POPULÆRE UTENLANDSKE UNGDOMSBØKER OVERSATT TIL NORSK

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Forfattere med mange standalone bøker bør søkes på med engelsk tittel eller forfatter, f.eks. Ali Hazelwood. I likhet bør serier søkes på med den engelske serietittelen for best mulig resultat.

 

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Listen inneholder bøker spesifikt skrevet for ungdom og bøker som ungdom har vist stor interesse i å lese, men som kan være både middlegrade eller voksen. 

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Symbol:

Queer =  🌈

Anbefalt 18+ =  * 

Mangler oversatte bøker i serien.

PARANORMAL\LOW FANTASY & MAGISK REALISME

 

Wake Over Me [Våk over meg] av Amy Plum (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker utgitt på norsk

 

Ruby Red [Rubinrød] av Kiersten Gier (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker utgitt på norsk

 

We Both Die At The End [Begge dør til slutt] av Adam Silvera 🌈

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

Before I Fall [Før Jeg Faller] av Lauren Oliver

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

House of Night av P.C. og Kristin Cast (serie)

Status: 12 av 12 bøker på norsk

Beautiful Creatures [Vakre Skapninger] av Cami Garcia og Margareth Stohl (serie)

Status: 4 av 4 bøker på norsk

 

Hush, Hush [Fallen Engel] av Becca Pitzpatrick (serie)

Status: 4 av 4 bøker på norsk

 

The Mortal Instruments [Skyggejegerne] av Cassandra Clare (serie)

Status: 6 av 6 bøker på norsk

 

The Infernal Devices [Den Mekaniske Engelen] av Cassandra Clare (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk 

Twilight Sagaen av Stephanie Meyer

Status: 4 av 4 bøker på norsk 

The Selection av Kiera Cass (original trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

The Selection: The Heir av Kiera Cass (duologi)  

Status: 2 av 2 bøker på norsk 

 

Strange the Dreamer [Den ukjente drømmeren] av Laini Taylor

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk (notat: boken er publisert i to deler)

 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone [Ønskemesterens datter] av Laini Taylor

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

Piranesi av Susanna Clarke

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

The Raven Boys [Ravnekretsen] av Magie Stiefwater

Status: 4 av 4 bøker på norsk 

Half Bad av Sally Green (trilogi) 

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

Evermore [De Udødelige] av Alyson Noel

Status: 6 av 6 bøker oversatt 

Night School av C. J. Daughtery

Status: 5 av 5 på norsk 

Darren Shan [Sagaen om Darren Shan] av Darren Shan

Status: 12 av 12 bøker på norsk

Norra Latin [Drømmenes skole] av Sara Bergman Elfgen

The Night Circus [Nattens sirkus] av Erin Morgenstern 

Status: 1 av 1 bok oversatt

Hazel Wood av Melissa Albert

Status: 1 av 2 bøker på norsk

 

 

 

DYSTOPIA AND SCIENCE FICTION

Delirium av Lauren Oliver (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

Divergent av Veronica Roth (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

The Hunger Games [Dødslekene] av Suzanne Collins (trilogi + prequels)

Status: 5 av 5 bøker på norsk 

GONE av Michael Grant (serie)

Status: 6 av 6 bøker på norsk

 

BZRK av Michael Grant (serie)

Status: 1 av 4 bøker på norsk

 

The Host [Verten] av Stephanie Meyer

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

Matched [Cassias Valg] av Allie Condie (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk 

 

Ender's Game [Enders Spill] av Orson Scott Card

Status: 1 av 4 bøker på norsk

 

Schyte [Ljå] av Neal Shusterman (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

The Maze Runner [I Dødens Labyrint] av James Dashner (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk 

 

Ready Player One av Ernest Cline (duologi, bok 1 kan leses for seg selv)

Status: 2 av 2 bøker på norsk

 

Legend [Legenden] av Marie Lu

Status: 1 av 3 på norsk 

The Lunar Chronicles [Månekrønikeren] av Marissa Meyer

Status: 4 av 4 på norsk

Uglies av Scott Westerfield

Status: 3 av 3 på norsk 

The Handmaids tale [En tjenerinnes beretninger] av Margaret Atwood

Status: 1 a 1 på norsk

The Lord of the Flies [Fluenes herre] av William Golding

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy [Haikerens Guide til galaksen] av Douglas Adams 

Status: 1 av 5 på norsk 

Red Rising [Rød Revolt] av Pierce Brown

Status: 3 av 6 på norsk 

 

