Top 5 Wednesday: Outside of the Western World

July 19, 2017

* Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme/challenge for book bloggers, hosted by Lainey and Sam. The goal is for bloggers to choose their top 5 picks for the week’s given challenge, and you can find out more over on Goodreads! *


This week’s challenge is to pick five books that are not set in or inspired by the Western world (meaning North American and Western Europe, for example)! This includes medieval books set in old England, for example.


1. The ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas

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This series is the definition of high fantasy: it doesn’t involve any references to the world we know at all! Instead, the bulk of it takes place in Prythian, with some references to “The Continent”, though the map doesn’t indicate that it’s anything resembling any land masses in our world.

2. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

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When the first book in the series starts off, we’re in New Beijing, and while the series does continue on to involve some brief times in France, for example, the hot spot of the story is intermingled between China and… uhh… outer space.

3. The Illuminae Files by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

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I mean, the entire series is set in space. The only planets that are even mentioned definitely have nothing to do with Earth, which presumably has been obliterated, if I’m remembering correctly?

4. Warcross by Marie Lu

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While this title probably should technically be disqualified due to the fact that it starts in New York, the bulk of the story takes place in Tokyo, so I figured… why not? Besides, I just want an excuse to tell you guys HOW FREAKING AMAZING Warcross is.

5. The Conqueror’s Saga by Kiersten White

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Does this one count? I’m honestly not sure whether or not Turkey and the surrounding area counts as Western Europe or not. I’m going to assume it doesn’t, so I’m going to include this glorious series that everyone needs to read right now please and thank you.


What’s your favorite book setting that isn’t in the Western world?

More about Destiny @ Howling Libraries

Just a horror aficionado/geek girl trying to juggle motherhood, reading, blogging, gaming, and everyday life.

12 Comments
    1. Nice tag and the cover of warcross is amazing! So colourful :o. I like to get to know more of different cultures (Western Europe myself) and books are very good for that I think. Leviathan os great (eastern europe), kader abdollah (middle east) and anything set in South Africa

      1. I’m actually not wild about the Warcross cover but I DO love the colors used! I can’t wait to see if it gets a different cover for the UK edition or the paperback. It would be really fun if they did something super techno for it.

    1. About ACOTAR
      A couple people have stated that Prythian sort of look like the U.K while Hybern look like Ireland so..

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