Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.
This Week’s Theme:
Books Read In One Sitting
Initial Thoughts:
Books that can be read in one sitting is a bit of an anomaly in my reading life (because I definitely cannot finish books in one sitting). In that light, there are a few that are short and/or paced decently enough that fit this category (even if the story itself was a disappointment).
Knife of Never Letting Go (Patrick Ness)
I obviously had to first begin with a Ness book (because obviously). The great thing about Knife is that the entirety of this book reads like a long-winded chase scene (in all the best ways, in my humble biased opinion). So you flip those pages.
Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise.
I Hunt Killers (Barry Lyga)
My pitch to this is usually “YA Dexter plus Criminal Minds weirdness” and it reads super quick because of (a) an ominous town, (b) an unknown POV of the assailant, and (c) whodunnit?
What if the world’s worst serial killer…was your dad?
Tell Me Three Things (Julie Buxbaum)
Despite my personal struggles with the less-than-stellar sleuthing of who SN could really be, this is one hell of a fluffy book that reads very quickly.
…she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School.
We Were Liars (E. Lockhart)
First and foremost: I am on team “did not enjoy this book at all because the twist was laid out for you”. That being said, I am also on team “the mystery/twist-being-sought might bring enough intrigue for this book to be devoured”. Plus, it’s short as hell.
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
The Blackthorn Key (Kevin Sands)
A layered mystery with two bro-iest and rambunctious kids. And explosions.
…but when a mysterious cult begins to prey on London’s apothecaries, the trail of murders grows closer and closer to Blackthorn’s shop. With time running out, Christopher must use every skill he’s learned to discover the key to a terrible secret with the power to tear the world apart.
The False Prince (Jennifer Nielsen)
Sage is MG in age but reads like the best of the morally gray YA anti-heroes.
In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage.
Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo)
I’m of the belief that this narrative reads and is paced so effortlessly is because of the multi-POV approach that works incredibly well with this heist timeline. Even if you hate a voice, you could at least hope that the next chapter is one you like.
Alas, I still haven’t read Crooked Kingdom because I like to torture myself.
Kaz needs a crew desperate enough to take on this suicide mission and dangerous enough to get the job done – and he knows exactly who: six of the deadliest outcasts the city has to offer. Together, they just might be unstoppable – if they don’t kill each other first.
Scythe (Neal Shusterman)
This book makes me happy. And the world itself, while preposterously underdeveloped (for now hopefully), the carrying out of the act of gleaning (re: Scythes doing their 9-5 job-ish) is met with so much interest to me personally. Oh god, that makes me sound like I think of death a lot…
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.
Afterthoughts:
Realistically, I’ve probably taken a week to read most of these haaaaah.
Cheers,
Joey
connect:
afterthoughtAn // twitter
anotherafterthought // goodreads
picturevomit // instagram
I’m waiting until the end of the world the read Crooked Kingdom as well. I tell myself that I’m ready, but I’m not.
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Haha, at least [hopefully] you were not spoiled for it. I will never get over that fact. The thing is that I’ve I’m actually already 150+ into CK when I stopped reading it for other reasons. Ahhhh.
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I liked We Were Liars even though I could tell where it was going. I give The Lace Reader credit for that, though. It made me like unreliable narrators. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it more, but at least it didn’t take much of your time! 😉
My TTT.
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I have to ask: is Lace Reader a sequel to Shoestring Reader? I don’t even remember how long it took for me to read We Were Liars, just that I know it was very bland and meh and problems of the privileged (seriously all they did was eat and have fun and complain about their scones and trivial shit like whaa).
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No, The Lace Reader is a standalone novel by Brunonia Barry. It’s set in Salem and is about a family of women who read the future in the patterns of lace. The main character is a woman returning to find out who killed her aunt. She’s an unreliable narrator, but you wouldn’t guess that by the way it’s written.
