Top Books of 2013

OK, yes this post is really late. 2013 was like, so last week. But better late than never, right? So in no particular order, I bring you Rachael’s top books of 2013.

Middle Grade

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Cathrynne Valente

When I was a kid, one of the books I would constantly read over and over again was Alice in Wonderland, and honestly, I thought nothing could come close to the wonder I felt reading a land like that. I was wrong. TGWCFiaSoHOM, on top of being a mouthful, captures the wonder of being a child, wrapped in layers of a fantastical, detailed world with a cuckoo-crazy plot.

Full review

Wonder by RJ Palacio

For a book so slim, it’s crazy the amount of emotions I went through reading it. Auggie’s story of him coping with his disfigurement  is a sad one, yet ultimately uplifting, and laced with a slick sense of humour.

Full review

YA

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Do I really need to say anything about this book? If you haven’t read this book, go pick it up now! It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will still resonate with you a year after you read it.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

I’ve never thought of myself as a romance fan, so it just shows how much I loved Eleanor and Park. The characters were so alive, and their story real and painful, that I couldn’t help but falling in love with this book.

Full review

Adult

A Song of Fire and Ice by George RR Martin

Okay, technically this isn’t a book, but a series. Even if you haven’t seen the TV show, this book is worth a read. With a plot that teeters the line of a war drama and a soap opera, set in one of the most detailed lands I’ve ever read, these books keep you sucked in through their lengthy volumes.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I always bang on about how much I hate predictability in books, and Gone Girl is anything but. The twists and turns in the insane story about Nick and his missing wife, not to mention the crazy, and yet terrifyingly believable, characters kept me turning the pages.

Agree? Disagree? Have links to your own top books? Tell me down below!

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

I picked up Eleanor and Park mainly because John Green had sung its praises, which of course led to the internet grabbing hold of it and joining in on the chorus. Needless to say, I went in with high expectations.

Eleanor and Park is one of the best books I have ever read.

It tells the story of Eleanor and Park (duh) and their young love in the 80’s. Eleanor comes from a broken home, and is immediately picked on as the new girl at school. Park is a half Korean misfit, who loved comics and punk music and wants to keep his head down. They fall together after she sits next to him on the bus, and the rest, as they say, is history. The plot may sound cheesy, but it’s nothing but. There are niggling little points through the story, which build up to a startling conclusion.

Eleanor and Park is really about the characters. They spoke with authentic voices and they had their own individual quirks. You could really distinct between Eleanor and Park, and see and feel their attraction and love for each other. Everyone can relate to at least one thing in one of the characters. Whether if its Eleanor’s self-consciousness, or Park’s feeling like he doesn’t fit in, Eleanor and Park touches so many topics, that it will never stop being relevant. But what I love the most about it is it is about love. It is not a story about body-image or ethnicity or broken homes, it’s about love. And it never loses sight of that.

One thing that really pleased me about this book was that it tackled a subject that I have been dying to see more in Young Adult literature: ethnicity and racism. Park is one of the first half Koreans I have seen in YA (probably the only one) and I am so glad Rowell has dealt with the issues surrounding second generation immigrants and the confusion of fitting in (you may notice that I am of Indian ethnicity).

Most importantly, Eleanor and Park made me feel. It took me on a journey with them, inside their heads, and I felt a part of the story. It was painful, it was ecstatic, it was everything being a teenager in love is like. I’m not the biggest pure romance fan, I find a lot of books in the genre to be very generic and clichéd, but I was on the edge of my mental seat, waiting for the twist and turn to come.

I could write a whole essay on why I love Eleanor and Park, but I’m going to leave it here. This book affected me right after the last page was turned, and I suggest you go out and get it.

Rating (can’t you guess?): 10/10