One of my favorite underrated and undiscovered books is "Dragonfly Eyes" by Cao Wenxuan. It follows the story of a Chinese family from when their grandfather meets their grandmother (White) in France to the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution in China and what that meant for any Chinese citizen who didn't "look" Chinese. It's beautifully written, and the leadup to the climax is so well done, especially for anyone that knows the history in China in the years present. Also, the "Witch King" duology by H.E. Edgmon. It's a YA fantasy, but it gives some really important messages about what it means to be different, and also some different views on being trans from a trans perspective I never thought about before (just check trigger warnings, because this duology is really raw and open at times).
My favourites that arent mentioned enough: Snow & Rose by Emily Winfield Martin (the audiobook is amazing by Cassandra Campbell ) its a beautifully meandering cozy fantasy fairytale retelling, two sisters and their mom get displaced from their home into a tiny cabin in the creepy woods after their fathers disappearence. Adventures and fairytale magic ensue, its also middle grade and so heart-warming. (Less than 8000 ratings on goodreads) Marcovaldo by Italo Calvino is my other recommendation, its under 150 pages too! I grabbed the goodreads discription. "Marcovaldo is an unskilled worker in a drab industrial city in northern Italy. He is an irrepressible dreamer and an inveterate schemer. Much to the puzzlement of his wife, his children, his boss, and his neighbours, he chases his dreams - but the results are never the ones he had expected." Also very heart-warming, we see someone unapolgetically being themselves and not faultering in their quirky ideas and inspirations despite things never going as planned.
Yay Katie posted!!🤍 Also just wanted to say, i had finished Deathless about..2 weeks ago? AND I STILL CAN'T STOP RAVING ABOUT IT. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT RECOMMENDATION KATIE. IM OBSESSED. I adore Deathless with my whole heart..it was so achingly beautiful and no words can express how i felt after finishing it. (I needed 2 business days to recover from it-) So thank you for convincing me to pick it up..hm its now one of my all time favourite books and probably--most definitely--will make an appearance in my top 3 of this year too!🥹 Also i wanted to ask..there is another book by Catherynne called "Radiance". Based on the synopsis it sounds so intriguing! I wanted to check it out but I'm not too sure! So if you happen to read it I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on it!!
In Memoriam by Alice Winn. It has 36K ratings, and a score of 4.53. That might seem like a lot of people, but it honestly should be way higher. It's sooooo good. Other suggestions: The Shuddering City of Sharon Shinn - great world building and really interesting fantasy/sci fi - only has 555 ratings. We are Not Strangers by Josh Tuininga - lovely graphic novel about the internment of Japanese Americans and the Jewish neighbor who helped them - only has 694 ratings but a score of 4.35. Icarus by K. Ancrum - just came out in march but it's only got 3K ratings, and it was really well done. I don't love a lot of YA anymore, but I loved this one! A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher - just came out in august so maybe that's why it only has 3900 ratings, but it's excellent!! And finally, the Sea Ain't Mine Alone by CL Beaumont - the most beautiful queer love story between two surfers - 797 ratings with a score of 4.34.
Added Feed them Silence to my tbr. I'll add The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo (3.9☆ 3,855 ratings on GR) Dear Sweet Filthy World by Caitlin R Keirnan (4.0☆ 139 ratings (super buried treasure)!) Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan (3.6☆ 5,932) The Undesired by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (3.7☆ 3145) It has 14k ratings, but check out Zombies Vs Unicorns, it sounds silly but it has the kind of zombie stories you are looking for! (and thats coming from someone firmly on team Unicorn 🦄🌈 ❇✨)
A book I love with a poor rating is the Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (3.24 star rating) I also loved And Then I Woke Up. 😊 Added the Cybernetic Tea Shop to my list! And I hope you don't mind if I make a similar video! (I think with
i have been yelling about You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by jeffrey cranor & janina matthewson since i read it by chance very soon after it came out. it's one of those books that altered how i view stories and the medium *of* books and yet i've not heard of or met a single other person who's read it lmao. checking just now, it has barely over 3000 ratings. wild
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman is an amazing book that I think I've only seen one person on BookTube talk about. I cannot recommend it enough. It isn't exactly super-fun-cheerful, but it's really stuck with me and I will definitely read it again, probably more than once.
Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure gets a lot of hate, but I can't think of a book that has etched so many scenes in my brain. It's not pleasant. A stand-out is being in the apartment of a dying brother, but if you're open to the experience, I recommend it.
Okay here’s my list of books I loved that have under 10,000 ratings on Goodreads: 1. Truffle Hound by Rowan Jacobsen (472 ratings) is a non fiction all about truffles and the people and dogs that find them 2. The Valkyrie by Kate Heartfield (877 ratings) is a retelling of Norse/Germanic mythology and is sapphic 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻❤❤❤ 3. The First Sister Trilogy by Linden A. Lewis (first book has under 10000 ratings) it’s queer space opera with disability rep and I cried in the bathtub reading this 4. The Memory Theater by Karin Tidbeck (2,288 ratings) is a weird, lovely, and unsettling fantasy book. Kinda reminds me of dark fairy tales and thistlefoot. 5. Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton (3,004 ratings) is a story of African American women who navigate bodily autonomy while as slaves. 6. Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin (4,890 ratings) speculative fiction/ magical realism and made it to my top 5 books I read last year Also here are some books that have under 3.6 ratings that I really enjoyed: 1. The Doloriad by Missouri Williams (warning for this one: depraved horror, not for the faint of heart) 2. Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit 3. Daughters of the New Year by E.M. Tran
Sea serpents heir is a fairly new fantasy horror graphic novel series that I picked up at the library on a whim and totally fell in love with and the first book has less than 500 ratings on goodreads! Another fantasy graphic novel I really enjoyed is a middle grade called wingbearer with only about 2,000 ratings but I haven’t gotten around to book 2 yet! I loved the video and I hope you check these out 💕🧚🏽♀️
Love book videos like this, let's support the underdogs!! My top 5: "The Final Women" by Aujla Pardeep (a Slasher I found in a bookshop, never heard of it, it's fantastic and would make such a cool movie)/ "Ghosts of You" by Cathy Ulrich (a flash fiction collection where each stories looks at a murdered woman, it's such a haunting concept)/ "Shadows of the Short Days" by Alexander Dan Vilhjalmson (Icelandic grimdark Fantasy, I don't read much Fantasy but I loved this)/ "Cuddly Holocaust" by Carlton Mellick III (bizarro Apocalypse Horror about Smart Toys rising up to wipe out humanity, or basically anything else by him)/ "The Murders of Molly Southbourne" by Tade Thompson (every time Molly bleeds a copy of her is born that she has to fight to the death. yes.) All of these need more readers please, they are so good!!
Some very underrated faves of mine are tinfoil butterfly by Rachel Eve Moulton, we need to do something by Max Booth III, your blood my bones by Kelly Andrew, and to be devoured by Sara tantlinger!!
I picked up Lightfall because of BookTubers and it really is magical. I love that it's so wholesome but has real stakes for the characters.
Lightfall is so incredible
And so the "books I want to read" list grows longer and longer... ❤
One of my favorite underrated and undiscovered books is "Dragonfly Eyes" by Cao Wenxuan. It follows the story of a Chinese family from when their grandfather meets their grandmother (White) in France to the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution in China and what that meant for any Chinese citizen who didn't "look" Chinese. It's beautifully written, and the leadup to the climax is so well done, especially for anyone that knows the history in China in the years present. Also, the "Witch King" duology by H.E. Edgmon. It's a YA fantasy, but it gives some really important messages about what it means to be different, and also some different views on being trans from a trans perspective I never thought about before (just check trigger warnings, because this duology is really raw and open at times).
