Top 5 Mixed Media Books I Want to Read

This Top 5 series started back in October 2018 and it has grown really big! This is a series of books that all have a common theme. I post the schedule for the next month the last week of the prior month. You can talk about books you want to read or books you have read and all prompts are open for interpretation! Feel free to get as creative as you want with the prompts.

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Upcoming Schedule!

January 16th, 2021 — Metal in the Title (Gold, Silver, Brass, Steel, etc.)

January 23rd, 2021 — Book about Competition (Tournament, race, sibling rivalry, etc.)

January 30th, 2021 — Weapons on the Cover

February 6th, 2021 — Royalty in the Title (King, Queen, Princess, Prince, etc.)

February 13th, 2021 — Book with Unique Format (Diary entries, verse, documents, podcast, blog, etc.)

February 20th, 2021 — Books with Family Relationship in the Title (Mother, Father, Daughter, Brother, etc.)

February 27th, 2021 — Snow on the Cover

March 6th, 2021 — Gift Books (Books you got as a gift, would give as a gift or have given as a gift.)

March 13th, 2021 —  Fire on the Cover

March 20th, 2021 — Love Triangle

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Mixed Media Books

My favorite mixed media book that I ever read was Sadie and I absolutely loved it. Mixed media books are told in different formats, like diary entries, verse, interviews, blog post and etc. I used to be really hesitant when I heard a book had mixed formatting, but after reading a few more books with mixed formatting I realized that I really enjoy when stories are told like this. Some mixed media books that I really loved are: I Killed Zoe Spanos, The Good Girls, The Ten Thousand Doors of January and Love Letters to the Dead.

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A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?

 

This is the book that first comes to my mind when I think of mixed media formatted books that I want to read. This book is really popular and the formatting makes this book stand out from all of the other YA thrillers out there. I have a copy of the book, but I’ve also heard that the audiobook is really good, so I think I might get the audio and listen along while I read or just listen.

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The Future is Yours by Dan Frey

Two best friends create a computer that can predict the future. But what they can’t predict is how it will tear their friendship—and society—apart.

If you had the chance to look one year into the future, would you?

For Ben Boyce and Adhi Chaudry, the answer is unequivocally yes. And they’re betting everything that you’ll say yes, too. Welcome to The Future: a computer that connects to the internet one year from now, so you can see who you’ll be dating, where you’ll be working, even whether or not you’ll be alive in the year to come. By forming a startup to deliver this revolutionary technology to the world, Ben and Adhi have made their wildest, most impossible dream a reality. Once Silicon Valley outsiders, they’re now its hottest commodity.

The device can predict everything perfectly—from stock market spikes and sports scores to political scandals and corporate takeovers—allowing them to chase down success and fame while staying one step ahead of the competition. But the future their device foretells is not the bright one they imagined.

Ambition. Greed. Jealousy. And, perhaps, an apocalypse. The question is . . . can they stop it?

Told through emails, texts, transcripts, and blog posts, this bleeding-edge tech thriller chronicles the costs of innovation and asks how far you’d go to protect the ones you love—even from themselves.

The Future is Yours is actually an ARC that I currently have and I forgot that it was mixed media formatting until I started looking for books for this post. It’s a sci-fi that has a really interesting premise and it has emails, texts, government documents and more. I wanted a copy of this just for a change of pace, but it’s the formatting that will probably have me picking it up sooner rather than later.

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Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

The first novel written for an adult audience by the mega-selling author of the Divergent franchise: five twenty-something heroes famous for saving the world when they were teenagers must face even greater demons—and reconsider what it means to be a hero . . . by destiny or by choice.

A decade ago near Chicago, five teenagers defeated the otherworldly enemy known as the Dark One, whose reign of terror brought widespread destruction and death. The seemingly un-extraordinary teens—Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther—had been brought together by a clandestine government agency because one of them was fated to be the “Chosen One,” prophesized to save the world. With the goal achieved, humankind celebrated the victors and began to mourn their lost loved ones.

