Top Five Wednesday | Three-Word Titles

Hello! It's time to welcome back Top Five Wednesdays on my blog. It's been a long time since I did one of these but I'm excited to bring them back. This week's Top Five Wednesday is the top five 'Three-Word Titles' aka what are the best books in your collection that have three-word titles. I decided to rule out any books that started with 'The' because I thought that would be a bigger challenge and it would rule out some of the more obvious books. I really enjoyed this challenge and I'm bound to have missed something obvious but these are my top five:

1. Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

This a YA thriller/mystery novel and it was easily one of my favourite books that I read last year. This book follows Claudia, whose best friend, Monday is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. She and Monday have always been inseparable. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia is worried. When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. But Monday’s mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday’s sister April is even less help. As Claudia digs deeper into her friend’s disappearance, she discovers that no one seems to remember the last time they saw Monday. How can a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing that she’s gone?

Honestly, that synopsis alone drew me in, but I wasn't expecting the rollercoaster that I got. This book is told in such a unique way and from such an interesting character perspective. It took me a long time to figure out the different chapters, but once I did, my mind was absolutely blown. Even without the brilliant plot twists, everything about this book is amazing: the writing, the intricate and complex characters, and the representation of different races and economic backgrounds. If you're an adult, don't be put off by the fact that it's a YA book. This is a book that truly holds up for both YA and adult and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for contemporary mystery.

2. Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy

This is another YA thriller/mystery, although it definitely falls on the younger side of YA compared to Monday's Not Coming. I first read this book in 2005 (when I was probably a bit too young, to be honest), but it's one of those books that's stayed with me. This book follows three children who walked away from the cottages on the edge of town toward Berwick Waters. Later that day, only two of them came back. It is later discovered that one of the 10-year-old girl's was murdered. We find out very early on who committed the murder, but the mystery of the book lies in the how and why the murder happened.  The book alternates between Alice at age 10 and Alice at age 16 and explores her remorse and feelings about what happened. 

Overall, it's an incredible yet very disturbing book, and one that I think is very underrated in the book community.

3. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Long Way Down is a book written in verse and it follows Will, whose brother, Shawn, has been shot in a gang crime. So Will gets in the lift with Shawn's gun, determined to follow The Rules. However, on every floor that the lift stops at a person gets on, and they have a lot to say to Will. This is a haunting and beautifully written book about gun violence and the victims and repercussions of such violence. Honestly, it took me a while to get to this one because I used to think I didn't like poetry, but this book and a couple of others have convinced me that I just hadn't found the right books yet. This is a very quick read and I highly recommend it!

4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard of this book, especially since the film was so popular when it came out in 2012. I read this book before I watched the film and I absolutely loved it. This book is about Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, a Tamil boy from Pondicherry, and it explores issues of spirituality and practicality. He and his family are moving their zoo across the ocean when the boat sinks in a huge storm. Pi is left on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, and he has to survive the next 229 days. The book felt like it was split into thirds, with the first third being pretty much entirely about various religions (which I know put some people off), but I found it all really interesting. The biggest thing for me was of course the twist, that I absolutely didn't see coming when I read it. The entire book was beautifully written and so cleverly crafted and just writing this has made me want to re-read it!

5. Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

I know Riley Sager is very hit and miss for people, with some people loving his books and others disliking them entirely. I've really enjoyed all of Riley Sager's books so far but this one has easily been my favourite. This book follows Maggie Holt. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors (very reminiscent of The Amityville Horror - if anyone has read/heard of that!). Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But Maggie starts experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction. 

I found this book so intriguing throughout. I think I read it in a day because I just needed to know what happened next. Although I did guess part of the ending, it didn't take away my enjoyment at all because there was always another twist. The atmosphere was also just incredible and it captured the haunted house feel so well. If you're looking for a thriller then I definitely recommend trying this one!

Weirdly, I struggled to find any fantasy books with three word titles even though that's what I primarily read! Also, even with taking out books with 'The' in the title, I found wayyyy too many books that I love so I had to name some of my honourable mentions: Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Big Little Lies by Liane Moriaty, Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare.

So, those are my top five books with three-word titles (+ honourable mentions)! Let me know what your Top Five are below, or if you have a blog post then link it! Just in case anyone is new to this, Top Five Wednesday was created by Lainey (Gingerreadslainey on YouTube) and is now run by the Goodreads Group so that people can share more of their favourite (or sometimes least favourite) books in an interesting way. The people in the Group create weekly topics each month so Bloggers and YouTubers alike to discuss books. The group can be found here! And if you want to see more of my previous Top Five Wednesday Blog posts, you can click here!