My favourites that arent mentioned enough:
Snow & Rose by Emily Winfield Martin (the audiobook is amazing by Cassandra Campbell ) its a beautifully meandering cozy fantasy fairytale retelling, two sisters and their mom get displaced from their home into a tiny cabin in the creepy woods after their fathers disappearence. Adventures and fairytale magic ensue, its also middle grade and so heart-warming. (Less than 8000 ratings on goodreads)
Marcovaldo by Italo Calvino is my other recommendation, its under 150 pages too! I grabbed the goodreads discription.
"Marcovaldo is an unskilled worker in a drab industrial city in northern Italy. He is an irrepressible dreamer and an inveterate schemer. Much to the puzzlement of his wife, his children, his boss, and his neighbours, he chases his dreams - but the results are never the ones he had expected."
Also very heart-warming, we see someone unapolgetically being themselves and not faultering in their quirky ideas and inspirations despite things never going as planned.
LOVE excited to pick these up!
This year I discovered short story collections for myself, so Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart is def going on my tbr
I hope you love it!
Yay Katie posted!!🤍
Also just wanted to say, i had finished Deathless about..2 weeks ago? AND I STILL CAN'T STOP RAVING ABOUT IT.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT RECOMMENDATION KATIE. IM OBSESSED. I adore Deathless with my whole heart..it was so achingly beautiful and no words can express how i felt after finishing it. (I needed 2 business days to recover from it-)
So thank you for convincing me to pick it up..hm its now one of my all time favourite books and probably--most definitely--will make an appearance in my top 3 of this year too!🥹
Also i wanted to ask..there is another book by Catherynne called "Radiance". Based on the synopsis it sounds so intriguing! I wanted to check it out but I'm not too sure! So if you happen to read it I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on it!!
Ahh I am SO happy you loved deathless!! I will 100% pick up radiance and let you know my thoughts 🫡
In Memoriam by Alice Winn. It has 36K ratings, and a score of 4.53. That might seem like a lot of people, but it honestly should be way higher. It's sooooo good. Other suggestions: The Shuddering City of Sharon Shinn - great world building and really interesting fantasy/sci fi - only has 555 ratings. We are Not Strangers by Josh Tuininga - lovely graphic novel about the internment of Japanese Americans and the Jewish neighbor who helped them - only has 694 ratings but a score of 4.35. Icarus by K. Ancrum - just came out in march but it's only got 3K ratings, and it was really well done. I don't love a lot of YA anymore, but I loved this one! A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher - just came out in august so maybe that's why it only has 3900 ratings, but it's excellent!! And finally, the Sea Ain't Mine Alone by CL Beaumont - the most beautiful queer love story between two surfers - 797 ratings with a score of 4.34.
Added Feed them Silence to my tbr.
I'll add
The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo (3.9☆ 3,855 ratings on GR)
Dear Sweet Filthy World by Caitlin R Keirnan (4.0☆ 139 ratings (super buried treasure)!)
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan (3.6☆ 5,932)
The Undesired by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (3.7☆ 3145)
It has 14k ratings, but check out Zombies Vs Unicorns, it sounds silly but it has the kind of zombie stories you are looking for! (and thats coming from someone firmly on team Unicorn 🦄🌈 ❇✨)
Ooo excited to check out all of these thank you!
A book I love with a poor rating is the Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (3.24 star rating)
I also loved And Then I Woke Up. 😊
Added the Cybernetic Tea Shop to my list!
And I hope you don't mind if I make a similar video! (I think with
Yes please make one of your own!!
i have been yelling about You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by jeffrey cranor & janina matthewson since i read it by chance very soon after it came out. it's one of those books that altered how i view stories and the medium *of* books and yet i've not heard of or met a single other person who's read it lmao. checking just now, it has barely over 3000 ratings. wild
Okay I am on it!!
