**A Heart-Wrenching yet Eye-Opening Experience: My All-Time Favorite Stand-Alones**

As I sat down to write this article, I couldn't help but reflect on the books that have had the most profound impact on me. And, as it turns out, my all-time favorite stand-alones are those that have not only left an indelible mark on my heart but also helped me understand myself and my own struggles with mental illness in a way that few others could. One such book is "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green.

This book was truly eye-opening for me, and I can barely put into words the emotions it evoked. It's as if the author had somehow managed to tap into the deepest recesses of my mind, capturing the complexities of mental illness with unprecedented accuracy. The way that mental illness is depicted in this book – it's so incredibly real, so raw, and yet, so heartbreaking – left me breathless and wanting more.

The passages I highlighted throughout the book were like nothing I'd ever read before. They spoke to me on a level that few others could, making me feel seen, heard, and understood in a way that was both comforting and terrifying at the same time. The author's words somehow managed to validate my own thoughts and feelings, as if I wasn't alone in this struggle after all. It was an experience like no other, one that left me feeling both relieved and terrified – relieved that someone, anyone, understood what I was going through, yet terrified by the realization of how common it is.

I remember reading this book on a plane, feeling completely lost and overwhelmed as the pilot's voice came over the intercom. But even in the midst of panic, there was something about this book that kept me grounded, something that made me feel like I wasn't alone. And so, I finished the book, knowing that I needed to read it again – not just for myself, but for everyone else who might be struggling with mental illness.

As I re-read the book once more, I found myself underlining and highlighting passages with reckless abandon, desperate to cling to the words that had come to feel like a lifeline. And when I finally finished reading it, I knew that I would never forget this experience – one that left me feeling both changed forever and still, somehow, alone.

Of course, not everyone will be in the same place as me when they read "The Fault in Our Stars." Some may find solace in its words, while others may be triggered by the raw emotion it evokes. But for those who do find themselves struggling with mental illness – or anyone who has ever felt like they don't quite fit in – this book is a must-read. It's a reminder that you're not alone, that there are people out there who understand what you're going through.

And so, here it is on my list of all-time favorite stand-alones: "The Fault in Our Stars." I couldn't be more proud to include it among these titles, knowing that it has the power to touch lives and change hearts. Next up on my list, though, is one that will undoubtedly take its place at the very top.

**A Magical Tale of Love and Magic**

Speaking of all-time favorite stand-alones, there's another book that comes to mind when I think of magical storytelling: "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern. Oh, how many times have I pushed this book on my audience, begging them to read it? How many times will I push it before they finally give in?

For those who haven't stumbled upon this incredible tale yet, let me tell you – it's time to do so. This magical circus, open only at night, serves as a backdrop for a competition between two magicians who unwittingly become each other's rivals. But what follows is nothing short of enchanting – a mesmerizing dance of love, magic, and wonder that will leave even the most hardened reader breathless.

Morgenstern's prose is nothing short of breathtaking, weaving a spell that will captivate your senses and transport you to a world that feels both familiar and yet, utterly magical. Every word is like a brushstroke on canvas, painting a picture of a place that exists in a realm between reality and fantasy – one that I can hardly wait to return to.

And let's be honest – if you haven't read "The Night Circus" by now, what are you even doing with your life? Seriously though, this book is the epitome of magical storytelling. If you're looking for something to transport yourself into a world of wonder and awe, look no further. This is it.

**A List of All-Time Favorites**

As I sit down to compile my list of all-time favorite stand-alones, I'm met with a daunting task – narrowing it down to just so many titles. There are simply too many incredible books out there that have captured my heart and imagination in meaningful ways. But after much contemplation and deliberation, here's the result: a collection of stand-alones that speak to me on a deep level, each one having left an indelible mark on my life.

And so, without further ado, here are my all-time favorite stand-alones – books that I return to again and again, always finding something new to love about them. From the magical realism of "The Night Circus" to the heart-wrenching emotion of "The Fault in Our Stars," each one on this list has captured a piece of my soul in some way.

And there you have it – my all-time favorite stand-alones. I hope that by sharing these titles with you, I've somehow managed to convey the impact they've had on me and perhaps, just perhaps, inspire you to pick up a copy or two (or ten).

