So, earlier this year I made three blogs posts regarding my reading goals for 2022. Today I want to talk about the first of those posts and whether I successfully completed the goals or not. The first post was '20 Books I have to Read in 2022'. These were a lot of backlist titles that I'd owned for a long time and wanted to finally get to this year. So, did I complete or unhaul all of these books? Let's see...
1. Wool by Hugh Howey ★★★★.5
I'm happy to say I read this whole trilogy and loved it. This is a sci-fi dystopian book where thousands of people have lived underground their whole lives in a Silo. They've lived there for so long, there are only legends about people living anywhere else. Such a life requires rules. Strict rules. There are things that must not be discussed. Like going outside. Never mention you might like going outside. Or you'll get what you wish for.
In this first book, we follow someone who gets sent outside of the Silo as a punishment, and they discover something they didn't expect. I don't want to say much else about the plot because I feel like knowing less going into this book really makes the impact of the discoveries so much more interesting. I really enjoyed this first book, but I will say that the second book was easily my favourite as we get to explore an entirely different perspective. I felt like the third book dragged a bit, but I still liked the way some of the books alternated between the past and present. This is a very solid adult dystopian trilogy and I recommend it to anyone looking for that genre.
2. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North ★★★★.5
Another 4.5 star read for this sci-fi. I enjoyed this a whole lot more than I thought I would. This book shocked me so much. Before reading it, I really though this would end up being a DNF or a 2/3 star read but I ended up loving it. This is a sci-fi novel that follows Harry August, a person who is reborn and lives the same life again and again and remembers everything from his previous lives. 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. Honestly, this was very reminiscent of Blake Crouch's writing and the repercussions of how you could change the world if you already knew what would happen. Don't let the historical fiction aspect of this put you off at the start, the plot is so thrilling and has so many twists that it keeps you turning the page to find out what happens next!
3. Night Shift by Stephen King ★★★
This book has been on my TBR for years. If you've read my blog posts over the past few years, you'll know I try to read a few Stephen King books a year to try and make my way through his backlog. I've read a few short story collections by King before, but usually each book only contains 4-6. This collection of short stories contained 20 and they were all a lot shorter. I rated all the short stories and averaged those ratings to give the overall book 3.5 stars. I really loved some of the stories, while others I was bored or now struggle to remember. They all felt very reminiscent of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected which I felt similar about as well. I'll give a star rating for each story below but I won't go into too much detail as I think we'd be here forever!
- 1. Jerusalem's Lot - 4 stars. A great prequel to Salem's Lot that I previously read. Very gothic.
- 2. Graveyard Shift - 3 stars. Relatively interesting.
- 3. Night Surf - 2 stars. I found this quite boring.
- 4. I am the Doorway - 2 stars. I found this quite boring.
- 5. The Mangler - 4 stars. Very dark but I liked the premise of this one.
- 6. The Boogeyman - 4 stars. Loved the ending of this one.
- 7. Gray Matter - 3 stars.
- 8. Battleground - 2 stars
- 9. Trucks - 3 stars
- 10. Sometimes They Come Back - 5 stars. A terrifying idea.
- 11. Strawberry Spring - 4 stars
- 12. The Ledge - 5 stars. This felt very Dahl-esque
- 13. The Lawnmower Man - 3 stars. Mostly very weird.
- 14. Quitters, Inc. - 5 stars. So very twisted.
- 15. I Know What You Need - 4 stars.
- 16. Children of the Corn - 3 stars. (I can't be the only one who could just see the South Park episode in my head, right?).
- 17. The Last Rung on the Ladder - 4 stars.
- 18. The Man Who Loved Flowers - 4 stars.
- 19. One for the Road - 4 stars.
- 20. The Woman in the Room - 2 stars.
