Freaks of Nature (59 & 89)

First, Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or Happy Chanukah, or Happy Whatever-You'd-Like-To-Celebrate!

Now, onto the books. I wasn't sure that these two fit in the same category, but I had nothing else to pair them up with. The more I thought about it, though, the more it made sense to me. Both have elements of sci-fi/fantasy and a character or two with serious mental issues. And both have GORGEOUS covers.

So beautiful I want to post them multiple times.

Bleeding Violet

I have read some strange books in my life, but this is the most beautiful insane creation I've ever read. And may just be the best book I read all year. I don't even know what genre it fits under. Fantasy? Contemporary? Sci-Fi? Paranormal (romance) is the only title that could encompass all of those.

Hanna is half-Finnish and half-small-town-Texan, which already gives her several cool points. She's also biracial and mentally unstable and obsessed with the color purple after her father's death. And determined to make her Momma love her and fit in after moving to her mother's very, very strange hometown. This place is just dripping with unquiet spirits, monsters under the bed (and in the windows and in the hedges and parks), etc. Plus, a cute boy. It never hurts to have a cute boy.

So beautiful I can't stop looking at them.

Across the Universe

You can't get much more sci-fi than a book set in space, right? Amy and Elder are both passengers on the Godspeed, but Amy has been cryogenically frozen along with 99 others, including her parents, who are going to be the scientific and military leadership on a new planet. Elder is one of the thousands of inhabitants of the ship, descended from the ship's non-frozen crew. The ship was supposed to have an uneventful 300 year journey, but then...a bunch of things happen that I won't tell you about :)

The story is told in alternating viewpoints, switching from Amy to Elder. It works really, really well - they even switch narrating during the same scene WITHOUT it interrupting the flow. I think it actually works better this way, because at different points (like in a conversation), you really want to know what the other one's thinking. And then you get to hear it from them!

I know Across the Universe has a sequel coming out in January and Dia Reeves has written a couple more books set in Portero, the crazy awesome setting of Bleeding Violet. So you can fully expect those to be on my reading list for next year.

More Blessed Word Count: may or may not be changing due to holiday fun