As much as I love YA books, I would probably fall over and die if I was in one.
There are a few that I could cope with, maybe even thrive in…like that one where a girl gets locked in the library? Ha you try prying me out of there, you wishful thinker. But on the whole, I’m pretty sure I’d die in the first few chapters.
I love stabby books ok. I love the murdery ones with epic action scenes (PARKOUR!) and wily plots and characters who have personalities sharper than glass. I adore the books about dark magic being dredged from witching ponds and something creepy clawing holes in the trees. Oh, the characters are being eaten by a ghost? A demon? The gods of the underworld? Lovely! Bring me seven.
But, look, me??? in these books??? It would not go well.
So today I want to be practical and honest with you and…
I’m listing 10 books I’ve read this year and judging whether I’d survive vs die if I was in them!
This is also me twisting the Top Ten Tuesday prompt of “Characters I’d Like To Switch Places With” because I’m a rebelllll…without a cause. Truly. I’m just a rebel who gets confused and eats a sandwich to cover it.
1. WHEN THE SKY FELL ON SPLENDOR
I just finished reading this one and it’s basically Stranger Things with mathematical spirals (like those Nautilus shells) and it was soooo good! 6 kids witness “something” crash landing from space and they lose 6 hours of their lives. ALIENS aRE COMING…or are they?
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✗
I’m going to give it a solid NOPE, friends!!!! Look all six of the teens get through waking up with burn marks and odd abilities, like making electricity frizz. But I would be the one who electrocuted them self on a toaster the following day. I have this sort of luck.
2. SIX OF CROWS
I may or may not have 93898 books on my TBR that are screaming for my attention while I am reading this for the, um, third time. But look you can’t PROVE I’D DO THIS. It’s just a suspicion. However, I’m (maybe) midway through the scene where Kaz gets smacked in the face in an alley (does he deserve this? yes) and how he’s all like “If you can’t walk through the Barrel unafraid, then you have no business being alive there.” Ummmm, soooo…about that.
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✗
No….? Not even a little. Like Nina would protect me, I’m sure of that. She would feed me waffles and I would love her and honestly it’s a pretty cosy story right there yes let’s ditch Matthias. Also Wylan would probably be kind to me?? Jesper would forget I was there. Kaz and Inej would leave me for dead.
3. THE FOXHOLE COURT
I reread this series this year (you know I’m beginning to think I am to blame for my TBR problems??? A wild concept) and my heart collapsed with all my emotions for this series. AGH. I LOVE IT. However it is about a very aggressive sport (kind of like hockey x lacrosse) and Neil gets beaten up by team mates, rival teams, THE MAFIA, his FAMILY, etc etc. Andrew wallops him with an exy bat on page one. Do you see what my verdict is about to be?
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✗
lmao let’s not flatter me at all. I actually am athletic in that I run (5:30am every day for 5.3kms!) but I have no skill or ability with a ball. I used to play soccer with a bunch of older kids when I was about 13. I got run over once. Just…mowed me down. I do not Sport.
4. THE BRILLIANT DEATH
Aka welcome to one of my new surprise favourite novels! I adored this one. It has genderfluid magicians and Teo can turn people into objects and Ceilo can turn them self into anything from the wind to a mouse. Also Italian mafia and the most tangled loveable angsty romance?! YES. TO IT ALL.
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✓
I think I would. If you gave me the ability to change people into music boxes… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Seems great. Also I’d love to be a cloud for a while. Also Teo and Ceilo are both aggressive Mum-friends and they’d take care of my fragile carcass.
5. THE GILDED WOLVES
This book was beautiful and I loved the characters and I still am not very sure what it was about. It’s set in a magical version of 1800s Paris and Severin is pulling off a scheme/heist to reclaim his family name. If I joined his team, it would go pretty much like so:
Severin: I have explained the intricately detailed plan. Any questions?
Me: *raises hand*
Me: ya…what the heck
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✗
No, I think they’d lock me in a puzzle box and forget where they put me. And I, who cannot math, would never get out of the puzzle box.
6. EMERGENCY CONTACT
Basically this is the story of two anxious teens struggling to remain human-shaped while in college when everything is complicated and messy. Sam works in a coffee shop and bakes. Penny writes and freaks out about everything. Together? They are anxious, but FASTER, because they drink caffeine together.
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✓
Heck yes, finally a story where I’d thrive. I am both fond of baking and writing and I am basically Penny and Sam combined. My name would be Senny and I would be an Anxious Disaster and it would be great.
