We can’t stay in our comfort zone all the time. Well, okay, we could, but life is so much more interesting if we stretch a bit.

This Sunday’s Wyrd & Wonder Fantastic 5, I’m sharing 5 reads outside my comfort zone.

This was a interesting challenge because I do read a bit of everything. Oh, I have my favorite genres and sub-genres, and I have my favorite authors. But there always seems to be a book that’s not quite my usual that I’ll pick up or someone will give to me.

Today I’m sharing 5 fantasy books that were a bit outside my comfort zone. In other words, these are books I would not have read but for someone making me read recommending them.

The Hunger

This is a blame-it-on-Litsy book.

(If you’re not familiar with the Litsy app, it’s like instagram but all about books. The tagline is “where books make friends.” Who doesn’t want to make friends with books?)

Through Litsy, I was in a 4-person postal book club, where we each picked a book to read. The first month, we’d each read the book we picked and at the end of the month, we’d mail it to the next person on the list to read. By the end of the fourth month, we would’ve read all 4 books.

The Hunger by Alma Katsu was a book that my Litsy friend Reggie picked as his book.

This book is a fantasy horror reimagining of the Donner Party.

Yep, you read that right. This is a book based on a true story of a wagon train of American pioneers who migrated to California from the Midwest in 1846-47.

Now, I tend to shy away from books labeled horror. Horror is not my thing. I don’t mind some level of violence (in books), particularly if it involves vampires or werewolves or some other sort of paranormal, magical, or mythical being or creature. But horror is a different level. At least to me.

Needless to say, I had some reservations about this book. First, it’s based on the Donner party and we all know nothing good happened there. I’ve driven through Donner Pass and can’t imagine attempting it in winter in wagons. Second, I read several reviews that basically said while there were fantasy elements, the story fell on the side of horror. Also, see point 1—it’s already a true horror story in the first place! Third, the master of horror writing, Stephen King, said about this book: “Deeply, deeply disturbing, hard to put down, not recommended reading after dark.”

But with 4 days left in the month before I had to mail it to the next person, I needed to read it. So I did.

I read it in one day.

Yep, that’s right, I devoured this book because Alma Katsu has woven an incredible fantasy horror story within the confines of the true story. I was sucked right. I thought she did an excellent job of re-imagining what this trek was like for these pioneers. I loved how she developed the characters and created backstories for the main characters. Her writing was so descriptive and poignant. I’m actually glad I read it.

The Kingdom of Back

Another “genre” that’s not my cup of tea is YA (young adult). I put genre in quotation marks because it really isn’t a genre to me. I’ve ranted discussed my feelings about this before. Add on top of that historical fiction, which I have read but again, not my jam, and we have a book that I would not have picked up in a bookstore.

Except for a time, during those early dark covid days, I had a subscription to OwlCrate, which is a YA book subscription. Don’t ask me why. I’ll just blame it all on the craziness of the covid years.

One of the very few OwlCrate books that I loved and kept was The Kingdom of Back. (And thanks to OwlCrate, I got this beautiful edition!)

I absolutely was enchanted with this historical fairy-tale. I think the only thing that would have made it better is if it had come with its own soundtrack.

The prose was lyrical and fit perfectly with the Mozart siblings. From the first page, I fell into Nannerl’s world and just felt so much for her. A child prodigy in her own right, but any potential career stunted by society simply because of her gender.

The fairy-tale aspects were reminscent of the Brothers Grimm and so perfectly fit with the time period.

I tried to make this book last as long as possible because I did not want it to end even though I also wanted to see what happened. 

The House in the Cerulean Sea

It was the spring of 2020. I had just moved to Okinawa, Japan for work and because of this thing called covid (that was only supposed to last a few weeks), I had to quarantine for 14 days.

Well, quarantining would be great and fine if one was in one’s own home with one’s own stuff. But I was in temporary quarters with only the two suitcases I brought with me. The rest of my things were in boxes in a container on a ship crossing the Pacific. (Actually, at that point, my things were probably still at the port waiting to be loaded onto the ship.)

The Libby app to the rescue! I was checking out any and every e-book and audiobook that looked remotely interesting and I stumbled across a book called The House in the Cerulean Sea by an author I’d never heard of. I (probably) sighed because it was labeled as YA, but I liked the cover and so I decided to give it a try.

When all else fails, I will judge a book by its cover.

I started the book and I almost DNF’d it because I did not like the main character Linus. At all. I thought he was so rigid and so cowed and it annoyed me so much I stopped listening for a day, even though I thought the prose was beautiful. Unfortunately, or maybe luckily, I had nothing else to do in quarantine, and so I started it again the next day.

I did mention that I had checked out the audiobook* version, right?

So I kept listening and I’m so happy I did. The book has fantastic character development, wonderful world-building, and imaginative characters. I fell in love with each and every one of the orphans.

And as lovely and wonderful as the story is, this story is also timely. Because this is a story about being different, about living authentically, about fighting prejudices and stereotypes, and about changing the system by changing the minds of one person at a time. This is a story that asks tough questions. That demands us to question our preconceived notions. That examines what it means to be a family, to be our authentic self, to be alive instead of just living.

This story has become one of my favoritist faves, and so of course, I had to buy a physical copy.

*The narrator, Daniel Henning, does a wonderful job.

Mink River

Mink River is one of the 20 on my Wyrd & Wonder TBR. I own a copy because it was gifted to me by a friend.

I hadn’t heard of it but according to the synopsis, it has a philosophizing crow. So I’m going to give it a go.

I put this as outside my comfort zone because even though I might have picked up the book just because of the crow on the cover, the synopsis sounds more contemporary fiction. And honestly, it’s not really a well written synopsis. In fact, I’m not really sure what it’s about. But according to the person who gifted to me as well as some reviews, which are pretty positive, this book has magical realism.

I guess we’ll see how it goes!

Lore of the Wilds

Another book on my Wyrd & Wonder TBR, I received this in the Fiction Bath Co.‘s 2023 autumn pamper box.

Why did a bath company include Lore of the Wilds? I mean, I guess it makes sense in some ways. Some people enjoy reading in a bubble bath. And reading by itself could be considered “pampering” one’s self. Although I tend to think of reading as essential. Like clean air and water. And coffee and chocolate.

Regardless. This was the first time ever FBC has ever included a book. And it was an early access special edition that also came with a cute wooden bookmark.

Why is this book on the list? Because I wouldn’t have ever picked this book up. First, it falls in the YA category.

Second, because the synopsis on Bookshop and Goodreads starts off with the word “Romantasy.”

W.T.F. Romantsy? Really? Really? This is a portmanteau I could have lived without. It’s going to top my list of genres that aren’t really genres right up there with YA.

Anyway, I got a copy and I put it on my Wyrd & Wonder TBR . . . and then I read it two days before Wyrd & Wonder began!

Total shout out to FBC, a literary-themed small business. All their products are all literary themed, which I love, and they handcraft each item, made-to-order. You have to wait a couple weeks to get the item (so plan accordingly), but it’s totally worth it.

That wraps my Fantastic 5: Fantasy Outside My Comfort Zone. See you next Sunday for Fantastic 5: Characters In Their Zone

Art Credit – Black dragon by Ehtisham Sajid 
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