Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Loved but Will Never Re-Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish list prompt originally hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. The theme for this week is:

April 10: Books I Loved but Will Never Re-Read (submitted by Brandyn @ Goingforgoldilocks)

This is definitely an interesting topic choice, and one that really got me thinking. Because, you see, sometimes when I finish a book, and I loved it, I want to climb inside and immerse myself in the story again and again. Other times, I don’t. I enjoyed the book, the story, the writing, but am happy to leave it at that. Now, I never like to say never, because tastes evolve, opinions can change, and my reading style is always shifting, but these are books that I currently have no desire to reread, and doubt I ever will.

1. Soulless – by Gail Carriger

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. 

First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire–and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

I really enjoyed this at the time, but have never felt overly motivated to continue on with the series, which is the only reason I’d choose to reread it. I also associate this book with being ill, since I had really bad fever dreams after finishing it the first time. The weirdest things can put me off a book/series, and unfortunately that’s what happened here.

2. The Girl with All The Gifts – by M. R. Carey

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her “our little genius.”

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children’s cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she’ll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn’t know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

While this book was enjoyable, and I liked what it did with its genre, it was also quite a difficult read. It’s quite dark and heavy at times,  not the sort of book I seek out very often, so I really doubt I’ll be rereading it any time soon.

3. Close Your Eyes – by Nicci Cloke

Southfield High School is oh so normal, with its good teachers, its bad, and its cliques. But despite the cliques, there’s a particular group of friends who have known each other forever and know that they can rely on each other for anything. 

There’s the twins: Aisha, rebellious, kind, and just a tiny bit worried about what the hell she’s going to do once this year is over, and Ash, smart, quiet and observant. Then there’s Remy, the loudmouth, and Gemma, who’s more interested in college boys and getting into the crap club in town. And then there’s Elise: the pretty one.

But at the start of Year 11, when the group befriend the new boy, Elijah, things start to change. The group find themselves not as close as they used to be. 

Until one Tuesday, when the students are trapped inside the school building. And one of them has a gun. 

Close Your Eyes is the story of a school shooting which, through interviews, messages and questionable actions, asks: Who is truly responsible?

Don’t misunderstand me, I really liked this book, I mean I literally couldn’t put it down at the end, but, I can’t see myself rereading it anytime soon now that I know what happens at the end. It’s not that I have an issue with the ending, it’s just  that all the tension comes from not knowing, so I’d have to have forgotten a lot before rereading this.

4. The Hanging Girl – by Eileen Cook

Two girls, one fatal reading . . . because the truth always lies in the cards

Skye’s mother believes she has ‘the gift’ – the opportunity to see the future. Skye however can only see the opportunity to make money – and happily fleeces her gullible classmates into handing over their cash to hear their futures through Skye’s wellworn tarot cards. But it’s all in a good cause, right? Skye needs to save her hardearned cash to go to New York with her best mate Drew. 

Then the local mayor’s daughter Paige disappears – and Skye has a tip off about her whereabouts. Skye is uncomfortable about the source and masks the tipoff as a vision she has received. But then events get wildly out of control – Paige is found murdered and Skye is a prime suspect . . .

This is another case of, I know the twists at the end, so the suspense isn’t their for me anymore. It’s a good book and I enjoyed it, but now that I know what happened, I don’t really need to reread it, and probably won’t ever pick it up again.

5. Someone to Love – by Melissa de la Cruz

Constantly in the spotlight thanks to her politician father’s rising star, Olivia Blakely feels the pressure to be perfect. As the youngest girl in her class, she tries hard to keep up and to seem mature to the older boy she’s crushing on, even as she catches his eye. But the need to look good on camera and at school soon grows into an all-consuming struggle with bulimia. 

As Liv works toward her goal of gaining early admission to art school, including taking part in an upcoming student show, her life spirals out of control. Swept up in demands to do more than she’s ready for, to always look perfect and to succeed, Liv doesn’t know who she is anymore. It will take nearly losing her best friend and even her life for Liv to learn that loving herself is far more important than earning the world’s approval.

I probably won’t ever reread this book because I found the heavy issues emotionally taxing, and was triggered by certain elements of the plot. While it is well written, and does a great job with some important issues, I have to put my mental well-being first, and I would risk triggering myself all over again if I reread this. You can check out my full review for this book here if you want to know more. There is a trigger/content warning section there that I recommend consulting before choosing to read this book.

6. The Circle – by Sara B. Elfgren & Mats Strandberg

One night, when a strange red moon fills the sky, six school girls find themselves in an abandoned theme park, drawn there by a mysterious force. A student has just been found dead. Everyone suspects suicide. Everyone – except them.

In that derelict fairground an ancient prophecy is revealed. They are The Chosen Ones, a group of witches, bound together by a power, one which could destroy them all. But they soon learn that despite their differences they need each other in order to master the forces that have been awakened within them.

High school is now a matter of life and death. Because the killing has only just begun.

I liked this book, but it was really long, and pacing was a bit slow in the middle. There were so many characters to develop that it took a while to get to the action. I still enjoyed it, and will likely continue with the series at some point, but I won’t be rereading this first book before hand.

7. Windfall – by Jennifer E. Smith

Alice doesn’t believe in luck—at least, not the good kind. But she does believe in love, and for some time now, she’s been pining for her best friend, Teddy. On his eighteenth birthday—just when it seems they might be on the brink of something—she buys him a lottery ticket on a lark. To their astonishment, he wins $140 million, and in an instant, everything changes. 

At first, it seems like a dream come true, especially since the two of them are no strangers to misfortune. As a kid, Alice won the worst kind of lottery possible when her parents died just over a year apart from each other. And Teddy’s father abandoned his family not long after that, leaving them to grapple with his gambling debts. Through it all, Teddy and Alice have leaned on each other. But now, as they negotiate the ripple effects of Teddy’s newfound wealth, a gulf opens between them. And soon, the money starts to feel like more of a curse than a windfall. 

As they try to find their way back to each other, Alice learns more about herself than she ever could have imagined . . . and about the unexpected ways in which luck and love sometimes intersect.

I did enjoy this book at the time I read it, but I haven’t really thought about it much since. I rarely feel like rereading contemporary books at the best of times, and I just don’t see this one hitting the top of my reread list any time soon.

8. Blackbird – by N.D. Gomes

My name is Alex. I am fifteen years old, and I don’t know where my sister is. Or if she will ever come back.

On New Year’s Eve 5,000 blackbirds dropped dead. The same day Olivia McCarthy went missing from a small coastal village in Orkney.

Now Her younger sister Alex is on a mission to find out just what happened to Olivia. But does she really want to know all the answers?

This book was powerful, emotional and atmospheric, but I doubt I’ll be rereading it any time soon. I know all the plot twists from my first read through, and what makes this book so gripping is the tension and urgency created by the mystery. Now I know the answers, I’m unlikely to reread this any time soon, unless  I forget what happens.

 

I didn’t quite manage to list ten books this week, mostly because if I really liked a book, there is a good chance I’ll end up wanting to reread it at some point. I find revisiting an old favourite book comforting, and if I leave it long enough, it’s almost like reading it for the first time, with just a touch of nostalgia.

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