These Books Will Self-Destruct in 12 Months | 2022

Hello! Welcome to my 'These Books will Self-Destruct in 12 Months' blog post. This post is inspired by Becca and The Books, who originally started doing videos of this idea a few years ago (here are her 2021 and 2019 videos if you're interested!).

The basic idea is to pick 10 books that have been sitting on your shelves for a long time but that you never reach for. If you don't read them in 12 months then you have to unhaul them. I love this idea because there are definitely some books on my shelves that I never reach for even though I'm still quite interested in them. So I've decided to create this post and in 12 months we can revisit it together and see what I've read/already unhauled/not read.

So, without further ado, here are the 10 books on my Self-Destruct list:

1. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

I first heard about this book on Reagan's channel (PeruseProject) years ago, and I'm still really interested in getting to it. This is a sci-fi novel that follows Harry August, a person who is reborn and lives the same life again and again. This happens 11 times until something finally changes. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. This is the story of what Harry does next. Like I said, I am still interested in this but I never find myself reaching for it so hopefully this is a good incentive.

2. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

The first time I heard about this book was on LittleBookOwl's channel back in 2013 and I bought it second hand because it sounded like such a moving story. It's an historical fiction about an Australian man and I know it also follows the story of a POW in a Japanese slave labour camp. It sounds intense but also important and I don't think I've ever read anything about this subject matter before. I've never reached for it purely because it sounds so harrowing and it's hard to know when you're in the mood/mindset to be able to handle that subject matter. But since I've had the book since 2017, it's time I got around to it!

3. The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green

This book is the first in a fantasy trilogy. I know very little about this because I received it in an Illumicrate box a few years ago. However, this is me giving Sally Green a second chance after DNFing her Half Bad trilogy when I heard it had a controversial ending. This novel does sound really interesting though so if I enjoy it I'll definitely continue with the series. The book follows a princess, a traitor, a hunter, and a thief. Four teenagers with the fate of the world in their hands and four nations destined for conflict.

4. Contagion by Teri Terry

I've read a lot of Teri Terry books over the years now and while I really enjoyed Mind Games and Book of Lies, I didn't enjoy her earlier Shattered trilogy which I DNF'd after book one. So I don't know how I'm going to feel about this one, but I'm hopeful I'll enjoy it as much as her other later books. My main concern is this being set in a pandemic and I find that difficult to read about these days (surprise, surprise - thanks COVID!). This book follows Kai whose sister is missing. When Kai meets Shay, a girl who saw Callie the day she disappeared, his hope is reignited. Their search leads them to the heart of a terrifying epidemic that is raging through the country. Will they both survive?

5. Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman

I've enjoyed a few of Neal Shusterman's dystopian books and this is written by both him and his son, so I'm interested to see how the writing is different. I haven't heard many people talking about this book since it came out so I don't really have much in the way of expectations for it. This book basically follows a world that runs out of water and what happens to two siblings whose parents go missing among the chaos that ensues. 

6. Me and Early and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

I heard so much about this book when I first started watching Booktube in 2013. People have called it a 'Better Fault in Our Stars'. However, I remember a lot of people hating it too. It was one of those books that really seemed to divide Booktube. I only picked this up because I saw it for £1 in a Charity Shop and figured I'd give it a chance. YA contemporary isn't a genre I often reach for and I do feel hesitant about this book so I'm happy to add it to this list to see if I finally read it. This book follows Greg, who only has one friend, but then his Mom convinces him to befriend Rachel, who has leukaemia. When Rachel decides to stop taking her treatment, Greg decides to make a stand.

7. It's a Kind of Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Again, this is another YA contemporary that got a lot of hype on Booktube back in the day, and I actually don't know anything about it. Once again though, it was £1 in a Charity Shop and I though 'Why the hell not?'. I believe this is about a boy who nearly kills himself and ends up in a psychiatric hospital, but I really don't know much other than that. It's not one I've reached for since I bought it so onto the list it goes.

8. Who Killed Ruby? by Camilla Way

This is an Adult mystery/thriller and one of the few that survived my recent purge of unhauling. I had to get rid of a lot of my thrillers (despite it being one of my favourite genres) because some of them have topics in that were just too triggering for me to read. However, this psychological thriller feels more like The Woman in the Window-type thriller than horror so I decided to keep it. If I enjoy it then I'll definitely pick more up by the author. The synopsis of this book speaks for itself: In the kitchen, a man lies dead on the blood-soaked floor. Soon the police will come, and they’ll want answers. Perhaps they'll believe the family’s version of events – that this man is a murderer who deserved to die. But would that be the truth?

Also, if anyone has any thriller recommendations similar to Liane Moriaty, Riley Sager, Lucy Foley, Kara Thomas, Kinae Minato, Courtney Summers, then let me know!

9. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

I read Little Fires Everywhere a few years ago and really enjoyed it. It reminded me of other American authors like Jonathan Franzen, who I studied at university. Celeste Ng's books often follow Chinese American families and how people interact with one another, along with a mystery element. So begins this novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfil the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. I haven't been drawn to this book but reading the synopsis again does give me more encouragement to pick it up.

10. Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King

And finally we have this book. I've mentioned a lot on this blog that I like Stephen's King writing (although, it has become more hit and miss having read more of his books now). This book is written by both Stephen King and his son, Owen. I picked it up purely because it was cheap and it was a Stephen King book, however, the plot of this has never interested me at all and I don't know if I'm ever going to read it. This book follows a world where women fall asleep and never wake up; if they do wake up, they become feral and violent. So it basically follows what happens to men in a world without women. BUT there is one woman who is immune to the sickness that affects everyone else. I'm mostly worried that this is going to be way too 'male-gaze-y' and probably very misogynistic which makes me hesitant to pick it up, but we'll see if I actually get to it this year!

So, those are my 10 Books that Will Self-Destruct in 12 Months! Let me know if you've read any of them, or if you have a list. Remind me in 12 months that we need to revisit this if I haven't already!