Top 5 Tuesday || “Unputdownable” Reads

Since I’m very much a “read it in one sitting” kind of person, maybe this topic isn’t the most narrow for me, BUT. I’m still going to stick to it and give you some of the best of the best. Shoutout, of course, to Shanah @ Bionic Bookworm Blog for putting T5T and its prompts together!

A Conjuring of Light by VE Schwab

It’s been just a couple months shy of a year since I read this book, and I am STILL haunted by how powerful it was. It’s easily one of the best conclusions to a series that I’ve ever read, playing the stakes ever higher at a pace that feels right, and I don’t think my heart has recovered from all the stabbings, physical and emotional, along the way. I don’t think I put it down while reading it except to cry or grab a really quick snack, so it’s essentially, in every way that counts, unputdownable.

 

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Sadie was absolutely riveting, and I think I’d like to go back and read it again soon, though I’d certainly have to brace myself. It’s so grim and raw and heartfelt, but so very dark too in its subject matter. This is not a happy book with a happy ending and a happy cast. This book hurts, and because it’s so short, it has to be sharp, sharp in a way that sticks with you. It’s extra unputdownable because of that, I think.

 

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

I absolutely devoured Girls of Paper and Fire when I read it because it was so beautiful and easy to picture, and here was a story about queer girls falling in love and finding strength in each other, and it held my heart in a way I wasn’t prepared for but wanted so, so badly. I can’t want to get my hands on the sequel, because this was a book I needed in many ways.

 

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

A caveat for The Screaming Staircase: I actually did put it down, but that’s because I started it in the evening, and I know myself well enough not to read ghost stories before I go to bed! I’m ambivalent to the concept of ghosts existing, but it certainly becomes easier to believe in the middle of the night when you wake up and spot a black shape hovering across the room (spoiler: it was a black dress I hung up on the end of my clothes rack, so that was totally my fault).

THAT SAID, this book is amazing and eerie and made me fall in love with the series so completely. If I’d read it during the day, I wouldn’t have set it aside for anything. Except maybe an actual ghost?

 

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Part of the reason Howl’s Moving Castle is unputdownable for me is because I love the movie with my whole heart. It’s one of the first Ghibli movies I ever remember watching, and it’s stuck with me for years and years because of that. Hell, I can recognize the flower fields from that movie on sight, even without a character in them, because that’s how much I love it.

The other reason, though, is that this is just a damn good book with oddball characters, including Sophie Hatter taking no shit from anyone, not even the biggest drama queen ever (yes, that’s Howl), or the resident fire demon, our beloved bacon-burning Calcifer. It’s a whimsical, wonderful ride worth every minute it takes to make your way through the pages!

 

And that’s it! Kind of. I actually have other unputdownables in mind, but I’ll keep to the rules and only share these top five. You should tell me about your favorite unputdownable books, though! That absolutely definitely certainly should happen, don’t you think?