My Favorite Murder Book Tag!

Hey everyone! I’m Sophie from The Little Contemporary Corner and I think this is my first ever guest post on Lois Reads Books! Lois and I decided to create a new book tag – the My Favorite Murder tag! We both adore the podcast and co-read the hosts’ (Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark) book, Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered which was also amazing. Lois made these wonderful graphics for our tag and we very excitedly came up with the headings one night, mostly based on famous quotes from the podcast. If you haven’t checked out the podcast but love true crime and comedy (done with sensitivity to any victims of the crimes) definitely give it a listen! And if you enjoy our tag, feel free to give it a go and tag us both so we can see your answers too. The lovely Lois will be doing this over at The Little Contemporary Corner too so definitely go read her post over there.

Now to present you with our My Favorite Murder Book Tag!I was between a few books for this one but Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is one that kept coming back to me. I love the fact that the 6 stories are woven together, characters connecting through time in different ways from the 19^th century to a post-apocalyptic world. Human nature and how we connect is something I love wholeheartedly and I genuinely do love humans beings on the whole. What we can do together is amazing and what we can do as individuals matters and can affect those around us now and in our future. Not to be too cheesy but this makes me feel empowered because we are all connected on this Earth.

---

I don’t think I’ve actually read a book set where I live! However, I came across one in the bookshop Gay’s the Word the other week called The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney by Okechukwu Nzelu. I read the synopsis which sounded great anyway and then I read that it was set in Manchester which peaked my interest further! I definitely want to give this a read at some point soon.

---

Without a doubt I’ll say The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. This book is amazing and a definite classic for myself and I’m sure a ton of other people. Angie Thomas is an incredible writer and she portrays difficult stories, fantastic representation and complex characters for young people. Even though The Hate U Give depicts traumatic events, Thomas still manages to create moments of humour too. I have so much admiration for her and if you haven’t already read this book please do, as well as her second novel, On the Come Up.

---

I struggled with this one! I was going to be cheesy and put Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered but that felt a bit too easy on a My Favorite Murder book tag…So I have instead chosen The Martian by Andy Weir! This is a brilliant book full of humour from the protagonist. He’s alone on Mars in dire, life threatening circumstances yet he still cracks jokes and has moments of great comedy without trivialising the situation in any way. I think a lot of us can relate to humour as a coping mechanism and Mark Watney is a pro at it! A funny, brilliant book with an equally entertaining film adaptation.

---

One of my latest reads was the YA horror Wilder Girls which had red flags flying everywhere. The book is set in a boarding school where the girls are all quarantined because of a mysterious deadly virus that has swept the island and infected the girls. There are a lot of unanswered questions which are chipped away at throughout – we don’t know who to trust, what the truth is, and throughout the protagonist, Hetty, is trying to figure these out. We receive red flags for the majority of characters and situations and sifting through these to find who to trust is a challenge.

---

Whenever someone asks about a book I loved as a child, The Teddy Robinson Storybook by Joan G. Robinson always comes to mind. For years I thought it was called The Adventures of Teddy Robinson but apparently that doesn’t exist…I read this book so much and the adorable little adventures of Teddy Robinson and Deborah (the girl who owns him) have stuck with me a long time. He was such a funny little bear and my memories of this book fill me with warmth!

---

I’m going to choose two for this because I genuinely cannot pick between them. Two wonderfully amazing books are Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman and We Are Okay by Nina LaCour. Starfish was an instant favourite as soon as I read it and features (in my opinion) the most relatable portrayal of anxiety I have ever read. It deals with very heavy themes but does so with sensitivity. We Are Okay is another pretty heavy read at times but again the realism of the emotions featured is amazing. These are two books which I think feature brilliantly real writing.

---

I love so many bookish friendships but the most badass I could think of was that between Cameron, Jane Fonda (not the Jane Fonda) and Adam in The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth. Slight spoiler coming if you haven’t read it! The three meet at God’s Promise, a gay conversion camp. They become close and all try to quietly rebel against what they are being told is the correct way to live. They are truly a force to be reckoned with and form a bond that seems to be to be unbreakable.

---

I always come to the same answer for what book scares me and it is still We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Both the book and the film sent me into a sort of existential crisis about future motherhood. It tackles the taboo subject of a mother not loving her child when he is born along with the age old debate of nature vs nurture. Is Kevin evil or is it to do with his upbringing? Whatever the answer or if it’s a combination of both, this book truly made me scared to have children for a long while!

---

I have so many books that make me happy but I can’t help smiling whenever I read the Heartstopper graphic novels by Alice Oseman. They are the most adorable, sweet, beautiful graphic novels featuring cute queer relationships and wonderfully wholesome friendships. The artwork compliments the story completely and I just can’t get through any of the volumes without a huge smile on my face for the majority of the pages. If you want a dose of a sugary sweet queer love story, definitely check this out!

---

Without a doubt, City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare – I just cannot get on board with the books. I read City of Bones and decided to try the second book afterwards – I don’t regret reading the first as at least I gave it a go but why I chose to read the second of the series is beyond me! I don’t enjoy talking about books I don’t like as I’d rather talk about ones I love and spread positivity for them. I can’t think of any book I regret reading more than this one, especially since Clare herself isn’t exactly a person I respect.

---

I’d argue that one of my favourite books, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, has a cult following. It has become a modern day cult classic in many ways and I think this is also highlighted by the fact that the author was inspired by other cult classics such as The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (another book I love). Perks is a book with a lot of heart and though aimed at teenagers and young adults, I think it’s a great book for any age of adult.

---

I haven’t actually read many (if any!) true crime books which I definitely need to solve soon. One I’ve had on my TBR list for a fair while and that has good ratings is Columbine by Dave Cullen which is about the 1999 Columbine School massacre. I suspect this could be quite a difficult read but I think it could also be informative and enlightening about tragedies like this one. Hopefully, I’ll get round to reading this (and other true crime books) very soon.

---

I already have a pet dog but Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz made me also want Ari’s pet dog. A stray dog, Ari finds her when he is walking one day and names her Legs. She becomes Ari’s little shadow and he loves that dog more than anything and she becomes a part of the family. Ari struggles with his emotions and I think he finds it easier to love Legs than anyone else, because of the simple fact that she isn’t human! Dogs offer simplicity and a happiness that is easy and I love that Ari gains this from Legs.

I hope you had as much fun reading this tag as Lois and I did creating it. Again, feel free to take part in this and answer the questions yourselves – remember to tag us so we can see! Also head over to my blog and see what books Lois has chosen and why.

Stay safe and keep well – or as Karen & Georgia would say, stay sexy and don’t get murdered!