The 5th Wave [Den 5 bølgen] av Rick Jancey

Status: 2 av 3

 

MYTOLOGI

Circe [Jeg er Kirke] av Madeline Miller

Status: 1 av 1 bok på norsk

 

The Song of Achilles [Sangen om Akilles] av Madeline Miller 🌈

Status: 1 av 1 bok på norsk

 

RICK RIORDAN

Percy Jackson and the Olympians av Rick Riordan (original serien)

Status: 5 av 5 bøker på norsk

Percy Jackson and the Olympians av Rick Riordan (alle til dags dato)

Status: 7 av 7 bøker på norsk

 

The Heroes of Olympus [Gudene fra Olympos] av Rick Riordan (serie)

Status: 5 av 5 bøker på norsk 

 

The Kane Chronicles [Kane krønikeren] av Rick Riordan (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

Magnus Chase and The Gods of Asgard av Rick Riordan (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk 

 

The Trials of Apollo [Apollos prøvelser] av Rick Riordan (serie)

Status: 5 av 5 bøker på norsk

 

The Daughter of the Deep [Dypets datter] av Rick Riordan

Status:  1 av 1 på norsk

 

 

Aru Shah (The Pandava Quartet) av Roshani Chockshi

Status: 2 av 4 på norsk

 

 

 

HIGH FANTASY

LEIGH BARDUGO

Shadow and Bone [I lysets makt] av Leigh Bardugo (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

Six of Crows [Kråkenes Kunst] av Leigh Bardugo (duologi)

Status: 2 av 2 bøker på norsk 

REBECCA YARROS

Fourth Wing [Fjerde Ving] av Rebecca Yarros*

Status: 3 av 3 utgitte bøker på norsk [blir 5 totalt] 

 

 

SARAH J. MAAS

Throne of Glass [Glasstronen] av Sarah J. Maas (serie)

Status: 5 av 7 bøker på norsk

 

Crescent City av Sarah J. Maas (trilogi)*

Status: 3 av 3

 

Caraval av Stephanie Garber (trilogi)

Status: 2 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

An Ember in the Ashes [En Glo i Asken] av Sabaa Tahir (serie)

Status: 1 av 4 bøker på norsk

 

Red Queen [Rød Drønning] av Victoria Aveyard (serie)

Status: 3 av 4 bøker på norsk

 

Graceling [Nådegaven] av Kirstin Cashore (serie)

Status: 3 av 5 bøker på norsk

 

Incarceron av Catherine Fisher (duologi)

Status: 1 av 2 bøker utgitt på norsk

 

Eragon av  Christopher Paolini

Status: 4 av 4 på norsk

 

Iron Fey av Julie Kagawa

Status: 4 av 4 bøker på norsk

 

The Wardstone Chronicle [Den Siste Lærling] av Joseph Delaney

Status: 13 av 13 bøker på norsk

 

His Dark Materials [Det Gylne Kompasset] av Philip Pullman (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

The Chronicles of Narnia [Narnia krønikeren] av C. S. Lewis

Status:  7 av 7 bøker på norsk

 

His Dark Materials: La Belle Sauvage av Philip Pullman (trilogi)

Status: 1 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

The Lies of Locke Lamora [Løgneren Loke Lamora] av Scott Lynch* (trilogi)

Status: 1 av 3 bøker på norsk

The School of Good and Evil [Skolen for det gode og det onde] av Soman Chainani

Status: 1 av 6 bøker på norsk

 

The Bone Season [Drømmegjengeren] av Samantha Shannon

Status:  1 av 4 bøker på norsk

Divine Rivals [Letters of Enchantments] av Rebecca Ross (duologi)

Status: 2 av 2 bøker på norsk

 

 

THRILLER, MYSTERIE & KRIM

I Hunt Killers av Barry Lyga (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 på norsk

 

Boy Nobody av Allen Zadoff (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 på norsk

 

Thursday Murders Club [Torsdagsmordklubben] av Richard Osman

Status: 4 av 4 på norsk 

 

Sadie av Courtney Summers

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

 

 

E. Lockhart
We Were Liars [Vi var løgnere] av E. Lockhart

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

Genuine Fraud [Sanne Løgner] av E. Lockhart

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

 

A Good Girls Guide to Murder [Flinke Pikers Håndbok for Mord] av Holly Jackson

Status: 1 av 3 på norsk (serien er fortsatt under oversettelse)

The Shadow of the Wind [Vindens Skygge] av Carlos Ruiz Zafron

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

 

KAREN M. MCMANUS

One of Us is Lying [En av Oss Lyver] av Karen M. McManus

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

Two Can Keep A Secret [To kan holde på en hemmelighet...] av Karen M. McManus

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

 

 

CONTEMPORARY

Anna and the French Kiss (Anna, Lola, Isla) [Anna og Det Franske Kysset] av Stephanie Perkins (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 på norsk

 

Dear Evan Hansen [Kjære Evan Hansen] av Val Emmich, et al.