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Hanna and today I'm gonna be talking about all of my all-time favorite standalone novels so as you may know I'm a huge fan of series I love books series I read so many of them so many of my favorite books of all time are from books series but I also really really loved stand-alones and in the big debate between series or standalone I honestly can't pick one because I love both of them equally but I really like doing like favorite series list types of videos even though they're always kind of nerve-racking to make because I know that I'm always gonna read more stand-alones that I'm gonna want to add to this list eventually but at this point in time I have quite a few favorites and I thought that I would share all of them with you all in one video many of these stand-alones you've probably heard me talk about before because I mentioned them over and over and over again some of them I've mentioned less frequently on my channel but for the most part I feel like you'll be able to guess the majority of them this list is going to be somewhat in order I'm gonna go from like my least favorite to most favorite obviously they're all favorites but I'm saving like the first top three or maybe top five as my top 5 favorite ones the rest are kind of just all in there together because I can't really order them the top five are essentially my top 5 favorites but without any further ado let's get into my all-time favorite standalone novels the first book I have right here is station eleven by Emily st. John Mandel this is an adult fiction novel that's kind of sci-fi kind of post-apocalyptic I really never know how to explain this book properly essentially in this story there's a flu that has wiped out the majority of humankind and there are very few people left living and the story takes place in two timelines it takes place in a timeline prior to this flu and it also takes place in a timeline 20 years after this flu has hit and in that timeline we follow around this theatre troupe that goes around to different settlements that are still established and performs Shakespeare that's all I really like to say about this book aside from the fact that it's also told from multiple different perspectives like you have a lot of characters that are in this book so sometimes it can get confusing because of that as well as the time jumps but each story is kind of interwoven with the other stories and everything is connected and that's kind of like the message of the story overall in general it's about humanity about life about our relationships with one another and with ourselves and it's just such a beautiful story that I think is very highly underrated and deserves more love I've said this many times before but it's the type of book that really makes you think when you read it which is something that I adore so that's why this is one of my favorites and I want more people to read it the next book I have on my list of favorites is carry on by Rainbow Rowell this is a very popular book and I've talked about it countless times now so many of you probably already know what it's about but if you don't it's essentially a companion to rainbow Rowell's fangirl and you don't have to read one to read the other but this story is essentially rainbow Rowell's version of the fanfiction that cath writes about in fangirl and it follows the story of Simon snow who is the worst chosen one in the history of chosen ones and he attends this magical Wizarding school where he has to fight this ultimate kind of evil called the insidious humdrum it's basically a satire of the chosen one trope and it's very much based off of Harry Potter and it has wonderful characters of fantastic romance beautiful fan art as you can see Simon and Baz are my favorites I love them so much and it's just incredibly funny which is one of the reasons why it's on my list I like a very specific type of humor in books and this book just did it perfectly it was the right amount of humor the right amount of drama like I would cry and laugh every other page and it was just so so perfect for me to read and I just adore the story so much it's such a fun time and it's so different from a lot of other y.a that I've read to especially in terms of stand-alones and it's a standalone fantasy which you don't get a lot but those are all the reasons that I love this book so so much and why it's on my list the next book I have here is all the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr this is a historical fiction novel that follows the perspective of two different characters it's that during World War Two during the occupation of France by Germany and we follow around two different characters one of them is a young blind French girl and the other one is a German boy turned nazi soldier and we get to see both of their perspectives and we get to see both of their stories and then eventually those two stories converge and it's just such a beautiful beautiful book similarly to station 11 it's another book that really makes you think it's the type of book that will make you question a lot of what you already believe and challenge a lot of your own ideas and I'm always supportive of any type of book that can make me do that and also make me cry my eyes out and I really love historical fiction and this is definitely one of my favorite ones that I've ever read so I would HIGHLY highly recommend it if you're looking for some more historical fiction and even if you're not too into historical fiction the writing in this one is just exquisite so I would just recommend picking it up based off of that the next book on my list is another historical fiction novel but this one is why a historical fiction and that is the gentleman's guide to vice and virtue this book like I mentioned is a historical fiction novel that follows the story of this boy named Monty and it's set in England in 1700 what the book says inside it's just 1700 dashed line so we don't technically know the time but basically it follows Monty who is this privileged boy who is set to inherit his family estate and he has a younger sister and his best friend Percy and he his entire life has been in love with his best friend Percy and he doesn't know what to do about it Monty is very confident and pretty egotistical at times and extremely dramatic Monty's bisexual and he's been in plenty of relationships in his life but none of them have ever meant anything to him as much as how he feels about his best friend Percy but he's never told Percy any of this so that becomes kind of a challenge when the two of them along with his sister end up going on this road trip throughout the entirety of Europe essentially but it's a fantastic book again like carry on it's hysterical like I laughed so much in this book I don't think I've ever laughed as much in any single book in my entire life like I have in this one because this one is just so funny but at the same time it's also heartbreaking like I cried several times throughout this book as well and I just experienced so many emotions and it was such a fun time technically this one may not be a standalone because I've heard there's another book coming out but I don't know if it's just like a companion novel to it or if it's like a continuation of this book because this book does have like an ending ending so I don't know but nonetheless I'm still including it on this list because I love this book so much that's actually true for a couple of the other books on this list as well who I know are getting like sequels and companion novels but it's fine because they I love them so they have to be on this list the other thing I really love about this book is that it deals with a lot of really complex themes as well throughout history so we have Monty who's bisexual and he's trying to navigate that as well as Percy who is black and we get to see like the way race relations were kind of working throughout that time as well and the way people treat Percy differently than they treat Monty so I will say that there are some themes in here like homophobia and racism so I would just say be aware of those things before into this book just so they don't take you off guard but the story obviously does challenge those ideas so it's a fantastic fantastic book and I highly highly recommend it if you're looking for a very good laugh and a very good cry the next book on my list is the inexplicable logic of my life by Benjamin Alire sáenz times is one of my favorite authors of all time he writes some of my favorite