7. A CURSE SO DARK AND LONELY
Basically the Beauty and the Beast retelling of my HEART. Harper is a impulsive Gryffindor and Rhen is just Tired™…and also turns into a monster occasionally. I particularly loved the castle too, which magically put pastries on your table and was always warm and cheerful…you know, while the world was going to absolute hell all around it. I’d let everyone do their thing trying to save the world and I’d just eat pastries and find a library.
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✓
YES. But due to being a wily Slytherin. But I would have a Good Time.
8. QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS
This was one heck of a finale. It’s nearly 900 pages…so that means they’ve crammed a LOT of Shadowhunter battles, sneaking around, plots and ploys, and terrible twists into this book. Am I obsessed??? Do I love it??? Absolutely yes. I am HEART EYES for this book. (Also I was so exhausted when I finished lmao. I didn’t even write a review straight away. I took a nap.)
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✗
I’m going to say no…because I would be that one background Shadowhunter who gets eaten by a sea demon or sacrificed to raise the dead, you know? But there is a chance I’d survive if I got adopted into the Blackthorn clan. They adopted Kit!!! He was useful though. I am not…so useful…but I could like keep Dru company since she got ditched a lot. We can babysit Tavvy together. Leave me with the 13yo and the 7yo, sure that’s fine.
9. THE WICKED KING
If you haven’t gifted yourself the life enhancement of reading the Cruel Prince series…then what are you doing?! Vicious mind-games and wickedly beautiful faeries?! Schemes. MAGIC. Poison. Love. Jude basically doesn’t sleep for 300 pages as she spins her schemes and threatens (or kisses) Cardan. I am freaking obsessed with these books.
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✗
nooooooooooooo…!! But I would die grateful for getting to even be there!! Which I think is like 500% the problem with mortals in faerie land in the first place. I’m a cliche statistic. But I don’t even care because IT’D BE GORGEOUS AND MURDERFUL. Although I do want to point out that I never sleep…so that works for me! I’d guard Jude while she naps.
10. THE BOY WHO STEALS HOUSES
Look it is now officially ONE MONTH TO GO until my second novel hits the shelf so will I ever shut up about it??? Nope. Let me squeeze it subtly into aaaaall my posts like the proud creature I am.
Anyway! My book has two sides, aka Sam’s life of being on the run, stealing houses, doing petty crime, watching Avery naively do Larger Crime and freaking out about it. Then we have Sam in the De Lainey house…which is like 7 kid stumbling up and arguing and eating popcorn and general big family shenanigans.
➸ WOULD I SURVIVE? ✗✓
I claim BOTH. Because I would die stealing houses and trying to pull off crime without crying. (Note: Sam and Avery and I would all just cry. Those boys are very heartfelt thieves.) But anyway, I’d handle the De Lainey household just fine because, ha!…I have big family experience and I know how to hide food so your brother doesn’t eat it. Big family survival tactics are not to be undervalued.
tell me what your current read is (or a book you’ve read recently) and do you think you’d survive in it?! would you survive any of the ones I’ve listed?
What a fun post!
I don’t think I’d survive in any of these – although I haven’t yet read yours, so the jury is still out on that one! haha!
Great post!
THIS IS SUCH A FUN POST.
I had to really scratch my brain to think of characters who I could switch places with and actually cope. Most books I read have characters that experience the most awful things that my Anxious Brain wouldn’t handle very well!
I think I’d die in most of the ones you’ve listed, especially in SoC,I’d probably just anger Kaz somehow and get stabbed. Oh and The Cruel Prince too, I’d probably try tricking a faery and fail miserably
I’m currently reading Blue Liky, Lily Blue and I think there’s a small chance I’d survive. Like I feel like I’d be able to help Gansey a lot because I’m A Nerd™ and get adopted into the Raven Boys, or I’d be useless to them and end up getting killed by some weird monster thingy
I wouldn’t survive Six of Crows either. Ha!
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
Great twist on this week’s topic! I would 10000% not survive in Ketterdam or the land of Faerie in the Folk of the Air, but I would love to spend a day there and watch the goings-on from a safe distance. I need to read The Brilliant Death and The Gilded Wolves asap!
OOh this is a really cool post! Honestly though, with my small depressed and anxiety prone mind I most definitely wouldn’t survive most YA books, I’d just wanna spend the entire time in bed or eating chocolate in a corner somewhere
Haha, I would die in pretty much any book I read. I’m too squishy to be a fictional character! Also, I’m glad Splendor was good. I need to order that book. I’m reading Little Women right now and dying from boredom!
Okay, I seriously loved your twist on this week’s theme. I couldn’t stop giggling as I read your post. Great job.
My Top Ten Tuesday post.
Have you ever seen the t-shirt that says “I work out because I’d be the first to die in the Hunger Games”? *raises hand* Yeah.