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

I'll Give You the Sun [Jeg Gir Deg Sola] av Jandy Nelson

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

The Midnight Library [Midnattsbiblioteket] av Matt Haig

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

Talking at Night [Samtaler i Natten] av Claire Daverley

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

 

To All The Boys [Lara Jean] av Jenny Han (trilogi)

Status: 3 av 3 bøker på norsk

 

Fangirl av Rainbow Rowell

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

 

Eleanor & Park av Rainbow Rowell

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

The sun is also a star [Sola er også en stjerne] av Nicola Yoon

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

Everything, Everything [Verden er en boble] av Nicola Yoon

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

Red, White and Royal Blue [Rødt, hvitt og kongeblått] av Casey McQuiston 🌈

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

 

13 Reasons Why [13 gode grunner] av Jay Asher (Sjekk TWs!)

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

Our Chemical Hearts [Krystall hjerter] av Krystal Sutherland

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

Punching the Air av Ibi Zoboi og Yusef Salaam

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

The Perks of Being a Wallflower [Fordeler med å være veggpryd] av Stephen Chebowsky

Status: 1 av 1 oversatt

 

ANGIE THOMAS

The Hate U Give av Angie Thomas 

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

On The Come Up [På vei mot toppen] av Angie Thomas

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

Concrete Rose [Betongrosen] av Angie Thomas

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

 

ALICE OSEMAN 🌈

Radio Silence [Jeg håper noen kan høre meg] av Alice Oseman

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

Solitaire [Solospill] av Alice Oseman

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

Heartstopper [Hjertestopper] (grafisk novelle) av Alice Oseman

Status: 5 av 5 på norsk [flere volum kommer] 

This Winter [Denne Vinteren] av Alice Oseman (Heartstopper novelle)

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk

 

Nick & Charlie (Heartstopper novelle)

Status: 1 av 1 på norsk 

 

COLLEN HOOVER* (følgene titler er på norsk via Gursli Berg)

It Ends With Us

It Starts With Us 

Reminders of Him

Maybe Someday [En vakker dag]

November 9th 

Regretting You

Verity

Never, Never

Heartbone

ALI HAZELWOOD* (følgende titler er på norsk via Cappelen Damm)

The Love Hypothesis

Love on the Brain 

Check & Mate 

SALLY ROONEY (følgende titler er på norsk)

Conversations with Friends

Beautiful World, Where are you

Normal People

Intermezzo 

JOHN GREEN (følgende titler er på norsk)

Looking for Alaska

The Fault in Our Stars

Turtles All The Way Down

Paper Towns

Let it Snow

Will Grayson, Will Grayson 

 

 

 

 

 

MY HIGHLY ANTICIPATED 2023 SPRING\SUMMER RELEASES | BOOK LIST

This list contains releases between March to August 2023. All summaries are from The StoryGraph.

FANTASY

The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao

Release date: June 13th

High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. In these living cities, architects are revered above anyone else. If not for their ability to psychically manipulate the architecture, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.

Charismatic, powerful, mystical, Iravan is one such architect. In his city, his word is nearly law. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his wife, they are a way for survival to be reliant on the privileged few. Like most others, she cannot manipulate the plants. And she desperately seeks change.

Their marriage is already thorny—then Iravan is accused of pushing his abilities to forbidden limits. He needs Ahilya to help clear his name; she needs him to tip the balance of rule in their society. As their paths become increasingly intertwined, deadly truths emerge, challenging everything each of them believes. And as the earthrages become longer, and their floating city begins to plummet, Iravan and Ahilya’s discoveries might destroy their marriage, their culture, and their entire civilization.

Catfish Rolling by Clara Kumagai

Release date: March 16th

There’s a catfish under the islands of Japan and when it rolls the land rises and falls.

Sora hates the catfish whose rolling caused an earthquake so powerful it cracked time itself. It destroyed her home and took her mother. Now Sora and her scientist father live close to the zones – the wild and abandoned places where time runs faster or slower than normal. Sora is sensitive to the shifts, and her father recruits her help in exploring these liminal spaces.

