Top 5 Wednesday: Books that Represent My Hogwarts House

Hosted by the Top 5 Wednesday Goodreads Group

Strangers, when I saw this week’s topic for Top 5 Wednesday, I gasped with excitement. As you know, there are only three things that give me a reaction that powerful: Demi Lovato, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. This time it’s Harry Potter. This week’s topic is five books that represent your Hogwarts House. It’s no secret that I’m a proud Slytherin. I also can’t pretend I haven’t thought about this before. It’s one of my favorite things to do. And so now, without any farther delay, enemies of the heir, beware. I mean here are my choices. Tom Riddle whomst?

1. Vicious by V.E. Schwab- This book was the first book that came to mind, and with good reason. It follows two college students during two different time periods, one while they’re at school and the other ten years later. They experiment on themselves to become ExtraOrdinaries or EOs and succeed. Then they both, either slowly or immediately, become supervillains. But it’s not their villainy that makes them Slytherins (in fact, I wouldn’t call Eli Cardale a Slytherin at all). It’s the darker atmosphere and the clever thinking that got them to where they are. It highlights the very thin line between good and evil, a line many Slytherins walk. I can only imagine it’s going to get darker and more twisty from here, as the wild plans and overall fuckery continue.
2. Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo- I mean, they’re books about heists. It takes shrewdness and cunning in order to pull those off. There is literally no other House these books could represent. On the off-chance you don’t know what this series is about, it’s about a group of teenage street thugs as they plot to retrieve a scientist from the impenetrable Ice Court. The first book follows their journey and the twists and turns that befall and are manipulated by them on their job. The sequel, Crooked Kingdom, follows the fallout of that heist as well as a nesting doll clusterfuck of new ones. It’s a wild ride and is a true Slytherin tale.
3. Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller- Speaking of heists, this book follows another one, but on a smaller scale. It follows pirate captain Alosa Kalligan as she intentionally gets captured in order to look for a map to an island filled with treasure beyond her wildest dreams. No one is innocent in this book and no one pretends to be. As pirates, they do what they have to do in order to get what they want. Alosa is the best example of this, always remaining two steps ahead of everyone and manipulating those who get in her way. While Gryffindors may try to lay claim to all adventure stories, this one is solidly ours.
4. The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh- While I don’t really consider the sequel a Slytherin book, this one 1,000% is. It’s a retelling of Arabian Nights (also known as 1,001 Nights). It follows Shahrzad as she volunteers to wed Khalid, who kills his brides each morning, in order to exact vengeance for her friend and kill him. While she looks for a weakness, she cunningly tells him stories in order to delay her death. Of course, Khalid is a Slytherin too. He keeps many secrets and does atrocious things for the sake of his people. These two perform verbal acrobatics around each other so easily, this book clinches its place as a Slytherin novel.
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: This one works as a Slytherin novel two-fold. On the one hand, literally every single character in this book, with the exception of maybe two, is a Slytherin. Each one is out for themselves, loyal to maybe one other person. Their ambition and desire to climb the social later knows no bounds. Every character is vindictive and manipulative. You can’t even trust the narrator or the woman, a servant of Wuthering Heights, who is telling him of its history. It’s a book about a bunch of assholes and I love it. On the other hand, this book has millions of people thinking it’s a romance. Yes, Heathcliff and Cathy are in love, but they literally never get together, string each other along, and treat everybody like shit. And yet it’s constantly billed as a romance classic! The book has actually manipulated people! The actual book! Talk about iconic. And hella Slytherin.

And there you have it! My top 5 picks for books I think represent Slytherin. Do you have any you’d like to add? What books do you think represent your House? Let me know in the comments!

 

Until next time, Strangers!