{"id":24879,"date":"2026-02-11T11:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=24879"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:25:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T19:25:03","slug":"underrated-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/underrated-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Underrated books"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photos of V.E. Schwab\u2019s \u201cShades of
Magic\u201d trilogy. | Photos courtesy of Hannah Field<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Feb. 11, 2026 | \u00a0Hannah Field | Editor-in-Chief<\/span><\/p>\n

Social media does a lot of bad things, and a lot of good things \u2014 but has done both to the rise of reading again. Suddenly, books I finished and despised are top-sellers, everyone\u2019s reading the same thing and I can\u2019t stop getting recommended books I\u2019m not interested in by people I don\u2019t know on TikTok.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other day, I was just thinking to myself: I wish someone with a little bit more proximity to me, a knack for writing and reading and who shares some similarities with me would just give me a list of books I could check out. Now, I can\u2019t do that for myself \u2014 but I can do it for the next person to read this article. Below are a variety of books that I\u2019ve read that I enjoyed that I think are worth picking up if not yet already finished \u2014 all without spoilers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I Fall\u201d by Lauren Oliver <\/b>\u2014 This book was one that I read early on in my young adult book escapades that I haven\u2019t forgotten about. It was catty, hard-hitting and turbulent. Having a 3.88\/5 on Goodreads, and being Lauren Oliver\u2019s debut novel in 2010, I consider it still rather impressive. \u201cBefore I Fall\u201d follows a mean girl in high school, Sam, who goes through a kind of \u201cGroundhog Day\u201d effect and is forced to relive the day she dies over and over again. It\u2019s not a spoiler if it\u2019s the premise of the book, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, \u201cBefore I Fall\u201d has all the criteria for an emotional ride, capitalizing on the importance of kindness and how short life can be. There\u2019s love, there\u2019s drama and, most fun, a selfish, kind-of-evil protagonist, a slight risk for author Lauren Oliver, considering this was in the age of \u201cTwilight\u201d \u2014 Mary Sues were everywhere. The book also has a movie adaptation, which I remember liking, except it only got a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. I\u2019ve been waiting to pick this one back up and give it a reread.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShades of Magic\u201d trilogy by V.E. Schwab <\/b>\u2014 Most know V.E. Schwab for her novels \u201cThe Invisible Life of Addie LaRue\u201d and \u201cBury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil,\u201d the former of which is my favorite book, but the three books in her \u201cShades of Magic\u201d series are perfect for romantasy lovers. In this series, Kell is a magician who can travel between worlds, one of only a handful of people who can. After meeting a runaway sailor, Lila, the two must band together to save all of the Londons \u2014 Red, White, Gray and Black, as a dark magic takes hold in the rifts between worlds. The series explores queer romance, magical warfare, usurping expectations and stereotypes and complex family dynamics, and was one of the most interesting concepts I\u2019ve read about in a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Women\u201d by Kristin Hannah\u00a0 <\/b>\u2014 So, no, Kristin Hannah isn\u2019t underrated right now at all, but all I can find online is recommendations for \u201cThe Nightingale,” which I, actually, did not want to die for, unlike \u201cThe Women.\u201d This book captivated me. It had a slow start, with a bit of simplistic writing, but I was simply taken on this ride with the main character, Frankie, once it picked up.<\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Women,\u201d which is historical fiction about women\u2019s roles in the Vietnam War, Frankie signs up to become an army nurse. She\u2019s taken out of her cushioned, well-fed life and taken to Vietnam, where she learns the truth of what the war looked like and how women were being treated, despite being incredibly pivotal and crucial to the war efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

