Top Ten Favorite Books of Mine (And Why!)

(SPOILERS!!! Spoilers for two Harry Potter books, the Hunger Games, two of the Lunar Chronicles books, Renegades, two Keeper of the Lost Cities books, Black and Scythe. You have been warned. :) )

10. Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Coming in at number ten, we have Renegades by Marissa Meyer. It comes in at number ten because I haven't actually finished reading it... He he... Anyways, I'm a little more than half way through, but I love it so much. Renegades is a super hero story, which is not something I tend to read, as you will see later down the list. It's a story about a girl bent on revenge because the super heroes didn't come. It's been an exciting book so far. I recently got into Marissa Meyer's stuff through the Lunar Chronicles (More about that later.) and Renegades has kept me interested in her stuff.

9. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games is a very lighthearted, happy, fun, family friendly book. Yeah, um, no. Not really. It's a book about teenagers killing each other. In Panem, between the ages of 12 and 18, two tributes from each district are chosen. They become tributes in the Hunger Games. They are forced to kill each other to survive. To win. In the book, Katniss Everdeen volunteers in place of her younger sister, Prim. Now, she must survive the Hunger Games. She made a promise to her sister that she would come home. She had to win. And she did. I find this story very inspiring for more than one reason. It tells a story of resilience and determination, and how far one will go for their family.

8. Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Scythe is a book about death. Literally. In a world where humanity has conquered death, natural death, people still need to die. How do they die? Well, people called scythes get to kill people. They are the only ones that can kill people. Two teens, Citra and Rowan, become scythe apprentices. They get to learn how to kill people. I really liked this book because it gave me sort of scary thoughts to think about. In a world without death, how could things still go wrong? Would a world without death really be better? What about mortality make humans so human? It was a very well written book with an interesting concept that really left the reader thinking.

7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harrrrrry Potttttttter!!!! Hi, yes, I am a Potterhead, most definitely. The Prisoner of Azkaban is one of my favorites in the series, mostly because of all the plot twists at the end. It's Sirius-ly great if you ask me... I'm sorry, bad joke. Anyways, in the Prisoner of Azkaban, notorious murderer Sirius Black has escaped from the wizard prison of Azkaban, and he seems to be coming after Harry Potter. Dementors guard the entrances to Hogwarts, Harry's school, and Dementors feed off of fear, making a person relive their worst memories, and Harry seems to be affected the most. In the end, half of everything is a misunderstanding, but there were so many plot twists, and I wish that I could erase the book from my mind and reread it, because it was so surprising and sooooooo good! Anyways, yes, I really liked this books.

6. Lodestar by Shannon Messenger

Lodestar is the fifth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger. In this book, Sophie Foster is going through a lot. Her friend/love interest #2 betrayed her (Go team Foster-Keefe!), the Black Swan is being weird, Neverseen is being weird, everyone is being weird. Sophie goes through loss, including her friend/love interest #2, her mentor (by the end. RIP Mr. Forkle), and other people. It's a story about going through struggles and surviving, it's a story about dealing with betrayal. It's a story about strength. It's a good story.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Welcome back to Hogwarts! Like I said, I'm a Potterhead, the Order of the Phoenix is probably my favorite Harry Potter book. It's very Sirius, I apologize again because of my Sirius-ly bad jokes. Okay, last one, probably... Anyways, continuing on, Voldemort, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, oh, come on You-Know-Who I'm talking about. Anyways, Voldemort has returned, which is bad. The Wizarding World is refusing to believe it, which is bad. Dementors attack Harry and his Cousin Dudley, which is really, really bad. People die, which is super Sirius (That one made perfect sense, thank you very much). Sirius died. That was sad. It was a sad book that made me very happy.

4. Neverseen by Shannon Messenger

Another Keeper of the Lost Cities book. In Neverseen, Sophie has to run away from the Council because she got in trouble with them. She and, to her dismay, her friends, all run away and go to officially join the Black Swan, an organization that actually created Sophie. She and her friends end up going to Exillium, the school for the outcasts and people who've been banished. The story is one of hope, and strength, and is a really good story.

3. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet is the second book in the Lunar Chronicles. I absolutely love the Lunar Chronicles. They're sci-fi retellings of fairy tales, and they take an amazing twist. Scarlet is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. The book starts off with Scarlet, who is a French farm girl who's grandmother has been missing for weeks. She ends up with a street fighter called Wolf who seems to know something about her grandmother. Meanwhile, over in China, Linh Cinder, a cyborg who got arrested, is breaking out of jail. I absolutely love the series, and this book was my second favorite in the series. It's a story of determination and resilience, a story of love and loyalties. It's a brilliant story.

2. Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress is the third, and my favorite book in the Lunar Chronicles. Cress is a Rapunzel retelling, only instead of being trapped in a tower, Cress is trapped in a satellite. The Queen's hacker. She's been trapped in her satellite for years. Spying on Earth. Cress reaches out to Cinder, Thorne, Scarlet and Wolf for help. When they come, her "caretaker" happens to arrive, and throws the satellite, with Cress and Thorne in it, out of the sky. Now, they have to survive in the desert. I really liked this story because of how relatable Cress is as a character. She's awkward and sort of overthinks things, and I found her extremely relatable. It made me happy to see and awkward character. This story was similar to Scarlet, but it's part of the same series, so that can kind of be expected. Mostly, I just love Cress and Thorne as characters which is why it is number two on the list.

1. Black by Ted Dekker

Black is the first book in the Circle series by Ted Dekker. The series is an allegory. It tells two different stories through one character, Thomas Hunter. Thomas is an ordinary person. He's an unpublished author who works at a coffee shop in Denver, until one night, on his way home, he gets shot at and falls unconscious. When he wakes up, he is not in an alley in Denver, but instead, a forest, with a person he has never seen before. This person seems to know him though. Throughout the book, Thomas is being pulled between two realities, in one, a deadly virus is being is getting ready to be released across the world, in the other, the world is being threatened by evil bats. It's an allegory, so if you know the actual story, you know where the story is going to go, but it's an interesting story nonetheless. I explained it badly, but it is a very, very good story, which is why it is number one!

Thanks for reading! Hope you decide to read some of these books if you haven't already!