Thursday Thoughts – Favorite Worlds

So, I’m knee deep in the middle of Wonderland right now in my quest to binge read – I mean, complete, Heartless by Marissa Meyer (I swear, you hear me mention this book so many times, I really do read other things, I promise!)

It got me thinking, what other worlds are your (and my) favorite? Wonderland is so deliciously complex and imaginative, so I was trying to think of the other worlds that could measure up in a sense to the beautiful, lush imagery that Wonderland has to offer. Here were a few that I came up with:

• Ketterdam from Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo

This place is dirty, dark, and totally rough around the edges. It’s so ridiculously cool, though. I love all the places that Bardugo created for this and the Grisha triology, but Ketterdam sticks out the greatest. It’s called the “barrel” for goodness’s sake, so you know it’s own pit but revels in it. Perhaps it is the imagery itself that I love the most, but perhaps the characters that come out of this dark and dingy place. There is not enough heart eyes to go around for Mr. Kaz Brekker.

• Wonderland from Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes

I will tell you the cold, hard truth: I’m not a Alice in Wonderland fan. Shocking, I know, since I talk about Heartless every chance I get (sorry, sorry). I just have never gotten into the world as much as I should have with the amount of Disney I watch. I never liked the animated version, and I have yet to see the Tim Burton versions – so I shocked myself by picking up this book. I actually ended up majorly not liking it, but I loved the Wonderland that Oakes created. It was beautiful, imaginative, and so different than what Meyer has created so far. If you can get past the things I didn’t like about it (i.e. Melodrama-land), you are in for a delightful treat with Oakes’ world.

• The Veil from Veiled by Karina Halle

So, I never read the Experiment in Terror series by Karina Halle, where the world was created and set up – in like a million books. There was a lot to catch up for this book that was a spinoff of the original series but could be read as a standalone. However, I think Halle rocked it, since I never really had questions about the world she created and the fact that I had not read any of the other books. The demons, the horror, the portals, the Veil itself – all of them were grotesque and beautiful and so very haunting. I believed in her descriptions, and I can still imagine some of the things she described even though I read this back in August. If you’re looking for a lighter horror novel with some major creep factor in this world and another – this is the book to do it.

There are some other major worlds that I loved – but I vowed myself I would stop talking about Meyer…and I didn’t have pictures for the other ones, which totally threw off my scheme that I was going with. I also apparently like to do my posts in threes, so there’s that as well.

What are your favorite worlds? Is there a world that you absolutely hated? Is there one that you’re dying to explore? Please let me know your thoughts!