MY TOP 10 FAVOURITE STAND ALONE BOOKS

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In this day and age, stand-alone books are one-in-a-million. Even when it seems that they're stand-alone, the author will announce a year later that there will be a sequel. Nevertheless, here are 10 of my favourite books that do stand alone. (For once, I didn't beat about the bush, did I?)

10: SWALLOWING THE SUN - DAVID PARK

David Park is also known as Mr. Park. He was one of my high school English teachers. I first read 'Swallowing the Sun' when I was in my second year of high school. It follows Martin as he copes with the sudden passing of his daughter. His daughter was academically brilliant. She did everything that she was told to do and got 11 A* grades at GCSE. But when out celebrating with friends, she took an Ecstasy tablet and died. This book deals with Martin's grief and how he tries to battle his inner demons from being raised in Belfast during the Troubles. 

I love the way that David Park writes. His writing is very dense. He loves alliteration. I remember in English class how he would praise other writers for their use of alliteration. There was one sentence in Michael Frayn's book 'Spies' that he was particularly fond of whereas, I despised that book. 

9: HOW TO STOP TIME - MATT HAIG

This book was everything that I wanted when I was a fan of the show, 'Sanctuary.' 'Sanctuary' followed the character, Helen Magnus, who is 157 years old at the beginning of the series. She was born in Victorian England and has lived several lifetimes. We barely get a hint into her life throughout the series. 'How to Stop Time' gave me every insight that I wanted for a seemingly immortal character; what they go through when they see loved ones age and die, how they have to stay hidden and move around from place to place so that people do not get suspicious especially in certain points in history. 

The lead character, Tom Hazzard may look 41 years old, but he is actually 600 years old. He has lived through some of the most pivotal points throughout history and mingled with some of the most iconic names in our history books. But it all came at a price. He has to adopt a very erratic lifestyle that does nothing for him in the long run. I loved the insights that this gave me for Helen Magnus. I would've loved these things to have been explored in 'Sanctuary'. I loved it. 

8: THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY - MARY ANN SCHAFFER

This book took me by surprise. One night, I was watching YouTube videos and the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation came on as an advert. Instead of tapping 'Skip ad' as I usually do, I decided to watch it. When it said 'based on the book by...', I was instantly on Goodreads investigating. Fifteen minutes later, I was checking out of Amazon with a 1p edition coming my way. 

I started to read it and was instantly hesitant. The whole book is told in letter form. Every piece of information that we get is told in letters between the characters. At first, I wasn't so sure about it but I persisted and kept reading. It wasn't long before I absolutely fell in love with it. I fell in love with the ways that the characters wrote to each other. I would become excited by particular characters and their letters. It was the perfect way to tell this story. I can't imagine it having the same impact if it were told in the traditional novel format. I don''t think that it would have the same impact. 

The adaptation was good. I enjoyed it but it lacked something from the book, as many adaptations do, not least the exclusion of one of my favourite characters in the movie. 

7: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - JANE AUSTEN

Pride and Prejudice was another book that surprised me by how much I liked it. For years, I had avoided Austen books. I did not need to read anything by Austen in school and my first encounter with Austen was in the book 'Persuasion' in my first year of university. After that, I still avoided anything by Jane Austen. I even tried to read 'Pride and Prejudice' when I found out that Emilia Fox played Georgiana in the BBC miniseries featuring Colin Firth. I didn't get past the first page. I wasn't much a reader back then.

Then, in March of this year, I gave myself the challenge to read books that feature Emilia Fox in one form or another (adaptation or narrator etc). 'Pride and Prejudice' was my top priority. I initially thought that the language would trip me up. I don't have the best track record with the language of classics. I was pleasantly surprised by how easily I was able to be enveloped into the story. I did have Sparknotes open on my phone just in case. 

I absolutely loved the story and I can see why people love Mr. Darcy so much. He's so precious. I love how shy he is. I feel the same way in social situations. My favourite characters are definitely, Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy, and Georgiana. Lydia is a little brat. I cannot stand her. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are not great either. 

6: DAISY JONES AND THE SIX - TAYLOR JENKINS REID

I read this book in a day. Like with 'TGLAPPS', this book is in a different format. It is told through interviews with the fictional characters of Daisy Jones and the members of the band, 'The Six.' It's very much a documentary-style book. When I was reading this, all I could see was a VH1 Behind the Music featurette playing in my mind. 

I loved how each character had a voice. Some characters were people that I disliked and then loved and then disliked again. They were very compelling. The ups and downs of this fictional bands felt so real that I felt like I could go to YouTube and Spotify, enter their name and listen to these songs that were featured in the book. A lot of people recommend the audiobook and I wonder if the songs are actually sung in it. I will have to investigate one day. I cannot imagine this book being told in any other way than through the interviews. It simply works the best. 

5: MATILDA - ROALD DAHL

Matilda is probably one of my favourite books of all time. It captured my imagination as a child. I remembering reading this book in P.6 (when I was 10 years old) and drawing Miss Honey and Matilda in Quentin Blake's style. I loved the book. Naturally, I also loved the movie adaptation. I loved the magic of it. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't try to do the same magic when I was alone in the house. Alas, the curtains did not part and the Cheerios box did not pour itself. 

It is also a timeless book. I recently read it again as an adult and I loved it even more than when I was a child. I seemed to understand it a lot more as an adult than I did as a child. I understood the little subtleties within it. I love it even more now. 

