Depending on how you look at it, quarter- and midlife crises books can add to the disillusion or be rather cathartic. Personally, I thought How to Find Love in the Little Things tended towards the cathartic.
SUICIDE CLUB by Rachel Heng
If you could live for hundreds of years, if not, forever, would you want to? In Suicide Club, those who deserve it are given immortality. In exchange, they have to take good care of their health — eat well, exercise and all that jazz. What I liked about this premise was that it plays on our contemporary obsession with health and wellness. Food diet movements abound from “clean eating” to keto to paleo, claiming to detox, strengthen the immune system, etc. Rachel Heng pushed these ideal to the extreme in her futuristic science fiction novel set in New York City.
SUNFLOWERS IN FEBRUARY by Phyllida Shrimpton
Sunflowers in February is at its core a morbid book. Lily was in a car accident and woke up dead. Death is never an easy topic to face. What comes after death though, is a question I’m sure many of us do wonder about. Sunflowers in February grappled with exactly that, as Lily was in limbo, unable to move on.
EVERLESS by Sara Holland
Premise-wise, Everless was one of the most original books I’ve read in a long time. It was very intriguing, to say the least. It presented a world where life and blood are currency. I loved this idea and really enjoyed how it was integrated into the story. It was ruthless. I think the details were very well thought-out, especially when it came to how the rich exploited the poor. I also liked the legends that were incorporated and how they pulsed through the lives of the characters.
GIRLS MADE OF SNOW AND GLASS by Melissa Bashardoust
Girls Made of Snow and Glass is a retelling of retellings, a simulacrum if you will. After all, it was inspired by Frozen, Snow White and the Huntsman and The Bloody Chamber. Despite the extent to which this book was built on multiple stories, I thought the world building as well as the plot showcased Bashardoust’s creativity. The setting in particular, charmed me, and I loved how well it was woven together with the overarching plot.
