Books I used to be obsessed with but now can’t remember a single thing from
Remember that perfect combination of being a hormonal teenager, perfect fictional book boyfriends, and the best fantasy worlds to escape to? Oh, those were the days. It’s not a surprise I fell from one obsession into another. I haven’t touched these books in years, but they did hold a very special place in my heart at one point in my life.
Because all my books are packed up in my parent’s attic and I’m not even in the country, I did a deep dive in my Goodreads to see which covers make me all warm and tingly inside, even though I don’t remember anything from them. An overview of my teenage obsessions.
Shiver series by Maggie Stiefvader
You might recognize this author from the immensely popular Raven Cycle, but before that, she wrote the Shiver series. I think this might have been one of my earliest introductions to the YA fantasy genre with a strong love story. Before this, I got my fix from Harry Potter fanfiction, but this discovery showed me a whole new world, and I’ve been ruined ever since.
I remember the series was about shapeshifting wolves and there was a, in my innocent teenager's eyes, hot love story involved. There might have been a mountain, I think, and I remember a scene with a helicopter chasing the pack of wolves, and they have to outrun it. Somebody probably sacrifices themself. That’s it. Nothing else.
I did read somewhere they are making a movie about this series so that could be interesting.
Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick and Angel by L.A. Weatherly
Judging by the cover and the titel, I’m gonna say these two involved angels, but I remember literally nothing about these books, and I have both series. There are seven of them in total and I read them more than once, and I’m completely blanking here. I think I remember maybe one scene where after the angel falls, they are on the run and something with a car? But I don’t even remember which series that scene belongs to. Lots of angst, teenage love, and probably a few existential crises.
So yes, despite being non-religious, there was a brief period in my life in which I was obsessed with fallen angels and it was because of these books. I’m just now realizing I never asked any questions on whether these angels were super old like vampires and they fell in love with teenagers. Yikes.
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
I judged a book by its cover, okay? We all do it and I got hundreds of more examples of that, both good and bad. I remember being absolutely obsessed with these books and wanted to move to a hot, humid small southern town. I also remember being super excited about the movie and then being completely pissed about it because the ending strayed so much from the book. I don’t remember how or what, but it was wrong and I refused to watch it again.
I do remember one scene very vividly about the male main character reading a book called “you get so alone at times that it just makes sense”, and I thought that title was so cool and edgy that I also bought that book because I wanted to be cool and edgy and anyway, that’s how I discovered Charles Bukowski. I still have that book, by the way, and I remember more from Charles Bukowski than from the caster chronicles.
Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler
This one was definitely another judge-a-book-by-its-cover buy, because the story is not fun, at all. I’m pretty sure the main plot point is that the love interest dies, and then it’s 300 pages of pure angst. My emo-obsessed teenage brain lived for that. There might have been a very weird ghost-love triangle at some point, but I got no idea how that turned out. Knowing me, I was all about the ghost-boyfriend and I probably hated the new boy. Back then, the more impossible or unrequited a love story, the better. Luckily, I’ve evolved.
The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine
I remember these books being about vampires and I’m pretty sure there was also a ghost, but the thing I remember best about these books was that they were glow-in-the-dark! Also that there were too many of them. This series was part of my whole vampire obsession, which included the classics like Twilight, Vampire Academy, and the Vampire Diaries. While I do remember those other series pretty well, but this one, literally nothing.
BUT finding these books did turn out awesome because years later, Rachel Caine wrote the Great Library series, and that one is just absolute perfection and I remember every single thing that happens in those. Unfortunately, Rachel Caine passed away in 2020.
