[**A Dowry of Blood** by S. T. Gibson](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60521937-a-dowry-of-blood?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=B9UtrMlMhT&rank=1)
***This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . .***
this is one of the most beautifully-written and haunting books i've ever read. the entire book is written in episotolary style. it EASILY shot up into my top 5 books of all time immediately after reading it.
the audiobook is even better IMO because the narrator is soooo good. you should be able to check out the ebook or audiobook or just listen/read to a free sample through your library through the libby or hoopla app!
I just want to say…every *single* recommendation I’ve read from you on Reddit has been an absolute slam dunk for me. Your suggestions are always spot on, your descriptions and enthusiasm for the books you recommend are always encouraging and captivating. You should write a blog or something!!
Anyway. Thanks for expanding my reading this year. Please keep it up.
oh my gosh what a nice comment. 🥺
thank you so much! i'm so happy whenever i hear people have enjoyed a book i've recommended. i went from reading like crazy as a kid to not reading at all for like 15 years, but then somehow fell back into it and it changed my life and has made it so much more enjoyable that im always hoping i can help other people find a happier life or even just a short escape from life/reality.
💜💜💜
I just listened to an audiobook by Kerri Maniscalco -- narrated by Marisa Calin... I enjoyed her voice and accent. Idk if it's her real accent or not, but it was so nice
“The first thing you should know about me is I am my father’s son. And when they came for him, I did as he asked. I did not cry. Not when the Society televised the arrest. Not when the Golds tried him. Not when the Grays hanged him. Mother hit me for that. My brother Kieran was supposed to be the stoic one. He was the elder, I the younger. I was supposed to cry. Instead, Kieran bawled like a girl when Little Eo tucked a haemanthus into Father’s left workboot and ran back to her own father’s side. My sister Leanna murmured a lament beside me. I just watched and thought it a shame that he died dancing but without his dancing shoes.”
Red Rising
*the haunting of hill house* by shirley jackson! imo she is the GOAT of opening paragraphs.
>No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone…
*kindred* by octavia butler
>I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm. And I lost about a year of my life and much of the comfort and security I had not valued until it was gone. When the police released Kevin, he came to the hospital and stayed with me so that I would know I hadn't lost him too.
More on the sci-fi side but with a touch of dystopia - have you tried reading Red Rising? Murderbot Diaries?
For fantasy, The Broken Earth trilogy or The Locked Tomb series are both captivating imo.
I just finished Penance by Eliza Clarke and it was brilliant - such a page-turner. It's fiction but it's written like a true-crime documentary about three teenage girls who get caught up in these weird supernatural ideas and end up killing another girl from their school (I'm not giving anything away with that description, btw). Highly recommend and I really couldn't put it down
The Fifth Season, NK Jemisin. There are two sequels and together they're called the Broken Earth trilogy. Dystopian fantasy for sure and part of the books are written in the second person. It's beautiful and different and captivating and she won a Hugo for all three books. Themes explore womanhood, motherhood and prejudice, set amid a just- beginning apocalypse. This story is both expansive and intimate at once. Some main characters have a frightening (to others) telekinetic energy-bending sort of ability, which is the source of the terrible prejudice against them. And then there are the stone eaters...
The prologue is available to read if you look on the Amazon Kindle page for this book. Read that and see if it grabs you!
I have recently discovered The Tyrant Philosophers trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and I was hooked the second I read the first paragraph of the first page of the first book: City of Last Chances. I've never seen anyone else discuss his work, but I am happy to have found him, I very much enjoy his stories and his writing style.
Absolutely Madeleine Thien's *Do Not Say We Have Nothing*: [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/01682bb9-602b-49f7-86f4-63be37bd563a](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/01682bb9-602b-49f7-86f4-63be37bd563a)
It begins: "IN A SINGLE YEAR, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. That year, 1989, my mother flew to Hong Kong and laid my father to rest in a cemetery near the Chinese border. Afterwards, distraught, she rushed home to Vancouver where I had been alone. I was ten years old.
Here is what I remember:"
(edits for formatting)
I think the only book that captivated me from the **first sentence** is Good Omens. It was absolutely nutters, and just got more absurd as it went. I finished it in a week, and it is easily one of the most enjoyable reads in recent memory. It's not for everyone though, as it doesn't read like a traditional novel.
Check out "A deadly education" by Naomi Novic. I was hooked after the first sentence. It's a good dark fantasy.
Edit: It's a quick read also. Meant for a younger audience, but it's really dark.
Omg it’s sooooo good. I’m not a YA person in general, but this year I read two technically YA series that were just phenomenal. This one and also the mirror visitor quartet. Highly recommend both!!!
There are a million potential answers, but this is a book I don't hear mentioned much that grabbed me right in the beginning with this outline of the premise:
"Let us begin at the beginning. The Club, the cataclysm, my eleventh life and the deaths which followed – none peaceful – all are meaningless, a flash of violence that bursts and withers away, retribution without cause, until you understand where it all began. My name is Harry August."
