I haven’t had a good year in blogging, but I’ve had a great year in reading. In hoping to continue one goodness and pursue another, here’s my top five reads of 2021. Hoping to start doing regular posts, Fridays at 11AM when I can manage, perhaps with a few “special event” posts interspersed. Also, fair warning, although I do link to my reviews for all books, I wrote more in-depth reviews for some than others. A couple of these are just emotional expressions, but linking anyway.
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Before we get into the countdown, I would first like to visit two reads that surprised me this year: Written in Red by Anne Bishop and Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. Both were read when I was having trouble sticking with books. I chose them hoping a low-effort read would get me back in the swing of things. And while they are definitely low-effort stories, they managed to surprise me with just how much I adored what they brought to the table.
Written in Red – and the whole series of The Others – takes place in an alternate present where shapeshifters have always existed alongside humans, who live in fear of their anger. Meg is a seer who has grown up in slavery, escaping to a community of the Others. This series is so weirdly wholesome. It’s often shelved with “romance” but it’s such a slow burn that the leads aren’t together until the end of the series. Meg charms the Others with her unerring kindness and decency, and they are all wholly devoted to her and giving humans a chance just because she’s NICE. It’s stupidly sweet, and I adore it. [Goodreads, My Review]
Lore Olympus is a popular Webtoon depicting a semi-modern retelling of the Persephone and Hades story. But it’s also Persephone’s coming-of-age. She’s learning to exist as an independent adult and figure out what she wants for herself, something made difficult by her mother’s expectations for who she will become. This was a timely read for me, it really was. As a soon twenty-two-year-old graduating college in the spring, her story manages to reflect my own concerns. Who will I be when I’m on my own? What will I decide? And, inevitably, who will I have to disappoint in my pursuit of happiness? [Read on Webtoon, Goodreads, My Review]
Now, onto my top five reads!
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5. The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin
The introduction to The Broken Earth trilogy, The Fifth Season is a post-apocalyptic fantasy novel set in a world that has horrible periods of natural disaster and destruction at regular intervals. Essun secretly has the ability to control the earth, a feared magic that would have her killed. When she comes home to find her son dead and her husband and daughter missing, she sets out to find them despite the approaching Season. This novel is just very compelling in its worldbuilding. You want answers, and you want to see more of what it has to offer. Each time it horrifies you, you’re just pulled in deeper. [Goodreads, My Review]
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4. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
A YA fantasy retelling of 1001 Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn centers on Shazi’s mission to bring down the boy-king who condemns women to marry him and be killed at dawn. Only, the situation is far more complex, and she teams up with him to save their people. Shazi is a phenomenal main character. Outwardly, she is nothing but poise and self-assurance, but the reader is privy to her underlying fear and doubt. Yet somehow her charm still works its magic, and you can’t help but be grateful for the window into her mind, her life, and her trials. [Goodreads, My Review]
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3. Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Book two in the ongoing Locked Tomb series, Harrow the Ninth is the installment that pushed me full-force into the fandom. There’s something about this world, an odd far-future where the only reason humanity didn’t die out is because the Necrolord Prime (or as fans affectionately refer to him, “Jod”) did… something??? We don’t actually know what??? Anyway, he’s looking for new gods for his little polycule pantheon, and that’s the shared aspect of both books. The writing isn’t without its flaws, but the world is bursting with characters who are in turn the most hilarious and the most tortured in the universe, and they will make you Feel Things. [Goodreads, My Review]
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2. Vicious by V.E. Schwab
The first installment of Schwab’s Villains series, Vicious follows superpowered Victor Vale on his mission to take down his friend-turned-nemesis Eli Ever. In this world, there exist people who have gained superpowers, but it’s largely kept hush-hush. And when it comes down to it, there really is no “good guy.” And I love it. I love the darker side of humanity, what our unpleasant circumstances and messy emotions can drive us to. But what makes Vicious so extraordinary is that Victor isn’t just his dark side. He cares for people, tries to live by his own standards; in other words, he’s a person. The narrative never says he’s good, but it never makes him a monster either. He’s a human being who does bad things, and it’s heady to connect with him and be horrified by him in turn. [Goodreads, My Review]
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1. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Parker-Chan’s debut novel, She Who Became the Sun, follows the story of a young girl told she would amount to nothing who assumes her dead brother’s identity to join a monastery and, later, a war. Zhu is the cleverest character I’ve ever met. Her schemes are increasingly outrageous and horrific, all serving the mantra that history will remember her. There are no lines she will not cross, and it makes for a heady story about a powerful leader determined to overcome the odds. It’s written with such a strong narrative voice, and the queerness of the primary POV characters is so intricately woven into the story that it doesn’t need to be addressed in modern terms to feel like embedded aspects of the story. Everything about this book left me without breath, and I eagerly await the next installment and any future work from the author. [Goodreads, My Review]
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Worlds of Our Choosing 