Top Ten Tuesdays: Dystopian Books and Shojo Manga

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke and Bookish.

I actually couldn't come up with any top tens for one specific genre, so I figured I'd split it up into two different lists. I'm such a smart cookie. XD

Top 5 Dystopian Books:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Epic by Conner Kostick

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Unwind by Neal Shusterman 

Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

If you've read any of the books in this list, you will notice that there is a reoccurring theme, which is that they all have lots of action, suspense, great writing, and that empowering feeling that makes you want to stand up and make a difference. In addition, three of the five involves overturning the government, which also gives you that awesome feeling of making a difference, which I absolutely LOVE to feel while reading a book. 

Top 5 Shojo Manga Series: 
Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino

This was the first series to get me into shojo manga, and I'm glad that I still love it. The art was amazing when I first read it years ago, but as the series progressed, it got even more beautiful with every volume. And the plot! It became even more twisted and crazy and gasp-worthy with just the right amount of humor for comic relief. 

Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori

Super hilarious! At first, I was a snob and didn't want to read this series because I thought that the art was weird looking, but I am so glad that I decided to give it a shot, because not only did I find the art charming and interesting, but the characters! They're all so crazy and hilarious and out of control and cute and scheming and unique. I was laughing my head off in the first volume itself; definitely give this series a shot.
Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You by Karuho Shiina

I kind of cheated with this series because I only read the first volume (and absolutely loved it) and then eventually watched the first season of the anime. The series was like a breath of fresh air since the protagonist was so completely different from any other shojo manga that I have read. And the romance is so sweet in here; it's the type of slow, gradual romance that has you squealing whenever they even do anything remotely romantic, lol. I know that the second season of the anime has already been out, so I'm debating on finally reading the series before watching it to refresh myself on the events, or just watching the new season after re-watching the last episode of the first season. 

La Corda D'oro by Yuki Kure

This series is actually based off of a dating video game (I forgot the word for it... dating sim?), which was surprising. In the beginning, the art was a little awkward at times, but as the series progressed, it became a lot better, and as the plot progressed, it became even more addicting and amazing. I really liked this series because of the emotions that the plot evoked. Also, this is centered around a music competition plot, so that just makes the series even better. 

Maid Sama! by Hiro Fujiwara

I read the first few volumes of this series before it became popular, and then stopped for a while and forgot about it. When I found out that there was an anime for it, I watched it and also absolutely loved it. The anime followed the manga faithfully-- at least from the scenes that I remembered reading--but it also brought another element to it that, I think, made me enjoy it even more: the voice actors. They really brought the characters to life with their dynamic voices. And really, the art was also gorgeous in both the anime and manga. The romance was another type of slow burn, one that was both hilarious and exasperating because Misaki was pretty dense, lol.

...I was not expecting to write so much for these series, lol. -__-"