Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a new theme is suggested for bloggers to participate in.
That Artsy Reader Girl posted a handy definition for a book hangover:
1. The inability to start a new book because you are still living in the old book’s world
2. The inability to function at work/school because you were up all night binge-reading
That’s nice because I didn’t know the second one was called a book hangover, and it really expands my options. I mean, I’m generally pretty susceptible to books hangovers anyway, so this was never gonna be a challenging prompt, but options are nice.
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
Audiobook. Cause of hangover: exquisite narration + heart-wrenching and uplifting story. Symptoms: what the hell do I follow this up with. Seriously loved the narration, the story and the characters so much I was stumped for what to listen to after, so I went for a complete genre switch. Review coming soon.
Queens of the Wyrd by Timandra Whitecastle
Ebook. Cause of hangover: emotional portrayal of motherhood. Symptoms: made me miss my mom. QotW is a viking adventure with a band on retired shieldmadens getting together to save one of their daughters, it’s fun, intense, and pulls no punches on mum realness. My full review here
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
Audiobook. Cause of hangover: my deep love of the main character, Mehr. Symptoms: Hangover so hard it prevented me from reading its sequel (change of main character). Empire of Sand is a beautiful fantasy story inspired by Mughal India, with a slow burn romance. My full review here
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Audiobook. Cause of hangover: weirdly relateable MC. Symptoms: couldn’t take any risks, needed to go for a comfort read. Murderbot is a series of 4 novellas about an AI who instead of wanting to murder people just wants to binge watch TV. It keeps ending up having to protect people in a series of fun, dangerous adventures, while learning to navigate feelings. Looks like I forgot to post my review, welp, stay posted, coming soon.
The Bone Ships by RJ Barker
Audiobook. Cause of hangover: unputdownable beginning and excellent narration. Symptoms: writing the review triggered an accidental relisten. Maybe it’s a stretch to call it a hangover, but The Bone Ships aggressively grabbed and did not let me go to listen to what I wanted to. It’s a darkish naval fantasy with amazing narration and my favorite character was a loner magic bird. My full review here
The Hanged Man by KD Edwards
Audiobook. Cause of hangover: Full package of great characters, plot, world and narration. Symptoms: what the hell do I follow this up with. Had to go for a complete genre change again, but it didn’t really work as I spent half of december and january in a sort of semi-hangover state where I picked stuff up and put it down, and picked other stuff, and put it down, and so on. My full review here, which includes a sort of interpretative dance synopsis.
Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Ebook. Cause of hangover: kept up me reading well past bedtime. Symptoms: headache, sleepyness. zomfg this book is so cute i can’t. I stayed up nights going KISS! KISS ! KISS!
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko
Ebook. Cause of hangover: immersive trippy magic. Symptoms: dreamt myself in the book for all the nights I was reading it. Vita Nostra is not your ordinary magic school book, it’s harsh, often miserable, intensely confusing. I loved it, but dreaming myself as a student trying to make sense of it was weird and disturbing. My full review here
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Audiobook. Cause of hangover: sweet good MC. Symptoms: I’m tired of your morally grey shit, give me some good people. I was already on the path to preferring kind characters before GE, but it was the book that firmly cemented me there. I’ll still read dark/grey books, but when it comes to preference, there’s no contest, the good guys win. My full review here
As I typed out this list I realized that the easiest way to tell which books left me with a hangover is often looking at what I read after them. I have a sort of weird system where I mentally organize my TBR based on how much I think I’m gonna enjoy stuff, into categories that could be vaguely described as awesome, good and maybe. After a book hangover book I either go for a sequel that I know I’m gonna love, or most often a book I’m not really sure about, but never a book that I expect to fall in the middle.
Thanks for reading, I’d love to hear if any of these books gave you similar hangovers, or what books did!
I’ve heard great things about The Goblin Emperor.
My TTT .
It’s so good! Though, fair warning, it’s a slice of life story about a goblin trying to understand court politics without compromising his kind nature. A lot of people complain about the lack of action, but for me that’s a feature not a bug.
Some books strike a chord and you can’t stop listening to it. Glad you found these. https://pmprescott.blogspot.com/2020/02/ttt-021820.html
I didn’t realize the second definition was a thing either. That’s basically like every night for me. LOL
Haha yup. I’m blesses/cursed with a very conscientious partner that nags about going to sleep at a reasonable time, but sometimes stopping is just not an option.
I’ve heard such fantastic things about The Murderbot Diaries, and it’s been recommended several times. I can’t wait to pick it up. I really need to read The Hanged Man and Bone Ships soon, too. Gosh do they both sound terrific, and I can use more of that in my life, always.
Here’s my TTT post.
Yesss do it! Both The Hanged Man (well starting with The Last Sun) and Bone Ships are so amazing and fresh!
I am super intrigued by Vita Nostra. I love that it had such an impact on you that you dreamed your way into it at night.
It was so good, and so weird. Really unlike any magic school book I’ve ever read. The first quarter neither the reader nor the character understand anything, and then it just keeps getting weirder.
Oooh, all these are new to me! Thank you for sharing them. 🙂
My Top Ten Tuesday
I noticed some romance books on your blog, I really recommend you try out Red, White and Royal Blue, and Empire of Sand.