The year of staying home. Most of these books were not new releases but they were the ones I picked up from that dusty bookshelf and took me spinning through the pages. Some pages delight, others vex but I'd happily pick up any one of these again.
The Folk of the Air series
by Holly Black
I have heard that for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very like the feeling of fear.
The whole damn series.
From the moment of the prologue in the first book (The Cruel Prince) I knew I was in good hands with Holly Black. After finishing the series in a frightening speed, I'm certain this author is the one for me. Not all the plotting was perfect (though a lot of it was), but the characters and the world was compulsive reading. By far my favourite book of the series was The Wicked King, which sits bang in the middle, as that one had twists and turns galore. The last book, The Queen of Nothing, had a few disappointments. The ending of a series is tough to get exactly right, and this one missed some opportunities with characters that, by the end, I'd grown to love and wanted so much more for. But saying that, I'm excited to re-read this series and see if it's equally as addictive to me the second time around. Fantastic and magical from first to last.
The Witcher series
by Andrzej Sapkowski
Geralt you were wrong. You're a very interesting dinner companion.
Yes, the Netflix TV series got me into this. Yes, Henry Cavill is mostly shirtless. I've also tried my hand at the game (I spent most of the time getting ingredients for a potion, only to drop it in battle. Still killed the manticore though). In 2020, I managed to read five out of the seven book series. It starts off as short little adventures smashed together into a novel and then bridges into the epic. The further you get into the series, the more political and battle heavy it gets, and which my eyes tend to glaze over, but I have to admit it's the romance that kept me. Geralt of Rivia is as cool in the books as he is in the show and I ship hard him and Yennefer. Intend to read more of the saga in 2021, a great adult fantasy series.
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver
This is not a current book, it first came out in 1998 but it was recommended to me by my friend, Pip, in 2020. It's definitely one of those books that you think about days, weeks, months after finishing. I didn't love it, but I also kind of did. The book has several point of view characters, all women from the family we're following, who travel to Africa on a church mission their father is to head out there. Some points of views are better than others. The journey is intense and what's really special about it, is that we see the characters grow from childhood to adulthood and the events they experience do actually impact their lives in very dramatic ways. This book breathes life - you won't always want to be living that life, but you will feel as if you are. Also it's a rare occasion where the politics of the book was a part of the story that I was hugely invested in.
The Poppy War
by R.F. Kuang
A YA fantasy trilogy that is being raved about, people frigging love this book. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people, but I did enjoy (not the right word) reading the first and do plan to read the next one. I'm just not in a hurry to do so. The first book spans approximately five years of the main character's life and two of those is done in the first chapter. The pace was off for me in that sense. And a few pretty important events happen that I felt were brushed over. I loved the schooling part, was intrigued by the god part, and hated the war part. Not only because I dislike reading battle scenes, but the violence in this book is extreme. Worse than Tarantino extreme. But the main character is easy to attach yourself to and I'm definitely interested in seeing where her story will lead.
The Devil and the Dark Water
by Stuart Turton
The last book I read of the year - literally finishing on New Years eve. This one is Stuart Turton's second novel, his first being The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. Similar to his first, it has fantasy elements, lots of intrigue and a murder (or two) to solve. I liked the two main characters and I'm truly amazed by Turton's ability to plot, he kept me guessing until the very end. However, this one has a far slower start than The Seven Deaths, and the ending is not very satisfying (in fact I call total bullshit on one aspect). I also thought his writing style wasn't as polished as his first book. Asides from these negatives, I ripped through the book and cemented myself as a reader of his future works. A murder mystery that I can't solve in the first few chapters? Yes. All the time, yes.
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