"What is your favourite book/novel?"
I sit, my expression blank, my hands going clammy. My eyes darting around the room, and really, exploring the darkest crevices in my imagination. I've read hundreds of books, that's a given. I don't ever tend to read a novel more than once, unless it's for revision purposes, i.e. By force rather than choice. So when someone asks me which is my preferred book of all time, I don't know what to say.
It's problematic. I could be literary and cliché and slump for Fitzgerald's Gatsby, or Pride and Prejudice because okay, it's kind of brilliant. I could drift back to Joanna Nadin's brilliant series I've been following for about six years: Rachel Riley, although then I can't pick one. I could voice my appreciation for Bram Stoker's Dracula and watch people's eyes devour my hint: the dark stuff excites me. So, maybe I can't pick one. Or two, or even three. But here are aome books, off the top of my head, that I will continue to recommend to others;
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
the End of Alice- A.M Homes,
We Need to Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver,
100 Reasons Why- Jay Asher,
Looking For Alaska- John Green, Revolutionary Road- Richard Yates, Lolita- Vladamir Nabokov,
JUNK- Melvin Burgess,
Candy- Kevin Brooks,
Just Listen- Sarah Dessen,
Jekyll and Hyde- R. L Stephenson,
The Dinner- Herman Koch,
One Day- David Nicholls,
Summer House with Swimming Pool- Herman Koch,
The Fault in Our Stars- John Green,
The Post-Birthday World- Lionel Shriver,
The Shock of The Fall- Nathan Filer,
Black Rabbit Summer- Kevin Brooks,
Paper Towns- John Green,
Nine Uses For An Ex-Boyfriend- Sarra Manning,
Room- Emma Donoghue,
and one I'm currently reading;
Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne.
Any book recommendations I welcome with open arms and wide eyes, the stranger, darker, weirder, the better. Also, total black comedic elements are my favourite. Moody novels, good conversations and tension.