Booktube Prize Quarterfinals

Hooray for the Booktube Prize Quarterfinals!

Robert over at Barter Hordes is one of the most well-read and inclusive readers on Booktube and has created this book competition just for us in Booktubelandia – The Booktube Prize. Read more about it here.

I am a judge for the quarterfinals, ranking the chosen six books in the order in which I like them. Rating these books, though, was VERY. DIFFICULT. Numbers one through four could easily be my top pick. Sigh. The struggle.

Here’s how I voted.

6. The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogene Hermes Gowar

I tried. This one just didn’t get me and I didn’t get it. Maybe it’s because it’s historical fiction, a genre with which I have a hard time engaging.

5. Circe by Madeline Miller

This mythological saga through the ages is very good, of course. It spanned too much time and too many characters that at times it almost read like a mythological best-of montage. Still quite nice.

4. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

This book broke my heart, both because of the effective story of kids who rush toward or hide from their fates, and also because I think it deserves a higher rating. It’s serious business at this point, folks. These books are all so good that any one of them could easily take it all.

3. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

What a lovely book this is. A Place for Us shows one family at nonlinear points in time. All of the misunderstandings, disagreements, prejudices, and personality clashes lead to broken relationships.

2. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Fruit of the Drunken Tree took a moment to grab me. The stories of Chula and her sister and their love for crying dramatically didn’t quite take hold. It was the aftermath of surviving Ramon that started to get me.

1. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne

I just love this story of a devious, deplorable human being. Don’t read too many descriptions first. Just dive in and enjoy the shock.