Fantasy Bingo 2020-21 | Second and Third Row Picks

Happy Tuesday! Today I’m going to go over my second and third row of potential picks for r/Fantasy’s Bingo Challenge.

For the full details of the challenge, check out r/Fantasy’s 2020 Bingo Announcement thread.

For my first row picks, check out my post about it.

The card:

Second row potential picks:

Novel featuring a ghost. Hard mode: At least one main protagonist is a ghost

• Right now, the only one I have that I think would work is Joyland by Stephen King. I borrowed this from my mom, which asking her was the only way I knew it had a ghost. I don’t think it’s a protagonist though so no hard mode for this one.

Novel featuring explanation. Hard mode: The exploration is the central plot

• A Natural History of Dragons is probably going to be my book. I mentioned it as a possibility for another square already but as this is the only one I can think of for this one, well, that kinda answers itself. I’m not sure if this is hard mode or not yet, I’ll have to wait til I finish it to see.

Climate fiction. Hard mode: Not post-apocalyptic

• I feel like this topic was written for The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemison

Novel with a color in the title. Hard mode: Not black, red, gray or white

• The Priory of the Orange Tree would work, which is obviously hard mode
• Jade City would also work. I’m not sure which between the two I’d wanna read, they both sound super good!

Any r/Fantasy book club book of the month or read-along book. Hard mode: Must read a current selection and participate in the discussion

• I don’t think I wanna pick one for this. My goal is to do hard mode and obviously I don’t know what the books will be yet!

Third row potential picks:

Self-published novel. Hard mode: Fewer than 50 ratings on Goodreads

• This is another one that’s hard to pick ahead of time. I have a few self-pub’d ebooks on my kindle app I know. But honestly I’ll probably have to go looking for one to fulfill this prompt.

Novel with chapter epigraphs. Hard mode: Original to the novel (not quotes, etc from elsewhere)

• I think I wanna read Arm of the Sphinx for this one! Hard mode!

Novel published in 2020. Hard mode: Debut novel

• There are so many good books coming out this year, man. So many. I’m not gonna pick now, I don’t wanna limit myself

Novel set in a school or university. Hard mode: Harry Potter or The Magicians

• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. Hard mode! I’m rather pumped for this one

Book about books. Hard mode: Does not feature a library, public or private

• There could be a few for this one. The Library of the Unwritten stands out first in my mind but obviously wouldn’t count for hard mode.
• The Book of Strange New Things would also work and I think it’d count for hard mode

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And that’s it! Compared to past years, I’m weirdly having a harder time coming up with books that fit, despite my original impression that the prompts were ‘easier’ and that I have more books now than I did before. Weird, huh? Fourth and fifth row picks will be out soon! Happy reading!