So, I recently realized that as a certified Book Person™, I get asked for recommendations pretty frequently, and that my go-to list comprises literally just three titles, which I cycle through ad infinitum depending on who I'm talking to. So to save on time, I think I'm just gonna hype all three of them right here for the whole universe. YA WELCOME.
Are these books the pinnacle of literature? The next Harry Potter? I don't know. I like them and they make me feel things. HERE WE GO.
1) Geekerella by Ashley Poston
Three words for ya, buddies: Cinderella. With Cosplay.
Who doesn't like Cinderella retellings? Sit down. You're lying, everybody does. This is the best one. Fight me.
In this version, Cinderella is a girl named Elle who just wants to go to this giant Comic Con her dad started (based off Dragon Con, by the way), and the prince is Darien Freeman--the heartthrob playing the lead role in the movie adaptation of her Star Trek-esque favorite TV show--who's doing meet-and-greets at said con, and the fairy godmother is this badass cosplay goddess named Sage who helps her build her costume. It's really pure and I cried more than once and I would die for Darien x Elle. What's their couple name? Darielle? Ellien? Ash Poston, weigh in on this.
Read this if: you like cosplay, cuteness, or feeling joy at all.
2) Gone by Michael Grant
There's a quote on a newer version of these books by Stephen King that just says "This is great fiction. I love these books." So, that's pretty much all you need to know. Thanks, Stephen King.
Okay, no, so this is a series of six that centers on this city in California--Perdido Beach--where one day this giant dome appears trapping everyone inside, and then everyone over the age of fifteen just VANISHES. And then, on top of that, the remaining kids--who by the way, are pretty evenly divided between "aw yeah no rules let's eat all the candy" and "aw yeah, no rules, let's BEAT THE SH*T OUT OF PEOPLE"--start developing weird powers. So, like Lord of the Flies, but with superpowers. It's cool. When I read it again as an adult, I did start to notice that a lot of the characters are kind of bland and one-dimensional and the plot starts to fall apart after the first book, but it's still just such a fun read.
Read this if: you're a YA fan who liked dystopian fiction but are now kind of over dystopian fiction because it got oversaturated
3) Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreery
HAHAHAHAHAHAOKAY. LISTEN. I know this book is trash. I know it's written like trash and the characters are trash and the twist is trash and everything is trash but for god knows what reason, my brain was like "Yes! This one! This is what we like."
Here's the gist: girls in a small town in Pennsylvania start showing up mauled to death. People start to wonder if it was a werewolf and blame this creep of a kid Peter Rumancek, who is actually a werewolf but is not the werewolf who killed the girls. He teams up with this other creep of a kid, Roman Godfrey, to find the real killer and clear his name. Everyone's based on a staple of horror fiction--there's a Frankenstein character, there's the werewolf character, there's vampires, there's creepy doctors. It's campy as heck. It takes itself too seriously. I got so invested that I forgot to guess who the real murderer was so when it was revealed I was like whoOOOOaaaaAAAATTTTT. I don't know. I might be the only person who liked it.
Read this if: you'd like some nice paranormal mystery escapism trash in your life. #romancek forever.
Anyway, those are the top three on my rotation of book recommendations. I'm sludging through ACOTAR right now, so I could really use some of yours. Drop me some titles in the comments!