Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is: Top Ten Underrated Authors or Books in X genre.” Most of the books I read seem to be series, so I went with it. They also seem to be dystopian (I default to it when I am unsure what to read!) so I also went with that. Some of them may not be textbook dystopian, but they’ll do. These aren’t in any order. Except the order that they popped into my head.
*Just a fun note: Look out for these books, which will be featured in a big old Blogoversary Giveaway, less than a month from now!!
1. Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness Okay, sure, people love this trilogy. But not enough people love this series. It is a little hard to get into, but once you do… mind blowing, I promise!
2. Unwind by Neal Shusterman Again, people do love it, but I have found a lot of people who haven’t heard of it. So creepy, so amazing. Undivided (the fourth and final in this dystology) will be out soon, but not soon enough.
3. Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts Le sigh, because the third book in this series doesn’t exist. Apparently, it will. Someday. I need that day to be within my lifetime though, okay? These is also really weird and creepy, but I liked it!
4. The Woodlands by Lauren Nicolle Taylor If you are me, your ride with The Woodlands has ended. But, you’re also super satisfied with the ending, so it is all good. You may or may not still crave more Rosa though. The fourth and final book should be out on Halloween 🙂
5. Apocalypsis by Elle Casey I wasn’t sure I wanted to read this series at first. The adults are dead, which I am always wary of. Also, the first book’s title is “Kahayatle”, and I don’t know how to pronounce or spell that. But it’s good. So good. The books get even better as the series goes on (four books total) and I just.. I loved.
6. Ashfall by Mike Mullin File this one under “realistically creepy”. This could happen. This will happen, though I hope not anytime soon. The fact that this series seems 100% plausible is the part that will keep you up at night. The only thing that will help you sleep is hope that Darla is real.
7. Eden’s Root by Rachel Fisher Another I almost passed up on. Because the cover is super cheesy, no? This is another realistic one, with crop deaths, and lots of strange cancers and disease. There is an awesome family dynamic, and it is just all around great.
8. Sovereign by E.R. Arroyo Another duology that I was sad to see end. The first book was really good, but the second book is where I fell in love and fell apart. The characters became so, so amazingly real, and I cried for days (seriously, I cried in the car days later just thinking about it!) after I finished.
9. Park Service by Ryan Winfield I really really almost didn’t read this one. Because “Park Service”? Was I reading about Yogi Bear? Pass. But wow, this trilogy was strange. Strange in a good way. And I wasn’t sure if I hated the ending, or loved it. I still haven’t rated the last book because… how?
10. The Country Saga and The Dwellers by David Estes These books were so, so good. You’d think that with so many different worlds to build and characters to introduce, some would get lost in the mix. Nope. I could clearly picture every word, and I never even had to check to reference a character! They were so incredibly unique, and the story so great, I devoured these, right up until the epic seventh book, the series-combining finale.
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I have the first three books in the Unwind trilogy but I’m yet to read them. I really can’t wait to start them though. I only knew about it from Top Ten lists so I think it is underrated!
Totally underrated! I was actually talking to some people in a dystopian GROUP who have never read it! I need to reread (or at least skim!) before the last book!
Totally agree with Unwind being on the list … I don’t understand why more people haven’t read that.
Right? It is one of those must-reads in my opinion!
I need the 3rd Dark Inside book! It was actually one of the first dystopians I read(after Hunger Games of course) and I was depressed/angry/sad when I heard the third wasn’t coming out(yet)! I read and loved Unwind and I own the second, but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet… mainly because I thought it was a stand alone and was…content with the end of Unwind and then I heard there were going to be more. It was like I had already gotten used to the fact that it was over and haven’t felt like jumping back into that world yet. =)
Me too! It was one of the first ones I’d stumbled across when looking after I finished Divergent and Delirium! She NEEDS to write the third!
And I get what you mean, that world is… insane!
I think they are definitely underrated . . . because I haven’t actually heard much about them, or even read any of their stuff LOL. Oops. I’M SORRY, DON’T HURT ME 😛
Hahah that is the point! I figured they’re underrated because no one heard of them, no? So now, people will 😉
I haven’t even heard of most of these. o.O MY BAD. But yessss I want to read The Chaos Walking trilogy so so bad. I’ve read two Patrick Ness books and it’s just made me more desperate to read more. HE’S AN AMAZING WRITER. I think Unwind is seriously underrated too. Although I’ve only read book #1, but that’s just because I read it so long ago, if I’m going to read the rest, I need to reread book #1 and urghhhh. I don’t have time. *sigh* I’m looking up The Woodlands now. 😉
Yes, I need ALL the Patrick Ness. He is a genius. I am reading More Than This right now, and I am only like 25% in and I’m like “what the actual hell is this!?”. But I love it! I hear you about not having time. I barely remember book three, but I NEED book 4. I mean.. how?
