Top 5 Wednesday: Books That Aren’t Set In The Western World

Hey Book Nerds, and welcome back for another Top 5 Wednesday! This week’s topic is “books that aren’t set in/inspired by the western world.” I actually thought that this one was going to be easy at first, but it really isn’t! By “Western World” they mean North America and Europe, and honestly, that’s where the majority of my books take place. It isn’t often that I pick up a book that takes place in Africa, Asia, or even Australia. But, today I’m going to find some that take place outside of the western world, whether it fully does or if there are only scenes.

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Lainey and Samantha. They create amazing (but sometimes super hard) topics for each week. If you are interested in joining, click here! Now, let’s get started!

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner:
You betcha, I’m starting this off with a science-fiction novel! If there is any book that doesn’t take place in the western world, it’s a science-fiction novel that takes place in space. This one for instance follows Tarver and Lilac as they become stranded on a deserted planet. They must work together to try to find a way to get off of the planet. I read this one such a long time ago, but I definitely have plans to reread it in order to continue the series! Highly recommend for any space lovers!
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Cinder by Marissa Meyer:
Marissa Meyer worked some re-telling magic with Cinder. It tells the story of Cinderella from the perspective of a cyborg. As a gifted mechanic, she easily finds her life becoming dangerously intertwined with Prince Kai’s. It is more likely for things to go wrong in Cinder’s life, than right. This Science-Fiction novel takes place in a futuristic city called New Beijing, a city that is inspired by today’s Beijing. If you enjoy re-tellings and have not read this one yet, I highly suggest that you pick this one up! It is one of the best re-tellings that I’ve read!
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Blood Promise by Richelle Mead:
This is the fourth book in Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy series. Although the book starts in North America, the majority of the book takes place across the world in Siberia. For those that don’t know, Siberia is a Russian Province that encompasses a great amount of Northern Asia. Rose adventures to many destinations in Siberia and also visits St. Petersburg, Russia. Although I wasn’t a huge fan of this novel, the prior three books in the series are awesome. If you are a fan of vampires, I highly recommend this series!
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Ink by Amanda Sun:
I cannot believe that this was one of the first YA novels I ever read. Ink is about a young girl who moves to Japan after her mother’s death. She ends up meeting Tomohiro and sees his art come to life, literally. Seeing Tomohiro puts is dangerous for Katie and easily puts her life on the line. As said above, this book takes place in Japan and visits many popular cities! If you are a fan of Japanese culture, I would highly suggest you read this book!
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Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff:
Illuminae is one of the best YA Science-Fiction books you will ever read! It follows the story of planet being attacked and all of its civilians having to evacuate on to multiple space-fleets. Two of the civilians, Kady and Ezra, just suffered a horrible break-up but end up working together to save lives. This amazing novel is written through emails, security video footage, confidential documents and many other cool files! And, it takes place both on a planet called Kerenza and in multiple space-fleets! This book seems pretty big and intimidating but, it is definitely worth the read!
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And that is it for today! I hope you all enjoyed reading my top 5 novels that DO NOT the place in the western world! Although it definitely was a hard topic, I had a lot of fun with it. If you did this week Top 5 Wednesday, be sure to link your post down below for me to check it out. And with that said, don’t forget to like, share, comment and follow for more posts!