Reading Recs: Contemporary

This month’s theme is: Contemporary

I will admit I really am not the biggest fan of Contemporary fiction at all. One of the main reasons that I love reading is the fact that I can discover completely new worlds all in the pages of a book – but in contemporary fiction, it’s all set in our world. Obviously, I don’t hate all contemporary fiction it’s just not a genre I reach for a lot!

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•  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

If anyone reading this knows me well they will know my complete and undivided love for this book. Benjamin Alire Saenz’s writing is beautiful and poetic and makes reading this lovely story of love and friendship and family just that much more beautiful.

• Faceless by Alyssa Sheinmel

This book is one of the saddest contemporaries that I have ever read. The MC goes through issues that I’d never read about before and the way her emotions and feelings are portrayed are just so raw and real – honestly, if you’re looking for a sad rainy day read this is for you!

• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

I think my favourite thing about this book was the fact that despite it being about a girl with cancer – Jesse Andrews didn’t really intend for that to be the main focus point of the story. The characters obviously still acknowledged the cancer but that didn’t take away from the general humour either. There is a lot of character development in this novel as well – which of course is always a plus!

• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Although, I did give this book four stars, and I have given a lot of other contemporaries 5 stars – I think that this book still needs to be on this list. ELEANOR & PARK has every element of a cutesy contemporary while still including important topics – and very real problems that people face. I admit I didn’t like the ending very much, but otherwise, I think this was an amazing contemporary!

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So these are some of my favourite contemporaries! From cutesy romances to stories that have made me cry – all of the books on this list are amazing! I do tend to read contemporaries a lot more in the summer with a glass of lemonade and some Krispy Kreme doughnuts or ice cream – so think of this post as a proactive approach to preparing your reads for the months to come!

Hope your next read is great! 🌱