I Actually Read Some Books This Year!
I thought I'd be very slack on reading this year, but I think next year's actually going to be the time I read nothing but academic stuff. This year, I've read 20+ books, which is pretty good for me! But of course, it's all about quality, not quantity.
That said, let's start with the worst and work our way up!
WORST OF THE YEAR
The worst book I read this year was, unfortunately, one (half-heartedly) recommended by a friend. Yellow-Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts was given to me to borrow because it's set in Russia (Russian was my major and is ostensibly my second language, but I don't speak it very well), and also because it's science fiction... sort of. The writing was quite middling, the plot was only mildly interesting, the Russian was pretty bad, and it was also kind of sexist. Overall, not a great read.
To be clear: it's not in Russian, it's written in English by a British guy who seems to not know much about the Russian language.
MOST SHOCKING
I guess it's not that shocking that my 'most shocking' is Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted. This book made me feel a little physically ill at times, and it's certainly an uncomfortable read. However, it's also a great feat of storytelling, and has a charming framing device. The overall plot follows a group of wannabe writers on a 'retreat'; months away from family and friends, they will finally be forced to write the great works they've spent so long procrastinating. But of course, things go dreadfully wrong. They're trapped, slowly starving to death, and they're all writing extremely strange and disturbing short stories.
As a reading experience, this means you get fragments of the overarching plot in between the stories written by the characters. Each one is also preceded by a poem. The first tale, Guts, has been read aloud by the author on a few book tours and appearances, and has apparently made several people faint. If you're into the more disgust-inducing side of horror, you're in for a real treat. But beware: not only body horror, but also social horror and general grimness about capitalism and life abounds.
'GUILTY PLEASURE'
I don't really believe in 'guilty pleasures' usually, so this is a bit of a misnomer, but these kind of books do give me a certain feeling: I'm reading something that's not that good, it's not making some big statement about life or the human condition or whatever, but it's just got great, evocative prose that makes me feel like I'm watching a 1940s gangster film noir. And the pick for this is, of course, Raymond Chandler's The Lady in the Lake.
The previous Chandler book I read was The Big Sleep, which was published in 1939. The Lady in the Lake is a later instalment in Chandler's series of hardboiled detective novels about Philip Marlowe, a private eye in LA. Published in 1943, it's haunted much more by the spectre of WWII, with some characters discussing enlisting or being shipped out to Europe or the Pacific. It's like reading a movie, really, which feels insulting because these novels came first; trust me when I say I mean it as a sincere compliment, as film noir is a big favourite of mine.
I'm not sure if this is something I would usually recommend to most people, but it's genuinely a fun read, and a nice mental break in my opinion. Give it a shot if you like detective novels! I'm not someone who really tries to puzzle things out before the ending though, I'm just along for the ride, so don't blame me if you guess who the killer is 'too easily'.
BEST RE-READ
Alright, I'm cheating a little bit with this one. I read John Darnielle's Master of Reality twice this year, so it's my 're-read' even though I'd never read it before 2025.
This is one of my favourite works by JD- well, one of my favourite literary works, at least. It is part of the wonderful Bloomsbury series 33 1/3, which are all based on albums! Most are non-fiction, taking a more traditional approach to documenting a band and a work of art. JD takes a different route; Master of Reality follows the story of a young man committed to a psychiatric ward as a teenager, who is writing in a diary as a (forced) therapy exercise. He spends his time discussing his favourite songs on Black Sabbath's 'Master of Reality', breaking down the album's history and sound through the eyes of someone to whom it greatly mattered. The protagonist is a fictional character, true; but the person behind that feels deeply real and affecting. Master of Reality is a great book, and I'm looking forward to re-reading it again soon.
MOST NICHE
I've been reading quite a few short stories this year, and one of the most interesting was Weird Sisters, edited by Mike Ashley. This is published through the British Library, and collects short stories by women that were initially largely published in weird pulp magazines of the 1930s. And by weird, I mean "Weird", as in Weird Tales. These stories are (as expected) a bit hit-or-miss, but some were extremely memorable and eerie. Inside are tales of harpy-vampires on a Greek island during wartime; a woman who adopts an orphaned child and also (unknowlngly) her ghostly mother; a burrowing corpse that emerges from fields and takes children beneath the ground. Of course, some are very of-their-time, stilted or poorly-written, but it's definitely worth reading for those who enjoy short stories, horror, or history.
An honourable mention has to go to Out There Screaming, a collection of horror stories by black authors, edited by Jordan Peele. I personally felt that there were no total misses in this collection, which is hard to do, and that every story was worth the time. Many reviewers online didn't seem to give it as much praise, which I feel is a bit silly. It's a great book, and I highly recommend it... especially if you know what a short story is and what it's like to read them! No shade (well, maybe a little shade).
'ALMOST FAMOUS'
I want to talk about this book because I did enjoy reading it... to an extent. It's got all of the ingredients to appeal to me specifically: sci-fi dystopia, heavily about bodily autonomy and liberation, fun characters, and especially ROBOTS! But for a few reasons, I found it a little strange.
The book is Autonomous by Annalee Newitz, whose name I've seen around and attached to some fabulous-sounding projects, including a recent analysis of the works of Iain M. Banks. The first thing that is a little jarring about this book is that it follows a cast of a few distinct groups, which seems to fragment further as you read along. This is something I think works better on-screen than in a novel, as it comes across a little disjointed. But Autonomous is not by any means the worst offender for this kind of thing; it's still very readable.
Something else I found a valid but sort of off-putting choice was the ending of two particular characters, which involves a plotline around internalised homophobia and the nature of gender as a social construct. I don't want to say too much, but I felt it undermined the book's championing of bodily autonomy a little. As a nonbinary person, I have some understandably strong but complicated feelings about people mentally assigning me a binary gender for their own peace of mind. This book seemed a little strange regarding that. However, I can see a path for a sequel to build on and improve that storyline, which I'm hoping is Newitz's plan. I guess we'll see!
BEST SERIES
Early this year, I read the sequel to Becky Chambers' stunning debut novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. A Closed and Common Orbit follows a ship's AI as she navigates newfound embodiment, independence, and autonomy. Needless to say, I really enjoyed this one, and I'm keen to eventually read the further instalments of the series (including, I'm just now finding out, a prequel!). I don't have much else to say here aside from "if you enjoy science fiction, read this book".
BOOK OF THE YEAR
And so we come to the final pick! I read a lot of other books this year, most quite good (especially the short stories I've been reading by Vladimir Nabokov), but my ultimate favourite was actually the very first book I logged in January: Driftglass by Samuel R. Delany.
This is, yet again, a collection of short stories. Delany is best known as a science fiction author, and that's what a good portion of these stories slot into, but there's so much genre-bending richness in there. Fantasy, romance, drama, elements of horror and the supernatural. There's social commentary, too; Delany was a queer black man writing in the 1960s and beyond, and his work is a testament to his life and times. Most striking is his incredibly moving prose and the deep humanity of his characters (something difficult for both short story authors and mid-century science fiction writers).
Driftglass has cemented Delany as one of my favourite science fiction authors of all-time. I also read Babel-17 by him this year, which was great too, but nothing sticks with me so well as these stories. I look forward to reading more of his work, and re-reading this one as well!
That's my book review for 2025! I hope whoever is reading this had a good time, and walks away with some recommendations. If this convinces even one person to read Driftglass, I'll have done my duty.
P.S.: You can follow me on The StoryGraph here, if you'd like. All my reviews are on there, to either convince you or warn you off.
That's all I have to say, I think.