Hello Interwebs!
So here we are at the end of the first quarter of 2024. I hope your reading year has been going well, mine has been pretty good so far. I've decided that instead of trying to do monthly updates I'm going to do quarterly ones to take the pressure of this off of me. So here we are at the end of that first quarter: January, February and March are over and we're looking forward to the second quarter of 2024.
First off I've read 21 books so far this year: 3 have been rereads. I have had five 5-star books so far this year and only one 1-star book. I have mostly read horror (as usual) but I have branched off into some fantasy and even found a sci-fi author I really love. So, without further ado here's the books we've read in 2024 so far, from worst to best (rereads will be mentioned at the end but aren't counted in this number).
- The Cellar by Richard Laymon (Beast House Chronicles #1): this is my first Richard Laymon book and it will probably be my last. One of the youtubers I follow is doing an informal readathon called the Year of Laymon and for January it was a pick your own. This is one of his higher rated books and one that is recommended. It. Was. Bad. I was promised a mysterious house where there's a beast in the cellar that kills people who got here after dark. What I got was very little supernatural beasties, an abused woman with a young daughter who falls into bed with literally the first man who shows her attention, weirdly graphic sex scenes, and one pedophile. The book was weirdly sexual and everyone should be banned from using the word "rump" unironically for the rest of time. 1 star, do not recommend.
- Best of Luck by Jason Mott (Creature Feature Collection): this was a book I read for Erin Megan's patreon 72 hour readathon Unlucky and Unloved on St. Patrick's Day weekend. I chose it for the green or gold on the cover prompt and because it seemed like a fitting book for the readathon. The book was fine, maybe a little better than fine. It's a short story, under 100 pages, easy to read and digest. It just wasn't anything special. I gave this a 3.5 star rating.
- Three for the Road: Stories From Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (Dread Nation): this is a collection of 3 short stories that all take place in the Dread Nation universe, a place where the civil war ended after the dead start walking at the battle of Gettysburg. These stories were fine, not particularly memorable and I enjoyed them more because I'm a fan of the Dread Nation series and world rather than them being anything particularly groundbreaking on their own. 3.75 out of 5 stars.
- Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm: this is my most recent read for Katrina Brown's Reaper book club. This is a gothic mystery novel that takes place somewhere in the alps at a nearly abandoned inn. There's these nine girls working at this formerly grand hotel, going through the motions of all the duties but without guests. then there's a party and one girl disappears. This book is very heavy on description and flowery writing and atmosphere but very light on plot. I enjoyed it for what it was but I really don't think gothic writing is necessarily for me. 3.75 out of 5 stars but this cover is AMAZING.
- The Fire on Memory Lane by Felix I.D. Dimaro: another book read for the Reaper book club. This book was fine. The main character is HUGELY unlikeable which I'm fine with but a lot of people are not. The main character is a man grieving the loss of his family: his wife by divorce, his daughter with her, and his son having died under unknown circumstances prior to the events of the book. He dreams about this salesman who sells a mysterious substance that lets you live in your best memories for all time. But everything has a cost. I enjoyed the premise but do think this main character got off real easy in the end. 4 stars.
- Mosaic by Catherine McCarthy: the third of the books I've read so far for the Reaper book club. This is about a woman who restores stained glass windows who is brought to a mysterious church in the middle of the English countryside to restore a window that ends up being sinister. This book was dripping with atmosphere and tension and then out of practically no where it got hit real hard with full on Lovecraft cosmic horror. I tend to like cosmic horror but in the end this just felt sort of heavy handed. 4 stars.
- Eve by Victor LaValle: This is a graphic novel about a young girl who wakes up out of cryo sleep and has to go on a mission across the Earth to save humanity from itself. This is ecological dystopian at its finest and I really enjoyed it; 4 stars.
- Out There Screaming: An Anthology of Black Horror by Jordan Peele, editor: this is a short story collection that is edited by film director Jordan Peele (my copy is signed by Peele). Overall I really enjoyed this collection. It was a group of pretty solid short stories. I had a handful of favorites including Eye & Tooth and The Rider. I had one I didn't really care for at all, The Aesthete, but overall a solid group of stories. 4/5 stars.
- True Grit by Charles Portis: this one was one of the most surprising books I've read this year. This is a western book, the one that inspired the two movies by the same name and I HATE the John Wayne movie of this book. I thought the main character was obnoxious and that John Wayne's character was irredeemably bad. As is so often the case, the book was better. You get the story told through the young girl's eyes and I enjoyed it. It was a fun ride and one I didn't mind taking. 4 out of 5 stars.
