C.S. Hand's Blog: Fantasy Author C. S. Hand, page 10

Why President Snow is the Most Misunderstood Super Hero The World Has Ever Known

President Snow is the most misunderstood and utterly repressed hero to have ever existed anywhere ever.

And today I’m going to prove it.

Snow is Brutally Repressed by Suzanne Collins

Count the number of lines this “awful dictator” is permitted by the authoritarian (totalitarian) Suzanne Collins: they come in under 200. It’s like being on trial and not getting to fully answer the charges leveled against you.

That is to say, we are never really allowed to fully or even partially understand Pre...

11 Books like Throne of Glass with Strong Female Assassins

If you are looking for books like Throne of Glass then rejoice, because your long search has ended—just like Celaena’s exile in the mines.

All of these books are filled with scheming nobility, strong females with hidden powers, assassins, and not a few dashing princes and captains.

Oh, and tons and tons of fighting.

Books like the Throne of Glass to Read

Need some books to read right now? Here is the full list of recommended entries to read if you loved the Throne of Glass.

Best Served Cold...

My Favorite YA Book Quotes from 2015

I’m an unabashed lover of words.

Whenever reading I always have my pen ready to underline book quotes that jump out at me, usually followed by recording them in the margin somewhere.

See:

This year was a year I jumped into reading a lot of dystopian literature, especially books like Divergent, so most of the quotes I have to share are from that genre.

Divergent Quotes Hunger Game Quotes Catching Fire Quotes Mockingjay Quotes

Anyways, the fine bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish host thei...

25 Startling Mockingjay Quotes full of Romance & Terror

Here are all of the incredible Mockingjay quotes I eagerly highlighted and jotted down while reading the final book of the Hunger Games.

Some will make you weep, some will make your hair stand on end, and the best will make you think.

All the Mockingjay Quotes that Made You Have All the Feels

I KILL SNOW. If he’s captured, I want the privilege.

“You’re going to be the best-dressed rebel in history,” says Gale with a smile.

But this republic idea sounds like an improvement over our current...

13 of the Best Apocalyptic Books You Must Read Before the World Ends

It is only fitting that as October comes to a close I wrap up this ghoulish month with the end of all things by bringing you a stack of the best apocalyptic books splattered with blood, zombie plague, and that warm, inviting radioactive glow.

The Best Apocalyptic Books with Plagues, Zombies, and Nuclear Fallout

These novels won’t help you survive the apocalypse but at least if you do survive you will have some entertaining things to read. As an aside, I wholeheartedly recommend listening to...

12 Amazing Divergent Quotes Made Totally Enchanting by Voldemort

Ever tampering with the laws of Nature, my assiduous study of alchemy has produced not a zombie plague (I vow to keep trying) but YA gold: Voldemort and Divergent.

…And rather than hide this new and wonderful jewl for my own personal delight, I have decided to share it with you, dear readers.

These Divergent quotes are quite wonderful in their own right, but when paired with the incantatory speech of the Dark Lord during a time of year known for its tricks as well as its treats, then behold!...

21 Books like Divergent You Should Read Next

Are you looking for books like Divergent?

If you just finished reading that incredible series of dystopian novels by Veronica Roth, then you are probably still wiping your eyes and breathing hard.

The ending to that book!

You may now weep anew, for I am supplying you with a whole lot of books you should read after Divergent.

21 Books like Divergent You Definitely Need to Read

Right, so here they are. You probably thought you could never find another tale containing a journey like the one Tri...

9 Times the Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman Was Surprisingly Fulfilling

If you have any familiarity with The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman, you know the books seem to thrive on anticlimax and following established generic tropes only to mercilessly flip them on their head and not fulfill the reader’s expectations.

Helplessly ensconced inside binary oppositions, I had a deep love/hate relationship with this entire fantasy series all the way through (which is probably what the author wanted).

A typical reading session went something like this:

This is fantasy...

13 Books like the Maze Runner that are Packed with Action & Mystery

Are you looking for books like the Maze Runner?

Great, because I just infiltrated and escaped from one of the old WICKED labs and have returned with a bunch of similar books that they didn’t want us to read.

Ever.

And I have a super special surprise for you as well.

Just as I was leaving the lab, I found a bunch of prototype mazes in hidden files that I will share at the end of this post. You won’t believe the previous versions of the maze they built and what some of the early grievers look...

27 Times the Hunger Games Trilogy Was Utterly Astonishing

By now you have probably made it all the way through the incredible Hunger Games trilogy and might even be looking for similar books to read.

There was a lot that went down in this series of books.

There were tremendous surprises, emotional anguish, more emotional anguish, more surprises, and death, lots and lots of death.

I don’t know about you, but I was practically gasping for breath on every page.

So here is a list of all the times these dystopian books made me feel that rare and fleeting...