This week's Top Five Wednesday is Top Five Books with Multiple POVs. Just in case anyone is new to this. Top Five Wednesday is an idea created by Lainey, or Gingerreadslainey on youtube. She creates weekly topics so that bloggers and youtubers can talk more about different aspects of their favourite, or least favourite, books. The group, which lists the monthly topics, can be found here! If you want to see any of my previous Top Five Wednesday blog posts you can click here!
I love this topic although I found it quite hard because there are so many books I'd love to put in this list, and I feel guilty for not including some other favourites of mine. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas was so unbelievably close to making this list but I wanted to talk about some different books that others may not have read. The first three books I talked about are extremely popular and well-known so I wanted to add and recommend some different books.
1) Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
I am certain this book will be on most people's lists so I won't go on about it too much, but it is one of my favourite fantasy series of all time. Tolkien goes between characters so easily yet the story is so complex. I love his characters and writing, and if you haven't picked this up yet then I suggest you do! (If you're not happy reading lengthy descriptions though then this might not be for you!)
2) Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
I'm sure everyone already knows what this book is about already so, again, this is another book which is probably on a lot of people's lists but I just couldn't leave it out. Never have I read such an epic fantasy that is so easy to read yet complicated and fascinating all at once. Martin's characters are so three-dimensional and realistic and he gets you invested in absolutely every one of them (even if you hate them) and is constantly making you fear for their safety. This epic fantasy series does multiple points of view so, so well.
3) Dracula by Bram Stoker
This book is probably my favourite classic and one of my favourite things about it is the multiple points of view. The book is a combination of diary entries, Dictaphone transcriptions and letters. It makes the book quick to read and also introduces so many elements of mystery as you explore the views of different characters before seeing them all come together. If you've not picked up this book yet I highly recommend it. Don't feel intimidated or put off by it just because it's a classic.
4) The Hours by Michael Cunningham
I've not really heard many people talk about this book before and I think it's brilliant. If you're a fan of Virginia Woolf then I highly recommend this. The Hours follows three characters, across different time periods, whose lives interconnect and all parallel either Virginia Woolf or her book Mrs Dalloway. It's an adult fiction novel and I recommend people to look at the synopsis at least because it's a very moving book and definitely one of my favourites that I studied at university. It's also a very good film starring Meryl Streep!
5) Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
This book has one of the best written multiple points of view I have ever read. Although it does start off a bit complicated (mostly due to a lot of Japanese names which appear in quick succession), it becomes surprisingly easy to distinguish the 42 characters from one another. I'm sure a lot of people will have heard of this but if not, it's about 42 school students who get sent to an island to compete in Battle Royale, a fight to the death until their is one winner. If there isn't a winner in time then they will all die. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games then you will love this book (it is a bit more gory though, so be warned!). This book had such a brilliant ending and it's quite different to the film that was made of it too.
These were my Top Five Books with Multiple Points of View! As I said, there were so many more I wish I could've included but I could only pick five. Let me know what you think and what your lists are! If you leave your link below I'll go check out your Top Five Wednesday as well! To see my other Top Five Wednesday's you can click here!
I love this topic although I found it quite hard because there are so many books I'd love to put in this list, and I feel guilty for not including some other favourites of mine. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas was so unbelievably close to making this list but I wanted to talk about some different books that others may not have read. The first three books I talked about are extremely popular and well-known so I wanted to add and recommend some different books.
1) Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
2) Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
I'm sure everyone already knows what this book is about already so, again, this is another book which is probably on a lot of people's lists but I just couldn't leave it out. Never have I read such an epic fantasy that is so easy to read yet complicated and fascinating all at once. Martin's characters are so three-dimensional and realistic and he gets you invested in absolutely every one of them (even if you hate them) and is constantly making you fear for their safety. This epic fantasy series does multiple points of view so, so well.
3) Dracula by Bram Stoker
This book is probably my favourite classic and one of my favourite things about it is the multiple points of view. The book is a combination of diary entries, Dictaphone transcriptions and letters. It makes the book quick to read and also introduces so many elements of mystery as you explore the views of different characters before seeing them all come together. If you've not picked up this book yet I highly recommend it. Don't feel intimidated or put off by it just because it's a classic.
4) The Hours by Michael Cunningham
I've not really heard many people talk about this book before and I think it's brilliant. If you're a fan of Virginia Woolf then I highly recommend this. The Hours follows three characters, across different time periods, whose lives interconnect and all parallel either Virginia Woolf or her book Mrs Dalloway. It's an adult fiction novel and I recommend people to look at the synopsis at least because it's a very moving book and definitely one of my favourites that I studied at university. It's also a very good film starring Meryl Streep!
5) Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
This book has one of the best written multiple points of view I have ever read. Although it does start off a bit complicated (mostly due to a lot of Japanese names which appear in quick succession), it becomes surprisingly easy to distinguish the 42 characters from one another. I'm sure a lot of people will have heard of this but if not, it's about 42 school students who get sent to an island to compete in Battle Royale, a fight to the death until their is one winner. If there isn't a winner in time then they will all die. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games then you will love this book (it is a bit more gory though, so be warned!). This book had such a brilliant ending and it's quite different to the film that was made of it too.
These were my Top Five Books with Multiple Points of View! As I said, there were so many more I wish I could've included but I could only pick five. Let me know what you think and what your lists are! If you leave your link below I'll go check out your Top Five Wednesday as well! To see my other Top Five Wednesday's you can click here!
I've been thinking about trying the Lord of the Rings books, but I'm not sure yet. They look like ambitious reads.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely recommend at least giving them a try if you love fantasy, and especially if you like the films. I will warn you though that the first book is probably the most difficult to get through as it's heavily descriptive. They're definitely worth reading at some point though!
DeleteI totally forgot about Dracula, but it definitely deserves a place on this list. It's done so well.
ReplyDeleteBattle Royale has been on my TBR for awhile now. I need to commit and finally read it.
http://infiniteink671.blogspot.com/2015/06/top-5-wednesday-books-with-multiple-povs.html
Yeah, Dracula is an amazing book!
DeleteI would definitely recommend getting to Battle Royale, it's so well written and really fast paced!