Goodbye 2023, hello 2024!
It was a pretty badass reading year for me, if I'm being honest. I cut back a bit on the titles I took on for publicity purposes and that gave me some additional time to just read, read read.
I broke a personal record and managed to inhale a total of 124 books! That's an average of 10 books a month. And of those 124, 12 of them really blew me away.
Check out my 5 reads of 2023 below. If you read any of these, did they make your 5 star lists too?
in no particular order...
This is one of the better horror books I've read in a while. When I saw it on one of @baker_reads' reels, I had no idea that it was part of a triology, and just ordered book two.
It's creepy, it's gory, and it's steeped in centuries-old dark magic. A God in the Shed unravels its mysteries slowly but is also incredibly well paced.. I flew through the 400 pages in no time as it continiously dragged me deeper and deeper into its dark underbelly!
I am kicking myself in the ass for waiting so long to read this one! I had downloaded it as an ebook a gazillon years ago but never managed to start it. Then I saw it for super cheap at a local book warehouse a while back and snagged it in hardcover, thinking that would entice me to pick it up faster, since it would be staring me in the face everytime I chose my next read. But there was always another book that grabbed my attention more, and so it waited and waited and waaaaited for me, like the woman-thing that bided her time in Travis' cabinet, whispering to me from time to time, reminding me it was there.
This book is fire. I fell in love with the prose immediately. It's got that slow, haunting, gritty thing going on where you just want to savor every sentence. Davidson takes the vampire trope and bashes it against the camper walls until it becomes a bloody, pulpy suggestion of the thing we knew, making it something all his own. It's a fabulous western lit / monster horror / thriller cross over that sounds like it shouldn't work but holy hell does it ever! And it has one of the most empathetic "bad guys" I've ever read.
This is definitely one of those books I would not have picked up on my own. The cover and the jacket copy just wasn't doing it for me, so big hugs to the bookish friends who thought I'd like it. I didn't just like it, you guys. I really loved it! You all know me so well!
Leave the World Behind is another slow burn of a novel. What is it with these lately? I mean, I'm not complaining. Honestly. I'm kinda into the whole prolonged tension thing and the twisty gut feeling of trying to figure out just what the fucking fuck is going on. This is a book that enjoys taking its time to get going but when it does, it really really does!
The NPR review says it best: "Instead of a literary "beach novel" we've landed in an up-to-the-minute version of On The Beach, Nevil Shute's 1957 novel."
Leave the World Behind is a disaster story without the disaster. It's an apocalyptic story without an actual apocalypse. It's a horror story without any real horror. It's bound to get into your head. I mean, I keep tonguing my teeth, just in case.
Project Hail Mary was #book5 of my #bookblurbreadingexperiment And it was a really really good one!
It's another +400 pager and I was afraid it was going to be a slow read but I chewed through it in a matter of two days. Space fiction, when done well, is becoming one of my go-to escapist genres. Andy does a great job of writing intriguing characters, especially ones who can keep you engaged when they only have themselves for company. And I love how he keeps the science at my level, lol.
And omg, Rocky! He's got to be the coolest alien life form ever to have been written! I loved him!
I'm actually a little disappointed that I waited so long to read this one, and honestly, if it wasn't for the book blurb reading experiment, god knows when or if I ever would have!
Yowsers! Im throwing all the stars and heart and mind-blown emoji's at this one.
Interestingly enough, I bought this book a year and a half ago and let it linger in my TBR pile month after month after month, for no other reason than I just kept buying more books I thought I would rather read first and holy shit you guys, I am SO MAD for waiting soooo long to finally pick it up!
It reads so smoothly until it doesn't. It's grief fiction until it isn't. It's a haunted house story until it isn't. It's a downward spiral into madness until, wait, but is it?!?
I wasn't prepared for how much I was going to like this book. If this is in your TBR, go grab it now. Seriously. And then come back and tell me this book isn't the shit!!
This was my first Grady Hendrix novel, though I #ownbutnotyetread a few others, and I think I'm glad I started with this one. Based on the reviews I've read, I see people calling it "campy", others considering it a possession story vs a haunting. Well, you know what I say? I say it was a whole lot of fun! And I'm ready for more.
I listened to it on audio and really loved how it played out in that format. The narration was wonderful, the characters didn't take themselves too seriously, and even though I totally saw what was coming from a mile away, it didn't take away from the experience AT ALL.
And oh, btw, did you know I absolutely hate hate HATE dolls, puppets, ventriloquist dummies, and marionettes? They creep me out so bad. When I was a kid, for some strange reason I really wanted a Groucho Marx dummy for Christmas and once I got it, I was sooo terrified of it that I stripped all his clothes off and locked him in the coat closet so he couldn't get me at night. Seriously, google it. You'll see why. And I always made sure I fairly rotated all of my stuffed animals and dolls in bed with me each night so they didn't get jealous of each other or get mad at me. So uhm, YEAAAAH this book was also one massive fucking trigger for me too! And I STILL loved it!
Kakaweewee!!!!
This one's going towards the top of the list. I ate this book up! I didn't intend to read it in one day but I just did not want to put it down. It was so captivating.
Set in the near future where bees have gone extinct, the government is rationing out food and setting up hand pollenation sites to try to stave off mass starvation. It's a strange time in which people who report bee sightings regularly go missing and are deemed to suffer from hallucinations.
The daughter of the last beekeeper carries a secret, one that she's helped keep ever since her father was sent to jail eleven years ago, and she's finally ready to return home to dig up his hidden research. When she arrives, however, Sasha's surprised to find her old farmhouse populated by a group of four untrusting squatters. Desperate to hide her identify, but just as desperate to understand her father's (and her own) role in what became known as The Great Collapse, Sasha slowly wins them over and soon finds herself with much more than she bargained for - a new family and something she hasn't felt in a very long time... hope... not just for herself but for the world's future.
Don't let this one pass you by. It's going to captivate you too. I promise.
Oooooh. I kept seeing this one pop up in my feed here and there and finally decided to take the plunge. I listened on audio and it was really just so good. I don't think the description of the book does it justice, honestly.
It's a story about loss and grief and the horrors that escape our dreams and infiltrate our reality, only it's sooo much more than that too.
Steeped in Indigenous forklore and magik, and strong family dynamics, the atomspheric Bad Cree is more horror adjacent than actual horror, and I think it's best when you go in knowing as little as possible, like I did. It exceeded my expectations because quite frankly, I wasn't sure what I was expecting. And it really blew me away. If you're seeking more stellar debut and Indigenous fiction, Jessica Johns is where it's at!
Part of my #bookblurbreadingexperiment. While I had already read Cronin's book The Passage years ago, it was the only book I'd read by him and I had strongly disliked it. But then I saw that he had just released this one, and yes I'm aware I am already kind of breaking my own rules, I thought this was a good time to give him a second try, so I went out and bought it and man, I am so glad I did!
Clocking in at over 500 pages, I'm not going to lie, it felt like a daunting task and I worried about what I was getting myself into (part of what I disliked about The Passage was how dang looooong it was) but after reading the first couple pages, I was hooked!
If you haven't read this yet, it gives off major The Island, The Truman Show, and Shutter Island vibes! It's a total mindfuck of a book but in the absolute best way!
I wasn't prepared for how much I was going to like this book. I mean, I love everything that Meerkat Press puts out, but dayumn! This was just soooo good.
It's incredibly voice driven and was an absolute blast to read. I started it last night and ended up finishing today in practically one sitting. It sucked me right in and I have no doubt you will be too.
Up to the top of the list of the best books I've read so far this year you go! Holy hell this book was amazing!
The LA times calls it "an unearthly hybrid that’s part horror, part literary meditation on grief, part wildly entertaining tale of an impossible being forced to live in the shadow of the dead boy he replaced" and I really couldn't describe it any better than that.
Is it horror? Not entirely. Sure, it's a little gory at times, and yes, there are elements of body horror but it's more focused on the horror of what's left of a family when they lose a child. It's lush and literary and incredibly captivating. A must read for those are who fans of monster fiction, grief fiction, and weird mother fiction.
Sing With Me at the Edge of Paradise
Oh gosh you guys. Why aren't more of you reading this book?!
The first sentence of the book's description says it better than I can: The sixteen stories in this collection surround queer men of various ages―teenagers, young adults, men in middle age―trying to temper their expectations of the world with their lived experience. Using the lens of the bizarre and fantastic, these stories explore discontent, discomfort, and discovery.
In Joe's deft hands, we are thrust straight into the heart of each of these tender and somewhat fantasical stories, sharing the characters' fears and confusion, suffering their rejections, experiencing their joys...
It was just wow. The blurring of reality and fantasy was just * chef's kiss *. An early favorite for me, and if you're into queer magical realism, you've got to trust me, it will be a favorite of yours as well.
Danger Slater knocked it out of the universe with this one. I've been a big fan of his writing for years and this is quite honestly his best book yet! It's by far my favorite. And that's saying a lot because I love everything he's written.
This was the most fun I've had reading in a while! It's cutesy, it's crass, and it's full of creative new alt words for our unmentionables. Vaginas are now cupcakes, buttholes will forever be turd cutters...
If Little Miss Apocalypse wasn't on your radar before, it is now. Get this novella into your TBR! You deserve this!
I've had this book on my radar for so long and finally found someone on pango who was selling it!
What starts out as a sapphic, slightly obsessive love story quickly takes a dark and unsettling turn into body horror and mutilation, fantasies about roadkill, and oh yes, even some cannabalism.
This book was so fucked up and I loved it so much! Except for the scene with the menstrual blood. That, of all the things in this gross and demented story, icked me out.
Not for the weak of stomach but oh that prose. It was written so beautifully for something so gross and twisted!
I Died Too But They Haven't Buried Me Yet
Grief horror for the win!
This one takes its sweet old time, a slow burn for sure, but one that I read in nearly one sitting. It was a solid 4 star read for me until we hit the twist at the end and then BAM! Jeffery took the whole thing to a new level and there went my head and my heart!
Get this on your radar. You won't want to miss it. I promise you.
I recently saw that Brian Evenson had a few copies of this one on hand that he was willing to sign and ship out and, I mean, how could I say no to that?! You could say I'm a bit of an Evenson fangirl, but again, if you've read his work, how could you not be?
Black bark is an incredibly dark collection - clocking in at just under 150 pages - that showcases some of Evenson's creepiest stories. His writing gets under your skin. It itches. It twitches. It burrows in deep and never leaves you. It's the movement in the corner of your vision. The noise you hear downstairs just as you're about to drop off to sleep. The slight disturbance in the air that tickles the hairs on the back of your neck.
Which of Brian's books have you read? Do you have a favorite?
