The World Cup Book Tag

“Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumable because I rarely left the hourse, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death.”

First line in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The FIFA World Cup finally began yesterday and I had to do something to mark the occasion which is why I went on a hunt for a usable tag. I came upon The World Cup Book Tag created by The Humpo Show and what could be more fitting? It was created for the World Cup in 2018 but it works for the 2022 edition too. Let’s get started!

The Rules 

• Pick ONE country from each group!
• Your choice can either be an AUTHOR, or a BOOK set in that country.
• If you are struggling, you can pick a book or author you want to read at some point.
• I’ve included a little bit of information about the book, but you can anything you like- post photos of the cover, favourite quotes, go crazy!
• TAG AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU WANT!
• ALSO, tell everyone, who you are supporting in the World Cup!
• AND, judging by the books/authors you have chosen, which country would win the World Cup!

The Groups

Group A

(Options: Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands)

The only thing I have here is a half option for the Netherlands soooo… The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Only a part of the book takes place in the Netherlands (Amsterdam to be precise) but it’s a rather important part so it counts. It’s also just about as emotional as I expect this World Cup to be.

Group B

(Options: England, IR Iran, USA, Wales)

I really didn’t want to go with the easy choice here but I have absolutely nothing for Iran and apparently, I haven’t read any Welsh authors either. I also can’t go for England (due to reasons we don’t talk about) so I’ve picked The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, set in Virginia, USA. I chose this because a part of the plot is about the characters looking for a dead Welsh king. It was about as Welsh as I could make it.

Group C

(Options: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland)

Going with Mexico here and picking Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, a book by a Mexican author set in Mexico. It’s based on Mexican folklore so the Mayan gods are real and cause trouble for our main character Casiopea. Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the book and its writing style, I still learned a lot of interesting stuff about Mexico.

Group D

(Options: France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia)

…Yeah, I’m choosing Denmark. And in order to mention a book that actually exists in English, I’ve chosen The Devil’s Apprentice by Kenneth B. Andersen. It’s the first book in a YA series about Philip, a goody two shoes, who accidentally gets sent to Hell to become the Devil’s heir. It’s one of those books that I reread a lot when I was younger but for some reason, I never actually finished the series. Oops.

Group E

(Options: Spain, Costa Rica, Germany, Japan)

By far the easiest group because I have several options for three of the countries (sorry, Costa Rica), but in order to leave Europe, I’m going with Japan and No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. It’s a Japanese classic about a young man who struggles with feelings of being “disqualified as a human being” and can’t we all relate to that?

Group F

(Options: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia)

I’m picking Canada and a Canadian author I’d like to try: Victoria Goddard. She has written quite a lot but the book I’m eyeing is The Return of Fitzroy Angursell. Scribd kept recommending her books to me after I started reading Alexandra Rowland so I’m hoping the recommendation comes because of similarities in their styles.

Group G

(Options: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon)

My choice here is Brazil but I have to bend the rules just slightly. The author of Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Caroline Criado Pérez, is British but she was born in Brazil so she is my choice for this group. Brazil also features heavily in her book as many of her data bias examples are based in the country.

Group H

(Options: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, Korea Republic)

So the last group was by far the hardest! I’ve had to go with The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare because a teeny tiny part of that takes place in South Korea. It’s literally all I could find for this group, I’m sorry.

A part of the rules of the tag is to tell you who I’m supporting at the World Cup and I’m sure you’re all surprised when I say Denmark. However, I still can’t convince myself we actually have a chance of winning the whole thing so I’m also supporting Germany and European teams in general. My pick based on the books I’ve chosen, though, means it comes down to a fight between Brazil (Invisible Women) and the USA (The Raven Boys).

If you have a better answer for Group H, please share it because mine was just embarrassing. And do you know of any Welsh authors I should know about? Who are you supporting at the World Cup if you’re watching?