If you’re here, reading this post, and not in some crazy fantasy world, where witches roam and great battles are fought, then you must be facing the most inconvenient thing for a bookworm. A reading slump.
When I have small gaps like that, I prefer to hunt down standalone YA fantasy books to put me back on track. They do not seem like a big commitment and tend to lure you in, making you feel like you’ve just been through a lifetime.
So here are my favorite picks
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Madelene Miller is the goddess, blessed with Athena’s wisdom. Reading her book is always a roller coaster. Yes, it’s Greek Mythology and yes, we all learned about them in school, but she always sees more, peels the myths naked, and brings out raw human stories. It is almost always heart-wrenchingly sad, but so worth it.
Song of Achilles is a story about a famous Greek hero, told by his closest companion, friend, and lover, Patroclus. The first half of the book is light, pleasant, and filled with childhood innocence. We see Patroclus meeting Achilles, and their relationship slowly morphs into trust and then friendship. They are so devoted to each other that it is intoxicating.
Unfortunately, this easy pace is calm before a storm. The storm comes in a form of war, baiting heroes to prove themselves.
The story, which is supposed to be a phrase of a hero, becomes a tragedy. The glorious victory of Greeks in Troy was overshadowed by grief and loss.
Song of Achilles shows greed consuming a kind and gentle boy, an army and then a nation, spreading like a disease to the gods themselves.
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
What is love? Is love selfish or are we selfish in our love? Who are we and do we really know ourselves? Will we ever know our true selves, will we be lucky enough, or will we be hiding behind the veils our whole lives, becoming what other people choose to see behind it when looking in the mirror, will we only see what we want to see and ignore the truth behind it? Will we ever have Faces?
Honestly, when l started reading this book, based on one of my favorite myths, Cupid and Psyche, and from the author of my favorite childhood books, C.S. Lewis, l was expecting something light, a retelling filled with the same magic as one very famous wardrobe. But I got so much more.
Most beloved by the author himself, the book is inspired by the myth of Cupid and Psyche, but told by her villainous sister, as the myth portrays her, who feels wronged by the gods and offers her side of the story.
The book is divided into two halves. The first half is the sister’s testimony, her truth, the way she sees it. While the second one is much smaller and after reading the first one, you won’t even expect it to be there. But it is there, where the true beauty of this book is hiding. While in her truth Orual’s case is justified, she soon finds out that in her Case many other people were involved, and they also have their truths.
I also loved how love was portrayed. Not romantic love, there is very little of it in this book, but platonic, beautiful, selfish, and devouring. Love that makes you do incredible things, but also the things that we do for love may very well be the poison for those we love.
There are many theological topics throw-out the book, providing more brain teasers and puzzles for you to unlock.
Till We Have Faces is not exactly YA but I feel like this is the best time to read this book. The author of Narnia has touched and reshaped my childhood, filling it with magic and wonder. It was only fair that he changed my perspective on life in my adolescent years.
Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.E. Schwab
Enough about greeks. Let’s venture a little up north, where amazing French people reside. Let me introduce you to one of my favorite heroines, the true kick-ass, la famme fatale, who won’t tolerate bullshit from any man, even from the Devil himself.
Life of the heroine, Addie La Rue, is very long. This standalone book is split into two timelines, the past, and the present. The past takes place 300 years ago in a small village in the county of France and is slowly trying to catch up with the current events.
Addie is a free spirit. She wants to live and get everything from the life she was given. But it didn’t give her a good hand. Her parents want her to get married, but for a free spirit like Addie, it equals a life lived in shackles. Desperate times demand desperate measures, so Addie finds one in making a deal with the devil.
She gets absolute freedom, free from attachments, age, and death itself. She is immortal, but everyone she meets ends up forgetting her.
“If no one in the entire world cared about you, did you really exist at all”
Cassandra Clare
Addie spends 3oo years dancing with the devil, playing his scheme, falling in love, and getting her heart broken simply because they don’t remember her. The only trace she can leave is in art because inspiration is stronger than any memory.
But this trail of inspiration is bound to get uncovered when Addie meets a strange boy who can remember her.
This book was an adventure through time. You get to live 300 years and it is so real. The pain Addie goes through, the feeling of loneliness. You can feel the weight lifting from Addie’s heart, when after so long she finally finds a friend and a lover. A place where she belongs, where she is remembered.
This is a wonderful journey through war and despair, love and hate, this book has it all. Let Addie leave her wonderful mark on you. I know that I will carry it with me in my little eternity.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Speaking of rivalry that lasts for centuries, here is one more story which will take you back in time and kidnap you into a marvelous world of magic, love, madness, illusions, and well basically, the Circus.
Rivalry between the two sorcerers has been going on for ages. To finally determine the winner, they will make a new game, where players are their two apprentice magicians, Celia and Marco.
Battleground is a Circus and the winner will be the one, who will create the most astonishing spectacle of all. It is truly an undertaking, for the Circus itself is a worthy opponent with wonders of its own, the famous traveling Night Circus.
“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields.”
In all this magic and madness two rivals manage to fall in love despite all odds. Their forbidden love for each other inspires their magic, creating spectacles so beautiful that even after years of reading this book, I still see them clear as day in my mind.
The Circus has other interesting characters and their stories are told in a scattered manner, as is common for the author, Erin Morgenstern. But in the end, everything comes together in a beautiful symphony.
The Night Circus is a standalone YA fantasy book that is nothing like what you have ever read and a MUST for fantasy lovers.
Gallant by V.E. Schwab
To be honest, when I finished it, I was like.. IS THAT IT? Then I saw the author’s interview, saying that she wrote the ending first and that’s when I started digging deeper.
The standalone fantasy book is about a lonely girl, looking for a family. She lives in the orphanage, when a letter from a long-lost uncle guides her to the mansion, her family house, Gallant.
The book is about the constant war we face in life, fighting against the dark because it is the promise of the day that makes the night less scary. Some people break under the pressure. Some let their darkest demons out. Some choose to live in the shadow of life, in the pale illusion of it. But those who continue to fight, are the ones who get to see life in its brightest colors. It is like digging the weeds in a garden. They are always there, never-ending, but if you stop, they will overcome your garden. If you keep digging them out, beautiful flowers will bloom.
The book has this dark aura of Wuthering Heights but it is so much kinder. Beautiful illustrations and small snippets tell a different story within a story of the long-gone parents of the main character, their love, and their sad ending.
The book is simple. black and white, life and death, good and evil. But at the same time, there is much love and courage in characters who are not superheroes, but two elderly, loyal people, a sad and tired boy, and a very lonely, but a very brave girl.
I loved every second of this book. It was filled with mystery and puzzles. It kept me on my toes until the very last word and I would strongly recommend everyone to read it, especially on a rainy day.
In conclusion…
Sometimes you might have a reading slump. Sometimes, especially when we start to grow up and gather more responsibilities along the way, there is not much time to lose yourself in many voluminous fantasy novels. There are also times when you just don’t feel like reading and grieve your undying love for books, fearing that it will never come back.
Whatever causes your slump, trust me, dear reader, these 5 books will make you fall back in love with fantasy, wonder, friendship, and the magic that is reading a book, shapeshifting into different characters and traveling into different worlds.
Please share your thoughts and join us on many other journeys in the Library of Eleanor Rigby