I breezed through this book in two days, and I\u2019ve been thinking about it since. I don\u2019t want to give too much away, although I have much to say. If this book is on any reading list out there \u2014 this is a sign. Get through the first couple of chapters and report back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fair warning: this book does get a little graphic, considering the Vietnam War army nurse thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo Sleep in a Sea of Stars\u201d by Christopher Paolini <\/b>\u2014 Christopher Paolini released \u201cTo Sleep in a Sea of Stars\u201d in 2020, a standalone story told in Paolini\u2019s new universe: \u201cThe Fractalverse.\u201d The novel takes place in the future when humans have accomplished interstellar travel, met aliens and can modify their bodies. Xenobiologist Kira Nav\u00e1rez is our speaker, and we follow her as she encounters an unidentifiable alien lifeform that she accidentally \u2014 well, absorbs is the best word for it. From there, Kira finds out that if humanity is going to be saved, she has to be the one to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tied in with a love story, lovable and flawed characters and some really complex scientific writing that I\u2019m unqualified to decode, \u201cTo Sleep in a Sea of Stars\u201d is thrilling, intoxicating and long.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paolini is most known for the series \u201cThe Inheritance Cycle,\u201d a quadrilogy starting with \u201cEragon\u201d and focusing on a farm boy who discovers a dragon egg in a fantasy realm that is ruled over by a tyrant. Paolini worked throughout his teens and early twenties on \u201cThe Inheritance Cycle,\u201d boasting complex storylines, intense worldbuilding and great ratings online \u2014 a commendable consideration for a reader\u2019s book list.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fractalverse\u201d also includes \u201cFractal Noise,\u201d a 2023 prequel centered on a different protagonist, featuring no familiar faces from the sequel. While I liked the concept of \u201cFractal Noise,\u201d it intrigued me much less, kept me less captivated and was slower than \u201cTo Sleep in a Sea of Stars.\u201d It was an easier read and a smaller novel, and shouldn\u2019t be discounted, as Paolini is still an accomplished author with a powerful, intelligent voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Wrong Side of Goodbye\u201d by Michael Connelly <\/b>\u2014 To be honest, my dad, who I very rarely take seriously, handed me this book, and it sat on my shelf for more than six months before I finally picked it up and found myself amazed. \u201cThe Wrong Side of Goodbye\u201d is a crime-mystery thriller following recluse detective Harry Bosch. A billionaire enlists Bosch\u2019s help to find his heir, which proves to be quite difficult, all while Bosch is trying to find a serial rapist who terrorizes Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am not usually one to fall for an older white man\u2019s recommended reads. However, I am very glad that I did. I could not stop turning the pages of \u201cThe Wrong Side of Goodbye,\u201d and sequentially went to my local secondhand bookstore to buy as many Harry Bosch books as I could find. I read the first in the Harry Bosch series, \u201cThe Black Echo,\u201d and read about his comeback from the Vietnam War (there it is again), another good Connelly novel. I\u2019m taking a break from the murder \u2014 it was a lot \u2014 but hope to return soon, as Connelly has gained an unexpected fan for life.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howleditorinchief@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feb. 11, 2026 | \u00a0Hannah Field | Editor-in-Chief Social media does a lot of bad things, and a lot of good things \u2014 but has done both to the rise of reading again. Suddenly, books I finished and despised are top-sellers, everyone\u2019s reading the same thing and I can\u2019t stop getting recommended books I\u2019m not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1645,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Underrated books","_seopress_titles_desc":"Novels worth picking up that aren\u2019t so trendy","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[772,1129,9439,338,1123,9453,5459,9450,1184,9449,9452,9440,9454,9437,9455,2057,9451,4142,9438,9447,9445,9441,756,3002,9442,4410,6639,9446,6434,9443,9448,509,1057,3625,6427,9444,2360,4404,4407,3747,8639],"class_list":["post-24879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-author","tag-authors","tag-before","tag-book","tag-books","tag-bosch","tag-christopher","tag-connelly","tag-fall","tag-goodbye","tag-harry","tag-i","tag-kell","tag-lauren","tag-lila","tag-magic","tag-michael","tag-of","tag-oliver","tag-paolini","tag-prequel","tag-reccs","tag-recommendation","tag-recommendations","tag-recs","tag-schwab","tag-sea","tag-sequel","tag-series","tag-shades","tag-side","tag-sleep","tag-stars","tag-the","tag-to","tag-trilogy","tag-twilight","tag-v-e","tag-ve","tag-women","tag-wrong"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24884,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24879\/revisions\/24884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}