Booktok: Hidden Gems edition

By Elizabeth Chan (she/her)

book recommendation list is for you.

Origin by Jessica Khoury

Genres: Young adult fiction, sci-fi, dystopia, fantasy, romance

Starting off with a hidden gem that always has a place in my heart, I absolutely recommend ‘Origin’ for those who LOVE dystopian fiction. Those who have read Roth’s Divergent or Dashner’s The Maze Runner know exactly what I’m talking about. The type of books that imagine what Earth could be like once civilisation nears its end.

Heavily using first-person narration, Origin is about a girl named Pia who has always known her destiny: to start a new race, a line of descendants who will bring an end to death. She has been bred for immortality, raised by a team of scientists in a secret compound hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest. One night, Pia finds a hole in the impenetrable fence that surrounds her home. She sneaks out for the very first time and meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village.

Unlike other mainstream YA fiction like a certain series named The Hunger Games, this book actually got my heart pounding. Though Origin is the first part of the Corpus series, I personally feel that this book is enough because it completes itself. Feel free to treat it as a series or a standalone.

The Gods of Love by Nicola Mostyn

Genres: fantasy, mythology, romance

I have a soft spot for Greek mythology retellings as a Percy Jackson fan and this is the best duology I’ve read so far.

The first part in its duology, The Gods of Love is a creative urban fantasy novel that centres around cynical divorce lawyer Frida who is also a secret descendant of the immortal love god Eros.

When a handsome but clearly delusional man named Dan bursts into Frida’s office and insists that she is fated to save the world, she kicks him out faster than you can say ‘prenup’.

But a creepy meeting, a demon or three, and one attempted kidnapping later, Frida is beginning to face the inconvenient truth: Dan is in fact The Oracle, the gods of Greek mythology are real and Frida herself appears to be everyone’s only hope.

The Dollmaker of Krakow by R.M. Romero

Genres: fantasy, historical fiction, coming-of-age

I don’t usually recommend or review books I’m currently reading, but I can tell that this is already a phenomenal standalone novel. Do not underestimate the fairy-tale-like narration and ‘Middle Grade’ genre it got on Goodreads. This book was so beautifully heartwarming and heart-wrenching, my goosebumps were rising the whole time.

Krakow, Poland, 1939. Magic brings a little doll named Karolina to life, much to the surprise and delight of the Dollmaker. That summer, the two unlikely companions befriend a violin-playing father and his daughter. Suddenly, the darkness of the Nazi occupation sweeps over the city. Can Karolina and the Dollmaker use magic to rescue their newfound Jewish friends?

By By Cameron McCausland-Taylor