I have this on my TBR cart and am hoping to get to it soon so now it is moved up the list!
oooo! love these recs. added to my goodreads 🫡
Aww thanks for checking out my video :)
I just finished Summer Sons by this author a few days ago and will definitely be checking out Feed Them Silence some day!!
Best best video idea. Thank you for the recs 💖
ahh thank you!!
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman is an amazing book that I think I've only seen one person on BookTube talk about. I cannot recommend it enough. It isn't exactly super-fun-cheerful, but it's really stuck with me and I will definitely read it again, probably more than once.
I who have never known men is my favorite book of all time 😭😭😭
I have this on my tbr! I'll move it up the list
Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure gets a lot of hate, but I can't think of a book that has etched so many scenes in my brain. It's not pleasant. A stand-out is being in the apartment of a dying brother, but if you're open to the experience, I recommend it.
Okay here’s my list of books I loved that have under 10,000 ratings on Goodreads:
1. Truffle Hound by Rowan Jacobsen (472 ratings) is a non fiction all about truffles and the people and dogs that find them
2. The Valkyrie by Kate Heartfield (877 ratings) is a retelling of Norse/Germanic mythology and is sapphic 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻❤❤❤
3. The First Sister Trilogy by Linden A. Lewis (first book has under 10000 ratings) it’s queer space opera with disability rep and I cried in the bathtub reading this
4. The Memory Theater by Karin Tidbeck (2,288 ratings) is a weird, lovely, and unsettling fantasy book. Kinda reminds me of dark fairy tales and thistlefoot.
5. Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton (3,004 ratings) is a story of African American women who navigate bodily autonomy while as slaves.
6. Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin (4,890 ratings) speculative fiction/ magical realism and made it to my top 5 books I read last year
Also here are some books that have under 3.6 ratings that I really enjoyed:
1. The Doloriad by Missouri Williams (warning for this one: depraved horror, not for the faint of heart)
2. Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit
3. Daughters of the New Year by E.M. Tran
Thank you thank you!
Sea serpents heir is a fairly new fantasy horror graphic novel series that I picked up at the library on a whim and totally fell in love with and the first book has less than 500 ratings on goodreads! Another fantasy graphic novel I really enjoyed is a middle grade called wingbearer with only about 2,000 ratings but I haven’t gotten around to book 2 yet! I loved the video and I hope you check these out 💕🧚🏽♀️
Thank you!! I will add them to my TBR :)
Love book videos like this, let's support the underdogs!!
My top 5: "The Final Women" by Aujla Pardeep (a Slasher I found in a bookshop, never heard of it, it's fantastic and would make such a cool movie)/ "Ghosts of You" by Cathy Ulrich (a flash fiction collection where each stories looks at a murdered woman, it's such a haunting concept)/ "Shadows of the Short Days" by Alexander Dan Vilhjalmson (Icelandic grimdark Fantasy, I don't read much Fantasy but I loved this)/ "Cuddly Holocaust" by Carlton Mellick III (bizarro Apocalypse Horror about Smart Toys rising up to wipe out humanity, or basically anything else by him)/ "The Murders of Molly Southbourne" by Tade Thompson (every time Molly bleeds a copy of her is born that she has to fight to the death. yes.) All of these need more readers please, they are so good!!
Oo I have to add some of these to my list!
Have you read Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw? Dragon book with manners. So excellent 👌
I have not but that sounds incredible
Some very underrated faves of mine are tinfoil butterfly by Rachel Eve Moulton, we need to do something by Max Booth III, your blood my bones by Kelly Andrew, and to be devoured by Sara tantlinger!!
Oo thank you for sharing these!
My TBR has grown exponentially this week alone, time for it to grow some more… oh no 😂😂
Oops!
I really enjoyed Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter and it has less than 4,000 ratings and the average is a 3.58. It’s pretty quirky!
oo I will check it out thank you!
I did like it! Short book👍🏻