Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve been told I live under a rock. I donā€™t know much about popular media, I canā€™t name any actors, and when I catch onto a trend, itā€™s usually five to six years after said trend has died out. People alert me of my lack of knowledge like itā€™s a bad thing, but I think if they could see all the books theyā€™re missing out on, theyā€™d feel otherwise. There are hundreds of thousands of fantastic stories that are neither glamorous nor gritty enough to make it to the forefront of the internet, and every time I find one, it changes my life. Living under a rock: 10/10 would recommend.


I wrote

Where the Lightning Goes

By Jackary Salem,

Book cover of Where the Lightning Goes

What is my book about?

After a powerful wizard tears Elleā€™s soul apart and steals her memories, sheā€™s locked in a house to rot. Herā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Poison

Jackary Salem Why did I love this book?

This book is one of my earliest inspirations, and Iā€™ve never met anyone else whoā€™s even heard of it.

Poison is the very first book that made me think, ā€œWow. I want to be able to write something like this.ā€ I loved the story, but what Iā€™ll never forget is how the ending made me feel. This book is both simple and complex; a wild, unpredictable journey and a natural progression of events.

I write with the hopes of someday completing something as lovely as this.

By Chris Wooding,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Poison as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

Perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton, this is no ordinary
fairy tale.

When Poison's baby sister is stolen by phaeries, Poison sets off
on an incredible and dangerous journey to get her sister back from
the Phaerie Lord.

But as Poison travels to the Realm of Phaerie, she discovers that
her story - and her destiny - is not in her control, and that she
will need all her wits about her to survive.

A fantasy where the power of story maybe the only thing that will
save you, and where imagination knows no bounds.


Book cover of Mister Monday

Jackary Salem Why did I love this book?

The Keys to the Kingdom is another oft-overlooked series, which I recommend to anyone I can.

Iā€™ve yet to meet anyone else whoā€™s read it. This is the series that made me fall in love with magic systems and worldbuilding. Iā€™ve always enjoyed fantasy more than other genresā€”something about magic existing in the grass and little monsters hiding behind the trees just made sense to meā€”but it wasnā€™t until reading this series that I realized a fantasy world can be more than just a setting.

Magic and the way the world functions can be characters in and of themselves. Whenever I need inspiration for building an intricate, interactive world, I reread this series.  

By Garth Nix,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Mister Monday as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

This is a great time to reprint the spellbinding start to The Keys to the Kingdom!

Best-selling author Garth Nix creates a magical world and an intriguing mystery in this new blockbuster series.Seven days. Seven keys. Seven virtues. Seven sins. One mysterious house is the doorway to a very mysterious world -- where one boy is about to venture and unlock a number of fantastical secrets. This is another thrilling, triumphantly imaginative series from Garth Nix, the best-selling author of THE SEVENTH TOWER, SABRIEL, and LIRAEL.

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Book cover of Taken: A Mother's Secret

Taken by Dan Lawton,

Nine-year-old Chloe Janis is missing. Abby, her mom, is now faced with an impossible decisionā€”revealing seventeen-year-old secrets she's kept hidden, or losing her daughter forever.

Everything unravels after Abby receives a cryptic message from a man from her past, someone sheā€™d tried to erase from her memory. But now, heā€™sā€¦

Book cover of Howl's Moving Castle

Jackary Salem Why did I love this book?

I know what youā€™re thinking. ā€œHowlā€™s Moving Castle? Everyone loves that.ā€ And youā€™re rightā€”to an extent.

Everyone I know has seen the Studio Ghibli adaptation, but Iā€™ve only met one other person whoā€™s read the book. And believe it or not, the book is different from the movie. What I love about this book isnā€™t the fantasticism, but the whimsy. Itā€™s an adventure that isnā€™t about wars or saving the world, and thereā€™s no central antagonist.

This book reminds me that stories can just be fun, and I come back to it every time I need a quick trip through a magical countrysideā€”no angst required.  

By Diana Wynne Jones,

Why should I read it?

23 authors picked Howl's Moving Castle as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

Now an animated movie from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, the oscar-winning director of Spirited Away

In this beloved modern classic, young Sophie Hatter from the land of Ingary catches the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste and is put under a spell...

Deciding she has nothing more to lose, Sophie makes her way to the moving castle that hovers on the hills above her town, Market Chipping. But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl, whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the souls of young girls...

There Sophie meets Michael, Howl's apprentice, and Calciferā€¦


Book cover of The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Jackary Salem Why did I love this book?

Gaiman has received a lot of acclaim for a lot of his books, and one of the stories most commonly left in his more famous worksā€™ shadows is The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

What I love about this book is that the story spans across a lifetime. I tend to get so focused on the here and now that I sometimes forget that the past, present, and future are all a part of the same great big tapestry.

What I did yesterday impacts who I am today, and the choices I make today affect who Iā€™ll be tomorrow. This book helps me remember that life is a journey, and today is only one step on a much larger, more intricate path. 

By Neil Gaiman, Elise Hurst (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked The Ocean at the End of the Lane as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 'BOOK OF THE YEAR'

AN ACCLAIMED WEST END THEATRE PRODUCTION *****

'Neil Gaiman's entire body of work is a feat of elegant sorcery. He writes with such assurance and originality that the reader has no choice but to surrender to a waking dream' ARMISTEAD MAUPIN

'Some books just swallow you up, heart and soul' JOANNE HARRIS

'Summons both the powerlessness and wonder of childhood, and the complicated landscape of memory and forgetting' GUARDIAN

---

'My favourite response to this book is when people say, 'My childhood was nothing like that - and it was as ifā€¦


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Book cover of The River of Eternity

The River of Eternity by Bruce Balfour, PhD,

1184 BCE. Ramesses III, who will become the last of the great pharaohs, is returning home from battle. He will one day assume the throne of the Egyptian empire, and the plots against him and his children have already started. Even a god can die.

Ray was raised with theā€¦

Book cover of In An Absent Dream

Jackary Salem Why did I love this book?

This book is a standalone story that takes place in the Wayward Children series.

Due to its nature as a standalone, people who read the series skip over it, and people who havenā€™t read the series avoid it. This is one of my favorite books of all time. More than the magic or adventure, I love how human it feels.

No people are good or bad, and decisions are made from the heart. This book fuels my passion for storytelling, reminding me that the heart of a story isnā€™t intricate plots or crazy settings, but relatable characters.

I strive to make my characters feel more real and act more human because of this book.  

By Seanan McGuire,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked In An Absent Dream as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This fourth entry tells the origin story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should. When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well. For anyone...


Explore my book šŸ˜€

Where the Lightning Goes

By Jackary Salem,

Book cover of Where the Lightning Goes

What is my book about?

After a powerful wizard tears Elleā€™s soul apart and steals her memories, sheā€™s locked in a house to rot. Her only remaining memory is of falling from the sky, though even that raises more questions than it answers. Upon her escape, she falls into a world thatā€™s equal parts vicious and beautiful. Magic is everywhere, everyone is out for themselves, and every truth is accompanied by a lie. Sheā€™s positive the key to recovering her memories is the sky-castle from her dreams, but getting there requires magic she doesnā€™t have. Traversing an enchanted painting, stealing from a dragon, and outwitting a demon are only the beginning. And this time, sheā€™s got more than freedom and memories on the line.

Without magic, there is no survival.

Book cover of Poison
Book cover of Mister Monday
Book cover of Howl's Moving Castle

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