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Omg, Dea, you took my sarcastic question to heart and actually answered it. LACE reader >> SHOESTRING reader. Deaaaa.
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Lol. That’s why I should never read blog comments while still sleepy. I totally didn’t notice the play on words. You’re way too witty for me before 9am.
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The Knife of Never Letting Go was a really quick feeling read! I definitely agree. Sometimes I kind of wish I’d continued with the series.
Our Long Books, Quick Reads TTT
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Knife is definitely the quickest feeling between the three books. The common criticism is that the second novel is extremely slow (which I was totally on board with), plus it’s longer. But anyhow, if you do give it a go, I hope you enjoy!
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YOU’VE NOT READ CROOKED KINGDOM!? HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?
I’ll agree with you about We Were Liars. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the book but there was enough intrigue to keep me reading.
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I STARTED Crooked Kingdom. Then I went to read something else…and then someone spoiled me re: death in CK and I’m in a state of “what-do-i-do-with-my-life?”
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Ah, now that makes more sense. Now you still have to read it so you can feel the pain I endured!! You must suffer through this gem of a book!!
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I do like suffering…
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I want to read Tell Me Three Things. Great list! 🙂
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I think Tell Me Three Things would be a book you’d enjoy, Chrissi
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I bought Tell me three things recently and I can’t wait to read it – knowin you liked it makes me sooooooooo impatient ahah 🙂
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“Liked” is a hard overstatement maybe. It was a 3/5? Or something like that. The story itself is fine, I think, but it was how it unfolded that was a bit ???? for me. Anyways, I think you’d laugh a lot if/when you read it.
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Well…a 3 is still pretty good for you, isn’t it? 😛 I hope I will like it, I’ll let you know for sure when I get around to it 🙂
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You know me too well.
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Yes, we torture ourselves by not reading Crooked Kingdom yet. BUT WE MUST READ IT SOON. That book can or can-ish be read in one sitting as well. I just know it.
Hmm… I Hunt Killers sounds really interesting. Maybe I could read that in one sitting as well. Nice list, Joey. 😊
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But what is YOUR reason for not reading Crooked Kingdom? Mine’s legit because I was spoiled lmao i hate life ):….
I Hunt Killers is really good if you enjoy any of those semi-not-really-creepy psychological murder mystery television shows. So, maybe, almost, like HTGAWM…except I have a much worse book recommendation if you want a book comparable to HTGAWM.
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That I don’t want to suffer just yet? 🙃 Well you had me at semi-not-really-creepy because I’m not really that into HTGAWM just yet.
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What? Not into HTGAWM? Defriended.
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I have way too many fandoms, Joey. 🙃 But if you insist, I will transform that yet into a “Holy crap HTGAWM YASSSSS”
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We Were Liars is one I tried to listen to via audiobook, but gave up on due to narrator. I’ll have to grab the print copy from my library and try it again.
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I’m not much of an audiobook goer but I’ve heard that a terribad narrator can make/break them. I hope you enjoy it if/when you give it another go!
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I took less than two hours to finish We Were Liars, I think. I was hooked, plus I loved that the book was short. Short books are amazing.
Six of Crows is a perfect one sitting read. The thought of taking a break didn’t even enter my mind. And I am hiding from Crooked Kingdom, even though the HC is staring at me from my shelf.
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Nay. Short books CAN be amazing. But I guess they’re amazing in the sense that you can finish it quickly, write a [expected] short review for it, and carry on fully knowing you got +1 point in your yearly reading challenge.
I am the same with CK, Mish Mash, I am the same…
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I loved The False Prince so much! JOEY READ CROOKED KINGDOM NOW, IT IS INCREDIBLE AND MY FAV OF ALL TIME. I can’t wait to read Scythe, the idea sounds incredible!
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I have a similarly hard time with finishing a book in one sitting. Book ADD maybe. The Patrick Ness book has been on my list for a while. I really need to get around to it already.
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