Most of my favorite authors have passed away, some of them very recently.
Lois Duncan was one of my all-time favorites. I had just begun following her on social media, and she had found a bunch of overstock books of hers that she was signing and giving away. She just asked people to pay shipping, and people were scamming her by not paying the shipping once they had their books. (She was elderly and not good with technology, so she couldn't keep track of who was doing what.) I missed out on that, then very soon after that her husband reported that she had fallen in their kitchen and died. I was so sad.
Anyway, she wrote supernatural young adult fiction (and some non-fiction, including a book about her own daughter's actual murder). My favorites were "Summer of Fear," about a witch who is trying to steal a girl's life, and "Locked in Time," about an immortal black widow and her teenage children, who cannot age but keep returning to their old home every century or so relying on another man for his money. "Don't Look Behind You" is another good one, about a girl in the witness protection program whose family is being tracked down by murderous criminals. Really, all her books are amazing, but those three were the standouts for me.
Tanith Lee was a very unique British fantasy and science fiction author. She has a lot of genderbending in her work that you might find interesting, @nyreen. "Biting the Sun" is a sci fi world where people are just their consciousness, and they can have any body they want. Society is controlled by machines with A.I. who only exist to make mankind happy. Everything is free, everyone is immortal, everyone can look exactly what they want to look like. The main character is never happy, though, whether she's a woman or a man. She is predominantly female but repeatedly kills herself to get new bodies and switches back and forth from woman to man. It's not illegal to do that, but she is really pushing the boundaries by behaving so erratically all the time, and the A.I. finally banishes her. She is given one last body choice and then forced out, where she will have to work the land to sustain herself and will now age and die. It's got a love story and so, so much more. It's a tear-jerker.
My favorite book of Tanith Lee's is "The Silver Metal Lover," about a girl who falls in love with a robot. The robot actually has feelings and a soul, which is not supposed to happen, so they have to go on the run together. At the end they're outed by the one person you'd least suspect. That book makes me cry hard. The sequel is complete garbage. Fans hated it so much, she was writing a "fix-it" third book, but she died before it came to fruition. My soul is crushed.
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@Eldweena: These sound like awesome books! That's for the recs, I'll have to check these out, especially the Tanith Lee books. currently: new novel who dis?
q u e s t i n g :
beanie doll! thank u cookie
@nyreen She also wrote a series called The Secret Books of Paradys, which are collections of short stories that take place in the made-up world of Paradys. I wasn't as crazy about those, but the first story is about a guy who falls in love with a gender-changing vampire. Tanith Lee is very subtle in the way she handles the topic; she doesn't write it like, "Suddenly the woman I loved was...a man?!" It's more like, suddenly she's using different pronouns for the character and the person has just shifted to another gender without any explanation or dramatic reaction. Her writing really can't be compared to anything. Very underrated.
There was this book that I read a really, really long time ago called The Serpent Tide that I genuinely don't remember anything about but it was my favorite for a while. The entire Junie B. Jones series is definitely worth reading, I spent years of my childhood reading those books. I also remember really liking Dear Dumb Diary (I guess there was a movie but I never saw it) and Just Grace. I read The Giver in middle school and it kind of changed my life. More recently I read The Color Purple and it was really good. Man, I used to read a lot when I was a kid but I haven't picked up a book in a while. I guess I just don't have the time these days.
Oof I haven't really read anything in a long time. I need to get back into that.
My favorite book series is The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, and I'm very fond of Cirque du Freak.
A theme there? I just like vampires I guess lmao
But I also incredibly love the Maximum Ride series! That's actually where my username/nickname came from long ago!
My favorite book series is The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, and I'm very fond of Cirque du Freak.
A theme there? I just like vampires I guess lmao
But I also incredibly love the Maximum Ride series! That's actually where my username/nickname came from long ago!
@ me to get my attention or I probably won't respond
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Having you as a Voltie would be awesome.