Ten years later, though the champions remain celebrities, the world has moved forward and a whole, younger generation doesn’t seem to recall the days of endless fear. But Sloane remembers. It’s impossible for her to forget when the paparazzi haunt her every step just as the Dark One still haunts her dreams. Unlike everyone else, she hasn’t moved on; she’s adrift—no direction, no goals, no purpose. On the eve of the Ten Year Celebration of Peace, a new trauma hits the Chosen: the death of one of their own. And when they gather for the funeral at the enshrined site of their triumph, they discover to their horror that the Dark One’s reign never really ended.

I have to admit that the reason I picked up this book is because it’s written by Veronica Roth, but it sounds really cool regardless of the author. I checked out the book and realized that there is some mixed formatting. This book also has PTSD representation, so obviously I’m pretty excited to read it.

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Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall

In the faux-documentary style of The Blair Witch Project comes the campfire story of a missing girl, a vengeful ghost, and the girl who is determined to find her sister–at all costs.

Once a year, the path appears in the forest and Lucy Gallows beckons. Who is brave enough to find her–and who won’t make it out of the woods?

It’s been exactly one year since Sara’s sister, Becca, disappeared, and high school life has far from settled back to normal. With her sister gone, Sara doesn’t know whether her former friends no longer like her…or are scared of her, and the days of eating alone at lunch have started to blend together. When a mysterious text message invites Sara and her estranged friends to “play the game” and find local ghost legend Lucy Gallows, Sara is sure this is the only way to find Becca–before she’s lost forever. And even though she’s hardly spoken with them for a year, Sara finds herself deep in the darkness of the forest, her friends–and their cameras–following her down the path. Together, they will have to draw on all of their strengths to survive. The road is rarely forgiving, and no one will be the same on the other side.

I haven’t read a lot of YA horror, but what I have read I really enjoyed. I am really drawn to this because it’s told in a faux-documentary style kind of like Blair Witch. While in movies that style is hit or miss, I think it could work a lot better in a book. Once again the formatting is the main thing that drew me to this book.

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All of This is True by Lygia Day Penaflor

Miri Tan loved the book Undertow like it was a living being. So when she and her friends went to a book signing to meet the author, Fatima Ro, they concocted a plan to get close to her, even if her friends won’t admit it now. As for Jonah, well—Miri knows none of that was Fatima’s fault.

Soleil Johnston wanted to be a writer herself one day. When she and her friends started hanging out with her favorite author, Fatima Ro, she couldn’t believe their luck—especially when Jonah Nicholls started hanging out with them, too. Now, looking back, Soleil can’t believe she let Fatima manipulate her and Jonah like that. She can’t believe that she got used for a book.

Penny Panzarella was more than the materialistic party girl everyone at the Graham School thought she was. She desperately wanted Fatima Ro to see that, and she saw her chance when Fatima asked the girls to be transparent with her. If only she’d known what would happen when Fatima learned Jonah’s secret. If only she’d known that the line between fiction and truth was more complicated than any of them imagined. . . .

I actually didn’t know that this was told in mixed media formatting before searching for books for this post. I was interested in it because I love a good YA thriller and titles that imply unreliable narrators grab my attention. This book includes interviews, emails and excerpts from a book. This looks like the type of YA thriller that I could devour over the course of a weekend.

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Check out other book blogger’s Top 5 picks!

Etta @ Chonky Books — ~Top 5 Saturday: Books With a Unique Format~

Dini @ Dinipandareads — Top 5 Saturday: Books with Unique Formats

Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog — Books with Unique Formatting — Top 5 Saturday!

Jill @ Jill’s Book Blog — Top 5 Saturday — Books Told in a Unique Format

Louise @ Lou’s Book Stuff — Top 5 Saturday — Books Written in a Unique Format

Let’s Chat!

Do you like mixed media books? What are some of your favorites? Have you read any of the books I listed above? What did you think of them? Are there any mixed media books on your TBR? Make sure to comment below so we can chat about mixed media books!