[guest post] a random guide to quirky books

a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I asked my dear friend Selena to write a guest post on my blog. and when she asked what to write about, I kind of melted into a puddle-shrug and said "books???" with a lot more question marks and uncertainty than I can express at the end of the sentence. yeah. I suck at ideas.

I use this gif too much but I don't care. it's the best.

Selena ran with it like a pro though, because I'm proud to present you with this amazing and slightly hyper (hey, she admitted it! XD ) blogpost of awesome. enjoy.

Hola. Ni hao. Annyeonghaseyo. Hi. I felt like being multi-lingual today. I’m random like that.

Aaanyway, Ely asked me to write her a guest post (which is only fair since she’s done two on my blog) a while ago. Because I have bad memory and school was killing me with stress, I’m only writing it now. (ely: and I'm only posting it now...because I'm a slacker...)

Welcome to-- A Guide to Quirky Books, a quick guide to different “genres” or topics  of YA fiction that don’t get talked about a lot or maybe they’re just unique and not the more common topics. Thus, the quirky. :) I hope I get you interested in a brand new area of YA!

Without further ado, please read about these five kinds of books that will change your life. Guaranteed.

Me and several of my friends have talked (a lot) about how disgustingly biased the gaming world. The simple truth is… it’s for guys.

You may not be a gamer girl, but if you’re a bookworm you already understand the number one reason people like to play games-- they take you to another world, they allow you to roleplay. The books I’m about to show you are awesome combinations of gaming and girl power. SEXISM BE DARNED.

Styles can vary in these kinds of books. Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi is a super fluffy contemporary that combines high school troubles and the “everyday” gaming life (with an awesome addition of the manga life). Heir Apparent and Feyland are more about futuristic gaming and pretty hardcore. I LOVE the world in Heir Apparent (and the game quests), whereas Feyland’s strong points are the fantasy and description which is gorgeous.

There are a. lot. of paranormal stories in the book world right now, but the kind of ghost stories I’m talking about are YA books featuring mediums-and-spirits type stuff.

*Now that I look through the YA ghost stories I’ve read, there aren’t that many. Any suggestions from anybody? I’d like to get back into reading them.

If you were to ask me to rate this in intensity from least to most, it’d probably be something like: The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney > The Raven Boys > Juliet Immortal. All of them are really, really good though (although Juliet Immortal can’t really be classified by a genre. read it and you’ll see what I mean ;) ).

Fiction about weird time stuff (yes, that’s a classification) is another one of my favorite quirky genres. The first series I read about time travel was ridiculously complicated because of two reasons: 1) I started in the middle of the series 2) it had waaay too many dang names and terms to remember.

But DON’T WORRY. The books I’m going to show you aren’t like that at all. :)

They are however two very different kinds of “time” books.

Amber House, honestly, started out a little boring to me. But then it blew me away. Your brain will be a mess trying to figure this one out. I promise.

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier is more like the typical time-traveling novel. However, all the worldbuilding of the time-travel world and all the lore is amazing. Combining that with high school life is a winner. Also, it was originally written in German so I am very  impressed with the translation game.

YES. My favorite thing. (ely: SAME. STEAMPUNK IS LIFE.)

Something about the awesome clothes (leather corsets anyone?), the rainbow spectrum of gear- and steam-run weapons, and the mysterious aether that’s always present is fascinating to me. It’s. so. cool.

So, of course I have some favorite steampunk books.

The Girl in the Steel Corset (written by Kady Cross) is the first book in my favorite steampunk series ever. If you want to read the series though, I would recommend you start off with the prequel The Strange Case of Finley Jayne. The world is so steampunk I could cry. There are loads of mysteries. And there are a cast of characters that are pretty much squad goals and I love them so much.

Flash Gold is pretty different, but it’s awesome too. What else do you think you would get when you cross steampunk with old-timey Alaska. Yep. That’s right. Also, this is a novella so if you’re not sure about steampunk this might be a good place to start (before you fall completely in love and have steampunk as a favorite genre for the rest of your life. Amiright?).

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Ely’s pretty awesome for having me on her blog. Just sayin. ^_^ I had super much fun writing this post aaaand… I hope she likes it and you all like it!

thank you Selena for writing this wonderful post! I have so many new books to add to my TBR...which is both a nice and a dreadful thing. oh well. I'll catch up someday. *sighs* (by the way, Guy in Real Life is kind of like a Gamer Girl genre book...it's hard to explain because plot points but I really loved it. you should read it. And the series that got me hooked on steampunk is still my favourite series of all time--the Leviathan trilogy, by Scott Westerfeld. SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD.)  hope you all enjoyed this post--and you should go check out Selena's blog, because she's one lovely person and deserves all the love (especially since she puts up with me and my perpetual habit of forgetting to respond to emails and messages and such. *awkward turtle face*)

see you guys on Friday (I have another special something planned! *rubs hands together maniacally*)

byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee