A roundup of all the books I’ve read this year 😱

In which I write mini-reviews.

You know how, despite loving books and writing a lot, I don’t tend to actually…read a lot? I can’t remember the last time I read more than twelve books in a year. Well, y’all. This year I read THIRTY-SEVEN BOOKS, according to Goodreads. I know that’s not a lot compared to some of you freaks superheroes who are out here reading 200 books a year, but it’s still way more than I usually read and I’m really happy about that! Getting an overdrive account allowed me to read SO many more books than I usually do. I have a feeling I’m not going to be able to keep it up next year, what with college and all, so…RIP my reading streak lmao. (Also I don’t think people who read 200 books a year are freaks, I’m just simultaneously impressed and jealous XD)

We Hunt the Flame, by Hafsah Faizal–Hafsah Faizal really said ‘f*ck it’ and wrote a self-indulgent hurt-comfort Assassin’s Creed fic that was the best thing I’ve ever read. She’s a wizard. Also STOP HURTING NASIR YOU’RE SO MEAN AHHH. This is the kind of book I wish I could write. I love fictional men in pain.

Muse of Nightmares, by Laini Taylor–*long, long sigh* Full review here.

The Guinevere Deception, by Kiersten White–Mordred deserved better. And Guinevere, light of my life, my queen, deserved a personality. Also Arthur sucked. The book kind of felt like it was jumping from plot point to plot point without bothering to connect them? Lancelot and Brangien were super cool, though! Full review here. I had fun reading it, but I probably wouldn’t read it again unless I was bored.

House of Salt and Sorrows, by Erin A. Craig–The character development wasn’t too great, and it wasn’t that memorable–also, a dead sister should have WAY more effect on the characters, please don’t use dead women as plot devices–but the setting and monsters were uber cool, so we’re still good.

Song of the Crimson Flower, by Julie C. Dao–🥺 So cute…So soft…The setting is amazing and the descriptions are so vivid!10/10 would live in this world. The characters are adorable. Anyway, y’all should all go read this. It’s set in the same world as some of the author’s other books, but it’s a standalone.

The Story of Hong Gil-Dong–Y’all are sleeping on this Korean classic. It’s kind of like Robin Hood? It’s VERY fun. And also pretty short.

Sorcery of Thorns, by Margaret Rogerson–A reread! I love this book so much. It has the same tone and feel to it that a lot of the books I grew up with had, so this fills me with nostalgia even though I only read it last year.

Tian Guan Ci Fu, by Mo Xiang Tongxiu–MY FAVORITE BOOK EVER. I READ IT IN A WEEK EVEN THOUGH IT’S LONGER THAN THE BIBLE APPARENTLY. NO I HAVE NOT READ THE BIBLE COVER TO COVER YET. (I am a bad Christian.)

This book is everything. It has a demon king who would burn the world for his loved ones but will content himself with fixing his loved one’s house and complimenting his bad cooking because he knows his loved one doesn’t want to burn down the world. It has a god who has seen the worst of humanity and been through the lowest misfortune and still chooses to do the right thing anyway. The world-building is so creative. The side characters are amazing. IT’S SO GOOD YOU HAVE TO READ IT. GO DO IT NOW, YOU CAN FIND FAN-TRANSLATIONS ONLINE. IN FACT LET ME LINK YOU THE ONES I READ. The translation I read was split into two parts.

The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo–I found this kind of forgettable, but it’s true that contemporary is not my genre, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. The abusive mom was forgiven way too easily, though. While I admire the effort it must have taken to write the story in verse, I think it would have worked way better in prose. The poetry created too much of a distance from the reader. Full review here.

Thorn, by Intisar Khanani–Not the best book I ever read, but pretty fun! I haven’t read a lot of Goose Girl retellings, and I liked what this did with the story. Full review here.

Ash, by Malinda Lo–This was disappointment in a book. Needed more lesbian fairies. 0/10. Full review here.

Avalon High, by Meg Cabot–This book enraged me. Yes I’m aware I hateread it and thus brought it on myself but it was so worse than I expected. I can’t encompass the breadth of my rage in a brief paragraph, so please see my review for my thoughts.

Into the Grey, by Margaret Killjoy–yeah this is a short story, but I’m including this here because I can! It was great. Carnivorous mermaid girlfriends are the best girlfriends. Also probably the first honest-to-God trans rep I’ve come across? (Don’t quote me on that.)

Lullaby for a Lost World, by Aliette de Bodard–another short story. This one was wild! Pretty fun though.

The Kingdom of Back, by Marie Lu–This one disappointed me so much. Nannerl kept making stupid decisions, the pacing SUCKED, and did I mention that Nannerl kept making stupid decisions? Did someone take her brain and replace it with a brick? Also, I’m not docking any points for this and I didn’t mention it in my review, but there’s a lot of speculation on whether or not Wolfgang was autistic and it wouldn’t kill you to write him as autistic. You know what I’m saying? Full review here.

Lady Windermere’s Fan, by Oscar Wilde—Wilde did it again, folks! I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did, but I was almost in tears by the end. So good. Also I went to AO3 to see if there were any OT3 fics about Lord Windermere, Lady Windermere, and Darlington and there WEREN’T. Internet I have never been so disappointed in thee.

Tales of India–a book of fairy tales. The illustrations were great and I loved the stories! 10/10.