contemporaries of all time he's just so so fantastic when it comes to telling stories about friendship family love anything like that I will read everything that he writes so of course this book has to be on my list of favorites because it is one of my favorite contemporary stand-alones that I've ever read this one follows the story of this boy named Sal and his best friend Sam who are just trying to get through their senior year of high school Sal was adopted by his father into a Mexican American family and we get to see a lot of different kind of dynamics going on throughout the story we have Sal kind of trying to figure out his own identity within the identity that he's been adopted into as well as him trying to come to a better understanding of sexuality his father is gay and one of his best friends are gay and that kind of makes him question a lot about his own sexuality even though he identifies a straight and you also have him trying to grapple with trying to find out more about his birth parents and if he wants to know more about his birth parents or not and it's just such a fantastic fantastic story like I again cried so many times throughout this book I absolutely adored it if you want to hear more of my spoiler-free thoughts I have a full non-spoiler review for this book so I'll go and leave it linked on the screen as well as down below so you can go and check it out if you're interested to hear more so I won't say too much more about it now aside from the fact that clearly I adore this book so so much and I just want everyone to read it because it is so incredible the next book on my list is Eliza and her monsters by Francesca's Apia this book follows the story of this girl named Eliza who is famous on the internet for this webcomic that she's created called monstrous see her webcomic is so popular that it gets millions of views and she even has people writing fanfiction about her webcomic and then one day this boy moves to her school who she ends up finding out is the most popular fanfiction writer of her webcomic so she knows who he is but he has no idea who she is and because of that it leads to quite a few problems start from that main plot though Eliza also struggles with anxiety and that's something that she's been dealing with for a long time and something that she deals with a lot in this book and the main reason why I love this book so much is because of its representation of anxiety as someone who also has anxiety and who very rarely gets to see that represented so accurately in any sort of media this was just one of the greatest things for me to read ever to me this story reads a lot like fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and calf and fangirl also has anxiety which is something she deals with but it's done differently in this book than it is in fangirl and fangirl cast anxiety doesn't play as much of a central role as it does in this one and I think that's why I was able to relate to this one so much more and why I fell so in love with it it just felt so real and raw and honest and it truly made me see myself in literature which is something that is so rare and it's just such a fantastic feeling and something I want everyone to be able to experience in every capacity and yeah that's why this book is so special and important to me and I want more people to read it because if there are other people who are like me who also deal with anxiety I think that this is the perfect book to kind of give you that feeling of understanding and comfort that you may not be feeling from just talking to someone who doesn't really get it and so because of that I would highly highly recommend picking this one up even if you don't have anxiety it's just a fantastic book nonetheless and something I think anyone could learn something from the next book on my list is the Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky this is one of those books that I read at the exact right time in my life and because of that it like changed my life and I have never been the same since reading this book because it's one of those books again that made me feel extremely understood this book follows the story of this boy named Charlie who is trying to navigate his freshman year of high school and it's told entirely in letters that Charlie is writing to someone who is just addressed as friend so because of that format I think some people don't really like this book as much or they find it more difficult to connect with but personally as someone who like journals and who understands what it's like to write a letter to someone who may not necessarily exist or may not be there anymore I could completely relate to the format of the book which is one of the reasons I think I connected with it so much I don't really like to say too much about the plot in general because I think it's the type of book that you should just kind of go into an experience for yourself I also recommend watching the movie because it's one of my favorite movies of all time and it's a fantastic adaptation it's just so so good and I love them both like I said I read this book during my freshman year of high school as well which is why it was the perfect time for me to read it and it was so impactful for me it's just about this boy trying to find out where he fits in trying to find friends trying to figure out who he is well he's also struggling with a lot of deeper darker things underneath but I will give some trigger warnings in this book for abuse and attempted suicide and I don't really remember every other specific thing so just be aware of that before you go into it but apart from that if you have yet to read this book if you've yet to watch the film I highly recommend doing both I adore it so so much and like I said since this was one of those books that I read it like the right time in my life and a couple of the other ones on this list are as well I've always wanted to make a video about that so if you guys want to see a video about looks that changed my life or books that shaped me or something like that then definitely let me know because I can absolutely make that because I have quite a few of them but yeah nonetheless highly recommend Perks of Being a Wallflower highly recommend you also listen to the soundtrack for the movie while you read this book because it's excellent the next book I have here is the Sun is also a star by nicole youn this book follows the story of two different characters Natasha who is a Jamaican immigrant whose family is about to be deported and Daniel who is a Korean American boy who's just trying to live up to his parents expectations and one day the two of them Natasha and Daniel end up bumping into each other and meeting and this story takes place over that one day as the two of them explore New York City together and get to know each other and it's kind of like insta-love but it's essentially the only instil of I have ever liked the story deals with a lot more than just the relationship between these two characters like I mentioned Natasha's family is about to be deported and she's trying to do everything in her power to prevent that from happening and so the book discusses a lot of very deep and heavy relevant topics you have discussions of race immigration identity class there's so many important things that I absolutely love finding in Wyatt contemporaries and all of that is just tied into a simply beautiful beautiful story so yeah that's why this is one of my favorite stand-alones and if you want to hear more of my detailed thoughts on it without spoilers as well I have a full book review for this one too so I will leave it linked on the screen as well as down below so you can go and check it out if you're interested the next book I have on my list is one of those books that is technically getting a sequel but at the time that it was written and the time that I read it I didn't know about that and it wasn't supposed to be getting any sequels so it was a standalone which is why it's on this list it still counts that book is none other than vicious by ve Schwab so now we are into my top 5 favorites and this is my number five favorite standalone of all time I've talked about this book so many times because Victoria Schwab is essentially my favorite author and I love everything she has written but this was the very first book I ever read by her if you don't know about this book it follows the story of these two grad students named Eli and Victor who are working on their graduate thesis and they're trying to prove the existence of Yoos or