But it's dangerous there – and as she strays further inside in search of her mother, she finds that time distorts, memories fracture and shadows, a glimmer of things not entirely human, linger. After Sora's father goes missing, she has no choice but to venture into uncharted spaces within the time zones to find him, her mother and perhaps even the catfish itself...

Assassin of Reality (Vita Nostra #2) by  Marina & Sergey Dyachenko

Release date: March 14th

Farit Kozhennikov, Sasha’s dark mentor, finds a way to bring her out of the oblivion and back to the Institute for his own selfish purposes. Subsequently, Sasha must correct her mistakes before she is allowed to graduate and is forced to do what few are asked and even less achieve: to succeed and reverberate—becoming a part of the Great Speech and being one of the special few who dictate reality. If she fails, she faces a fate far worse than death: the choice is hers. 

Years have passed around the Institute—and the numerous realities that have spread from Sasha’s first failure—but it is only her fourth year of learning what role she will play in shaping the world. Her teachers despise and fear her, her classmates distrust her, and a growing love—for a young pilot with no affiliation to the school—is fraught because a relationship means leverage, and Farit won’t hesitate to use it against her.

Planes crash all the time. Which means Sasha needs to rewrite the world so that can’t happen...or fail for good.

MENTAL HEALTH

The Immeasurable Depth of You by Maria Ingrande Mora

Release date: March 7th

Main character dealing with severe anxiety.

Fifteen-year-old Brynn can’t stop thinking about death. Her intrusive thoughts and severe anxiety leave her feeling helpless—and hopeless. So after her mom interprets one of Brynn’s blog posts as a suicide note, she takes extreme measures, confiscating Brynn’s phone, blocking her Internet access, and banishing her to stay with her father who lives “off the grid” on a houseboat in the Florida mangroves. Isolated from her online friends—her only friends—Brynn resigns herself to a summer of mind-numbing boredom and loneliness… until Skylar appears.

Skylar is everything Brynn isn’t—sultry, athletic, and confident. Yet Brynn feels at home around this fearless girl who pushes her to try new things and makes her belly flutter with nerves that have nothing to do with anxiety. When Brynn discovers that Skylar is trapped in the bayou and can’t tell her why, she resolves to free her new crush from the dark waters, even if it means confronting all of her worst fears.

Hungry Ghost by Victoria Ying [Graphic Novel]

Release date: April 25th

Main character deals with disordered eating.

Valerie Chu is quiet, studious, and above all, thin. No one, not even her best friend, Jordan, knows that she has been bingeing and purging for years. But when tragedy strikes, Val finds herself reassessing her priorities, her choices, and her body. The path to happiness may lead her away from her hometown and her mother’s toxic projections—but first she will have to find the strength to seek help.

OTHERS

It's Not A Cult by Lauren Danhof

Release date: August 22nd

Glinda Glass is truly trying her best. After dropping out of her graduate school program, she moves back to her childhood home with her mom—who has not only joined a cult, the Starlight Pioneer Society, but has also become enraptured by its charismatic and menacing leader, Arlon. When she’s not trying to get her twin sister Dorothy to finally speak to her or keep her younger sister West out of trouble, Glinda works her days in the Drench-the-Wench dunk booth at the local Renaissance fair with her only friend and co-worker Troy, who may or may not be falling in love with her.

Once Glinda learns that the cult will be turning her family’s home into their commune, she worries there’s more to Arlon than meets the eye and decides to take matters into her own hands—by joining the cult herself. There, she realizes things are far more sinister than she could have ever imagined and that she must get her mom out from under the spell of Arlon by any means necessary. But Glinda can’t do it on her own; in order to save her mother, she’ll have to come to terms with her own history of trauma and grief, and repair her relationships with her sisters and Troy.

Glinda always has the best intentions, even if her emotionally clumsy efforts to fix things constantly end in disaster. With the fate of her family on the line, will this time be different?

Ever Since by Alena Bruzas

Release date: May 23rd

Seventeen-year-old Virginia makes bad choices. In fact, she’s That Kind of Girl, according to the whispers. But as long as she has her tight group of best friends by her side, she’s able to ignore the gossipers. Until she finds herself spending time with Rumi, Poppy’s boyfriend. Breaking with tradition, she doesn’t hook up with Rumi. Worse, she falls in love with him.

