Top Ten Tuesday #34: DO NOT WANT

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and The Bookish. Each week the girls at B&B think up a fun theme, and participating bloggers post their favorite 10 books in that category. This week's theme is

Top Ten Worlds I Would NOT Inhabit/Characters I Would Not Trade Places With If They Payed Me in Solid Gold

I know the actual title of this post seems mean, but I would never, ever want to permanently inhabit these places or be these characters.

1. Katniss/Panem, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. No. I'm sorry. No amount of boys passing me life-sustaining carbs would ever be able to force me to choose to live in Panem. Love the series, but that country is so messed up.

2. Cassie, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. Terrifying. The United States that Cassie knows is utterly terrifying. Like, wet-your-pants-might-as-well-curl-up-and-die-because-you're-going-to-anyway brand of terrifying.

3. Amelia, Hereafter trilogy by Tara Hudson. Oh, Amelia. This series is lovely, but so incredibly heartbreaking. I wouldn't want to switch places with Amelia because she's strong enough to make the decisions she did. I don't know if I would have been.

4. David/Newcago, Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. I love superhero stories, but this is a superhero horror story. The guys who should be good? Yeah, they're despicable, murderous monsters. Nothankyou.

5. Allie, Blood of Eden trilogy by Julie Kagawa. Vampires plagued with a superiority complex, a super bug, horrifically genetically engineered canibalistic monsters, and a psychopathic genius. Um...I'll pass. This series is so ridiculously good and wrings all the feels out of me, but I could never live in it. I would die. Literally. Immediately. Just...*poof* *iz ded* *rabids go nom nom nom*

6. Liesel/WWII Germany, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The most heartbreaking of this list, I think, because it was a real place and a real time. I can't even begin to imagine the sorrows of the people during that time.

7. The peculiar children in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Creepy, creepy world those kids live in. They have powers, yes, but they are hunted for them, and the only semi-safe option they have is to hide themselves away from the world a la Peter Pan and the Lost Boys and relive the same day over and over and over and over and over.... Never growing up and getting to experience all life has to offer is a horrible thing, and I pity them. They're in their 70s and 80s, and yet, they're still only children.

8. Meghan & Ethan Chase/The Nevernever, Iron Fey & Iron Fey: Forgotten series by Julie Kagawa. Julie sure knows how to write 'em. The Nevernever, aka Faery is the worst. I'd actually take the world in Blood of Eden over the Nevernever because at least Allie knows where she stands. The Nevernever and its inhabitants are always scheming to do you grevious damage, the least of which is death. Give me a dang sword or a branch or whatever, and I'll at least make a stand against the rabids, but in the Iron Fey series, your own words can destroy you faster than a weapon ever could.

9. Ember, Article 5 trilogy by Kristen Simmons. More than some other highly excellent and creeptastic future dystopians (Divergent, Delirium, Legend, Wither, etc), the Article 5 series really does scare me because I can honestly see how we could go from our society today to the shambling country Ember and Chase reside in. This one hits me especially close to home because quite literally, half of the series takes place in my hometown. The square my mom and I watch Shakespeare plays in each summer? Scene to brutal mobs and murder. Wonderful series, but it scares the crap out of me.

10. Tina Fey, Bossypants by Tina Fey. Wait, no, that's a lie. I do want to be Tina Fey. I can do her Sarah Palin impersonation and everything!

Actual #10. Alina/Ravka, Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. Unless Mal/The Darkling/Sturmhond/Nikolai are all shirtless at all times and hanging out with me exclusively, Ravka is not a place I would want to live. It's terrifying. Thanks a lot, Leigh. You create the men of my dreams and place them in the world of my nightmares. You did that on purpose.

So that's my list. Some real (or at least more realistic) worlds, some fantastical, some silly. All are stunningly horrific, and that's one reason I really love all those books.  What's on  your list this week? Share your links!