extraordinary people essentially people who have superhuman abilities and in order to do so they end up experimenting and do figure out a way to create Yoos which leads to a lot of problems the stories told in two timelines one while they are grad students and one 10 years later when a victor is just getting out of prison and you don't really know why but it is a fantastic book and I love it so so much if you like x-men you will love this book because it is essentially the story of Magneto and Xavier that's what it feels like it's not like copying it it's very different but it's also very similar and I just get so many x-men vibes from this book and I love it but it's a story that really explores morality and the line between good and evil which is something I feel like a lot of Victoria Schwab's books do but I love that theme so I have really really loved reading books like that and this one does so I think more than any of the others and like I said we are now getting a sequel which is gonna be called vengeful I believe and apparently that one's gonna be told from Eli's perspective so it's gonna be very different from this one and I'm so excited for it but nonetheless even though this is a video on stand-alones and now this isn't gonna be a standalone anymore it was a standalone when I read it so I'm still considering it a standalone and I will never pass up a time to recommend this book to anyone so I'm recommending it to you now go and read it the next book that I have on my list is the strange and beautiful Sorrows of Ava lavender by Leslye Walton this is the very first book that I ever did a book review for on booktube I think it was like my second video and it's also one of the first books I read because of booktube and I'm so happy that I did because to this day almost two and a half years later it's still one of my favorite books I have ever read this book follows the story of this girl named Ava lavender who was inexplicably born with wings no one really knows how that happened there's no explanation for it but it's just kind of accepted by people even though people think that she's kind of weird but this is also a generational stories we get Ava lavender story her mother's story her grandmother's story and her great-grandmother's story and it's essentially about the lavender family and their relationships with one another but mostly their relationships with love that's all I really like to say about it because there is so much more to this book but it's definitely the type of thing that you should just go into and explore for yourself because it's such a beautiful beautiful book with so many incredible messages and so many scenes that I just think about to this day plus the writing is just so whimsical and exquisite and I absolutely adore everything about this book I will give a trigger warning for rape and abuse in this book so be aware of that before going into it but if you're okay with reading it then I highly highly recommend picking this one up because I don't think that it gets enough attention it's so underhyped in my opinion and it deserves more love and I just love it so so much so I want everyone else to love it too the next book on my list I'm sure basically everyone guessed would be here and that of course is Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire sons I mentioned the inequitable logic of my life earlier on this list because that is of course also one of my favorite stand-alones but this is my favorite book that he has ever written this is also in like my top 10 favorite books of all time for sure so of course it has to be number three here I've talked about this book so many times now that I'd be amazed if someone didn't know what the synopsis was at this point if you've been watching my channel but if you are new here and if you've never heard me talk about this book first of all read it second of all it's about this boy named Aristotle who lives in the 80s in El Paso Texas and he's 15 years old he's in high school and he doesn't have many friends until one day he ends up meeting this boy named Dante yes they both have names of philosophers yes they do both find it funny no it's not for any particular reason but the two of them quickly become friends and then their relationship begins to develop from there and it's an exploration of love of sexuality of family of identity and just so many things in the most beautiful ways possible and I just adore this book so much I feel like I've talked about it so many times that there's nothing more that I can really say to try and convince you to read it if you haven't read it yet but it's one of my favorite Wyatt contemporaries one of my favorite books like I mentioned and I just want so many more people to read it lin-manuel Miranda narrates the audiobook for this book so if you want to listen to the audiobook instead of reading the physical book then I highly recommend you go and listen to that audiobook because it's fantastic but this story just has so much depth and so much meaning and it has meant so much to me in a very personal way as well and I just love it I love everything about it and I want everyone in the world to read this book the next book I have on my list is one that I did not expect to have on this list at all one that took me completely by surprise a book that I wasn't even planning on reading that is Turtles all the way down by John Green by the time this video goes up I don't know if my review for this book will be up or not but if it is I will leave it linked on the screen as well as down below so you can go and check it out but like I mentioned Turtles all the way down is a book that I was not planning on reading at all if you know about my relationship with John Green books I read The Fault in Our Stars when it came out and I really enjoyed it back then but I was also like 12 or 13 and I hadn't read too many books so then I ended up loving a lot of other books more and then I tried to read some other John Green books like Paper Towns later on and I just couldn't really get through them so I didn't really care too much about his books I always liked him as a person because I loved his channel and I think he's super cool but I just wasn't super into his books so when I heard about hurdles all the way down coming out I really didn't know much about it and I didn't really think that I was gonna read it because I didn't care about his other books too much but then I read this book and everything changed you know how I mentioned that when I read Perks of Being a Wallflower I read it at the exact right time in my life this is another one of those books like literally the exact right moment in time that I needed to read this book was when I picked it up and read it and it changed so much for me I have never in my life felt more understood by a book than I did while reading Turtles all the way down I don't know how to describe that it was like I was reading the inside of my own head and I cried from the very beginning to the very last page like I don't think there was more than like two chapters where I didn't cry I was just constantly in tears because I constantly just felt like someone understood and that was the greatest feeling ever if you don't know what this book is about it follows the story of this girl named ASA Holmes who has OCD and an anxiety disorder and it's basically about her trying to navigate those things she ends up reconnecting with a childhood friend named Davis Pickett whose father is this billionaire who has just gone missing there's $100,000 reward that's been put out to anyone who has any information about the billionaire picot and while that's kind of the plot that the synopsis of this book like on the back of it and on Goodreads and stuff likes to give you the main plot really revolves around Ava trying to navigate and live with her mental illness now I personally don't have OCD so when I say that I related to this book it wasn't because I understood what it was like to have OCD and so because of that I can't speak to the accuracy of the representation of that but John Green himself does have OCD and anxiety which is why he wrote this story it's an own voices story and it's about his own experience essentially with it written into a different character and into a fictional story but the reason that I could relate to this book so much was because of the way that mental illness is just depicted in this book it is so so incredibly real and there were so many passages that I read in this book that I just couldn't believe had