We Should All be Feminists, by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie–So I will preface this by saying that I think the author might be a TERF? People were saying she was, at least, and I couldn’t really get to the bottom of it? But this book was still pretty good and I think you should read it. It’s short, to the point, and reasonable. The writing is really good. [Edit: Adichie said JK Rowling’s essay was reasonable, apparently? Which, I don’t know if we read the same essay, because bitch, where? Ma’am, I’m not a lesbian in denial desperately looking for straight acceptance, I’m a whole bi-ace enby. Leave me alone.]

The Lightest, Heaviest Things, by Weez Phillips–A sweet middle-grade about a young mentally-ill girl saving the giants in her hometown! It was really whimsical and charming. Full review here.

Cruel Beauty, by Rosamund Hodge–A reread! This book is legit hilarious. The relationships are all toxic, but it kind of seems more self-aware than a lot of YA, so I forgive it. I like toxic relationships as long as I don’t get the impression that the author thinks everything’s adorable and fluffy, you know? (To an extent, at least. It can be kind of hard to handle.) And I really like heroines who make hard decisions and aren’t always the most sympathetic. This is probably my favorite Beauty and the Beast retelling, to be honest, although Beauty by Robin Mckinley is a close runner-up of course

The Art of Feeling, by Laura Tims— …

…One of my favorite reads this year was a contemporary????

No, seriously. This might be my favorite book ever. I think it’s because stuff actually happens. Like the main characters have to deal with bullies and the heroine’s drug dealer high school ex-friend is out to get them both. This book is HILARIOUS too, which helps. The characters are so good 😳 It also has great mental illness rep and both main characters are disabled, and–drum roll, please–ace representation that is actually really good! (fucking FINALLY.) Sam, the heroine, has a bad leg after a car accident and needs crutches, and Eliot, the hero, has a rare condition where he can’t feel pain, which sounds really great until you think about it and realize exactly what that would mean. (as in, he literally can’t tell when he’s injured himself and needs medical attention.) This book was so good. I swear I could read it over and over. Anyway, my full review

The Boy Who Steals Houses, by C.G. Drews–I loved the writing style! Really poetic and descriptive. I could have used a better ending and more of the hero’s brother, though. Also the heroine just felt…weirdly not 3d. And for the last time, I have no idea why I’m supposed to think Sam is so in the wrong for beating up the guys who harassed his autistic brother. We might not be able to go after the people who are mean to our siblings, but anyone would want to, and isn’t the joy of characters that they can do the things we want to do with little to no consequences? Full review here.

A Match Made in Mehendi, by Nandini Bajpai–This was dumb but so CUTE. I’m not linking my review because I wrote it right after class (which was a mistake) and I’m mildly ashamed of it.

A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor–This was wild. Wow.

An Enchantment of Ravens, by Margaret Rogerson–Another reread! This is such a comfort book for me 😭 I love it so much. One of the rare fairy YA books that really does it for me. Full review here.

With the Fire on High, by Elizabeth Acevedo–I KNEW I would like Acevedo’s non-poetry stuff better. This was so good. Slight magical realism vibes? Just slightly? It’s about a girl who wants to become a chef and is raising her little daughter. I didn’t want to read it at first because I thought it was going to be a depressing book about the Hard Life of Teen Moms Living in Poverty (which is a valid book to write, but it’s 2020, you know, and I can’t do that right now), but this was actually really uplifting.

A Quiet Kind of Thunder, by Sara Barnard–This was okay! It’s a contemporary romance about a girl with selective mutism and a deaf boy. I missed the fact that it was a romance when I picked up, though, and there is way too much sex and kissing for my comfort. (They. Are. Teens. I am asexual. And also they are teens. There are several reasons I do NOT want to read that.) Full review here.

The Dark Lord Clementine, by Sarah Jean Horowitz–So cute 🥺 I do wish certain adult characters had been called out more on their actions, but I think they aren’t because it’s from the perspective of a child. As in, you don’t realize how messed up that is until you’re older. The child characters and the sheep are adorable, though, and the magic is really creative! I love stories about characters who are trying to be villains.

The Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee–This blew me away. I’ve never read anything like it before. It’s SO good. Full review here.

Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia–Meh. A ton of really good ideas ruined by poor pacing and underdeveloped characters. And WHY were the villain’s motivations hidden for 3/4ths of the novel. That was such a bad choice. If I have to hear how dumb and evil Martin is ONE more time I am going to bash my head into a wall. That being said, I loved the ending and Loray. Loray is my aesthetic encompassed in a character. Full review here.

Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia–I loved the ideas of GOJAS, even though it wasn’t perfect, so I thought that, surely, I would love her other books that she might have fleshed out more. And then I got hit in the face with *&#$* mushrooms.

I’m sorry, did I wander into a Star Trek episode? Is this where I ended up? This isn’t as fun as Star Trek, though. I need my Spock. My Uhura. My McCoy. At least the hero and the villains were more fleshed out then in GOJAS. I actually really like Francis, the hero. I just wish this hadn’t tried to take such a ridiculous plot so very seriously. If you’re going to go camp, then go camp. Don’t try to be artistic about it.

A Modest Proposal, by Jonathon Swift–I read this for school when I was exhausted, so I feel it isn’t fair of me to speak ill of it. I’m pretty sure I got a good grade on the paper, though! yaaay

Maimonides, by Ilil Arbel–a biography of Maimonides, a medieval Jewish scholar. This was really fun to read! I felt like I learned a lot.

Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor–I wasn’t thrilled with this, but it was okay. Full review here.

I’m not going to get into my life because ahahaha. But at least my reading year was pretty fun! I hope I keep it up.