While Virginia and Rumi’s relationship grows in secret, she discovers that his little sister, Lyra, is being groomed for abuse. The soon-to-be-abuser is a respected member of the community, and only Virginia knows who he is and what he does. If she stays quiet, Lyra will become a victim. But coming forward feels equally impossible.

TO DYE FOR: How toxic fashion is making us sick- and how we can fight back by Alden Wicker

Release date:  June 27th

In To Dye For, Wicker reveals how clothing manufacturers have successfully swept consumers’ concerns under the rug for more than 150 years, and why synthetic fashion and dyes made from fossil fuels are so deeply intertwined with the rise of autoimmune disease, infertility, asthma, eczema, and more. In fact, there’s little to no regulation of the clothes and textiles we wear each day—from uniforms to fast fashion, outdoor gear, and even the face masks that have become ubiquitous in recent years. Wicker explains how we got here, what the stakes are, and what all of us can do in the fight for a safe and healthy wardrobe for all.

Thank you for reading ♡

FIVE BOOKS THAT LEFT A MARK ON ME | BOOK LIST

Some books leave a mark on you that stay months or years after you've finished reading. These are my top five books with a lasting impression. These books are on the list for immersive storytelling, fresh content, and books that magnificently did what they set out to do - impact how the reader perceives the world.

The Historian (2005) by Elizabeth Kostova. 

Dark Academia.

To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history.... Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of, a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.

The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself--to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler's dark reign and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.

The Heart of Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles #2) (2015) by Mary E. Pearson. 

Fantasy romance.

This is the second book in the series. Be aware, the summary will contain spoilers for book one, The Kiss of Deception.

Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape . . . and even less of being together.

Desperate to save her life, Lia's erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komisar that she has a magical gift, and the Komisar's interest in Lia is greater than either Kaden or Lia foresaw. Meanwhile, the foundations of Lia's deeply-held beliefs are crumbling beneath her. Nothing is straightforward: there's Rafe, who lied to her, but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom she always believed to be barbarians but whom she now realizes are people who have been terribly brutalized by the kingdoms of Dalbreck and Morrighan. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her very sense of self, Lia will have to make powerful choices that affect her country, her people . . . and her own destiny.

Deathless (2011) by Catherynne M. Valente. 

Alternative History & Folklore

Child of the revolution, maiden of myth, bride of darkness.

A handsome young man arrives in St Petersburg at the house of Marya Morevna. He is Koschei, the Tsar of Life, and he is Marya's fate.Koschei leads Marya to his kingdom, where she becomes a warrior in his tireless battle against his own brother, the Tsar of Death.

Years pass. Battle-hardened, scarred by love, and longing for respite, Marya returns to St Petersburg - only to discover a place as pitiful as the land she has just fled: a starveling city, haunted by death.

As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow (2022) by Zoulfa Katouh.

Contemporary Romance.

Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life.

Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe.

But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all.

Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.

The Finale Empire (Mistborn #1) (2006) by Brandon Sanderson. 

High-Fantasy.

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

 

Animism & Landconnectedness | Book list

Nine diverse books about animism, landconnectedness, folklore, and women in the meeting with ecological disaster.

Making Love with the Land (2022) by Joshua Whitehead 

Voice: Aboriginal Australian, Turtle Island.

Themes: Identity. Indigeniousity, queerness, body and land, language and land.

Format: essays, memoirs, notes, confessions.

The StoryGraph summary: Making Love with the Land is a startling, heartwrenching look at what it means to live as a queer Indigenous person "in the rupture" between identities. In sharp, surprising, unique pieces—a number of which have already won awards—Whitehead illuminates this particular moment, in which both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are navigating new (and old) ideas about "the land." He asks: What is our relationship and responsibility towards it? And how has the land shaped our ideas, our histories, our very bodies?

Here is an intellectually thrilling, emotionally captivating love song—a powerful revelation about the library of stories land and body hold together, waiting to be unearthed and summoned into word.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2013) by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Voice: Native American, Citizen Potawatomi Nation

Themes: ecological consciousness, animism, reciprocity

My rating: ♡♡♡♡♡\5

Goodreads summary: As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.

Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (2020) by Tyson Yunkaporta

Voice: Indigenous Australian 

Theme: history, education, money, power, and sustainability

Format: text, illustrations

The StoryGraph summary: A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability--and offers a new template for living. 

In Sand Talk, he provides a new model for our everyday lives. Rich in ideas and inspiration, it explains how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It's about how we learn and how we remember. It's about talking to everyone and listening carefully. It's about finding different ways to look at things.

