Hello, fellow bookworms! Welcome, or Welcome back! My name is Amanda, and this is where I share spoiler-free book reviews and other bookish things. Thanks for visiting. Join the conversation and share your thoughts. Let’s get Smitten for Fiction!

I’ve been participating in the Sunrise on the Readathon this month, and our final week has a challenge to read underrated books (less than 10,000 ratings on Goodreads, Story Graph). This gave me the idea to share with you my favourite underrated books. I’m going to stick with books that were published at least a year ago – meaning, they’ve been published for at least a year and have less than 10,000 ratings.

I’m going to kick things off with Summer of Salt and Sometime in Summer, both by Katrina Leno. These are queer YA Contemporary books with a fantasy element. I love everything about Summer of Salt. The characters, plot, quality writing, message, and ending are perfect for me. At first glance, Summer of Salt is a lighthearted young adult novel with romance and magic; however, this is a hard-hitting story delivering a strong message about unconditional love, acceptance, and consent.

I can’t tell you everything I want to tell you about Sometime in Summer because I don’t want to ruin your experience. This is a story about two people who get a divorce, but who still love each other and respect each other and who parent their child together even though they aren’t a romantic couple. This is a story about two friends falling in love. It’s a story about finding yourself and feeling like you have bad luck. This is about a bookstore owned by Anna’s mother, who can choose the exact book someone needs in their life – THE book that will change their life. This is about the rough patches of life, the fights with friends, and finding new ones. This is about forgiveness and discovering who you are. This is about a mother and daughter spending a summer in a small, east coast beach town that reminded me of the time I’ve spent in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland (Canada). 

Moon of the Crusted Snow has almost 40,000 ratings, but its sequel has just 9,200 – so go check it out. This is a dystopian literary horror novel. The character development, settings, descriptions, and world-building are incredible. Without giving away spoilers, there is an allegory that symbolizes windigo and colonization. The writing is beautiful with authentic dialogue and includes their native language. I love how much Indigenous language was included without direct translation. Moon of the Turning Leaves is about Indigenous culture, courage, community, resilience, hope, and love. It’s about working together to build a better future and knowing the importance of respect for the land.

I love everything Anna-Marie McLemore writes…have you read The Weight of Feathers yet? This is another YA Contemporary novel with magical realism. The writing, the writing, the writing. McLemore’s writing is just stunning. I love to read the same sentence over and over, and over.

How does Dress Codes For Small Towns only have 4,700 ratings? I don’t get it. One of the best books I read in 2017. This is an endearing young adult fictional romantic contemporary novel about a tomboy teenage girl finding herself among the rumour mill of a small town. Courtney Stevens starts an interesting conversation about gender, sexuality, friendship, love, expectations, perceptions, identity, and family. 

Next, I’d like to recommend Fake it Till You Break It. I thought this enemies-to-lovers-fake-dating story was fun and heart-warming. Mia and Jake have been neighbours forever. Their mothers have been pushing them to become a couple. Annoyed by their mother’s efforts, they come up with a crazy plan to pretend that they’re dating for a few weeks, then have a huge break-up so their mothers will stop trying to get them together.

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott is one of the best books I’ve ever read. This is an unforgettable, dark, emotional, smart, mysterious, surreal yet sometimes funny story-within-a-story about mental illness, grief, racism, tradition, motherhood, free will, trust and resilience that you MUST read to the very end.

It reminded me of Mona Awad and Iain Reid. In an interview, Elliott said, “I’m obsessed with everything Mona Awad, Heather O’Neill and Eden Robinson write, so really anything by them. I also loved Bad Cree by Jessica Johns and VenCo by Cherie Dimaline, and am eagerly anticipating Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice”.

The Adversary by Michael Crummey was a big five stars for me. This is a Historical Fiction novel set in Newfoundland, Canada. This is a brutal, desolate, and heartbreaking story about revenge, greed, manipulation, and murder with commentary on gender, class, and race.

Someone Had To Do It is a severely underrated Mystery/Thriller by TWINS Amber and Danielle Brown. I can’t believe Someone Had To Do It is a debut. This book blew me away. I don’t understand how it has a small readership on Goodreads. If you’re looking for over-the-top, fast-paced, dark, sexy suspense, this is the story for you. One of the best books I read in 2022.

Your Life is Mine has under 1,000 ratings on Goodreads. This is one of the best thrillers I’ve read. This is about Blanche, the daughter of a cult leader who went on a shooting spree. She returns to her hometown after her mother is murdered. Your Life Is Mine drives home the value of information and how that knowledge can be used to dig up the truth. It’s about trauma and healing. This is engaging, creepy and intense.

You all know I’m Smitten For Fiction; however, I do enjoy nonfiction and The Truth About Luck is one of my absolute favourites by one of my all-time favourite authors, Iain Reid. It’s about a road trip/staycation Iain took with his grandmother in Eastern Ontario. They visit coffee shops and restaurants in Kingston, and although he’s known her his whole life, he learns things about his grandmother that he never knew – and she learns things about him that she never knew. This quiet, cozy memoir may appear simple, but it carries a life-changing message.

With just 109 ratings on Goodreads, And the Walls Came Down is one of the most underrated books out there. Denise Da Costa wrote this incredible literary fiction, coming-of-age novel set in Toronto, Canada, and you need to read it. Told from the present and the past with diary entries, And the Walls Came Down by Denise Da Costa is an unforgettable story about complicated relationships and upbringing, and how they help to form our identity, values and beliefs. And the Walls Came Down by Denise Da Costa is a dark, sad, diverse, character-driven debut about mental illness, secrets, class, gender, race, family, friendship, community and survival.

What are your favourite underrated books?

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