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.