been put down into words and it made so much of what I couldn't understand about myself feel like I could understand it I don't know how to describe that it was just an eye-opening experience and a heart-wrenching experience to understand that there's someone else out there who truly gets what you're feeling this book made me feel like someone understands all of the thoughts that I have inside my head that I think are crazy or make me crazy were actually legitimate as if I'm not alone in having those thoughts and that's really what this book made me feel it made me feel like I wasn't alone and there was nothing nothing better than that feeling if I talked about it too much more I definitely will cry I've read this book twice now I finished it on the plane and then I immediately reread it again because I loved it so much if you can see I've tabbed so many of the pages because I loved so many of the quotes and passages it's just meant so much to me and I want so many more people to read this book I will say it's definitely triggering this book very much feels like you are in the middle of a panic attack that's what it felt like to me a lot of the time and so if you are not at the place where you can read that right now I definitely wouldn't recommend picking it up at this moment but even though I was in that place and I still am a lot I needed to read it during that time if that makes sense and I think because I read it during that time it had a bigger impact on me but like I said I can't keep talking about it too much more because I definitely will cry all I can say is this book took me completely by surprise and as you can see it's number two on this list it is literally one of my favorite books of all time probably number two you all know what number one is and it's coming up on this list but this one may overtake that at some point don't know depends on how many more times I reread it and how much more it means to me but I loved it I loved it with all of my heart and of course lastly on my list of all-time favorite stand-alones a book that everyone was waiting for because I never shut up about it the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern genuinely how many more times do I have to mention this book before everyone reads it I don't know I feel like I push it in every single video but if you haven't read it yet this is your next chance this is me reminding you to pick it up finally if you happen to not know the Night Circus follows the story of this magical circus that is only open at night and it serves as a venue for these two magicians who are in a competition with one another but they don't really know that they are each other's competition it's very magical very whimsical written in such a beautiful beautiful way that will evoke every single one of your senses and I cannot recommend it enough I feel like every time I talk about it I say the exact same thing because there's nothing else for me to say it's just wonderful and perfect and I want so many people to read it but truly if you like anything magical you will enjoy this book because it's purely magic it is just simply and purely magic that's the best way to describe it alright guys so that is it for my list of my all-time favorite stand-alones I hope you guys enjoyed watching this video I have so many favorites I have so many more books that aren't on this list that I also adore but I was trying to cut it down because this list was already super long and I know that there are so many other books that I'm gonna read in my lifetime that'll also make it on this list because there are so many on my TBR that I have been wanting to read for so long that I know are gonna be favorites but nonetheless I had to make this video now because at this moment in time these are my favorites and I love all of them so so much let me know in the comments down below if any other books I mentioned on my list or any of your favorites as well or definitely let me know what some of your favorite stand-alones are because I'm always looking for new books to read even though I have a never ending TBR if you'd like to follow me on any of my social media all of my links are in the description box as always thank you all so much for watching I hope you enjoyed and I will see you in my next video byehey guys it's Hanna and today I'm gonna be talking about all of my all-time favorite standalone novels so as you may know I'm a huge fan of series I love books series I read so many of them so many of my favorite books of all time are from books series but I also really really loved stand-alones and in the big debate between series or standalone I honestly can't pick one because I love both of them equally but I really like doing like favorite series list types of videos even though they're always kind of nerve-racking to make because I know that I'm always gonna read more stand-alones that I'm gonna want to add to this list eventually but at this point in time I have quite a few favorites and I thought that I would share all of them with you all in one video many of these stand-alones you've probably heard me talk about before because I mentioned them over and over and over again some of them I've mentioned less frequently on my channel but for the most part I feel like you'll be able to guess the majority of them this list is going to be somewhat in order I'm gonna go from like my least favorite to most favorite obviously they're all favorites but I'm saving like the first top three or maybe top five as my top 5 favorite ones the rest are kind of just all in there together because I can't really order them the top five are essentially my top 5 favorites but without any further ado let's get into my all-time favorite standalone novels the first book I have right here is station eleven by Emily st. John Mandel this is an adult fiction novel that's kind of sci-fi kind of post-apocalyptic I really never know how to explain this book properly essentially in this story there's a flu that has wiped out the majority of humankind and there are very few people left living and the story takes place in two timelines it takes place in a timeline prior to this flu and it also takes place in a timeline 20 years after this flu has hit and in that timeline we follow around this theatre troupe that goes around to different settlements that are still established and performs Shakespeare that's all I really like to say about this book aside from the fact that it's also told from multiple different perspectives like you have a lot of characters that are in this book so sometimes it can get confusing because of that as well as the time jumps but each story is kind of interwoven with the other stories and everything is connected and that's kind of like the message of the story overall in general it's about humanity about life about our relationships with one another and with ourselves and it's just such a beautiful story that I think is very highly underrated and deserves more love I've said this many times before but it's the type of book that really makes you think when you read it which is something that I adore so that's why this is one of my favorites and I want more people to read it the next book I have on my list of favorites is carry on by Rainbow Rowell this is a very popular book and I've talked about it countless times now so many of you probably already know what it's about but if you don't it's essentially a companion to rainbow Rowell's fangirl and you don't have to read one to read the other but this story is essentially rainbow Rowell's version of the fanfiction that cath writes about in fangirl and it follows the story of Simon snow who is the worst chosen one in the history of chosen ones and he attends this magical Wizarding school where he has to fight this ultimate kind of evil called the insidious humdrum it's basically a satire of the chosen one trope and it's very much based off of Harry Potter and it has wonderful characters of fantastic romance beautiful fan art as you can see Simon and Baz are my favorites I love them so much and it's just incredibly funny which is one of the reasons why it's on my list I like a very specific type of humor in books and this book just did it perfectly it was the right amount of humor the right amount of drama like I would cry and laugh every other page and it was just so so perfect for me to read and I just adore the story so much it's such a fun time and it's so different from a lot of other y.a that I've read to especially in terms of stand-alones and it's a standalone