My Favourite Books of 2020

You don’t need me to tell you that this has been a year of unprecedented horribleness, especially for me for all sorts of non-COVID personal reasons. But one thing that wasn’t a giant pile of flaming garbage about 2020 was reading, so here’s a wrap up of my absolute favourite books I’ve read in 2020.

Final Lover – Jocelynn Drake

Final Lover is the third and final book in the Exit Strategy trilogy by Jocelynn Drake. I can’t really say anything at all about the plot, because it will spoil the first two books, but it was a perfect finale. The first book in the series is titled Deadly Lover, and it’s an M/M romance/thriller featuring two assassins used to working alone who have to join forces for a job. Dark and delicious!

Deviant Desire – Jackson Marsh 

An incredibly fun historical mystery with an M/M romance. Long and layered, with fantastic character development, this certainly exceeded my expectations. Strangely enough, however, I simply couldn’t get into the sequel and had to DNF it. Them’s the breaks, kid!

Pendulum – Joel Abernathy 

Another M/M romance – is anyone else detecting a theme here? This time, it’s a paranormal featuring werewolves and vampires, yet somehow Abernathy manages to breathe new life into this trope we have seen a thousand times before. Angsty and dark, this is certainly not a light read, but it’s very worthwhile.

Hush – Tal Bauer 

An incredibly engaging political thriller with, you guessed it, an M/M romance. A masterpiece in character development and suspense, Hush broke my heart and then put it back together again, and it will stay with me for a very long time. I’m definitely going to be looking through the rest of Bauer’s bibliography.

The War Master: Only the Good – Nicholas Briggs et al. 

A Doctor Who spinoff from audioplay masters (no pun intended) Big Finish. The Master is one of my favourite characters in the whole of the Whoniverse, and this collection of four stories certainly did him justice. Derek Jacobi is also an absolutely superlative actor, both on screen and in audio.

Of the City of the Saved... – Philip Purser-Hallard 

The next novel in the Faction Paradox series after the absolutely phenomenal This Town Will Never Let Us Go. Although by a different author and with a completely different style, Of the City of the Saved has the same postmodern, almost psychedelic feel of the first book, with possibly the most intriguing concept I have ever heard: in the City of the Saved, where every single human who has ever lived and will ever live resides in an immortal afterlife, a detective must solve an impossible murder.

The Fever King – Victoria Lee 

This was the YA novel that restored my faith in YA. I don’t read much of it nowadays – ever since I fell outside the intended age range I’ve never been able to get into them as I used to, even though I’m only a couple of years older – but The Fever King was one of my favourite books of 2020, YA or otherwise. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic America that has been decimated by a virus (because I had to read at least one virusy book in 2020) that either kills painfully, or in a very small number of cases, gives you magic. It’s very gritty, and doesn’t fall into the same tired old tropes that lots of YA dystopians do.

Doctor Who: Embrace the Darkness – Nicholas Briggs 

Another Big Finish audio, this time featuring the Eighth Doctor. This is the sort of unsettling, gorgeous gothic sci-fi that only Doctor Who can do, and when it does it right, it does it really well. Although not as popular as Chimes of Midnight, which was released close to Embrace the Darkness and has a similar gothic feel, I enjoyed it far more. Certainly one of the more underrated entries in Big Finish’s Main Range of DW audios.

Featherhood – Charlie Gilmour 

I won’t go into too much detail about this wonderful memoir, as I’ve already written a blog post on it, but this is certainly a must-read.

Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass – Lana del Rey

I’ve always admired Lana del Rey as a lyricist as well as a singer, so of course I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of her first poetry book. At a time where overly-minimalist, shallow and surface-level poets such as Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace seem to be the most popular (sorry if you’re a fan, but they’re emphatically not for me) it’s fantastic to see a poet with more complexity and, yes, thought put into her poems. The hardcover is also beautifully presented, the font in a typewriter face and interspersed with del Rey’s photography that’s just as whimsical and quietly melancholy as her poetry.

The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson 

I DNF’d this when I first tried to read it in 2015, but since I am a huge Branderson (I’m never going to stop calling him this, so get used to it) fan, I’ve left it quietly waiting on my shelves for the right time – and 2020 was the right time. I honestly have no idea why I DNF’d it, although I was sixteen and I had all sorts of impaired judgement going on at that time. The Way of Kings has the sort of multi-layered narrative, wonderful characters, and one-of-a-kind worldbuilding one expects from Branderson, but as this is the first book in a projected ten-book series, the magic system unfolds far more slowly than in his previous books, leaving shadowy areas of intriguing mystique.