Tags
Cara Lynn Shultz, Cynthia Hand, Everything Everything, Lauren James, Lauren Oliver, Leslye Walton, Magonia, Maria Dahvana Headley, Mary E. Pearson, Michelle Hodkin, Nicola Yoon, Spellbound, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Next Together, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Vanishing Girls
Sometimes, you read a book, and it is just full of all the things you love in a book.
Here’s a list of all my favourite things:
Short non-chapter-ish format
As seen in: Everything Everything, The Adoration of Jenna Fox
I’m not sure exactly how to describe this format, but if you’ve read the books above, you’ll know what I’m talking about…those books that are not made up of chapters, but of snippets. Random thoughts, short moments…I just LOVE a book that does this.
Reincarnated/Fated love
As seen in: Spellbound, The Next Together
There’s just something I really love about the whole reincarnated thing, where two characters fall in love over and over only to get horribly separated and have to relive the whole thing again.
News articles/Blog posts/etc
As seen in: Vanishing Girls, The Next Together
Don’t know why, but I always love it when the book is full of news paper articles, or blog posts, or police reports, or the like. I just find it really interesting.
General Weirdness
As seen in: Magonia, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava lavender
When things are weird, and don’t make a brilliant amount of sense, I just love it!
A good, healthy does of ‘what the heck is going on here?’ is exactly what we all need sometimes.
Amnesia
As seen in: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Where the main character has forgotten things that need remembering. Whether the memories are gradually brought to light throughout the book, or if the character just has to learn to cope with knowing nothing, I very much enjoy forgetfulness.
SCIENCE! And Nerds/smart people
As seen in: The Last Time We Say Goodbye, The Next Together
Smart people are the greatest. Especially when they also love maths 🙂
I like maths.
Stories told in Flashbacks
As seen in: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
I absolutely LOVE the flashback thing. Where there’s a story happening in the present, and there’s one happening in the past. Love it.
So, those are my favourite things. What are yours? Do you agree with anything on this list? Do you disagree? Let me know.
Also, if you have any recs you’d like to give me of books containing any of these things. Let’s here ’em.
The Magical Adventures of Cassie the Weird 
I really love unconventional formats and random snippets of stuff – half the reason I’m so excited for Illuminae!! I also really love short chapters because my attention span (let’s face it) is woeful.
Illuminae is like that???
Now I need it even more!!!
What a fun post! I love many of these things your describing. Based on things you said you loved, I have a couple book suggestions. For Reincarnation – Incarnate by Jodi Meadows. The whole world is built around the fact that people keep being reincarnated, the same people. It’s a great book. Also, for the snippets and files..definitely read Illuminae! That’s what the book is made out of, text messages, emails, surveillance photos. AMAZING! Happy reading!
Ooh, I think I’ve heard of Incarnate…it that the one with the pretty cover? Like, with the face and the colourful things and stuff?
*searches goodreads*
Yep, that’s the one I’m thinking of. I’ll definitely check it out 🙂
And I am SO EXCITED for Illuminae!!!
Yes Illuminae is fantastic!!! Mind blowing really.
Science in novels = my weak spot. Michael Crichton is one of my favourite sci-fi writers, you should check out his work, although his is mostly biology and history with some engineering, instead of math 😉
Science in books is the best!
Thanks for the recommendation 🙂
Ahh I LOVE books with different formats! Although I’m not fussed on newspapers/blog posts, but seriously if it’s like poetry or just weirdly spaced sentences — ANYTHING LIKE THAT I AM SO IN. I get too confused in general weirdness though. XD Curse my black and white thinking.
Omg, one of my favourite things in books is when there’s a sibling who takes really good care of their little siblings but teases them still. :’) It’s adorable.
Siblings! There’s something I haven’t seen in a great many books
That definitely needs to change.
And weird formatting is the greatest. It’s so great to have variety 🙂
I pretty much like ALL of the things you mentioned here, haha XD
I don’t know if I’ve ever come across it, but I would love for a poet character to include their poems in a novel. I think Tamara Ireland Stone’s new book does that, I think it should become a thing. As a writer, words are constantly surrounding me, and I don’t see enough of that in books!
I also really like stories about twins. And stories told entirely in letters. They are faves.
STORIES TOLD IN LETTERS!!! I KNEW I was forgetting something *smacks forehead*
Hmm…twins…haven’t read many of those.
And I think I have seen the occasional writer have a notebook because they’re constantly thinking of ideas…it happens in SInner (Maggie Stiefvater)…
Oh, and in Beautiful Creatures, Lena is constantly writing poetry…but because she’s not the ‘main character’ we only see it from Ethan’s perspective. But it’s there.
And I’m sure there’s another one that I just cannot think of right now…