Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Broke.

This week is all about unique books. It’s probably quite hard to find truly unique ideas these days, but lots of writers have come up with fantastic twists or ways of doing things. So I present to you, ten books with something different about them which I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

The City’s Son by Tom Pollock

The whole Skyscraper Throne trilogy is packed with creativity. Tom re-imagines a London where the city is alive. Also one of the first books I read with a Muslim character where her faith isn’t a plot point.

Parasite by Mira Grant

Sentient tapeworms taking over their human hosts? Yup, pretty unique premise. The first book is the strongest but it’s well worth reading the whole trilogy.

The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker

I don’t think anyone else has ever had a Golem as a central and sympathetic character. It’s also a beautifully told story about immigration, faith and integration.

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

A zombie love story sounds like it would be dreadful but I love the skill with which this book is told. It’s a lot better known since the film was made, but I think it’s often pitched as a comedy which would have completely put me off.

The Testimony by James Smythe

One day, the whole world hears a voice in the sky. Is it a god, aliens or something human-made? Whatever it is leads to global chaos, and this novel follows it all through 26 different narrators.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Stunning retelling of part of the Iliad, a love story between Achilles and Patroclus. I don’t think much historical fiction acknowledges the fact that ancient Greece and Rome were pretty fluid with their sexuality. I mean, just look at all the things Zeus got up to!

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Supernatural, killer horses from the sea, an isolated island community and the humans who try to tame them. This reminded me a little of Patricia Leitch’s Jinny series which I adored as a kid. Still my favourite Stiefvater book.

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

I read this back when I really didn’t experiment much with my reading and I read jumped in head first into surreal literary fiction with it! Amnesia probably sounds like standard fayre by now but sharks made out of text are still uncommon. How Eric tries to recover his past is really quite unique. I loved the use of typography in it too.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

A book about the apocalypse without violence or action scenes. It is so so sad, but I hope we would see in the end of days this way if it ever happened. The polar opposite of The Road.

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

The beginning may have been ripped off repeatedly by now, but no one else has really gone on to explore carniverious plants taking their place at the top of the food chain.