fantasy which you don't get a lot but those are all the reasons that I love this book so so much and why it's on my list the next book I have here is all the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr this is a historical fiction novel that follows the perspective of two different characters it's that during World War Two during the occupation of France by Germany and we follow around two different characters one of them is a young blind French girl and the other one is a German boy turned nazi soldier and we get to see both of their perspectives and we get to see both of their stories and then eventually those two stories converge and it's just such a beautiful beautiful book similarly to station 11 it's another book that really makes you think it's the type of book that will make you question a lot of what you already believe and challenge a lot of your own ideas and I'm always supportive of any type of book that can make me do that and also make me cry my eyes out and I really love historical fiction and this is definitely one of my favorite ones that I've ever read so I would HIGHLY highly recommend it if you're looking for some more historical fiction and even if you're not too into historical fiction the writing in this one is just exquisite so I would just recommend picking it up based off of that the next book on my list is another historical fiction novel but this one is why a historical fiction and that is the gentleman's guide to vice and virtue this book like I mentioned is a historical fiction novel that follows the story of this boy named Monty and it's set in England in 1700 what the book says inside it's just 1700 dashed line so we don't technically know the time but basically it follows Monty who is this privileged boy who is set to inherit his family estate and he has a younger sister and his best friend Percy and he his entire life has been in love with his best friend Percy and he doesn't know what to do about it Monty is very confident and pretty egotistical at times and extremely dramatic Monty's bisexual and he's been in plenty of relationships in his life but none of them have ever meant anything to him as much as how he feels about his best friend Percy but he's never told Percy any of this so that becomes kind of a challenge when the two of them along with his sister end up going on this road trip throughout the entirety of Europe essentially but it's a fantastic book again like carry on it's hysterical like I laughed so much in this book I don't think I've ever laughed as much in any single book in my entire life like I have in this one because this one is just so funny but at the same time it's also heartbreaking like I cried several times throughout this book as well and I just experienced so many emotions and it was such a fun time technically this one may not be a standalone because I've heard there's another book coming out but I don't know if it's just like a companion novel to it or if it's like a continuation of this book because this book does have like an ending ending so I don't know but nonetheless I'm still including it on this list because I love this book so much that's actually true for a couple of the other books on this list as well who I know are getting like sequels and companion novels but it's fine because they I love them so they have to be on this list the other thing I really love about this book is that it deals with a lot of really complex themes as well throughout history so we have Monty who's bisexual and he's trying to navigate that as well as Percy who is black and we get to see like the way race relations were kind of working throughout that time as well and the way people treat Percy differently than they treat Monty so I will say that there are some themes in here like homophobia and racism so I would just say be aware of those things before into this book just so they don't take you off guard but the story obviously does challenge those ideas so it's a fantastic fantastic book and I highly highly recommend it if you're looking for a very good laugh and a very good cry the next book on my list is the inexplicable logic of my life by Benjamin Alire sáenz times is one of my favorite authors of all time he writes some of my favorite contemporaries of all time he's just so so fantastic when it comes to telling stories about friendship family love anything like that I will read everything that he writes so of course this book has to be on my list of favorites because it is one of my favorite contemporary stand-alones that I've ever read this one follows the story of this boy named Sal and his best friend Sam who are just trying to get through their senior year of high school Sal was adopted by his father into a Mexican American family and we get to see a lot of different kind of dynamics going on throughout the story we have Sal kind of trying to figure out his own identity within the identity that he's been adopted into as well as him trying to come to a better understanding of sexuality his father is gay and one of his best friends are gay and that kind of makes him question a lot about his own sexuality even though he identifies a straight and you also have him trying to grapple with trying to find out more about his birth parents and if he wants to know more about his birth parents or not and it's just such a fantastic fantastic story like I again cried so many times throughout this book I absolutely adored it if you want to hear more of my spoiler-free thoughts I have a full non-spoiler review for this book so I'll go and leave it linked on the screen as well as down below so you can go and check it out if you're interested to hear more so I won't say too much more about it now aside from the fact that clearly I adore this book so so much and I just want everyone to read it because it is so incredible the next book on my list is Eliza and her monsters by Francesca's Apia this book follows the story of this girl named Eliza who is famous on the internet for this webcomic that she's created called monstrous see her webcomic is so popular that it gets millions of views and she even has people writing fanfiction about her webcomic and then one day this boy moves to her school who she ends up finding out is the most popular fanfiction writer of her webcomic so she knows who he is but he has no idea who she is and because of that it leads to quite a few problems start from that main plot though Eliza also struggles with anxiety and that's something that she's been dealing with for a long time and something that she deals with a lot in this book and the main reason why I love this book so much is because of its representation of anxiety as someone who also has anxiety and who very rarely gets to see that represented so accurately in any sort of media this was just one of the greatest things for me to read ever to me this story reads a lot like fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and calf and fangirl also has anxiety which is something she deals with but it's done differently in this book than it is in fangirl and fangirl cast anxiety doesn't play as much of a central role as it does in this one and I think that's why I was able to relate to this one so much more and why I fell so in love with it it just felt so real and raw and honest and it truly made me see myself in literature which is something that is so rare and it's just such a fantastic feeling and something I want everyone to be able to experience in every capacity and yeah that's why this book is so special and important to me and I want more people to read it because if there are other people who are like me who also deal with anxiety I think that this is the perfect book to kind of give you that feeling of understanding and comfort that you may not be feeling from just talking to someone who doesn't really get it and so because of that I would highly highly recommend picking this one up even if you don't have anxiety it's just a fantastic book nonetheless and something I think anyone could learn something from the next book on my list is the Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky this is one of those books that I read at the exact right time in my life and because of that it like changed my life and I have never been the same since reading this book because it's one of those books again that made me feel extremely understood this book follows the story of this boy named Charlie who is trying to navigate his freshman year of high school and it's told entirely in letters that Charlie is