Recommendations based on emojis (part one)

Hello, gals and gays, happy Monday! Today I’m giving some recommendations based on emojis you gave me. As always, I went to Twitter to ask for y’alls help, and you did you deliver.

I got a ton of responses, so thank you so much to everyone who responded. Because of the amount of responses, I’m going to be doing two posts! One this week and one next week.

So, I’m now going to attempt to give some recommendations for books based on those emojis! For some, I’m going to do the combination of emojis and for others, I’ll do the single emojis.

My friend Aneta: 🥺🤑🤺

These are some terrible emojis to try to recommendations for, I’m sorry. So I have two very different recommendations. First is A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab. This is a fantasy series with lots of magic, fighting, dimension-jumping, and angst. It doesn’t totally work for this series of emojis, but it does work for “🤺” because that’s basically Lila.

I would also recommend Necessary People by Anna Pitoniak, which is a thriller about two young women competing in their work place. One of the women is rich and gets the job through connections (🤑) and being a suck-up (🥺) and the two women fight, both physically and mentally (🤺).

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Callum: 📚 🌺 ✨

For this combination, I would recommend The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. In this book, an old author is telling a young woman her life story to document it before she dies. The young woman reads a lot, and there’s a couple of gardens that are very important to the story. Though there is no actual magic, it has a magical feel and atmosphere. It’s also very gothic, so I think Callum would enjoy it.

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My friend Lindsey: ✨🤩🍱🌮🐡🐣

Lindsey, this is the worst possible combination of emojis to try to give recommendations for.

I guess I would recommend The Measure of My Powers: A Memoir of Food, Misery and Paris by Jackie Kai Ellis. It’s Ellis’ memoir, and focuses a lot on food. It’s a physically gorgeous book, with a ton of beautiful photos and really nice paper and pretty colours. It also has some of her recipes in it. I really enjoyed it, and I feel like Lindsey would as well.

Rachel: 🥀 ✨

For this set of emojis, I’m recommending The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, if, by some miracle, you haven’t read it yet. This book follows, you guessed it, a magical circus at night. It’s so magical, yet dark at the same time, which is the vibe I’m getting from this combination of emojis.

I would also recommend the Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neil because it has a very similar vibe to The Night Circus. It takes place in Montreal during the depression and follows to young people exploring love and sexuality, and involves a circus-like performance. It’s very magical-feeling but in a dark way.

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Sav: ✌️ ✨🦋

Hmmm y’all really like the ✨ emoji (it’s me, I’m y’all).

Based on the cover alone, I’d definitely recommend The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson, which features a blue butterfly. I think the book also fits the vibe of this emoji combination (kind of), which is essentially a dystopian about medical ethics and what makes us human, explored at a kind of surface-level, easy-to-understand yet still interesting way.

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My friend Christa: 🙄🥺🥴🤢🤡

AKA my feelings on a night out AKA another terrible combination to try and make recommendations for.

I think Vita Nostra by the Dyachenkos would work for this combination of emojis. It definitely made me feel 🥴 and 🙄 and 🥺 and also 🤡 at different points throughout the book. It’s very odd and weird, but also very brilliant in a lot of ways, but also not necessarily an enjoyable read the entire time.

I also think Sabrina by Nick Drnaso would work as well. It’s a graphic novel about murder and conspiracy theories, and it’s super interesting. It definitely works for all the different feelings present in this emoji combination.

Orangutan Librarian: 🤪🧐🤔

Okay for this one I interpreted it as a mystery that was very complex but also a little out there. So, based on that description, I would recommend The 7&1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. It’s a mystery with a really dark and interesting atmosphere, a really interesting premise, and a really interesting mystery. It’s definitely very 🤪 but also very 🧐 and 🤔.

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Sarah: 👀😤🤗😪🥴

Mkay well, there’s a lot to work with here.

For 👀, I think the most obvious recommendation is a mystery/thriller/book with a lot of twists. My favourite mystery is And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It was fantastic and so twisty and clever.

If you want a book that will make you feel very 👀👀 but without it being a mystery/thriller, I would recommend Middlegame by Seanan McGuire. It’s so interesting and twisty and I was obsessed with it.

For 😤, I would recommend The Dinner by Herman Koch. It’s a super interesting thriller-esque book, with some fantastic characters and subversion of expectations. The narrator definitely gives off 😤 vibes throughout the novel.

For 🤗, I recommend Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins, which is a light-hearted f/f YA romance. It just makes me feel light and happy and very 🤗, you know? It’s just really sweet and fun.

I’ve always interpreted 😪 to be kind of bored and tired? Idk if that’s the right feeling but it’s what we’re going with. Obviously I don’t want to recommend a book that is boring, so I’m going to recommend a book where I think the character is bored. So for that I’m going with Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher. I think the main character of this book is very bored/tired with life, and would definitely use the 😪 emoji if she could.

Last is my least favourite emoji physically, 🥴. It’s so ugly, I’m sorry. That being said, I would recommend The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson. This is a thriller about a man who kidnaps young women, tattoos butterflies on their backs, and then preserves them in epoxy when they turn 18 (maybe 21, idk). It’s super weird, slightly disturbing, but also an entertaining read.

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Rick: 🍻🤪🍻😕😟😣😭

Ah yes, a day in quarantine.

One recommendation for this combination would be Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. It starts off all 🍻🤪🍻 and quickly turns 😕😟😣.

For a completely different vibe, I would recommend Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton, which definitely has a ton of 🍻🤪🍻 before taking a 😕😟😣 turn but still managing to be 😭. It’s an addicting read, and I loved it.

Last, for another completely different vibe, I’d recommend Bunny by Mona Awad. There’s some 🍻🤪🍻 and also some 😕😟😣 and some 😭 and largely just made me feel a little 🤪. It’s super interesting, thought, and I think a lot of people would love it.

Siobhan: 😆🙃💀😈🤨

An interesting selection! I think Bunny by Mona Awad would also work for this combination. It’s funny but weird, there’s some death and 😈 moments, it makes you feel a little 🤨.

I think also The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson would work as well. This is a book about high school that follows several high schoolers throughout the trials and tribulations of their year. It’s super interesting and really well done, and I highly recommend it.

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My friend Corrina: 🇮🇹🥺👏

I have been wracking my brain for an Italian book, or a book with Italian vibes and I cannot for the life of me think of any I would want to recommend.

Maybe a bit of a weird recommendation, but I’d recommend The Luxe series by Anna Godbersen, which is a trashy YA romance series that takes place at the turn of the century. It’s so trashy, but it makes me feel very 🥺 and ultimately 👏👏.

So, those are some recommendations based on emojis! Part two is coming next week!

What were your thoughts? Do you have any recommendations based on any of these combinations? What’s your favourite emoji? Let me know!

Ally xx

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