Top 5 Books Under 300 Pages I Want to Read

This Top 5 series started back in October 2018 and I kind of lost motivation for making it every week. But it’s back! This is a series of books that I want to read that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for every Saturday.

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The Upcoming Schedule Is:

4/11/20 — Books with a Color in the Title

4/18/20 — Sibling Relationships

4/25/20 — Books Under 300 Pages

5/2/20 — Retellings

5/9/20 — Books with a Number in the Title

5/16/20 — Books by Debut Authors

5/23/20 — Books about Plants/Flowers (Can be on cover, in title or plot)

5/30/20 — Books from a Male POV

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Rules!

• Share your top 5 books of the current topic– these can be books that you want to read, have read and loved, have read and hated, you can do it any way you want.
• Tag the original post (This one!)
• Tag 5 people

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Books Under 300 Pages

A lot of us have been struggling to get into reading lately with everything going on right now, so I figured that I would include shorter books as a topic for the month. In books that are under 300 pages things tend to happen quickly and you can tear through some of these books in one sitting. As much as I love a 500 page (or longer) fantasy novel with intricate world building and tons of character development, I just can’t get into those types of books right now. So I figured it would be a good idea to step out of my comfort zone and find some shorter books that I could easily gobble up. But this actually wound up being harder than I thought it would be!

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Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced… they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.

This series has been on my TBR long before I became a Seanan McGuire fan. The books in this series are all short, but get phenomenal reviews. I am a huge fan of Seanan McGuire’s writing so this would be a perfect series for me to binge read. I kinda forgot about this series, but now really seems like the perfect time to check this series out!

The Glass Magician by Caroline Stevermer

A gilded menagerie rules a Gilded Age: Bears and Bulls are not only real, but dominate humanity in The Glass Magician, an amazing historical fantasy by Caroline Stevermer

What if you could turn into the animal of your heart anytime you want?

With such power, you’d enter the cream of New York society, guaranteed a rich life among the Vanderbilts and Astors, movers and shakers who all have the magical talent and own the nation on the cusp of a new century.
You could. If you were a Trader.

Pity you’re not.

Thalia is a Solitaire, one of the masses who don’t have the animalistic magic. But that is not to say that she doesn’t have talent of another kind—she is a rising stage magician who uses her very human skills to dazzle audiences with amazing feats of prestidigitation. Until one night when a trick goes horribly awry…and Thalia makes a discovery that changes her entire world. And sets her on a path that could bring her riches.

Or kill her.

This is one book that I’m super hype for. I haven’t been in the mood to read it lately, but I have pretty high expectations. I love stories about magicians and I also am fascinated with the Gilded Age. This is a blend of fantasy and historical fiction and I really hope that it’s as great as I expect it to be!

Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford

A haunted, surreal debut novel about an otherworldly young woman, her father, and her lover that culminates in a shocking moment of betrayal – one that upends our understanding of power, predation, and agency.

Ada and her father, touched by the power to heal illness, live on the edge of a village where they help sick locals—or “Cures”—by cracking open their damaged bodies or temporarily burying them in the reviving, dangerous Ground nearby. Ada, a being both more and less than human, is mostly uninterested in the Cures, until she meets a man named Samson. When they strike up an affair, to the displeasure of her father and Samson’s widowed, pregnant sister, Ada is torn between her old way of life and new possibilities with her lover—and eventually comes to a decision that will forever change Samson, the town, and the Ground itself.

Follow Me to Ground is fascinating and frightening, urgent and propulsive. In Ada, award-winning author Sue Rainsford has created an utterly bewitching heroine, one who challenges conventional ideas of womanhood and the secrets of the body. Slim but authoritative, Follow Me to Ground lingers long after its final page, pulling the reader into a dream between fairytale and nightmare, desire and delusion, folktale and warning.

This story is one that I stumbled upon by chance. I got an unsolicited ARC and I have to say that the premise intrigues me. I haven’t read much magical realism but I really want to read more, like I talked about in a Top 5 Saturday post. This book kind of sounds like Pet Semetary and I’m totally here for it. It sounds dark and intriguing.

Survive the Night by Danielle Vega

We’re all gonna die down here. . . .

Julie lies dead and disemboweled in a dank, black subway tunnel, red-eyed rats nibbling at her fingers. Her friends think she’s just off with some guy—no one could hear her getting torn apart over the sound of pulsing music.

In a tunnel nearby, Casey regrets coming to Survive the Night, the all-night underground rave in the New York City subway. Her best friend Shana talked her into it, even though Casey just got out of rehab. Alone and lost in the dark, creepy tunnels, Casey doesn’t think Survive the Night could get any worse . . .

. . . until she comes across Julie’s body, and the party turns deadly.

Desperate for help, Casey and her friends find themselves running through the putrid subway system, searching for a way out. But every manhole is sealed shut, and every noise echoes eerily in the dark, reminding them they’re not alone.

They’re being hunted.

Trapped underground with someone—or something—out to get them, Casey can’t help but listen to her friend’s terrified refrain: “We’re all gonna die down here. . . .” in this bone-chilling sophmore novel by the acclaimed author of The Merciless.

As long as I’m on the subject of dark novels I thought I would bring this book up! This falls under horror and the cover totally has punk feels. A friend of mine said that this is a creepy horror novel that you can finish in one sitting, which is totally what I need!

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

Every story needs a hero.
Every story needs a villain.
Every story needs a secret.

Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.

What really happened?
Someone knows.
Someone is lying.

Okay so I became obsessed with April Genevieve Tucholke after reading Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, which I highly recommend if you like gothic stories with amazing prose, and I want to read everything that she’s written. I have had a hard time getting my hands on a copy of Wink Poppy Midnight locally, but honestly I think I just need to order a copy from Amazon because I am dying to read another of April Genevieve Tucholke’s books and this stand alone looks perfect.

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Tagged!

Jessica @ Odd and Bookish

Belle @ Belle Can Read

Amanda @ Mrs. B’s Book Reviews

Words and Peace

Raven @ Dreamy Addictions

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Check Out Other Book Blogger’s Top 5!

Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog — Books under 300 Pages — Top 5 Saturday

Bella @ Bella — Top 5 Books Under 300 Pages

Jill @ Jill’s Book Blog — Top 5 Saturday– Books Under 300 Pages

Blair @ Feed the Crime —-|Books I Loved Under 300 Pages… Top 5 Saturday|-

Nen & Jen @ Nen & Jen — Top 5 Sat: MG Books Under 300 Pages

Dini @ Dinipandareads — Top 5 Saturday: Books Under 300 Pages

Louise @ Life in the Book Lane — Top 5… Books Under 300 Pages

Let’s Chat!

Do you enjoy short books? What are some of your favorite books under 300 pages? Have you read any of these books? What did you think? Have you been struggling with reading or blogging with everything going on? How have you been dealing with it? What types of books are you reading in this time? Comment below so we can talk about it!