Today I’m doing Top Ten Tuesday! This is a feature created and run by The Broke and the Bookish.
This weeks topic is: Top Ten Of The Most Unique Books I’ve Read BUT I’m going to do a strange spin on this and go with books I thought we’re going to be super unique but were actually cliches waiting to happen/ didn’t deliver what I thought they would, why? I don’t know my brain works in mysterous ways.
Books disguised as unique amazingness and ended up being the same old over used tropes/had characters I wanted to put in a pool and delete the stairs:
Killing Game/ The Assassins Game by Kirsty McKay
A School of geniuses on a mysterious island playing a prank game where you prank kill as many over students without getting caught? FUN, add in a real killer? Freakin epic right? Wrong.
This book was lame pranks mixed in with mediocre villain and a fairly stupid cast of “geniuses” I have a ranty review here if you’d like to learn more…
Books you should read instead:
- For geniuses kids solving mysteries: A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
- For Young Adult thriller: Black by Fleur Ferris
The Kanin Cronicle’s
Okay so I expected so much from this series! I mean you tell me trolls as people who protect another race and are badass fighters well I’m expecting something cool and unique right?
What I got was a blond hair, blue-eyed, tall slim “troll” who was oh so different because her fellow trackers were tan, short, and muscley, cry me a river. This book series was average and seriously lacking in creativity for me especially as I had my hopes set high for a cool spin on Trolls.
Books you should read instead:
- For Magical Beings: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- For a main character that is a paranormal body-guard: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
- For magical creatures: Fantasic Beasts and Where to find them by J.K Rowling
Everyday by David Levithan
This is a very unpopular opinion but hear me out. Everyday is the story of A, a character with no body, and wakes up everyday possessing a new person. A is shown as a physical representation of gender fluid going from girl to boy one day to the next. The thing is while this was unique all the main character did was obsess over a girl and it just lost it’s individuality in doing this.
Books you should read instead:
- Ancillary Justice for non binery characters
- Magnus Chase and the gods of Asgard for gender fluid
THE SILENT INVASION by James Bradley
This book! I thought this book was going to be climate change killing the world, Aliens invading, and a dystopia set in Australia. What I got was a poorly done version of The Fifth Wave, NO DESCRIPTION AT ALL asides from the occasional a Kangaroo jumped past or a Sugar glider was over head… um okay BUT WHAT DOES THE CHARACTER LOOK LIKE, where is the alien descriptions? What even is the problem with the “climate change?” This book sounds unique and right up my alley and ended up being 300 pages of walking across the country and major random insta love.
What you should read instead:
- For Aussie dystopian: Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
- For Alien Invasion: The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancy
So this was my weird take on Top Ten Tuesday books that had unique properties but didn’t pull it off and some alternatives that I believe are better.
Some of the recommendation I included are on my TBR but from the reviews I’ve read they already sound better than their counterparts.
What book did you think was going to be unique and ended up just being disappointing? Did you do Top Ten Tuesday? Let me know so I can check your post out!
Love the spin you took on this! Very unique 😏
I haven’t read any of these and I’m kinda glad I haven’t 😂
Great post, Casey 👍🏼💕
LikeLiked by 2 people
*groaning forever at your pun* I thought your were a Mum today and then you hit me with a dad joke! XD bahahaha Thank you!
I wish I hadn’t read them, they did sound really interesting from the synopsis though so I blame good publishers writing interesting blurbs to lure me in xD
LikeLiked by 2 people
For a minute there I thought you were recommending Silent Invasion and I almost screamed/cried!
Love the post! And the recommendations are on point 👌🏼
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bahhaha Never! Good that book was bland. Thank you Alex it was so much fun figuring out books to recommend instead of people reading the disappointing ones xD
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love this!! Great topic and I will remember to stay away from these! 😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! I’m glad I could save you from the same fate I suffered in reading some of these XD bahaha
LikeLike
Haha I love this! I always wanted to read the Kanin Chronicles…I might just stick to the Vampire Academy haha. I don’t know if the Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard was trying to be unique…I guess in some way every author is trying to write something different, however I felt that it was really, really meh. OH and Caraval!! Caraval tried sooooo hard to be unique and it really fell flat for me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was thinking Red Queen but the story line is a bit cliche from the start XD I CANT BELIEVE I FORGOT CARAVAL omg that book was mediocre and Scarlett was such an annoying main character I wanted to shake some sense into her!
LikeLiked by 1 person
And instead of Caraval, people just need to read the Night Circus!
LikeLiked by 1 person
YES! The Night Circus is one of my favourite books and I resent Caraval being compared to it xD
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, my! I totally agree with you on The Assassin Game. That book was so annoying. I kept waiting for it to get good and, sadly, it never did.