- The Trees Grew Because I Bled There by Eric LaRocca: this is yet another Eric LaRocca short story collection. I love his writing. It's all beautifully disgusting. This is no different. Always a good time for me. 4.25 stars.
- Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Binti #1): I picked this sci fi novella up on a Facebook recommendation. This is about a young woman from a small African tribe named Binti who accepts a place to go to a university on another planet, sneaks away from home and ends up on a ship bound for another world. When everyone else is slaughtered except for her she befriends a member of an enemy alien race and becomes the vector for peace. Looking back I might change the rating here but a nice 4.25 read.
- The Lost Sisters by Holly Black (The Folk of the Air #1.5): this is a novella that takes place kind of concurrently to The Cruel Prince and kind of immediately afterwards but telling the events through Tarryn's point of view (Jude's twin sister). I probably wouldn't have rated this quite so high if this wasn't a world I already knew and loved so dearly. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
- Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison: this was the first book I read in 2024 and it's a religious cult book that you think is going to be like every other cult book: girl escapes fanatic religious cult, makes her own way in the world, returns because of an event, and shit goes down making her have to confront her past. Except in this book the cult is satanic in nature. It was campy and funny and I enjoyed it a lot. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
- Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor (Binti #2): this is the second book in the Binti trilogy. This one Binti is returning home after her first year at school and has to confront her family's anger, prejudice at bringing her new alien friend home, and her own identity. This book is so good and the cover is absolutely gorgeous. Unlike most series this one just keeps getting better as you go and I highly recommend. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
- Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman: this is a poetry book by the young woman who wrote and recited the inaugural poem for President Biden in 2021. This book was magical and beautiful and I found myself making notations of a lot of the poetry in it. Easy 5 star read.
- Ring Shout by P Djeli Clark: this is a historical horror that features some young women in the south fighting against the KKK: some of which are normal human monsters and some of which are cosmic horrors. This book was so dark and I loved the main character with her magic sword and the fight against both human and inhuman monsters. This book was short but packed a punch. 5 stars.
- What Feasts at Night by T Kingfisher (Sworn Soldier #2): this is the sequel to What Moves the Dead. In this book, Alex has returned home to their fictional country in Europe along with their servant and Ms. Potter who wishes to study the mushrooms there around their hunting lodge. You meet a village woman and her grandson who come to work at the lodge and then both Alex and the grandson begin to fall ill with a mysterious illness. This was supernatural in the best way and read like an episode of Supernatural. Still in love with this world T Kingfisher has created along with Alex and their friends.
- Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor (Binti #3): this is the conclusion to the Binti trilogy and it went out with a bang. You leave the second book with Binit's alien friend and her family home under attack while she's away and her returning home to broker peace yet again with help of new and old friends. Binti comes into her own in this book and I loved it so much. There was joy and tears and I intend to reread this book series at some point in the future.
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune: What can I say about this book. This might be the best book I've ever read in my life. These characters crawl inside you and live in your soul even after the book is done. This is about a middle aged man, Linus, who works as a social worker for an agency that oversees magical children. He is sent to an orphanage where the most dangerous children are housed where he meets Arthur, the eccentric loving man who runs the house with help from a wood nymph and all the delightful children who live there. This is a beautiful book with beautifully written characters. I cannot wait for the sequel to come out this fall so I go home again. 5 stars and definitely in contention for my favorite book of 2024.
So those are the new books I read this year. I also reread three books and still love them like I did the first time:
- A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance #1): this is a magic school book but if the magic school actively tried to kill the students. I listened tot this one on audible in preparation for listening to the rest of the trilogy.
- What Moves The Dead by T Kingfisher (Sworn Soldier #1): I reread this book before reading the sequel in March. This is a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher by Poe which is one of my favorite short stories. Still love this book so, so, so much.
- My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones (Indian Lake #1): this was also an audible listen in preparation for the third book coming out at the end of March. This is a beautifully done love letter to slashers (my favorites) and Jade Daniels is one of my favorite book characters of all time. This is still my favorite book of all time and I can't wait to dive into the rest of the trilogy now that I have it.
So here they are, all 21 books I've read in 2024 so far. My rereads were all still solid and held up to expectations and I discovered a new author (Nnedi Okorafor) and a new book (The House in the Cerulean Sea) that I absolutely adore. Coming up next is Old School April. I intend to do a separate post about this event in the first few days of the month so keep an eye out for that.
Happy Reading!
Richelle