writing to someone who is just addressed as friend so because of that format I think some people don't really like this book as much or they find it more difficult to connect with but personally as someone who like journals and who understands what it's like to write a letter to someone who may not necessarily exist or may not be there anymore I could completely relate to the format of the book which is one of the reasons I think I connected with it so much I don't really like to say too much about the plot in general because I think it's the type of book that you should just kind of go into an experience for yourself I also recommend watching the movie because it's one of my favorite movies of all time and it's a fantastic adaptation it's just so so good and I love them both like I said I read this book during my freshman year of high school as well which is why it was the perfect time for me to read it and it was so impactful for me it's just about this boy trying to find out where he fits in trying to find friends trying to figure out who he is well he's also struggling with a lot of deeper darker things underneath but I will give some trigger warnings in this book for abuse and attempted suicide and I don't really remember every other specific thing so just be aware of that before you go into it but apart from that if you have yet to read this book if you've yet to watch the film I highly recommend doing both I adore it so so much and like I said since this was one of those books that I read it like the right time in my life and a couple of the other ones on this list are as well I've always wanted to make a video about that so if you guys want to see a video about looks that changed my life or books that shaped me or something like that then definitely let me know because I can absolutely make that because I have quite a few of them but yeah nonetheless highly recommend Perks of Being a Wallflower highly recommend you also listen to the soundtrack for the movie while you read this book because it's excellent the next book I have here is the Sun is also a star by nicole youn this book follows the story of two different characters Natasha who is a Jamaican immigrant whose family is about to be deported and Daniel who is a Korean American boy who's just trying to live up to his parents expectations and one day the two of them Natasha and Daniel end up bumping into each other and meeting and this story takes place over that one day as the two of them explore New York City together and get to know each other and it's kind of like insta-love but it's essentially the only instil of I have ever liked the story deals with a lot more than just the relationship between these two characters like I mentioned Natasha's family is about to be deported and she's trying to do everything in her power to prevent that from happening and so the book discusses a lot of very deep and heavy relevant topics you have discussions of race immigration identity class there's so many important things that I absolutely love finding in Wyatt contemporaries and all of that is just tied into a simply beautiful beautiful story so yeah that's why this is one of my favorite stand-alones and if you want to hear more of my detailed thoughts on it without spoilers as well I have a full book review for this one too so I will leave it linked on the screen as well as down below so you can go and check it out if you're interested the next book I have on my list is one of those books that is technically getting a sequel but at the time that it was written and the time that I read it I didn't know about that and it wasn't supposed to be getting any sequels so it was a standalone which is why it's on this list it still counts that book is none other than vicious by ve Schwab so now we are into my top 5 favorites and this is my number five favorite standalone of all time I've talked about this book so many times because Victoria Schwab is essentially my favorite author and I love everything she has written but this was the very first book I ever read by her if you don't know about this book it follows the story of these two grad students named Eli and Victor who are working on their graduate thesis and they're trying to prove the existence of Yoos or extraordinary people essentially people who have superhuman abilities and in order to do so they end up experimenting and do figure out a way to create Yoos which leads to a lot of problems the stories told in two timelines one while they are grad students and one 10 years later when a victor is just getting out of prison and you don't really know why but it is a fantastic book and I love it so so much if you like x-men you will love this book because it is essentially the story of Magneto and Xavier that's what it feels like it's not like copying it it's very different but it's also very similar and I just get so many x-men vibes from this book and I love it but it's a story that really explores morality and the line between good and evil which is something I feel like a lot of Victoria Schwab's books do but I love that theme so I have really really loved reading books like that and this one does so I think more than any of the others and like I said we are now getting a sequel which is gonna be called vengeful I believe and apparently that one's gonna be told from Eli's perspective so it's gonna be very different from this one and I'm so excited for it but nonetheless even though this is a video on stand-alones and now this isn't gonna be a standalone anymore it was a standalone when I read it so I'm still considering it a standalone and I will never pass up a time to recommend this book to anyone so I'm recommending it to you now go and read it the next book that I have on my list is the strange and beautiful Sorrows of Ava lavender by Leslye Walton this is the very first book that I ever did a book review for on booktube I think it was like my second video and it's also one of the first books I read because of booktube and I'm so happy that I did because to this day almost two and a half years later it's still one of my favorite books I have ever read this book follows the story of this girl named Ava lavender who was inexplicably born with wings no one really knows how that happened there's no explanation for it but it's just kind of accepted by people even though people think that she's kind of weird but this is also a generational stories we get Ava lavender story her mother's story her grandmother's story and her great-grandmother's story and it's essentially about the lavender family and their relationships with one another but mostly their relationships with love that's all I really like to say about it because there is so much more to this book but it's definitely the type of thing that you should just go into and explore for yourself because it's such a beautiful beautiful book with so many incredible messages and so many scenes that I just think about to this day plus the writing is just so whimsical and exquisite and I absolutely adore everything about this book I will give a trigger warning for rape and abuse in this book so be aware of that before going into it but if you're okay with reading it then I highly highly recommend picking this one up because I don't think that it gets enough attention it's so underhyped in my opinion and it deserves more love and I just love it so so much so I want everyone else to love it too the next book on my list I'm sure basically everyone guessed would be here and that of course is Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire sons I mentioned the inequitable logic of my life earlier on this list because that is of course also one of my favorite stand-alones but this is my favorite book that he has ever written this is also in like my top 10 favorite books of all time for sure so of course it has to be number three here I've talked about this book so many times now that I'd be amazed if someone didn't know what the synopsis was at this point if you've been watching my channel but if you are new here and if you've never heard me talk about this book first of all read it second of all it's about this boy named Aristotle who lives in the 80s in El Paso Texas and he's 15 years old he's in high school and he doesn't have many friends until one day he ends up meeting this boy named Dante yes they both have names of philosophers yes they do both find it funny no it's not for any particular reason but the two of them quickly become friends and then their relationship begins to develop from