Binge reading is fun as it allows you to live in a particular world for much longer than regular fiction. Quite often, I’ve read books that I have loved and wanted to go on perhaps forever but they have, as all good books, come to an end and the stories have stayed on my mind long after. I have, at times, wished I could wipe my memory clean just so I could read a particular book again. This is why I love it when a book I enjoy has a second part or is a part of a longer series. I’m thrilled and usually can’t contain my excitement. This week, I’m recommending five series that I have loved over the years hoping they will bring you joy and thrill just when you need them the most. 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This is just the book you should settle down with on a rainy day. It takes you to another world that is mesmerizing and surreal. In a place called Panem is a rich city known as The Capitol. It’s surrounded by 12 districts and every year The Capitol hosts a live event that is aired on TV called The Hunger Games. One boy and one girl from each district compete in the deadly games and only can be the winner. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take the place of her 12-year-old sister Prim in the 74th Hunger Games. She fights for her life though she never believes she can come out of it alive. This young adult dystopian series started out as a trilogy and went on to include a prequel and a fifth installment. 

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Get a Life, Chloe Brown is the story of the eldest Brown sister. There are two more books in the Brown sister series each of which is hilarious, unique, and heartwarming. The sisters are totally different from one another, as most sisters are, and their lives thus take different, interesting paths. The first book which is tour-de-force romance tackling issues such as insecurity, body-image, and chronic pain is such a delight that you will want to quickly devour the second and the third—Take a Hint, Dani Brown, and Act Your Age, Eve Brown. The books are well written and the steamy scenes aren’t cringe as in most romance books. You don’t have to read the book in order and all three sisters make frequent appearances in one another’s stories so you will really get to know them in depth.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Scythe is intriguing. It’s part creepy, part fascinating. I don’t usually read sci-fi but I made an exception for Scythe as all the BookTubers I follow were raving about it back when it was published in 2016. It was even compared to The Hunger Games. Though there are parallels between them, they are distinctly unique with Scythe feeling more like a distant possibility than The Hunger Games. The human race has conquered death but the population is controlled by a group of elites known as the Scythes who glean people based on different factors. Since nobody dies of old age or accidents, only Scythes have control over who dies. All of it, however, is AI controlled. We only know of it as the Thunderhead in the first book but we definitely get to the interesting details later on. Scythe is a dystopian novel that plays with an ethical question: Does anyone have the right to decide who lives and who does not? 

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo 

There are elements of history, fantasy, and magic in this series that was first published in 2012 and since then has gone on to be adapted for television as well. Leigh Bardugo is known for the Six of Crows series and Shadow and Bone is relatively not as popular but I hugely enjoyed the book because of the simple story and writing. You don’t have to invest a lot of time or mental energy in the series. It’s a good book to pick up when you want to take your mind off things but don’t want to be all wrapped up in a fictional world either. The story takes place in a war-torn Ravka that is split in half by the Shadow Fold, a gaping, dark space that is impossible to cross without risking death, aka being ripped apart by the terrifying volcra. But two orphaned childhood friends make their way across and are thrust into a world they don’t recognize where nothing is as it seems. 

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

There are books that you hear so much about that it puts you off reading them. An Ember in the Ashes was one of those books for me. Everyone I knew was talking about the series. I had read other works by Sabaa Tahir and had really enjoyed them but I put off reading An Ember in the Ashes because everyone kept telling me I’d love it. Then one day, many years later, when people around me were no longer talking about it, I picked it up and was instantly mesmerized. The world in the book is inspired by Ancient Rome. Here, those who aren’t loyal to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones. Laia lives with her grandmother and an older brother. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia makes a bargain—to work for the Empire as a spy. She meets Elias, one of the Empire’s finest soldiers but also an unwilling one. He wants to free himself and everyone else of the tyranny he is being trained to enforce. It’s an interesting plot, made even more fascinating by Tahir’s taut writing.