LikeLiked by 1 person
WASN’T IT?! It just had so much potential and didn’t deliver at all I just wanted someone to be murdered or a huge plot twist to blow my mind and nothing 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
That! Exactly! I kept thinking, “when is the real story going to start?” Turns out – that WAS the story. 😝
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oooh I love your take on the theme!!! I’m so disappointed about The Silent Invasion. I knew it wasn’t going to be anything spectacular, but I was hoping it would still be a fun read. Boooo.
LikeLiked by 1 person
omg Lauren I really want you to read it just so we can yell about how bad it is (or if you enjoy it you can inform me as to why xD) I was hoping for a fun read too but it’s just got nothing o propel the plot and none of the scifi elements are explained so its just ugh. The covers pretty tho… bahahaha
LikeLike
Love your take on this topic! I’ll definitely make sure to stay away from the books on this list 😀 The book I’m reading at the moment kind of has a unique idea: it tells two stories – a writer and the story she’s writing. I’ve only just started, so I’m hoping it won’t disappoint!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Yes let me experience the badness of these books so you don’t have to xD
Oooo that does sound like a cool idea I’ve read something similar but not really the same, it was MPOV a granddaughter learning about her grandmothers history intersected with a story her grandmother wrote about her time in World War II but as a paranormal fairy tale, it was really cool to see the two collide and come together. Hope you love your current read!
LikeLike
haha love how you twisted this topic around! I couldn’t agree more with you about Every Day by David Levithan. It’s pretty evident at a certain point that A does have a specific identity, which kind of ruined the whole point of the story for me. I think the novel had a lot of potential, but it just wasn’t executed in the most effective way. Great list! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
THANK YOU so many people love Everyday that I’m always a bit hesitant to name and shame it but it was just so disappointing, the idea is fantastic but the characters are just bleh definitely could have been better executed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I couldn’t agree more with you listing Every day… i was proper disappointed with this read. I haven’t read the other books on your list though, and I guess I won’t :p Your recommendations were all really good
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just don’t understand the hype around Everyday the idea is really cool and I was excited to read it but it fell so flat 😦 Haha I wish I had never read them so thats a good thing xD
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree with you with that series from Amanda Hocking. Disappointed too… My disappointment of the day is “The Fate of the Tearlings”. I’ve loved the first two books of the series and expected so much from the last one but it’s been a huge disappointment. As you said being curious about ours, here is the link: http://bewareofthereader.com/?p=460 Enjoy! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was expecting so much more from the Hocking books and they were just bland and like so many other stories that have been done a million times before.
I havent read The Fate of the tearlings but having a disappointing last book suck 😦 You always want it to wrap up well esp if you loved the first two!
LikeLike
I love, love, love what you did with this post. The supposed to be and the suggestions were amazing!
LikeLike
Thank you! I wanted to try something different I’m glad you like it, I really liked thinking about the right books to suggest I might do another post like it soon 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha I really enjoyed your spin on this week’s topic Casey! No only did you get to rant about a few books that you were disappointed in, but I also liked that you gave recs on which books to pick up instead.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oops! Hit send too early. I also wanted to add that I haven’t read any of these books, but look at it this way, you have now saved me the trouble of reading any of these lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
hehe Thanks Amanda! I haven’t ranted in a while and wanted to do something different then everyone else while still kinda staying in line with the prompt XD
LikeLiked by 1 person
I personally quite liked Everyday by David Levithan but I can see where you are coming from! Awesome post Casey! ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am definitely in the unpopular opinions with Everyday! So many people love it but i just felt like it missed the point it was trying to show. Thank Anisha xxxx
LikeLike
Great post! I love the idea. Haha I love your mini rant on TSI, are we getting a full review? Miss Perigrine’s has a good idea but was very meh for me, I wasn’t really a fan (massively overhyped).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll definitely be doing a full review but I needed a little calming time so I didn’t just bash the book XD I don’t understand all the hype it’s getting it’s a great idea but so poorly executed in my opinion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yay! Haha fair. Neither do I! We have SO many copies at work though…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ahh I feel for the people that grab it, I’ve yet to see a good review from a person I trust just random people on GR’s
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha yeah. I’ve actively warned my mum (who also works at QBD) against it, SS & CTM
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ahahah such a unique twist to the feature! I like the recommendations you put after explaining yourself. Ancillary Justice is one that I really didn’t expect to pop up, but now I’m even more curious about that book. :O
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ancillary Justice is actually one of them that I haven’t read but I have the book on my shelf and know that it doesn’t use gender specific pronouns and thought that was a really cool thing to see in a sci-fi. I can’t wait to read it I’m basing this rec off friends glowing reviews so hopefully it doesn’t disappoint *finger crossed*
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ohhh I see! :O I do hope you enjoy it as much as your friends did! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person