Most of all it's about a very special way of thinking, of learning to see from a native perspective, one that is spiritually and physically tied to the earth around us, and how it can save our world.

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science by Dr. Jessica Hernandez

Voice: Indigenous (Maya Ch’orti’ and Zapotec), scholar

Themes: Conservation, indigenous environmental knowledge, holistic land management

The StoryGraph: Introduces and contextualizes Indigenous environmental knowledge and proposes a vision of land stewardship that heals rather than displaces, that generates rather than destroys. She breaks down the failures of western-defined conservatism and shares alternatives, citing the restoration work of urban Indigenous people in Seattle; her family’s fight against ecoterrorism in Latin America; and holistic land management approaches of Indigenous groups across the continent.

Through case studies, historical overviews, and stories that center the voices and lived experiences of Indigenous Latin American women and land protectors, Hernandez makes the case that if we’re to recover the health of our planet–for everyone–we need to stop the eco-colonialism ravaging Indigenous lands and restore our relationship with Earth to one of harmony and respect.

Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development (1988) by Vandana Shiva

Voice: Indian

Themes: the links between ecological crises, colonialism, and the oppression of women. Violence against nature and women.

The StoryGraph summary: In this pioneering work, Vandana Shiva looks at the history of development and progress, stripping away the neutral language of science to reveal third-world development policy as the global twin of the industrial revolution. 

As Shiva makes clear, the way this development paradigm is being implemented—through violence against nature and women—threatens survival itself. She focuses on how rural Indian women experience and perceive the causes and effects of ecological destruction, and how they conceive of and initiate processes to stop the destruction and begin regeneration. As the world continues to follow destructive paths of development, Shiva’s Staying Alive is a fiercely relevant book that positions women not solely as survivors of the crisis, but as the source of crucial insights and visions to guide our struggle. 

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories by Regina Kanyu Wang and Yu Chen (with several female and nonbinary creators)

Voice: Chinese, female, and nonbinary fantasy and sci-fi authors

Format: short-stories 

The StoryGraph summary: From an award-winning team of authors, editors, and translators comes a groundbreaking short story collection that explores the expanse of Chinese science fiction and fantasy.

In The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, you can dine at a restaurant at the end of the universe, cultivate to immortality in the high mountains, watch roses perform Shakespeare, or arrive at the island of the gods on the backs of giant fish to ensure that the world can bloom.

Written, edited, and translated by a female and nonbinary team, these stories have never before been published in English and represent both the richly complicated past and the vivid future of Chinese science fiction and fantasy.

Fruiting Bodies: Stories (2022) by Kathryn Harlan

Voice: American, female

Format: short-stories

The StoryGraph summary: In stories that beckon and haunt, Fruiting Bodies ranges confidently from the fantastical to the gothic to the uncanny as it follows characters—mostly queer, mostly women—on the precipice of change. Echoes of timeless myth and folklore reverberate through urgent narratives of discovery, appetite, and coming-of-age in a time of crisis.

Audacious, striking, and wholly original, Fruiting Bodies offers stories about knowledge in a world on the verge of collapse, knowledge that alternately empowers or devastates. Pulling beautifully, brazenly, from a variety of literary traditions, Kathryn Harlan firmly establishes herself as a thrilling new voice in fiction.

Mirrors in the Earth: Reflections on Self-Healing from the Living World by Asia Suler

Voice: 

Theme: nature heals, nature writings

Format: short-stories

The StoryGraph summary: In a series of 12 lyrical nature essays, herbalist, writer, and Earth intuitive Asia Suler illuminates the healing power of the living Earth--and gives us permission to nurture self-compassion and empathy as forces for personal and ecological healing.

In a time of unprecedented ecological devastation, it’s easy to feel hopeless and disconnected. It’s easier still to mask our inherent goodness--to imagine that our unique and precious gifts simply aren’t enough, or forget the power of our inborn empathy. For those of us who are highly sensitive, innately attuned to the workings and whispers of the natural world, it can be hard to embody the belief that we’re enough as we are--and that can heal the Earth.

Here, Suler reveals the opposite: our goodness, our empathy, our intuitive connections, and our capacity for self-compassion are more than personal traits or antidotes to despair: they are, in fact, our most potent vehicles for planetary transformation. And as we learn to more deeply nurture and accept ourselves, we unlock living, healing connections to Earth.

Animism: Respecting the Living World (2005) by Graham Harvey

Themes: Animism, indigenous cultures

The StoryGraph summary: How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.

