The Best Books of 2014 (So Far)

Michael’s Top 5:

5. Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

The lime green cover is the most normal thing about this book. Told from the perspective of a hormone crazed teenage boy, this story chronicles life in a small town where an ancient virus is released that may just end the world as we know it. This standalone will have you questioning what Smith was on when he wrote this work and where you can get some.

4. Hollow City (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #2) by Ransom Riggs

Photo enthusiast Riggs built this series off of antique photos he came across in street markets. When’s the last time you did something so fascinatingly fresh? If you’ve read the series, you’d know the answer to that question is never.  The inexplicable images string together a creepy story that follows a band of misfits who could run a freak show just as easily as they can take out the bad guys. And by bad guys I mean Nazis. Did I mention the story jumps time between present day and World War II?

3. Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1) by Kelley Armstrong

In one of the most promising series openers I’ve read in a while, Armstrong draws us into an ancient world where a mystical evil is released. And who better to fight that evil than a pair of polar opposite, kick-ass twin sisters whose world is turned upside down in a spine tingling-ly creepy opener? Seriously, that opening was so haunting and original it still has me doing double takes at those dancing shadows in the night.

2. City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare 

How does one wrap up a seven-year-old urban fantasy series with a legion of devoted fans? With one final, loaded 700+ page installment of course.  Clare brings the death, the love, the action, and the quirky, magical characters her fans have come to love, and we really couldn’t have asked for anything more.

1. Ruin and Rising (Grisha series #3) by Leigh Bardugo

Ms. Bardugo took no prisoners in her finale to an epic fantasy trilogy. Set in an Avatar: The Last Airbender-like Russia, the Grisha series features an orphan girl who learns of a rare power hidden within her. Over her journey, she must come to accept a role she never expected to fill, and try not to lose herself in the process. Does power really change people? Now, what if that power required you to kill?

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