4: REBECCA - DAPHNE DU MAURIER

Another surprise and another Emilia Fox book - she starred in an adaptation opposite Charles Dance.  I read this in March of this year after finishing 'Pride and Prejudice'. I was more inclined to read it now because Merphy Napier on YouTube loved the book when she read it. She couldn't recommend it enough. Merphy's recommendations rarely steer me wrong so armed with the information from Merphy and seeing Emilia Fox in my mind's eye, I dove into the book.

At first, I enjoyed it a lot, then I wasn't enjoying it when the heroine and Mr. de Winter get to Manderley Hall. I wasn't enjoying it that much and wasn't liking any of the characters. I was wondering why the heroine was even bothering to stay. Then the story was set to High and I was absolutely hooked until the final page. The last 200 pages were a whirlwind. I couldn't get enough of it. When I wasn't reading it, I was itching to read it. I could easily see Emilia Fox and Charles Dance acting these scenes out. I could also see where a lot of contemporary books, shows, and movies draw inspiration from 'Rebecca.' I saw a lot of O'Brien from 'Downton Abbey' in Mrs. Danvers. I'm not sure if anyone else does, but I did. 

3: THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO - TAYLOR JENKINS REID

I was not surprised with how much I loved this book. The hype surrounding this book had been growing on YouTube and Instagram so I knew going into it that I was going to love it. Not because of the seven husbands and who the surprise last husband was, but because it was surrounding the life and times of an old school Hollywood starlet; think Marilyn Monroe or Elizabeth Taylor. I've always been a fan of the old school black and white movies of the 1940s. Katharine Hepburn is one of my favourite actresses of all time and so when I heard this book was about the life of a Golden Age Hollywood actress, I was already picking my seat on that train.  

I originally went down the audiobook route when reading this book. I couldn't get my hands on an edition that I liked and so to curb my impatience, I picked the audiobook. I could not stop listening to it. I didn't want to stop listening to it. When I was at work, I would sneakily put an AirPod into the farthest ear from the door and listened to it in the back room. I couldn't stop thinking about these characters and Evelyn. These characters owned my heart from the very beginning. I would listen to the audiobook at work, in the gym, when out for a run. I didn't want to stop. 

The narrators were absolutely brilliant. Like with 'Daisy Jones', Taylor Jenkins Reid created a character that seemed so real that I honestly wanted to watch the movies that she talked about in the book. I wanted to see Evelyn Hugo's movies. I wanted to be her fan. I wanted to see documentaries about her life. I wanted there to be an Amazon Prime special about her. I wanted to read other biographies written about her. I wanted her to be real. That's how you know that a book has done its job; when you are that invested in it and are gutted when it's not real. 

2: JACKDAWS  - KEN FOLLETT

This book surprised me beyond belief. I went into it knowing next to nothing about it. I only picked it because I needed an audiobook for a work shift and that Emilia Fox was the narrator. I couldn't believe how captivated I was by it. I sucked into this world from the get-go. The book hits the ground running and does not let off the gas until the very end. The story follows a selection of mismatched characters with various specialties that can help the war effort during World War II; markswomen, bomb experts and women with combat expertise. They're tasked with felling a telephone exchange in Nazi Occupied France. 

What I loved about this book is that it is an adult historical fiction. book. The previous historical fiction books that I had read were Young Adult and they seemed to hold back for my liking. This book does not do that. The women are not painted as timid or shy or nice little home-makers. They are ballsy, they are brave and they are incredibly fallible. They are not perfect. They are not stalwarts. They are not made of stone. They are breakable. They are imperfect. They make stupid choices. When everything goes to Hell in a handbasket, they don't break down. They think of what to do next. It may not be the best idea but it'll do. 

I love that Ken Follett made brave decisions with his characters. He doesn't hold their holds as an author. He doesn't guide them in this direction because it's a safe choice. No. He isn't afraid to hurt them. He isn't afraid to really hurt them. He isn't afraid to kill them. He isn't afraid of the subject material. World War II was brutal. Torture was happening. Torture of the most inhumane kind was happening. I was listening to this at work and I was taken aback; he stuck an electrode where?! There were countless shocking moments in this book and that's why I loved it. I loved it for its unashamedly brutal and honest representation of World War II. I cannot wait to read it again. 

1: MARINA - CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN

Any time I went into Easons a few years ago, this book was always staring at me from the bookcases. Eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I picked it up. In 2019, this was one of my favourite books of the year. From the first chapter, I was captivated by it. It is masterfully written by Carlos Ruiz Zafón and beautifully translated by Lucia Graves. 

I also describe this book as Frankenstein meets Phantom of the Opera. From the beginning, it definitely does not seem that way but trust me, it gets to that as Oscar and Marina progress on their journey through Barcelona. Ruiz Zafón has a way of painting the most atmospheric of pictures in your imagination. I felt as if I was standing right beside Oscar on the streets of Barcelona. I could feel the humidity clinging to the fog that covered the sleeping city. I could feel the heat of the fire on my face, I flinched as embers fell around me. I truly felt as if I was there. I wanted to go through Barcelona with Oscar and Marina as they go from person to person investigating the story that they're trying to uncover. I wanted to sit down on the floor with these characters and listen to the stories that they were told. Even those stories within this story came to life in my mind. 

I cannot sing this book's praises enough. I love 'The Shadow of the Wind' and 'Angel's Game' by Ruiz Zafón because they are incredibly atmospheric as well but there is something special about 'Marina.' It's simply magical, creepy, interesting and oh so captivating, especially for a Young Adult book. 

Have you read any of these books? Let me know what some of your favourite stand-alone books are in the comments below.