Top Ten Tuesday October 22: books I’d give different titles

Happy Tuesday everyone! I’m back with another Top Ten Tuesday, which you can learn more about here! Two weeks in a row is the best TTT streak I’ve done in literal months, I think.

Today the topic is books you’d give different titles, and what that title would be! This was so much fun and interesting (and harder than I expected!). I generally think that books have perfect titles, or titles that fit the story perfectly. So it was hard for me to find books where I didn’t like the corresponding title.

Books I do not have alternate titles for but should have different titles

The Translation of Love by Lynne Kutsukake: this title has no relation to the story whatsoever. I love it, it’s a great title, but it’s not related.

The War of the Worlds by HG Wells: honestly, I don’t know what else to give this book. But I do think calling it “the war of the worlds” when it was really “Martians attack the Earth and then die several days later because of bacteria and viruses”. Something like The Attack From Mars would have been better, though that does sound like a cheesy 80s horror movie.

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma: I would change this because (spoiler) the girls are not imaginary. They are very much real girls. There are no imaginary girls in this book.

This Darkness Mine by Mindy McGinnis: I just don’t like this title, okay? But the only better title I can come up with is The Sister Within, which is also too melodramatic for me. So idk.

Books I have alternate titles for

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See –> The Tea Girl: this book is much much less about the tea girl who lives on Hummingbird Lane and more about her mother, who is a tea girl. While I love the flow of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, I think The Tea Girl is a better descriptor for the book.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli –> Love, Simon: okay so I cheated and took the movie title. But I think Love, Simon has a much better ring to it. Even though I love the implications of the original title, it’s a little clunky.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart –> The Summer After: again, I actually really love the original title. However, it’s not related to the plot whatsoever. According to the author, there’s a whole reason why the friend group calls themselves “the liars”, but it was cut from the book. Therefore, the title should be changed. I think The Summer After describes the plot a bit more.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch –> idk something like Horrifying Infinity: this might just me being an annoying science nerd, but there is nothing related to dark matter in this book. It’s about different realities, which, if memory serves correctly, wasn’t related to dark matter.

Shoutout to Alex for being the best and sending me several photos of the book. I panicked that dark matter did, in fact, have something to do with the way the box worked, so she sent me pictures of the parts where the box is being explained. And as far as we can tell, there is no relation to dark matter whatsoever. So for a science-lover like myself, this lack of dark matter in a book literally called Dark Matter was a let down.

Anyway, there’s a quote in the book along the lines of “we’re stuck in this horrifying infinity”, which I think has a nice ring to it, if a little dramatic.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano –> something equally melodramatic but more accurate to the plot, like Trapped: once again, I just don’t think the title portrays the plot very well. I love the title Wither, but there isn’t really a ton of withering that happens in this book.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden –> I Stole This Information From a Geisha: haha just kidding…. unless….

So those are some titles I think should be changed! But what about you? Are there any titles you think should be changed? What about for the ones I don’t have an alternate title for? Let me know!

Ally xx

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