However, technically the last book I read was Amy and Rodger’s Epic Detour so….yeah I’m not sure I’d survive that one either. 😂 I’m too anxious for shenanigans. And driving. (Although So was Amy so….hmm) Being trapped in a car with a (mostly) stranger and listening to their music for days on end may be my actual hell. (Even if Roger had decent taste in music and was completely adorable!)
I’m reading Sky in the Deep at the moment…lol I would be so dead. Ridiculously dead. All the murder. XD I could never be a Viking, I am not strong enough for that…
This is a great twist to the topic, Cait! I certainly won’t survive on bookish world, whether its contemporary or fantasy. Especially in fantasy. The one I can think from the top of my head is The Hunger Games… I CERTAINLY won’t survive in that!
I’m reading two books at the moment, To Kill a Kingdom and Descendant of The Crane. Lira would 100% kill me in To Kill a Kingdom and honestly, she’s so great, I’d probably smile quite happily while she did it. I’m not far enough into Descendant of The Crane to know whether I’d survive, but it’s a fantasy book so I’m guessing most likely not. As for the books on your list, I’ve only read two. I feel like I’d survive in A Curse So Dark and Lonely if only because I’d just stay in the magic castle and read and not get involved in the action like Harper. I would 1000% die in Six of Crows but I’d have so much fun doing it.
Best photos!
Posts like these are so much fun lol! XD I don’t think I’d survive in most fictional worlds but who knows?? My inner evil Slytherin may take over for me. Let’s hope so.
Ahhhh I love your twist on the topic SO much, Cait! <3 I don't think I'd survive in a lot of YA books to be honest haha, especially in Six of Crows, I would be terrible and I can 200% relate to your theorical situation in The Gilded Wolves, I can't do math and I would be forever stuck in a puzzle or something hahaha.
FANTASTIC post! <3 <3
OMG!! Absolutely love your take on the topic! Amazing idea. I’d probably won’t survive half of these books as well. If they left me with a bunch of food and not bothering me – I’d somehow do tho. But for the Grishaverse and The Cruel Prince one I’m not sure even if I can eat a biscuit without being murdered, or manipulated, or something. The people there are ready for everything.
P.S. Love the new design!! 🙂
oh my goodness you’re so creative with your post ideas, Cait! let’s be honest characters are super human so of course they’d survive. XD Also, on a completely unrelated note, I purchased A Thousand Perfect Notes AND IT CAME YESTERDAY. AH. I’M EXCITED.
I would not survive in any novel. Except maybe a fluffy contemporary. And I can’t even guarantee that because the sappiness may kill me. I’m currently reading a book from The Vorkosigan Saga, which is set in space. I would not survive space. I would therefore not go into space in the first place because I WANT TO LIVE. I also just finished a volume of Streets of Gotham and, let’s be real, Gotham City would eat me alive.
I love this post idea. Can I steal it, perchance?
I feel like all this is pretty accurate . . . though, if you can run fast or for long periods of time, I feel like you have a slightly better chance of surviving some of these books than you claim you do.
Also, if I still wrote fanfiction on the regular, I would now be tempted to write a Six of Crows AU where you stumble into that world somehow and run into Nina and get excited and accidentally derail the whole plot BUT IN A GOOD WAY. I think it would be funny. So. Take that as you will.
I’m working on these shallow graves and I would survive. Probably.
Do you mind if I use this idea on my blog eventually? Maybe??
Also, do you know if or when your book is coming out on Amazon? (I don’t know how much you know about book sales and stuff)
I loved this post! (So relatable. I would die in most of these too)
I’m currently reading Red Seas Under Red Skies…and…yeah. I would definitely not survive. I mean half the book is Locke barely surviving and he’s a criminal mastermind with years of training. Whenever people talk about wishing to go inside their favorite books I’m always like-nope. Because I just *know* that I’d be that foolish one who ALWAYS ends up dying. Even in contemporaries, I’d probably trip over a curb or something 😂
This is a really fun idea! And lmao, I’ve had, like, 7 heart attacks already just reading QoAaD, so I think me surviving in the book is completely out of the question 😛
Oh my gosh this is so funnn Cait! Omg I’m having so much fun reading your blog posts!!!
I’m pretty sure I’d die within an hour of stepping into Elfhame unfortunately because I’ll be hungry and accidentally eat something dangerous. I’m going to read A Curse So Dark and Lonely soon. I’ll have to read it and see if I can join you for the dangerous parts of the book and can live through lol because your description suggests that a Hufflepuff like me might have a hard time.
I recently finished Legend…and nope. I probably would not. With the plagues and the harsh punishments and all…nope. I am not as tough as either the main cast.