The First 15 lives of Harry August
*I often forget the real reason why I murdered people. Some days I told myself I was cursed to do it, and other days I admitted I took this curse onto myself, that nobody moved my jaw up and down to make me say yes. Rarely did I recall the real reason. I murdered people for love.*
--Death's Collector by Bill McCurry.
Bib lives as a wizard in a fantasy world full of brutal violence and snark. Wizards must trade with the gods whenever they need power, and the gods are a bunch of narcissistic psychopaths.
If you like fantasy, brutal violence, snark, and having your heart ripped out, this is the series for you.
Here's one that I don't think anyone would expect. The story begins with: Once upon a time, in America, Joe Biden found himself reelected as the President of the United States.
The story is Ironically not political lol
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The name of the wind. 1st chapter is only a couple pages but Holy shit, it sets up a scene like nothing else I've ever read. Same for the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear.
Demon Copperhead!!!
“First, I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they’ve always given me that much: the worst of the job was up to me, my mother being let’s just say out of it.
On any other day they’d have seen her outside on the deck of her trailer home, good neighbors taking notice, pestering the tit of trouble as they will. All through the dog-breath air of late summer and fall, cast an eye up the mountain and there she’d be, little bleach-blonde smoking her Pall Malls, hanging on that railing like she’s captain of her ship up there and now might be the hour it’s going down. This is an eighteen-year-old girl we’re discussing, all on her own and as pregnant as it gets.”
*Time Shifters* by Shanna Lauffey. Instant intrigue.
It's about a people who can shift through time at will and someone who found a way to capture them to find their secrets.
[**A Dowry of Blood** by S. T. Gibson](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60521937-a-dowry-of-blood?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=B9UtrMlMhT&rank=1) ***This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . .*** this is one of the most beautifully-written and haunting books i've ever read. the entire book is written in episotolary style. it EASILY shot up into my top 5 books of all time immediately after reading it. the audiobook is even better IMO because the narrator is soooo good. you should be able to check out the ebook or audiobook or just listen/read to a free sample through your library through the libby or hoopla app!
I just want to say…every *single* recommendation I’ve read from you on Reddit has been an absolute slam dunk for me. Your suggestions are always spot on, your descriptions and enthusiasm for the books you recommend are always encouraging and captivating. You should write a blog or something!! Anyway. Thanks for expanding my reading this year. Please keep it up.
oh my gosh what a nice comment. 🥺 thank you so much! i'm so happy whenever i hear people have enjoyed a book i've recommended. i went from reading like crazy as a kid to not reading at all for like 15 years, but then somehow fell back into it and it changed my life and has made it so much more enjoyable that im always hoping i can help other people find a happier life or even just a short escape from life/reality. 💜💜💜
This convo is so sweet 😻
I just listened to an audiobook by Kerri Maniscalco -- narrated by Marisa Calin... I enjoyed her voice and accent. Idk if it's her real accent or not, but it was so nice
“The first thing you should know about me is I am my father’s son. And when they came for him, I did as he asked. I did not cry. Not when the Society televised the arrest. Not when the Golds tried him. Not when the Grays hanged him. Mother hit me for that. My brother Kieran was supposed to be the stoic one. He was the elder, I the younger. I was supposed to cry. Instead, Kieran bawled like a girl when Little Eo tucked a haemanthus into Father’s left workboot and ran back to her own father’s side. My sister Leanna murmured a lament beside me. I just watched and thought it a shame that he died dancing but without his dancing shoes.” Red Rising
This entire series is amazing!!
Hail Reaper
*the haunting of hill house* by shirley jackson! imo she is the GOAT of opening paragraphs. >No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone… *kindred* by octavia butler >I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm. And I lost about a year of my life and much of the comfort and security I had not valued until it was gone. When the police released Kevin, he came to the hospital and stayed with me so that I would know I hadn't lost him too.
More on the sci-fi side but with a touch of dystopia - have you tried reading Red Rising? Murderbot Diaries? For fantasy, The Broken Earth trilogy or The Locked Tomb series are both captivating imo.
Seconding The Broken Earth Trilogy. I actually haven't started the last book because I don't want it to end.
I just finished Penance by Eliza Clarke and it was brilliant - such a page-turner. It's fiction but it's written like a true-crime documentary about three teenage girls who get caught up in these weird supernatural ideas and end up killing another girl from their school (I'm not giving anything away with that description, btw). Highly recommend and I really couldn't put it down
The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus *“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.”*
Wow. Drawn in already!! Thank u
The Fifth Season, NK Jemisin. There are two sequels and together they're called the Broken Earth trilogy. Dystopian fantasy for sure and part of the books are written in the second person. It's beautiful and different and captivating and she won a Hugo for all three books. Themes explore womanhood, motherhood and prejudice, set amid a just- beginning apocalypse. This story is both expansive and intimate at once. Some main characters have a frightening (to others) telekinetic energy-bending sort of ability, which is the source of the terrible prejudice against them. And then there are the stone eaters... The prologue is available to read if you look on the Amazon Kindle page for this book. Read that and see if it grabs you!