4. Insomnia by Stephen King ★★★★
This was the oldest book on my TBR so it was about time I read it. I've read around 20 other Stephen King books so far and I am trying to get through his back-catalogue as I've enjoyed the majority his books so far. I wasn't sure about the premise of this one when I started, but I ended up really enjoying it. This book follows Ralph, who starts waking up earlier. And earlier. Then the hallucinations start - the colours, shapes and strange auras. Not to mention the bald doctors who always turn up at the scene of a death. That's when Ralph begins to lose a lot more than sleep. When he begins to understand why his hitherto mild-mannered friend, Ed, is getting out of control - dangerously so. And why his home town is about to become the new Armageddon.
I love how intertwined Steph King's novels are. At first, I thought of them as 'just easter eggs' to look out for, but this book actually sets up so much of The Dark Tower series, it's incredible. It's really good, because you don't have to read his other books to enjoy his standalones, but it just adds an extra layer to the enjoyment. I really like Ralph and Lois, although I wish Lois had been more involved in the plot earlier on. The villains were done well and very sinister and creepy - did they remind anyone else of The Gentlemen from Buffy? I also loved the descriptions of the auras - I felt like I could picture everything happening so vividly.
I think there were two big things that stopped this being a 5 star. One is that it could've been a lot shorter and achieved the same amount. The first 400 pages did set things up well, but we probably could've had less and still had the same impact. The second (which is true of most Stephen King books), is that certain views/phrases are used but are not often contradicted by the main character, so it's hard to see if the author actually agrees with what the characters are saying - which is mostly worrying when it's racist/homophobic/sexist. I think if the things that were said were challenged then it would feel easier to read, but some things were said that left a very bitter taste in my mouth. It's also worth saying, a huge trigger warning for abortions in this book, as the legality/morality of abortions is a pivotal plot point throughout.
5. Lifelike by Jay Kristoff ★★★.5
I bought this book when it first came out in 2018 and it's taken me so long to finally read it. I did really love the Nevernight trilogy by the same author, but I wasn't sure how I'd feel about his sci-fi books. This book follows, Eve. When she finds the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend and her robotic sidekick in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, battle cyborg assassins, and scour abandoned megacities to save the ones she loves and learn the dark secrets of her past.
I did enjoy this book, but I didn't love it as much as I hoped. I think that's mostly because I guessed the twist about 30 pages in and it became more and more obvious the further along we went. The other this was that I wasn't very invested in the romance - the main love interest felt kind of boring and their relationship was a bit weird (for many reasons). However, I loved the found family aspect. As always, Kristoff is great at writing these. The characters were all really unique and it was so easy to distinguish between them. I adored Lemonfresh and Cricket - they were so witty and and Lemonfresh was just a great badass character. Also, no-one has said in ANY reviews I can find about the Anastasia retelling in this?? I loved those aspects and I really liked that you could see the parallels between them from really early on. I'm definitely intrigued by this book and where the cliff-hanger ending will go, but I probably won't continue the series unless I get them from the library..
6. The Reviver by Seth Patrick ★★★
So I gave this book 3 stars in February, but honestly, I actually remember very little of this one, and I mostly remember not wanting to continue the series. This is a crime/thriller/sci-fi following Jonah Miller. He is a Reviver, able to temporarily revive the dead so they can say goodbye to their loved ones—or tell the police who killed them. Jonah works in a department of forensics created specifically for Revivers, and he’s the best in the business. For every high-profile corpse pushing daisies, it’s Jonah’s job to find justice for them. But while reviving the victim of a brutal murder, he encounters a terrifying presence. Something is on the other side watching. Waiting. His superiors tell him it's only in his mind, a product of stress. Jonah isn't so certain. Then Daniel Harker, the first journalist to bring revival to public attention, is murdered. Jonah finds himself getting dragged into the hunt for answers. Working with Harker's daughter Annabel, he becomes determined to find those responsible and bring them to justice. Soon they uncover long-hidden truths that call into doubt everything Jonah stands for, and reveal a sinister force that threatens us all. Overall, I just found this to be a very meh book.
7. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (DNF/UNHAUL)
I've read other Daphne du Maurier books that I really enjoyed, however, I ended up unhauling this classic rather than reading it. I had started it a few years ago, but I really just didn't feel like this was a classic for me despite it being called a gothic mystery. Sadly, the writing style didn't do it for me and I didn't feel intrigued enough by the mystery to continue. I might give this another chance one day, but for now I don't need this on my shelves.
8. Contagion by Teri Terry ★★★
This is the fifth book I've read by Teri Terry 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 two. 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?
While I still find her a compelling writer, I think the pacing of this one felt a bit off towards the end of the book. The first half of this book I really enjoyed, and found very compelling and interesting, but the second half felt a bit dragged out and, after seeing a real global pandemic, this one felt oddly unrealistic. I found Shay and Kai to be interesting characters, but they sometimes made very frustrating decisions. I get it, they're teenagers, but it's still annoying. I also found it weird that Kai could just go from Newcastle to Edinburgh on any random day without his Mum knowing (or caring?). Another problem I had with the characters was that neither seemed too affected by character deaths; especially when one character finds out someone else is a ghost and they just don't seem that bothered? Callie really made me angry by the end with her decisions and I've since read some reviews that say those decisions don't get resolved in the second book which makes me not want to read on. I also guessed most of the plot twists, and the pseudo-science was kind of boring by the end. This book was just fine for me but if you're interested in YA apocalyptic sci-fi then you should pick it up and give it a try..
9. City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty ★★★★
I'm happy to say that I read this high fantasy trilogy and really enjoyed it as a whole. Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles. But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.
I really like the worldbuilding throughout this series; it's incredibly unique and it's so refreshing to read a fantasy with a different culture/mythology to the typical western fantasies (as much as I enjoy them). I will that I found Nahri to be quite a frustrating character at times, and I really didn't buy into the romance in the trilogy at all, which is why the star rating is lower for me. Overall though, this is a very enjoyable fantasy trilogy that I recommend to anyone that enjoys that genre.
10. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (DNF/UNHAUL)
This is another book that ended up being a DNF and an unhaul so it's no longer on my shelves. I started reading this, but soon realised it was probably too slow and not the right genre for me. Plus I know this book would make me cry and I just wasn't feeling like deliberately reading sad books this year. This is a novel of the cruelty of war, and tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love. Richard Flanagan's story — of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle's wife — journeys from the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel, from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival, from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This book is about the impossibility of love. At its heart is one day in a Japanese slave labour camp in August 1943. As the day builds to its horrific climax, Dorrigo Evans battles and fails in his quest to save the lives of his fellow POWs, a man is killed for no reason, and a love story unfolds.
11. The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson ★★★★★
I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this trilogy and really loved it. I've genuinely been putting off reading this series for years, and I now have no idea why. After I finished the Mistborn trilogy in 2015, I bought this book, which is the first in a trilogy that follows Mistborn. But I'd heard this was set 300 years in the future and was more of a Western and, while that's true, it's also so much more than that. Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history—or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice. One such is Waxillium Ladrian. After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to return to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns and assume the duties and dignity incumbent upon the head of a noble house. Or so he thinks...
12. Oathbringer Part Two by Brandon Sanderson ★★★★.5 prediction
I am currently 200 pages into this book and I'm really enjoying it. This is the second part of book 3 in The Stormlight Archive and I'm so happy I managed to get to it this year (because for a while there, I really thought I wouldn't!). I wanted to get this blog post out before Christmas, but I'll definitely finish this book in the next week so I'm happy to call this a win! For anyone that doesn't know, the first book in this series follows several characters (but mostly Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, and Adolin) in the world of Roshar: a place of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilisation alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soil-less ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter. It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armour that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars are fought for them, and won by them. One such war is about to swallow up a soldier (Kaladin), a brightlord (Dalinar) and a young woman scholar (Shallan).
13. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King ★★
Sadly, this is one of the Stephen King books I've enjoyed the least. Twenty-five years after saving a Down's-syndrome child from bullies, Beav, Henry, Pete, and Jonesy - now men with separate lives and separate problems - reunite in the woods of Maine for their annual hunting trip. But when a stranger stumbles into their camp, disoriented and mumbling something about lights in the sky, chaos erupts. Soon, the four friends are plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world where their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past - and in the Dreamcatcher.
This is a sci-fi, horror, alien invasion book. I knew that going in and was really looking forward to seeing where King would take it. The first 200 pages or so were really intriguing - I loved seeing the four men's different lives and the hints at what had happened in the past and how it related to now. Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there for me. About 50% of this book is vivid descriptions body horror and the rest is just very slow pacing where not a lot happens. Even the last 50 pages of action could barely hold my attention because I'd become so bored. The animal thing was horrible too so I had to skip over that. I still didn't really get how all the telepathy fit together with Duddits and some of the deaths of characters felt incredibly underwhelming considering they were main characters. Kurtz was also very weird and I still can't get my head around what his motivations were. As always, there were some very problematic parts of King's book (use of the n-word for one thing, and a line that basically said men couldn't understand being raped - which was really strange and made me pretty uncomfortable that King could think that). I know King wrote this book while completely high on painkillers after his accident and he doesn't like the book now, but that doesn't really excuse it for those moments. Overall, a very meh book that seemed to rely on body horror for its impacts on the reader.
14. Jade City by Fonda Lee ★★★★★
Firstly, Lee's worldbuilding is absolutely incredible. I really thought this world and the amount of characters would be difficult to understand or keep track of, but within 40 pages, I felt like I understood exactly what was going on. That shows some incredible writing skill in fantasy books in my opinion. I also loved every character in this book (but I especially loved Lan and Shae); even the villains were done so well. One thing this book did exceptionally well is that it felt so Game of Thrones-esque, in that no character felt safe and anything vicious could happen at any time. I was constantly on the edge of my seat. And then THAT happened halfway through the book and left me a wreck. Lee also explores women's places in this society and culture in such a well done way. I 100% recommend this to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy/gangster-type films or books. Lee is easily one of my new favourite authors and she made me want to pick up the next book immediately..
15. Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell ★★
After enjoying Carry On so much, I thought it was time to finally pick up the sequel after owning it for years. Unfortunately, this was a huge miss for me. I understand the importance of showing the trauma of the characters from the previous book, but it felt like all of the development from the first book had just vanished. The characters were also more unlikeable in general. The road trip aspect was interesting in theory, but again, it ended up falling flat. It felt like nothing happened in this book: driving, they get captured, they escape, driving, they get captured, they escape, etc. etc. It was just that on repeat and it got so boring I was tempted to DNF it. The only reason I didn't was because it was such a short book. Agatha's plotline also felt weirdly tagged on and I really disliked the new character that was added midway through the book (who was an obviously inserted love interest for one character). I definitely won't be finishing this series and I'm just going to pretend that Carry On was a standalone because it really didn't feel like it needed a sequel.
16. The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima (DNF/UNHAUL)
This is another book that was a DNF and unhaul for me. I read around 80 pages of the book before I put it down. Unfortunately, I'd heard this was a YA, but it read far younger than I'd anticipated. Not only that, but the worldbuilding wasn't great and I really didn't enjoy the fantasy aspect of the book. I'm really sad I didn't enjoy this, but I'm glad I was able to make some more space on my shelves. If anyone wants to know what this book is about it follows 16-year-old Jack who lives an unremarkable life in the small Ohio town of Trinity. Only the medicine he has to take daily and the thick scar above his heart set him apart from the other high schoolers. Then one day Jack skips his medicine. Suddenly, he is stronger, fiercer, and more confident than ever before. And it feels great—until he loses control of his own strength and nearly kills another player during soccer team tryouts. Soon, Jack learns the startling truth about himself: he is Weirlind, part of an underground society of magical people who live among us. At their helm sits the feuding houses of the Red Rose and the White Rose, whose power is determined by playing The Game—a magical tournament in which each house sponsors a warrior to fight to the death. The winning house rules the Weir.
17. Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell ★★.5
I'd heard a lot about the Disney Twisted Tales books and I was really hoping I would love this. Unfortunately, I just found the book to be very meh. This is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but with (you guessed it) a twist. I feel like this book would've had a lot more impact if we hadn't been told it was a dream from the very beginning. Knowing that, we spend the first 100 pages just waiting for Aurora to also figure it out. Then the next 350 pages were just her and Phillip walking through a wood. Aurora's character was very difficult to grasp as the reader because she herself didn't know who she really was, so I was left feeling kind of detached from her.
This was at least a quick read, but I feel like it's definitely for a very young YA audience rather than an older one, which is what I was expecting. The writing style was also quite simplistic and there were so many ALL CAPS sentences that made it feel more like a fanfiction. Overall, the plot was a clever idea but the execution didn't really have the pay-off I was hoping for..
18. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty ★★★
I read Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty a few years ago and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, this book was a real disappointment to me. The blurb of this book basically says: Imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret - something with the potential to destroy not only the life you have built together but the lives of others as well. And then imagine that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive...
Moriarty's writing was still fantastic, as always. She writes in a very compelling way and it never feels like a chore to pick up her book, even when the story isn't as interesting. However, this book felt just a little odd? It's marketed as a thriller, but there was no plot twist (the small one we had halfway through the book was pretty obvious based on the blurb alone). Tessa's story felt weirdly out of place with the other two women and I felt like we got no real closure with what happened in her relationship or with Felicity. Cecilia was interesting, but the majority of her chapters were filled with 'should I open the letter' and then 'what should I do now that I know what was in the letter', which got very repetitive. I also don't really know why the Berlin Wall featured so heavily throughout the book.
I did like the portrayal of actions having lasting consequences that you can't foresee, especially with the Epilogue. I actually just wish we'd had more of the Epilogue. Overall, this book was a quick read, but I just didn't enjoy it as much as her other book. I think this is more of a dark contemporary novel than a typical thriller, which is what I was expecting and wanting when I picked it up. I still recommend trying Liane Moriarty's books though and I'll definitely read more of her work in the future..
19. Renegades by Marissa Meyer ★★★★
I hadn't heard great things about this book so I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much I enjoyed it. I've loved all of Marissa Meyer's books so far, but especially her Lunar Chronicles series. This is YA sci-fi following superheroes. The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies - humans with extraordinary abilities - who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone... except the villains they once overthrew. Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice - and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.
My favourite thing about this book was that everyone's motivations felt very realistic and I loved how morally grey all the characters are. You see so much of the world from Nova (the villain's) perspective, and it feels really good to see her discovering that the world isn't necessarily what she thought it was. The found family on both the 'villain' and 'hero' sides were great and I loved Nova's relationships with them. Max was also a fantastic character - I just want to look after him! The twists in this book were really interesting and you can tell that more are coming in the next books. If you've watched/read a lot of superhero media, then you'll probably be able to see a lot of things coming, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of it. Overall, a great superhero sci-fi book and I'll definitely continue the series..
20. The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green (DNF/UNHAUL)
And this final one was another unhaul. I didn't actually try to read it in the end. In all honesty, the blurb sounded very similar to other YA fantasies that I'd read and I knew I wasn't going to get to this any time soon. Plus, the last Sally Green trilogy did leave a bitter taste in my mouth after the whole 'bury your gays' trope appeared. That means I was able to give this book away to someone who would really appreciate and enjoy it. If I ever want to read it then I'll get it from my local library, but I don't regret my choice to unhaul this one.
So, there we have it! I either read or unhauled every book on the list this year and I'm really happy to say I succeeded in this challenge. Look out for my future blog posts where I'll be talking about my challenges for 2023 and what I hope to achieve next year.
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