These books weren’t actually released in 2013 but these are five books I loved last year:
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
I am sure given enough time and enough years teaching this, I will grow weary of it but right now, I am as in love with this sad story as I was the first time I read it years ago. The friendship is touching. The times were unforgiving. The bad guy is really bad. The woman is nameless and pivotal. Every time a Year 10 student calls it boring, I die a tiny bit inside.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
I wanted to read this for a while although I did worry I might hit some kind of dystopian lit wall. Instead I discovered a book filled with emotion, humour, tension and originality. I can’t wait to hit that wall again when I dig into the second book of the Chaos Walking trilogy. The Ask and the Answer is waiting on my bedside bookshelf.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
This book had a lot of hype, thanks partly to the upcoming film adaptation, and for me, it delivered. I haven’t read a thriller for a while and it was refreshing to have such a narrator who was both unlikeable and understandable. The most unreliable narrator I have come across in a while and an ending that made me go oomph but not for the reason I expected.
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Another dystopian teen lit done well, Divergent had me racing through to get to the end and also made me hungry for the sequels (Insurgent is also waiting for me on my bedside bookshelf). Tris is strong with flaws. Her world is messed up but still human. I can see this being a really great film (the adaptation is released sometime this year).
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
For some reason although I was a casual fan of the Vlogbrothers and I frequent Tumblr more than I would like to admit, I still never actually realised for ages that book I kept seeing on the aforementioned social media microblogging site was written by the same John Green as one half of the Vlogbrothers. I can’t even remember now if I read the book knowing and therefore cannot be sure if that knowing he wrote it presupposed that I would love it but regardless, I did love it. I also didn’t realise that it was considered teen fiction although it was about two teens (with cancer – there were tears). It read like a book about people rather than just teens and it moved me so much that I must read it again but almost dare not in case the spell has been broken. I have read a couple of other Green books since (Looking for Alaska – loved this too, The Abundance of Katherines – liked a lot) but neither got me like this one did. (Okay. Okay.)
Notes From My Day 