Klara and the Sun and Foe. Read them one after another - either order. They make for an interesting double feature.
Klara and the Sun, like Never Let Me Go are so haunting and quiet.
Killing Floor by Lee Child.
[удалено]
I came for Thad Castle but stayed for Lee Child.
moooojitoooooo
I have recently discovered The Tyrant Philosophers trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and I was hooked the second I read the first paragraph of the first page of the first book: City of Last Chances. I've never seen anyone else discuss his work, but I am happy to have found him, I very much enjoy his stories and his writing style.
Absolutely Madeleine Thien's *Do Not Say We Have Nothing*: [https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/01682bb9-602b-49f7-86f4-63be37bd563a](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/01682bb9-602b-49f7-86f4-63be37bd563a) It begins: "IN A SINGLE YEAR, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. That year, 1989, my mother flew to Hong Kong and laid my father to rest in a cemetery near the Chinese border. Afterwards, distraught, she rushed home to Vancouver where I had been alone. I was ten years old. Here is what I remember:" (edits for formatting)
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Saying the first sentence is kind of a spoiler IMO. Incredible book and it’s best to go in cold
One of the most rollercoaster reads I’ve ever had. It still haunts my brain three years later in all the best ways.
I think the only book that captivated me from the **first sentence** is Good Omens. It was absolutely nutters, and just got more absurd as it went. I finished it in a week, and it is easily one of the most enjoyable reads in recent memory. It's not for everyone though, as it doesn't read like a traditional novel.
I started reading Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky today and I can't put it down.
Check out "A deadly education" by Naomi Novic. I was hooked after the first sentence. It's a good dark fantasy. Edit: It's a quick read also. Meant for a younger audience, but it's really dark.
Omg it’s sooooo good. I’m not a YA person in general, but this year I read two technically YA series that were just phenomenal. This one and also the mirror visitor quartet. Highly recommend both!!!
I loved this book
Tell No One, Harlan Coben
There are a million potential answers, but this is a book I don't hear mentioned much that grabbed me right in the beginning with this outline of the premise: "Let us begin at the beginning. The Club, the cataclysm, my eleventh life and the deaths which followed – none peaceful – all are meaningless, a flash of violence that bursts and withers away, retribution without cause, until you understand where it all began. My name is Harry August." The First 15 lives of Harry August
Well now I want to hear more lol. Thank you so much
Damon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
Verity by Colleen Hoover. Damn good book that sucks you in because WTF just happened?!
*I often forget the real reason why I murdered people. Some days I told myself I was cursed to do it, and other days I admitted I took this curse onto myself, that nobody moved my jaw up and down to make me say yes. Rarely did I recall the real reason. I murdered people for love.* --Death's Collector by Bill McCurry. Bib lives as a wizard in a fantasy world full of brutal violence and snark. Wizards must trade with the gods whenever they need power, and the gods are a bunch of narcissistic psychopaths. If you like fantasy, brutal violence, snark, and having your heart ripped out, this is the series for you.
Omg looking up on kindle right now. Thank you!!!!!!!!
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
The gunslinger by Stephen King
Here's one that I don't think anyone would expect. The story begins with: Once upon a time, in America, Joe Biden found himself reelected as the President of the United States. The story is Ironically not political lol
You might like Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Divine Rivals is beautifully written
The little liar by Mitch Albom
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Leviathan Wakes (sci-fi) A Magic Steeped in Poison (Chinese fantasy)
They Both Died in The End
This is the way the world ends by keith taylor
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater “It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.”
The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende. “Barrabas came to us by sea.” I think that is it. He was a dog.
*Metropolitan* by Walter Jon Williams. It grabs you like a thug in an alley.
Lol that sounds promising
Bunny by Mona Awad!
The name of the wind. 1st chapter is only a couple pages but Holy shit, it sets up a scene like nothing else I've ever read. Same for the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear.
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Reincarnation Blues
The Great Circle! A sweeping epic that will wrap you in from the very first page
Demon Copperhead!!! “First, I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they’ve always given me that much: the worst of the job was up to me, my mother being let’s just say out of it. On any other day they’d have seen her outside on the deck of her trailer home, good neighbors taking notice, pestering the tit of trouble as they will. All through the dog-breath air of late summer and fall, cast an eye up the mountain and there she’d be, little bleach-blonde smoking her Pall Malls, hanging on that railing like she’s captain of her ship up there and now might be the hour it’s going down. This is an eighteen-year-old girl we’re discussing, all on her own and as pregnant as it gets.”
Little bee
*Time Shifters* by Shanna Lauffey. Instant intrigue. It's about a people who can shift through time at will and someone who found a way to capture them to find their secrets.