I've decided to do the A to Z Blogger Challenge this year and I'm recommending five books all from the same alphabetical genre each day. It's the last day of the month and I've made it to Z. But what genre starts with Z? None that I can think of. So I'm bending the rules a little bit. Today, Z stands for Zoink. Zoink doesn't actually mean anything, and that is the definition I'm going with. Today I'm recommending five wonderful books that are all similar and also all impossible to define. I'm talking about crazy genre bending stories that read kind of like contemporary YA, except that something in the is just a little bit off. The Zoink factor. So for my final five recommendations of the month, here are the books that made me go zoink.
Fracture by Megan Miranda - This book is about a girl who falls through the ice in a nearly frozen lake in Maine and manages to survive her eleven minutes in the frozen water. But when she wakes up from her coma she discovers that in escaping death, she also gained a new ability. She can now sense when the people around her are about to die. What she's going to do with this new power is the question.
Forgotten by Cat Patrick - London's memory is backwards. Every night when she falls asleep she forgets everything that happened to her that day. She has absolutely no memory of the past and is forced to write herself detailed notes to keep track of what her life has been. But London does remember something. She has a clear memory of all the events in her future. Some of her memories change and peoples choices force new futures. But what does it all mean when she meets a boy she doesn't remember? She sees him every day, she maybe even loves him. But he's nowhere in her future. Could it be that his story lies somewhere deep in her forgotten past?
If I Stay by Gayle Forman - Mia is in a car accident with her parents. They both die on impact and she is tossed into a coma. Except that her mind does seem to want to stay in her body. As her body lies in the ICU, her mind floats around the hospital, observing the lives of her friends who come to mourn her parents death and hope for her recovery. But the choice is up to Mia. Does she want to stay? Does she want to wake up from her coma and live the rest of her life as an orphan? Or does she just want to fall asleep and rejoin her family?
As I Wake by Elizabeth Scott - In this confusing tale of unknown identity, Ava wakes up without any memory of where she is or who she is. But what appears to be a contemporary tale about a girl with amnesia becomes a lot more complicated when Ava's memories begin to return, and they are from a parallel universe.
Wake by Lisa McMann - When Janie falls asleep, she doesn't dream like most people. Instead, she finds herself caught inside the dreams of the people around her. This ability can be traumatising as she learns the subconscious secrets of the people closest to her. But could this curse actually be a gift. That is what Janie asks as she tries to catch a killer by sneaking into his dreams at night and learning all of his deepest darkest secrets.What about you? What's your favorite genre defying book?
