Top 5 Wednesday: Genre Benders

 

This week’s topic is “Genre Benders: Books that defy genre or are hard to place in a certain category.”

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A school/home for disabled students is a world unto itself with tribes, folk lore, fights, loves and much, much more. Part fiction, part fantasy.  You can read more in my review here. The Gray House by Miriam Petrosyan, currently $3.99 for Kindle.

 

Sarah Addison Allen is an author who knows how to mix up here genres! Part chick lit, part fantasy, part just plain wonderful. I love all of her books, but this is one of my favorites.    The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen, currently $5.99 for Kindle.  Here’s my review from my old blog:  Each [of the author’s books] has a touch of “whimsy”–not really “magic,” not quiet “fantasy,” just some fun little “other worldly” touch. The Sugar Queen lives up to that tradition magnificently! A lady really living in a closet (not metaphorically), a domineering mother, a cute mailman–what’s not to love! If I write more it will spoil the fun!

 

Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the Snow Child is a wonderful blend of regular fiction, folk lore and fantasy. I loved it! You can read more in my review here.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

 

What if the Underground Railroad was a real train on a real track? Colson Whitehead uses this idea to show us all the solutions to slavery–each in a different state. (You can read more in my review here). This is a book for the ages.  A way more more interesting and compelling book than the other big Civil War era book winning awards this year–Lincoln in the Bardo (another Genre-Bender, you can read my review here).                                                                  The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

 

Chronicles of Narnia author, C.S. Lewis wrote a masterful book that blends fantasy, religion, and epistolary tales into one compelling story.  Through a series of letters,  Screwtape, a Senior member of the Devil’s staff, instructs his nephew, Wormwood, in the art of deceiving and distracting believers so that they take their eyes off God. Though published in the 1940’s, this book is possibly even more relevant today than at the time of its publication. This is not, in any way, a heavy-handed treatise on why you must believe or anything like that. It is an amazing story of human nature.                                                                                                The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

If you prefer, a superb audio version here.

 

 

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