I recently read The Queen of Nothing, by Holly Black, and Imposters, by Scott Westerfeld. I wanted to throw them together into one post because while they are fairly different from each other, they are from the same genre, and both books feature twin sisters as the main characters.

The Queen of Nothing is the third book in the series by Holly Black. It just came out in November, which is probably as timely as I’ve ever been about a book. I wrote about the first two books in the series here. You have to read those before you can get to this one, but once you get through the first one, where you do all the work to understand the fairy world and get to know the characters, then you know everyone and it’s much easier to get into the next two and really enjoy the story.

Imposters is the first book in a series (I’m reading the second, Shatter City, right now. My daughter saw the book at the library, recognized the author’s name because I own his other books, and brought it home for me). Even though it’s the first in the series, it takes place in the world of the Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras, another series (with those titles, respectively), but Imposters is set years later.

Imposters takes place in the future, The Queen of Nothing takes place in the current day world, between our real world and the fantasy world of fairies.

I actually bought the paperback of Imposters over a year ago, after I enjoyed Westerfeld’s previous series. I tried to read it a couple of times, but it was just too violent and I never got past the first couple of pages. When my Grandma passed away, I knew I’d be in the car for 12+ hours driving to and from her memorial. Ever since my daughter had brought me Shatter City, I wanted to read the first book in the series before I started the second, so I decided I’d try the audiobook of Imposters.

My ten-year-old daughter rode in the car with me on that trip, so she listened with me. And after that initial violent scene, which wasn’t so bad with someone else reading it to us, we were both totally into the story, laughing and gasping at the same parts.

I don’t want to mix the stories up too much, but I’ll say this: I appreciate the way each author plays with sibling relationship and explores what sisters are to each other. I enjoyed reading the books around the same time because the sister dynamics in each book work together.

With three daughters at home and a sister of my own, I’ve experienced my fair share of sister drama. It was enjoyable to read about someone else’s sister drama in the fantasy world and in the future, without having to be emotionally involved. And if you enjoy both series, plus Westerfeld’s other series of books, I just recommended 9 titles in one post.

Happy reading.

My girls are not twins, but people assume they are fairly often. They generate the average amount of drama among themselves and with their little sister, who isn’t pictured.