there and it's an exploration of love of sexuality of family of identity and just so many things in the most beautiful ways possible and I just adore this book so much I feel like I've talked about it so many times that there's nothing more that I can really say to try and convince you to read it if you haven't read it yet but it's one of my favorite Wyatt contemporaries one of my favorite books like I mentioned and I just want so many more people to read it lin-manuel Miranda narrates the audiobook for this book so if you want to listen to the audiobook instead of reading the physical book then I highly recommend you go and listen to that audiobook because it's fantastic but this story just has so much depth and so much meaning and it has meant so much to me in a very personal way as well and I just love it I love everything about it and I want everyone in the world to read this book the next book I have on my list is one that I did not expect to have on this list at all one that took me completely by surprise a book that I wasn't even planning on reading that is Turtles all the way down by John Green by the time this video goes up I don't know if my review for this book will be up or not but if it is I will leave it linked on the screen as well as down below so you can go and check it out but like I mentioned Turtles all the way down is a book that I was not planning on reading at all if you know about my relationship with John Green books I read The Fault in Our Stars when it came out and I really enjoyed it back then but I was also like 12 or 13 and I hadn't read too many books so then I ended up loving a lot of other books more and then I tried to read some other John Green books like Paper Towns later on and I just couldn't really get through them so I didn't really care too much about his books I always liked him as a person because I loved his channel and I think he's super cool but I just wasn't super into his books so when I heard about hurdles all the way down coming out I really didn't know much about it and I didn't really think that I was gonna read it because I didn't care about his other books too much but then I read this book and everything changed you know how I mentioned that when I read Perks of Being a Wallflower I read it at the exact right time in my life this is another one of those books like literally the exact right moment in time that I needed to read this book was when I picked it up and read it and it changed so much for me I have never in my life felt more understood by a book than I did while reading Turtles all the way down I don't know how to describe that it was like I was reading the inside of my own head and I cried from the very beginning to the very last page like I don't think there was more than like two chapters where I didn't cry I was just constantly in tears because I constantly just felt like someone understood and that was the greatest feeling ever if you don't know what this book is about it follows the story of this girl named ASA Holmes who has OCD and an anxiety disorder and it's basically about her trying to navigate those things she ends up reconnecting with a childhood friend named Davis Pickett whose father is this billionaire who has just gone missing there's $100,000 reward that's been put out to anyone who has any information about the billionaire picot and while that's kind of the plot that the synopsis of this book like on the back of it and on Goodreads and stuff likes to give you the main plot really revolves around Ava trying to navigate and live with her mental illness now I personally don't have OCD so when I say that I related to this book it wasn't because I understood what it was like to have OCD and so because of that I can't speak to the accuracy of the representation of that but John Green himself does have OCD and anxiety which is why he wrote this story it's an own voices story and it's about his own experience essentially with it written into a different character and into a fictional story but the reason that I could relate to this book so much was because of the way that mental illness is just depicted in this book it is so so incredibly real and there were so many passages that I read in this book that I just couldn't believe had been put down into words and it made so much of what I couldn't understand about myself feel like I could understand it I don't know how to describe that it was just an eye-opening experience and a heart-wrenching experience to understand that there's someone else out there who truly gets what you're feeling this book made me feel like someone understands all of the thoughts that I have inside my head that I think are crazy or make me crazy were actually legitimate as if I'm not alone in having those thoughts and that's really what this book made me feel it made me feel like I wasn't alone and there was nothing nothing better than that feeling if I talked about it too much more I definitely will cry I've read this book twice now I finished it on the plane and then I immediately reread it again because I loved it so much if you can see I've tabbed so many of the pages because I loved so many of the quotes and passages it's just meant so much to me and I want so many more people to read this book I will say it's definitely triggering this book very much feels like you are in the middle of a panic attack that's what it felt like to me a lot of the time and so if you are not at the place where you can read that right now I definitely wouldn't recommend picking it up at this moment but even though I was in that place and I still am a lot I needed to read it during that time if that makes sense and I think because I read it during that time it had a bigger impact on me but like I said I can't keep talking about it too much more because I definitely will cry all I can say is this book took me completely by surprise and as you can see it's number two on this list it is literally one of my favorite books of all time probably number two you all know what number one is and it's coming up on this list but this one may overtake that at some point don't know depends on how many more times I reread it and how much more it means to me but I loved it I loved it with all of my heart and of course lastly on my list of all-time favorite stand-alones a book that everyone was waiting for because I never shut up about it the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern genuinely how many more times do I have to mention this book before everyone reads it I don't know I feel like I push it in every single video but if you haven't read it yet this is your next chance this is me reminding you to pick it up finally if you happen to not know the Night Circus follows the story of this magical circus that is only open at night and it serves as a venue for these two magicians who are in a competition with one another but they don't really know that they are each other's competition it's very magical very whimsical written in such a beautiful beautiful way that will evoke every single one of your senses and I cannot recommend it enough I feel like every time I talk about it I say the exact same thing because there's nothing else for me to say it's just wonderful and perfect and I want so many people to read it but truly if you like anything magical you will enjoy this book because it's purely magic it is just simply and purely magic that's the best way to describe it alright guys so that is it for my list of my all-time favorite stand-alones I hope you guys enjoyed watching this video I have so many favorites I have so many more books that aren't on this list that I also adore but I was trying to cut it down because this list was already super long and I know that there are so many other books that I'm gonna read in my lifetime that'll also make it on this list because there are so many on my TBR that I have been wanting to read for so long that I know are gonna be favorites but nonetheless I had to make this video now because at this moment in time these are my favorites and I love all of them so so much let me know in the comments down below if any other books I mentioned on my list or any of your favorites as well or definitely let me know what some of your favorite stand-alones are because I'm always looking for new books to read even though I have a never ending TBR if you'd like to follow me on any of my social media all of my links are in the description box as always thank you all so much for watching I hope you enjoyed and I will see you in my next video bye\n"