Monique
Our Science Fiction and Fantasy expert. Also likes Manga and Romance novels.
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Get to know more about Monique and her taste in books below:
More about me
1. A book you didn't think you were going to like as much as you did?
Upgrade by Blake Crouch
2. A favourite book of 2022:
Book Of Night by Holly Black
3. Your favourite book of all time:
Avery by Charlotte McConaghy
4. A book that changed your life:
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Huang
5. A book that ruined you:
Empire Of Storms by Sarah J Maas; I have never recovered from the ending!
6. A book with the best first line:
To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo:
"I have a heart for every year I've been alive. There are seventeen hidden in the sand of my bedroom."
The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller:
"They've never found the body of the first and only boy who broke my heart. And they never will."
Reading goals?
​To complete the following reading challenge:
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A debut novel
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A book you meant to read in 2022
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A book about a forbidden romance
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A book with a colour in the title
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A book published in the year you were born
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A book with dual time periods
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Finish a series you started years ago
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The shortest book on your TBR
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The longest book on your TBR
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A book by an author with the same first name as you
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A book with a 2023 release date
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A book by an author you love
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A book with a historical setting
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Reread a favourite book
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A modern retelling of a classic
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A book made into a TV series or movie
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A #booktok book
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A book recommended to you
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A book that features two languages
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A book whose title starts with the letter ‘G’
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A book whose title starts with the letter ‘H’
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A book whose title starts with the letter ‘I’
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A book with a city or country in the title
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A dystopian novel
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A book about secrets
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A high fantasy or space opera
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A book set in your local area or by a local author
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A book set during a war
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A classic
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A book about books
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A book about time travel
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The final book in a series
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An enemies to lovers plot
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A book that has been translated into English
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A book that has been banned or challenged
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A book set in a place you would love to travel to
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A book from a genre you don’t normally read
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A book set in the future
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A book with two or more authors
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A book that starts with the first letter of your first name
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A book recommended by a stranger
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A book with a blue cover
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A book set in the woods
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A book with illustrations
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A book based on mythology
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A book with a dragon on the cover
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A book with a number in the title
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A graphic novel
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A Book Club book
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A book with an ugly cover
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A book you haven’t seen recommended or know anything about
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A book you started but never finished
Currently Reading:
The Book Of M
By Peng Shepherd
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Brad Thor's Summer 2018 Fiction Pick for THE TODAY SHOW!
"Eerie, dark, and compelling, [The Book of M] will not disappoint lovers of The Passage (2010) and Station Eleven (2014)." --Booklist
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WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE UP TO REMEMBER?
Set in a dangerous near future world, The Book of M tells the captivating story of a group of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary catastrophe who risk everything to save the ones they love. It is a sweeping debut that illuminates the power that memories have not only on the heart, but on the world itself.
One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears—an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.
Ory and his wife Max have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day Max’s shadow disappears too.
Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he follows her trail across a perilous, unrecognizable world, braving the threat of roaming bandits, the call to a new war being waged on the ruins of the capital, and the rise of a sinister cult that worships the shadowless.
As they journey, each searches for answers: for Ory, about love, about survival, about hope; and for Max, about a new force growing in the south that may hold the cure.
Like The Passage and Station Eleven, this haunting, thought-provoking, and beautiful novel explores fundamental questions of memory, connection, and what it means to be human in a world turned upside down.
Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief
By Rick Riordan
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The first bestselling book in Rick Riordan's phenomenally successful Percy Jackson series.
Half boy. Half God. All Hero.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God.
I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. Now I spend my time battling monsters and generally trying to stay alive.
This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I've stolen his lightning bolt - and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM PERCY JACKSON:
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Monsters
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Greek Gods
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Laughs (and terrified screams)
Rick Riordan has now sold an incredible 60 million copies of his books worldwide.
'This is the stuff of legends' - The Guardian
Wrath Becomes Her
By Aden Polydoros
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Vera was made for vengeance.
Lithuania, 1943. The Nazis have killed Ezra’s daughter. He can’t bring Chaya back from the dead, but he can craft something in her image — a golem, infused with pointed rage, to avenge Chaya’s death. A Nazi killer made with kishuf, an ancient and profane magic.
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When Vera awakens, she can feel her violent purpose — her reason for existing — thrumming within her. But she can feel other things, too: glimpses of a human life lived, of stolen kisses amidst the tragedy, and of a grisly death. And when she meets Akiva, she recognises the boy with soft lips that gave warm kisses. But these memories aren’t hers, and Vera doesn’t know if she gets to have a life beyond what she was made for. If she deserves one.
Vera’s strength feels limitless — until she learns that there are others who would use kishuf for means far less noble than avenging a daughter’s death. As she confronts the very basest of humanity, Vera will need more than what her creator gave her: not just a reason to fight, but a reason to live.
