Top 5 books where something went wrong

Happy Tuesday bookworms!! Welcome to this week’s Top 5 Tuesday: books where something went wrong!!

Top 5 Tuesday is back!! If you missed the August topics post, please click here, to check what topics we have for the remainder of this month!! Also, if you’re mildly confused as to why it’s being hosted here instead of at Bionic Book Worm, please click this link.

So… 2020 has been a year. I feel like I might have jinxed Australia even further with this topic because as of Sunday night, Melbourne went into Stage 4 restrictions. This is basically “don’t leave your house unless you’re wearing a mask, and also, you can’t go more than a 5km radius from your house.” Because I left Melbourne just over a year ago, I’ve been making little care packages for my friends who are stuck at home. I’m hoping to get to the post office this afternoon to send them. (But also, it’s not like they’re going anywhere if I can’t get to the post office this week… ? ?)

Where was I?? Oh yes… books where things went wrong!! This is my smol nod to the world-wide disasters (yes, plural), but also if you want to do this in a less stressful and hectic way, that is an option!! Things also go wrong in romances and soft, gentle books… otherwise there probably wouldn’t be a story!! It would just be person a meets person b, they fall in love (or in friendship), the end. Actually, that sounds pretty nice right about now. Where are these books?!!

OH! If we can keep the spoilers to a minimum that would also be good!! (Thanks!!)

Top 5 books where something went wrong

Gemina – Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Bless these disaster children. Things in this book started going wrong from about page 2 and then just kept getting worse. Now, while this book is undoubtedly my favourite of the trilogy, it is also the only book that I have ever thrown while reading it. TWICE.

Yes, I threw this book twice because Amie and Jay are very mean. (Seriously, Amie is just as mean as Jay – please don’t think this is all on him. He’s probably the nicer one of the two.) And my copy of this book is signed AND personalised.

I mean, let’s be completely honest, this entire series is basically a shit-show from start to finish and I’m still not 100% how anyone made it out alive… But gosh it was a fun ride!!

Empire of Storms – Sarah J. Maas

So… I started reading this series just as book 5 (this one) was coming out, because I had been advised (from a very unreliable source, clearly) that this was the last book. And then I read that ending. And I was NOT a happy camper.

And then Maas announced that the last book (book 6 at the time) would be delayed by a year because she wanted to release the Chaol “novella” (HAHAHAHAHAHA). It was about then that I think I lost my absolute sh!t.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love Tower of Dawn, and I am very happy that it exists. But as someone who very rarely starts a series until all the books are either out, or very close to being out, I was quite upset. Mostly because that ending STILL kills me.

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue – Mackenzi Lee

AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Remember that time Monty got drunk, seduced someone he shouldn’t have, got caught, and then stole a trinket to commemorate the occasion? Yeah, he doesn’t either. Which is pretty much the entire premise of this book.

Of course, this then leads to all kinds of events, such as being chased across Europe, robbed, kidnapped, shot at… it’s a wonder that Percy didn’t just strangle him before the end. (I would have.)

However, Monty has that annoyingly charming personality where he pretty much gets away with anything… so there is that at least to try and minimise the damage he causes!!

American Royals – Katharine McGee

Oh… where to start with all the things that went wrong in this delightfully dramatic AU contemporary fiction.

I guess firstly, we should probably address the part where everyone is falling in love with people that they definitely SHOULD NOT be doing that with. Probably followed closely by the conversations with people that they SHOULD be having, but aren’t. And then shall we round all of this out nicely with the whole even when conversations are taking place, NO ONE is actually listening to what is being said?

Why yes, this does sound like a drama-filled, yet highly entertaining, evening!! Seriously, this book is one of the best train-wrecks I’ve read in so long!!

Doughnut – Tom Holt

This wonderful book is the start of a HIGHLY underrated sci-fi series called YouSpace. When I say ‘sci-fi’ I mean this in the broadest sense of the term, because I guess you could also call it urban fantasy, alternate universe, and/or satire.

You see, our MC is a scientist, who while conducting some experiments at work, accidentally blows up a mountain. Which really, is just the start of all the things that went very wrong. Because, weirdly, no one wants to employ (or be married to) a scientist who blows up a mountain, accidentally or not.

But then things start to look up (in a strange way) for poor Theo. And then (less strangely) they get very, very bad… again.

So! I hope you all enjoyed this first topic for Top 5 Tuesday, and I am looking forward to seeing all of your books!! Please don’t forget to link to one of my posts (not my home page), and I will link back to all of your posts within 36 hours!! (Because I know it’s Tuesday morning here, but it’s probably still Monday lunchtime elsewhere…)

PARTICIPANTS

The Punk Theory
A Fictional Bookworm
Evelyn Reads
Hail and Well Read
Beware of the Reader
Happily Bookish

What are some of your favourite books where things went wrong?