Let’s be real here – having Nina look after you would be like staying at a five star hotel. With really excellent waffles on top of that. And A Curse So Dark And Lonely I have!!! On my shelf!!! And it’s on my TBR!!! YAY!!! I can’t wait to meet Harper and Rhen and love them xx
Oh yes, and I’d probably do something to annoy the heck out of Kaz and he’d kill me. And Ronan from the Raven Boys would hate me because… I AM HIM. Kind of. A tad less violent.
arghh…. I would not survive most book settings– I would make a foolish mistake and be like oops I just confirmed my death!!
I think Wylan would be kind to you— I love him. I think he is my favourite character is the six of crows series!!
I just read the entire foxhole court series and now I don’t know what to do?!?!?!?! It was so good and I just I am not ready for that story to be over!!! I have fallen into a pinterest/tumblr hole with no sign of leaving soon!! It’s so good I feel like crying— I probably wouldn’t survive because I get tired going up the stairs so no physical sport for me!!
Argh…. so excited for your book. I can’t wait to read it (and see if I can survive it)!!
Let’s be real here, i’m gonna die in any YA fantasy bookworld. I’m too weak for this
This post is so much fun!
I feel like I might survive in those fantasies where you get some training before bounding off into danger, just because I’m fairly athletic and a quick learner, but the ones where you have to depend solely on preexisting skills…hahaha yeah. I’m dead.
Yikes, I haven’t read any of these! I definitely need to get caught up. When the Sky Fell on Splendor I can’t wait for. That and I want to read Emergency Contact.
Ash @ JennRenee Read
I love your TTT posts!!!!!!!!
Hmm, let’s see: dead, dead, dead, dead, dead . . . Yeah I’m too small and soft to belong in any of these, probably. Right now I’m reading Middlemarch, by George Eliot, in which I would probably survive?? Also reading Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard, in which I would most definitely survive (thrive, even). Oh. And Foundryside. Definitely a NOPE to that one. Even reading about Tevanne is stressful.
Oh man, I love stabby books, too. But boy would I never survive them in real life! Especially Six of Crows… And they’re all like 16??? I mean, I’m not much older but still. I would never last in Ketterdam or on some crazy heist in another country. I don’t think I would last as a criminal, period. And don’t even get me started on being a Shadowhunter! I mean, who has even heard of an asthmatic demon slayer? Or do they have a rune for that, too??
Cait, I think we’re pretty much similar, you know? 😂 I think that TCP is definitely one of the place in which I’ll have hard times, because unless I got some protection… nah, I’m sure every pact for protection will lead to death and other sh*t.
And yes, to A Curse So Dark and Lonely. I mean,. Rhen can be pretty hard to survive but in respect to other books I read, everything was pretty chill. A bit too much chill.
The other I don’t know, but since Six of Crows comes from the Grishaverse, yeah… death is probable.
I’m reading To Best the Boys. Would I survive? Haha, I’m not sure. I’m fairly intelligent (thankyouverymuch) but I am not … cut out … for this lifestyle. I am competitive as all get-out but after a kilometer or so I would drop dead. Yup.
The book that I just finished was Every Move (OMG I LOVE THE TRILOGY THANK YOU FOR SQUEALING ABOUT THEM) and I would 1000% die. There’s not even a question. Nope.
omg same though. I don’t think I’d get through all the mazes…I think my brain would just melt 😂 and I’d be like “carry me you guys and figure out the puzzles”. (ohhh the Every Breath trilogy is AMAZING right?!)
Haha yeah I don’t think I’d survive most of these either. I don’t think I’d even survive A Curse so Dark and Lonely.
I think I’d die in most books. I’d be that one kid who falls over on the podium before they get to 0 in the Hunger Games and just explodes right there, or I’d get confused whether I’m supposed to step off when they get to 1 or 0, and again, just explode.. I think lots of books i’d just give up right away and that would be the only reason I survive. Like some kind of mystery would start to unravel and I’d just be like “nope” and leave the other characters to go investigate (and eventually die) while I sit at home eating cake lmao — i can never understand why characters in books don’t do this.
Your little side note “(PARKOUR)” is my new favourite thing btw
xx
Why is the only one I have read YOURS? 😂 (Okay fine I did read Six of Crows but it was funnier if I hadn’t?) I would also not survive the stealing houses bit, but I, like Sam, would try to steal the De Laineys immediately. Actually, I think I was fighting Sam for them for most of the book (and by “most” I mean “all”, obviously). Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the book by the by? Because holy crap, I DO. Like. You outdid yourself, somehow. I’ll be quiet now, save something for the review 😉
I would probably die in ALL these books, no matter the topic? Like it’s a miracle I make it through ever. OH my current read is Wicked Saints and NOPE I’d have been dead in LITERALLY the first page, no exaggeration!