Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten All Time Favorite Books in X Genre

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten All Time Favorite Books in X Genre.  I worried that I wouldn't be able to come up with 10 favourite books in any genre... but I'm going to go with my favourite genre: paranormal fiction.  There's lot to choose from in that category: ghosts, reincarnation, rifts in the space/time continuum...

The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee - I can't even remember why I decided to read this book many years ago (unless it was because I'd just read the Claidi Journals books and I wanted more from that author).  This book looks like science fiction, but it actually has a paranormal twist.  I still remember this one fondly, years after reading it; it has one of those endings that you just can't forget.

Absent by Katie Williams - Reading this book was just a happy accident.  I was trolling through the e-book offerings at my local library and I happened upon this one.  I chose to read it because it was short.  It was actually one of the more enjoyable stories I'd read in a while.  It's almost in the contemporary genre... except that it's told from the point of view of a ghost.

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer - I wanted to read this book for quite a while before I actually got my hands on a copy.  It's a decades-old third book in a trilogy about two sisters, but I think it stands up pretty well against some of today's offerings for this age group.  It's a bit of a boarding school story, a time travel story, and a historical fiction story, all rolled into one.  And I loved some of the characters (especially Emily).

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - This story was creepy and weird... but in a good way.  The addition of the strange vintage photographs that depict the peculiar children only add to the uniqueness of this very odd and entertaining novel.

The Lake and the Library by S. M. Beiko - This was another library find.  I'd never heard of it, and judging by how many times I've stumbled across it on other book blogs (i.e., zero), I'm guessing most people haven't heard of it, either.  That's a real shame, because this Canadian offering is just as good as many of the highly hyped YA paranormal novels out there.  It's a love note to books and libraries, as well as a heart-warming story about friendship and love.

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares - Am I the only one who's disappointed the sequel never happened?  This was one of the best novels that featured the concept of reincarnation that I've ever read.  And the characters (especially Daniel) were so appealing that I really wanted to read more of their story.

The Witches of Willowmere by Alison Baird - This is the first book in a self-contained trilogy (probably my favourite YA trilogy of all time) that deals with witches and reincarnation.  There are a number of similarities with the more popular Immortals series by Alyson Noël... but this trilogy was written years earlier and Baird did a much better job.

Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey - If you've got to have brooding, angst-ridden teenage vampires, they might as well be funny.  I don't think Lucius intended to be, but he was endearingly amusing in his letters home.  Plus, he actually was a young man, so his wooing of the heroine didn't come off as creepy and pedophilic.  Some of the secondary characters in this book were wonderfully memorable, as well.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor - I read this book not too long ago, and I'm still in awe of the author and what she did here.  Not only was the world-building amazing, but the character development was so awesome that by the time that ending happened, my heart was a figurative pile of mush on the floor.  I want to read the sequels, I really do; I just don't know if my heart can take it.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver - While it could be argued that this is more of a contemporary novel about mean girls, it also falls squarely into the paranormal camp (unless reliving one day over and over again is some sort of normal occurrence that I'm not aware of).  The bonus here (and why it's one of my favourite novels of all time, regardless of genre) is Oliver's beautiful prose.  I really, really liked this book and its message about bullying and the power of redemption wrapped up in a paranormal framing device.