Hope you enjoyed the list! ♡

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

I first heard about Deathless (2011) by Catherynne M. Valente five years ago as a book similar to the "Shadow and Bone" trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. And I want to start by falsifying that statement: these books are nothing alike. They share types of characters and both have Russian-inspired settings, but that is where the similarities end. Deathless is a dark and gritty tale of wars that took me by surprise and left me obsessed. It's ruthless and whimsical and magical and devastating. It's unforgiving in such a way you can feel it in your marrow.

“I have survived, but I have not been spared.” 

A handsome young man arrives in St Petersburg at the house of Marya Morevna. He is Koschei, the Tsar of Life, and he is Marya's fate. Koschei leads Marya to his kingdom, where she becomes a warrior in his tireless battle against his own brother, the Tsar of Death. Years pass. Battle-hardened, scarred by love, and longing for respite, Marya returns to St Petersburg - only to discover a place as pitiful as the land she has just fled: a starveling city, haunted by death. - Synopsis

First, I need to mention that I lack knowledge about the setting and the folklore the book is built upon. Thus, this will not be a review critiquing the folktales or who can write and represent these myths and eras. This will be review is solely my reaction to the work and its entertainment value to me. In similar words, I went in blind and naive to the context, taken with the promises of a "historical Russian setting" and "Slavic folklore." I think that is also where a lot of my confusion stemmed from at the beginning of the story, and I didn't read up on it before I closed in on the end, wanting to make sure I better understood the context of the book as it seemed to move outside the little knowledge I had. Ultimately its merge with historical events was what made this book unforgettable, and I regret I did not know more about the source material before I opened the book. Yet, I am not sure if it would have surprised me as much as it did if I knew the original folk tales.

The first thing that stood out to me was the prose. It is different from anything else I've read. At first, I struggled with it, but now it feels like I have been nested in a nice, warm house (the irony). I've been reading this book in sips since mid-June, so it is expected that I have grown accustomed to the tone of this universe.

What startled me, was how devastating this book turned out to become. The backdrop of the wars starts as a subplot about the progress of the wars, and how the Tsar of life and the Tsar of Death are always at war, and "the war is always going badly." We notice how the territories shrink and expand as a reflection of them, and how every death is a new soldier for the other side, and how life gets displaced. Then, at a point, Marya returns to Leningrad which "was once called St. Petersburg, then Petrograd, then Leningrad, and then, much later, St. Petersburg again," and re-enters the real world during the Second World War. 

Chapter 23 is the worst chapter I've ever read in many right ways. It's cataclysmic. It's so utterly godforsaken, that I struggled to read through and past this point in the book. Until now, it has been a villain-steals-maiden plot, a ruthless-abusive romance arc, a she-needs-to-learn-to-become-cold-and-cruel-like-life-arc, how-can-I-save-the-other-Vasilisa/Yelena, and so on. And now we have the Siege of Leningrad in the early 1940s. 600-800k people starved to death.

“A ration card says, This much life we have allotted you. It says, This much death we can keep from your door. But no more. It says, In Leningrad there is only so much life to go around. It says, The only thing not rationed in Leningrad is death."

"(...) she cried, but without tears, because you cannot have tears without bread.”

When I think back, the coldness associated with life was promised early in the book. I expect life to be warm and plentiful, but this book starts out in a Russia where food is scarce and winters are harsh for the common folk, and it returns to a Russia where the situation is even worse. Where Life rests its fight. 

"(...) the strong and the cruel still sit on the hill, and drink vodka, and wear black furs, and slurp borscht by the pail, like blood. Children may wear through their socks marching in righteous parades, but Papa never misses his wine with supper. Therefore, it is better to be strong and cruel than to be fair. At least, one eats better that way. And morality is more dependent on the state of one’s stomach than of one’s nation.”

This book is written in the third person so you always have a certain distance from the characters. That might be one of the reasons why I did not feel particularly much for the romance part of the plot. It felt cold even during its explicit scenes. The sex always felt obsessive, a tug of war of "who's to rule" where Marya is still an abduction victim. She learns the rules of the play even if she can "never be queen." In the original folktale, she's supposed to be a mightier character than what she's given credit for in this book. Still, I noticed her strength growing as she moved through the plot beside Koschei, and how she learned to express strength was not compatible with Ivan's groundedness later on. Despite this, their actions show that there was a relationship of sorts going on even if it was messed up. I think little says it as Koschei himself, “I do not tolerate a world emptied of you."

