart. This was another reread job — the first time I read it, the misogyny really set my teeth on age. I appreciated it more the second time.
- The Mirror World of Melody Black, Gavin Extence. I was fully prepared for this to be a disappointment after how much I loved The Universe Versus Alex Woods, and especially after seeing some early reviews. They were all wrong. It was great.
- The Accident Season, Moira Fowley-Doyle. It just… didn’t seem like the kind of YA read that was gonna be my thing. And then I four-starred it.
- A Taste of Blood Wine, Freda Warrington. I expected silly indulgent vampires. I got a lusciously indulgent vampire story that didn’t dodge the issues, nor humanise the monsters.
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs. This either looked too creepy or too young for me, but I ate it and the second book up.
- The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson. After the complaints about the queer tragedy and appropriation and such, I expected to be horrified. Instead, I loved it.
You read Shadow and Bone in an hour?? That’s awesome. I loved that book. I too had no idea what I was going to think because I hadn’t heard too much about it. Now I think it’s safe to say that it’s been one of my favorite reads this year. Jury is still out on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children though. I read it and it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I haven’t decided if that’s a good or a bad thing yet. Great post! This sounds like a solid mix of books (most of which I haven’t read yet.)
Here’s my TTT if you’re interested. 🙂
Carrianne recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday | Books I Enjoyed Outside My Normal Genre
Yep! Well, an hour and a half… including the time spent in the library getting it, walking up from the library to the train station, and then walking from the train station home. So probably more like an hour and ten minutes, but still…
I wasn’t sure about Miss Peregrine’s either, in some ways. It could have been much much much creepier, for something shelved in the horror section!
I want to read The Accident Season so bad. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Happy reading!
Here’s my Top Ten Tuesday!
I liked it a lot more than I expected! Hope you get chance to try it soon.
Glad to hear you liked The Accident Season, it’s one of my planned reads for this year.
JJ recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday #45
I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did, but it turned out to be really good!
If I did this list, The Traitor Baru Cormorant would be the perfect pick for it too! I had so many doubts going in, because of the intimidating amount of details, but I ended up loving it. The story was way more expressive and emotional than I expected.
Yes, exactly! My sister is being doubtful about trying it, and just… argrhh, I wish she’d read it already!
I’ve been really interested in The Accident Season – i do need to get to that one sometime soon. My TTT
I liked it a lot! Which definitely surprised me.