Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. I’m excited to start participating in it!
The original prompt was about real-world countries, but I’ve given it a little twist that suits my favorites better. One trope I love is fictionalized but recognizable versions of other countries – it’s like a double layer of escapism from my every day world.
The first two are the most transporting, for me – both are tales of cultures I have no familiarity with. Polish folklore and African cultures are the inspiration for these amazing books.
I’ve paired these because they both have sumptuous French influences – Kushiel’s dart is set in an alternate France, and The Belles draws on the color and glamour of the French Quarter as part of its stunning beauty.
The English pairing! (Let’s ignore that the next two could also be called that…) They’re very different, set respectively in alternate Oxford and alternate fairyland-that’s-most-of-England, but both have riveting settings. Also both are a little scary and I’m honestly not sure if I’d actually want to visit either…
Dragons! Dragons aren’t real, sadly, and therefore extrapolations about how their existence would change our world make great fodder for beautiful alternate worlds.
These last two are on the border – they play with the boundaries and borders between our world and a beautiful alternate world. In Stardust, the stone wall is the line – in The Raven Boys, Blue walks that line herself.
There’s very little that’s better than stepping into another world – these books are my favorites of the ones that walk the line with our own world.
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