I keep getting the Knife of Never Letting Go recommended. I probably should give in and read it, and then I’ll have another series to obsess about 😉
My My TTT
It’s so true! And then there are some (free!) novellas too, so when you wish there was more… there is!
I have Unwind on the shelves and I’m very curious about The knife of never letting to. My Twitter feed is often filled with love for Patrick Ness. I’ve read More than this and I liked his writing-style. Dark inside is on my wish list and Ashfall sounds good too.
TTT – Mel@thedailyprophecy
Unwind is so freaking weird and creepy and amazing. Neal Shusterman just like.. draws you in with the creep factor. And Patrick Ness… simply a genius! He has such a way with words.
I’ve heard good things about The Dwellers. I’ll have to check that out.
I tried the Knife of Never Letting Go and I just couldn’t get into it. I think it’s partly because I just was not expecting the writing style and such. I need to try it again for sure.
My TTT
Oh, I totally agree with the writing. I almost gave up on it! But it really becomes secondary after you get into it 🙂
I’ve read The Knife of Never Letting Go and it’s my top dystopian series besides Hunger Games. The ending of that trilogy- killed me! I’ve also read Ashfall. None of the others though!
It’s one of my favorites too! I feel like I need to re-read, though it’s long. Maybe in spurts 🙂
So, you just added a whole load of books to my TBR! I don’t know whether to thank you or hate you! 😛
In all seriousness, these are awesome choices. I love the sound of Sovereign and Ashfall. I totally agree that Eden’s Root has a totally cheesy cover that very nearly put me off, but as your other choices sound really good, I thought I would trust you and try it out! Really excited to get reading now! Great list!
The cover was SO cheesy! I’d gotten the book on one of those 99 cent Kindle deals, but was SO wary. But the book is way better than the cover suggests 😉
And hate away. I feel the same way when I add a bunch of TBR books- it’s such a double edged sword! Yay for books but… time!
Ashfall made my list too! Such a fantastic book! I definitely added some to my to-read list after reading this. Thanks for all the suggestions!
Here are my Top Ten!
You are quite welcome, I am glad that some of them looked interesting to you 🙂
I need to read the Chaos Walking trilogy! The books are quite thick so I definitely need to prepare myself haha 🙂
Eileen @ BookCatPin
YES! Prepare yourself. I had NO idea going into it. I bought the trilogy on my Kindle- not even like, each book for Kindle, but the whole trilogy as one purchase. It took me like, 30 pages to get to 1%. I was not amused. 🙂
The Knife of Never Letting Go is one of my favorite books. Dark Inside was good too. The Woodlands llooks very interesting.
My TTT
The Woodlands is really good! I definitely loved it! Glad you loved The Knife of Never Letting Go too 🙂
So many of these books have been recommended to me I will have to check them out. Especially the Moon Dweller and The Knife of Never Letting Go.
Definitely do, I hope you enjoy them 🙂
I read and really liked Fire Country, but I just could not get into the second one, so I gave up on the series :/ But I definitely agree that at least the first one is very underrated! I’m really surprised it’s not more popular considering how well written it is.
I will say, the others weren’t quite as strong as Fire Country, but I did still enjoy them. And reading more about them in subsequent books helped too! I agree, I thought they’d become really popular, especially since David has such a popular Goodreads group!
Ah poop I don’t know any of these books except for Patrick Ness’, even though I’ve never read it. Thanks for bringing them to my attention though! I’m not that big of a fan of dystopian, but I’ll check them all out anyways
Ah, dystopian is like, an addiction for me. Some of these are less dystopian than others- some (like Unwind) have quite a bit of Sci-Fi in them too!
I loved Unwind! It’s definitely one of my favorite dystopias.
Mine too 🙂 So excited for Undivided!
I seriously can’t believe I haven’t read any of David Estes’ books yet! I love his fan group, and I have a few of them. SO WHY HAVEN’T I READ THEM? Man, I feel like a failure. I definitely want to read his new series, Brew and Boil. I can’t wait for them! I’m so glad you chose dystopian! I haven’t read one in awhile, probably because I’ve burned out on them. I must check some of these out. 🙂
Read them! I love his fan group too! But seriously do it- there are sales all the time too, so you could probably grab the first books for 99 cents!