hey all, it's been awhile, LOL. Between revisions for THE BONE WAY, COVID outbreaks at work, and a hectic last few months of the year, I let the blog slide for a bit. I was going to do a massive post for my fave books I read from October-December, but then I saw the Annual End of Year Survey floating around on Twitter and was like omg I should do this again! I haven't done it since my book blogging days! The survey was created by Jamie from The Perpetual Page-Turner, who was always one of my favorite bloggers. I won't be completing the whole questionnaire (there's an entire section dedicated to blogging), but I always loved writing this post so let's get to it! Fair warning, I like to cheat as much as possible. :D
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2020 READING STATS
Number Of Books You Read: 184 (including all the stories, even if they weren't book-length) Number of Rereads: 16 Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy
BEST IN BOOKS
1. best book you read in 2020?
The Roommate by Rosie Danan! I still can't stop thinking about this book.
2. book you were excited about & thought you were going to love more but didn’t?
*whispers* The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires.
3. most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?
I was not expecting to love The Empress of Salt and Fortune as much as I did! What a fantastic novella.
4. book you “pushed” the most people to read (and they did)? I have been a very, very bad book pusher lately so I can BARELY answer this one. But I did tell Val to read If We Were Villains by M.L. Ro and she really enjoyed it!
5. best series you started? best sequel? best series ender? Best Series Started: Heart of Iron and The Diviners
Best Sequel: Before the Devil Breaks You and Storm of Locusts!
Best Series Ender: The Faithless Hawk
6. favorite new author you discovered in 2020?
Elizabeth Acevedo, she's amazing! Also Nghi Vo!
7. best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone? I read a book about books bound in human skin, LOLOL. Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom was so fascinating, tbh, but a few years ago I might never have picked it up because of the subject!
8. most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year? I seriously inhaled Fable by Adrienne Young, hooked me from the first page!
9. book you would be most likely to reread next year?
The Roommate for sure!
10. favorite cover?
11. most memorable character of 2020? Simon Gutmunsson from None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney tbh.
12. most beautifully written book?
It's not really a purple-prose book, but Piranesi was gorgeous. Also Clap When You Land is beautiful!
13. most thought-provoking/life-changing book?
I honestly had SO many thoughts and feels over The Project by Courtney Summers, I don't even know how to unpack them all.
14. book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2020 to finally read?
Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil by Melina Marchetta. I know better than to wait on a Marchetta. Shameful.
15. favorite passage/quote?
oh god so, so, so many. I'm gonna try to stick to like three! from The Roommate and Wuthering Heights respectively.
“I’d do terrible things, Clara, to suffer the perfect torture of watching you fuck yourself again and again.”
"We've braved its ghosts often together, and dared each other to stand among the graves and ask them to come... But Heathcliff, if I dare you now, will you venture? If you do, I'll keep you. I'll not lie there by myself: they may bury me twelve feet deep, and throw the church down over me; but I won't rest till you are with me... I never will!"
"I have not broken your heart—you have broken it—and in breaking it, you have broken mine."
I really just wanted to quote like all of Wuthering Heights but I resisted. You're welcome.
16. shortest & longest book?
technically season one of Lore Olympus is like, a thousand pages, but I'll go with a book for the longest: Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray. for shortest it's harder because I read a lot of short stories and can't always get a page count on them. so I'm not totally sure, but Goodreads is saying it's the first episode of The Haunting of Beatrix Greene, so yes let's go with that!
17. book that shocked you the most?
If We Were Villains. That ending floored me in the best way possible! Also Two Can Keep a Secret had one of the most shocking, perfect last lines I've ever read.
18. otp of the year (you will go down with this ship!)?
Sam and Evie from The Diviners series
19. favorite non-romantic relationship of the year?
everyone in the Diviners series; so much soft, beautiful friendship.
20. favorite book from an author you’ve read previously?
Deal with the Devil by Kit Rocha! I love these characters so fucking much; they write found families so well. And the banter was just
(gif of Seth Meyers doing the chef's kiss)