Top Ten Tuesday brought to us by The Broke and the Bookish decided that this week is dedicated to books I read outside my normal genre. That was a little difficult for me because first off, I didn’t read that many books, and second off, the few I did read weren’t really outside my genre. (What is my genre? :p) But here we go!
Books Outside My Genre
1) If I Stay by Gayle Foreman
I don’t generally read a lot of contemporary fiction or anything that doesn’t have an amazing and fantastical world behind it because I read to escape. The real world (at this present time) is very boring for me. So, I don’t generally enjoy reading about the real world, or contemporary in any way shape or form. However, I REALLY liked this book. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I gave it five stars! Check out my review.
2) Becoming Darkness by Lindsay Francis Brambles
This one is close to my normal genre, but not really my genre because this book is paranormal. I tend to stay away from this genre. Not because I don’t like the world-building or the cool plot lines. I just don’t like the classification of ‘paranormal’ because it’s still a little too close to reality and, frankly, is often times quite cheesy. This ended up being one of those books. In other words, it confirmed my distaste for paranormal books. Sad, but true. To see more about my distaste for this book, check out my review.
3) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
This book isn’t technically out of me genre because it is classified as dystopian. However, it was old-style dystopian. So, it’s still technically out of my genre because there are definitely differences between old dystopian and new dystopian. Partly: new dystopian is geared towards young adults. Don’t get me wrong. Adults read dystopian, but the tropes nowadays (Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, etc) are geared towards young adults. However, Fahrenheit 451 is not. At least, not in my opinion. Check out my review for why I think it’s an adult book.
4) Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
Fantasy! Woo! We’re getting closer, but this was technically a fairytale retelling. I have never dabbled in fairy tale retellings until this year. So, this is out of my genre. And unfortunately, it left a really bad taste in my mouth for fairy tale retellings. Partly because this is a cheat. It’s not REALLY a re-telling. It’s basically a sequel to The Wizard of Oz and perhaps that’s why I have a hard time with this, but this wasn’t what I was expecting and I very much disliked it. So much so, that I don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel. For more about my animosities for this book, check out my review.
5) Alice Takes Back Wonderland by David D. Hammons
This is also a fairy tale retelling/sequel, but where ‘Dorothy Must Die’ failed utterly in my eyes, this book was an EXACT representation of how a fairytale retelling/sequel SHOULD be done. It was amazing! Yes, it was a sequel. Yes, it was a mash-up. And yes it was outside of my normal genre, but it was so well written that I couldn’t even tell that what I was reading was a fairytale retelling. This is the example people should be given when it comes to fairytale retellings. At least, if they’re looking for Alice in Wonderland-based fairytale retellings. For more info, check out my review.
6) The Heartless City by Andrea Berthot
Man. I read a lot of fairytale retellings this past year. Though, this was a little different from the other two because it’s based on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I suppose it’s a fairy tale, but not in the sense that we normally think. Either way, it sounded really amazing, but kind of fell flat. Part of that was the way the author decided to write the book. It really threw me off because she’d just up and change point of views with no rhyme or reason. Thus, it was very jarring. That and the book was awfully predictable in my opinion. It also left a bad taste for fairytale retellings in my mouth, but if you want to know more, check out my review.
*gasp* Not a complete ten?! 0.0 *Dies*
Melanie Noell Bernard 
The only book on this list that I have read is Farenheit 451. I found it interesting and thought-provoking and a little weird.
I have read a couple of fairy tale retellings and found the first one, First Frost by Liz DeJesus, exceptionally good. The author has turned that into a series and I have not read any of the additional books. I liked the second one as well, The Golden Braid by Melanie Dickerson, but I was really unfamiliar with the original fairy tale, so I can’t really say whether it was a good retelling or not.
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I can’t say I’ve heard of either of those books before, but I agree that Fahrenheit 451 is a little weird. I found it rather scary, frankly, to see how close reality is nowadays to the fictional future Bradbury imagined.
But reading a fairytale retelling about a book which you’re not familiar with at least helps to not have expectations. It’s like reading any other book, yes?
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I read a lot of fairy tale twists, and I’m fine with continuing the story, but Dorothy Must Die didn’t really speak to me either.
My TTT
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Oh man! I mean… I guess I would’ve been fine with a continuation of a story if it hadn’t been done so poorly. The MC in Dorothy Must Die was garbage. I didn’t care about her at all and the pacing for the character interactions was horrible in my opinion, too. *sigh*
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I haven’t heard of some of these! I’ve read If I Stay and Fahrenheit 451 but none of the others. I’ve been meaning to read Dorothy Must Die, though––I’ve heard somewhat mixed things about it, but I think I will still try it!
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There are a lot of books out nowadays that are getting mixed reviews… But I just couldn’t stand the MC in Dorothy Must Die…
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