This book wanders in fairy tale devices. Repetition is something you'll notice quite frequently. It's not an annoying type of repetition. It often most set the setting or is a phrase repeated but gently changed to fit another character and scene. It also makes an argument for reputation inside the book, fairy tales repeat themselves, told from mouth-to-mouth, always with predestined endings, and this is a book based upon fairy tales - if you know the folktale, you likely know how it ends. Also, in Part 2, we get the most fairytale-like scenes of the book, the small advances towards happiness. We also meet mythological creatures like the firebird, a three-headed dragon, the domovoi (house spirits), and villainous figures like Baba Yaga.

"Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you'd have to get up again, even with a bullet through your eye, to play your part and say your lines.”

Something I took note of was how the realm of the Dead\Viy's country was portrayed. It is said to be a place where "the death can live anew in peace and suffer no more." They also turn into ghosts whose hunger for life never ends. I've noticed similarities between Norse and Slavic mythology before, and I'm curious if this could be one of these instances as well.

There are many things I could discuss from this book, examples to use, and themes that occur. Yet, I have to conclude at a point. I loved this book. I struggled with it, I grieved with it, and at parts, reveled in the mythical wonders of it. The premise was always dark and it surpassed my expectations by miles. I am sure there are many things I've missed and overlooked after having only read this book once. When I pick it up in the future, it need to do more than simply experience it to better grasp the journey I've been through. It's not one I'm forgetting soon.

Rating: 5\5

Trigger warnings:

Abusive relationship\sex, starvation\famine, abduction, death (a lot of it), force-feeding.

Information:

Format: Paperback     Genre: Alternative history, mythology, fantasy   Demographic: Adult    Number of Pages:   352 Year of publication: 2011     Series: Standalone

THE DARKEST PART OF THE FOREST BY HOLLY BLACK | BOOK REVIEW

The Darkest Part of the Forest (2015) by Holly Black is a teen novel about growing into your childhood dreams. The book follows the siblings, Hazel and Benjamin who lives in a small town adapted to the frequent visits by the dangerous and trickery Fae Folk. In the forest, a fay prince rests in an unbreakable glass casket. Both Hazel and Ben dream about waking him up and falling in love, just as in the fairy tales. When the fairy attacks on the town intensifies and the casket finally breaks, Hazel and Ben must figure out the truth of the fairy court’s relationship with the town and their prince, and step into the heart of the forest before it is too late.

The Darkest Part is part fairy tale, part romance. It offers up two relationships to cheer on – a gay one and a straight one. Both are great and satisfying for the reader. The queer relationship isn’t bolded out in any way, but skillfully braided into the world as the most natural thing that could happen. However, there is a minor instance of homophobia from parents in the book in their past. 

One of my favorite things about this book is the large amount of different fae and creatures introduced. There are tons of them and I love to see the twisted curses the fae put on people. It feels surprisingly believable when it is already rooted in a small, cursed-blessed town where well-founded superstition run through its marrow. The whimsical nature of it all kept me turning the pages.

The characters are wholesome. I think if I’d read this book when I was thirteen, I’d want to be exactly like Hazel – a knight who fights monsters, falls in love, and get to experience a grim and enchanting fairy court. Or maybe Ben, who plays enchanted music, and longs for a prince to love him back. Or maybe, Severin or Jack. All the characters were fantastic! 

As a sibling myself, I highly enjoyed the close sibling relationship. It shows how far siblings are willing to go to protect each other, and the undeniable love and trust between siblings that is often hard to understand for only children. While we mostly experience Hazel and Ben in the now, we also get to learn about how they grew up together with neglectful parents, and how it shaped them and their relationship to each other and others. For this book to only be a little over 300 pages, we get a lot of content in all the good ways.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black is a slice of whimsical and creepy magic I’m happy I picked up, and wish I’d picked up sooner. I loved the knighthood tale of Hazel, and the love stories. I loved the relationships and all the characters. The fae court is terrifying, but stunning. The bargains unpredictable nature makes you want to keep reading. I throughoutly enjoyed this read.  

This is a book fitting the lower YA/Teen demographic. It has a somewhat childlike expression that should be expected if you're a older reader. 

Rating: 5\5 stars.

 

Information

Format: E-book     Pages: 336 Genre: Fantasy       Demographic: Teen      Year of Publishing: 2015  Series: Standalone. Unfolds in the same universe as The Folk of the Air and Modern Faerie Tales. 

Trigger warnings

Child neglect. Animal death. Homophobia (minor).