2021 Book Roundup!
This is based on the end of the year survey from perpetual page turner.
1. Best of the year/ 4. Books I “pushed” the most
Fantasy: ‘The Once and Future Witches’
Sci-Fi: ‘Children of Time’
Historical Fiction: ‘Conjure Women’
Non-fiction: ‘Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China’
I’ve also ranted quite a lot about ‘Seraph of the End’ and ’The Merro Tree’, as I think far too few people know about them.
2. Expected to love more than I did
‘The Windup Bird Chronicles’. I expected to like this due to the magical-realism aspects, but don’t read this when you’re feeling isolated (eg. in the middle of pandemic lockdown), that’s my advice! The runner up is ‘Parable of the Sower’. This was a groundbreaking work in climate-change-themed sci-fi…but actually a lot of what was known about climate change at the time (by the author, as far as I can tell) didn’t make it into the story, and I had a number of other gripes with the writing.
3. Most (positively) surprising
‘A Deadly Education’, which I did not expect to like but which was actually much smarter and funnier than I was expecting. Also ‘A Master of Djinn’, because what I thought were the best parts – the things that would have sold me on this book if I had been the one that bought it – were not included in the cover blurb at all.
5. Best series start, sequel, and end
Best starts (that I also didn’t know were the start of series) were ‘Children of Time’ – which also works fine as a stand-alone, though I’m happy to get to find out more about the little spiders! – and ‘A Deadly Education’. I didn’t finish many series this year but, although I loved all of the The Daevabad Trilogy, book 3 is definitely the best.
6. Favorite new author/20. Favorite from an author I’ve read previously
I’m basing this on having read a second independent book (that isn’t a re-read), so that I know I like their work in general, and the answer is: Helen Oyeyemi. I read ‘Gingerbread’ in 2020 and loved it, and ’Peaces’ this year. While I didn’t love it as much, it confirmed that I want to read more of her stories, which are queer in every sense of the word.
7. Best “out of your comfort zone”
I guess ‘The stars and the blackness between them’, as I don’t read much YA or “sick lit”, but this one did a good job.
8. Most action-packed/thrilling/hard to put down
I don’t think I’ve ever finished a trilogy of 500+ page books as fast as I did the The Daevabad Trilogy. I also continue to be obsessed with ‘Seraph of the End’, being extremely impatient for new manga chapters or a translation of ‘The Vampire Mikaela’, not only because I find the central relationship so compelling and just want my boys to be happy but also because of the constant peril that comes from a post-apocalyptic world full of vampires, demons, and scheming human leaders.
9. Most likely to re-read next year
Could be any of the books positively mentioned here – we’ll see!
10. Favorite cover
The gorgeous flower-covered cover of ‘Wild Beauty’ is not only pretty in itself, but accurately reflects the beautiful plant-focused magical realism story inside.
11. Most memorable character
Fictional: Aster in ‘An unkindness of ghosts’ and Mimi in ‘Eva Luna’. Non-fictional: William Dampier, an actual pirate naturalist, whose life is recounted in ‘A pirate of exquisite mind’.
12. Most beautifully written/15. Favorite passage/quote
‘The Once and Future Witches’. Beautifully blends a fairytale tone with real world issues. And just listen to this:
Juniper always loved the maiden-stories best. Maidens are supposed to be sweet, soft creatures who braid daisy-crowns and turn themselves into laurel trees rather than suffer the loss of their innocence, but the Maiden is none of these things. She’s the fierce one, the feral one, the witch who lives free in the wild woods. She’s the siren and the selkie, the virgin and the Valkyrie; Artemis and Athena…
Agnes Amaranth…never liked mother-stories much. They make her think of her own mother and wish she’d been someone else…Mothers are supposed to be weak, weepy creatures, women who give birth to their children and drift peacefully into death, but the Mother is none of those things. She’s the brave one, the ruthless one, the witch who traded the birthing-chamber for the battlefield, the kitchen for the knife. She’s bloody Boadicea and heartless Hera, the mother who became a monster…
Beatrice Belladonna…never believed in crone-stories, even as a girl. She determined long ago that the Crone was an amalgamation of myths and fables, an expression of collective fear rather than an actual old woman. Old women are supposed to be doting and addled, absent-minded grandmothers who spoil their sons and keep soup boiling on the stove-top, but the Crone is none of those things. She’s the canny one, the knowing one, the too-wise witch who knows the words to every curse and the ingredients for every poison. She is Baba Yaga and Black Anna; she is the wicked fairy who hands out curses rather than christening gifts.
13. Most thought-provoking/life-changing
‘The Interesting Narrative’ by Olaudah Equiano is the autobiography of a former slave that is interesting and challenging-to-modern-and-contemporary-assumptions in many ways.
14. Can’t believe I waited until 2021 to read this!
I’m not sure it is fair to say I waited, more that I can’t believe I wasn’t aware of Samuel Delany until recently, given the similarity of his work and themes to some of my other favorite Sci-Fi authors (biology, culture, sexuality). ‘Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand’ was weird and a bit unsettling but stuck with me for weeks after I read it, and I’m keen to try another of his.
16. Shortest and longest book
Shortest: ‘In the Vanisher’s Palace’, a fun little novella that is a Vietnamese ‘Beauty and the Beast’ retelling where the beast is a lady water dragon living in a ship abandoned by colonizing aliens. Longest: ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree’, an epic fantasy (also involving fully sentient dragons) that honestly probably should have been longer but split into two books.
17. Most shocking
‘Affinity’, a rather gothic tale about a depressed young Victorian lady and her growing interest in an imprisoned Spiritualist girl, had a twist I was not expecting…but the clues were there all along. Love that!
18. OTP of the year/22. Newest fictional crush
I should say that I rarely personally get a crush on a book character, and I don’t tend to ship characters unless it is heavily implied that one should do so. But if we are going to talk about romantic pairings that make me happy and which I’d defend at all costs, then even though it is isn’t “new” I have to say ’The Merro Tree’. The relationship between performance master Mikk and his serpentine boyfriend Thissizz was the primary thing I remembered from this book, which I last read 20 years ago and finally found again - and I love them just as much now. Runners up include both Beatrice Eastwood/Cleopatra Quinn and Agnes Eastwood/August Lee in ‘The Once and Future Witches’, Mika and Yu in ‘Seraph of the End’, Agent Fatma and Siti in ‘A Master of Djinn’, and Nahri and Ali in The Daevabad Trilogy. They all have really fun dynamics – by which I mean excellent flirting and bickering - work well together in a crisis, and I’d love to see more of their adventures together.
19. Favorite non-romantic relationship
There were a bunch of great “found family” relationships in this year’s batch, including
Parental: Arthur Parnassus and the magical orphans in 'The House in the Cerulean Sea'
Extended family: Ove and everyone in the neighborhood, but particularly Parvaneh, in ‘A Man Called Ove’
Sister/mentor: Eva and Mimi (formerly Melesio) in ‘Eva Luna’
Band of brothers (and sisters): “Take care of your family, no matter how fucked up the world is” is basically the most repeated theme of ‘Seraph of the End’ and the group that best exemplifies this is the Shinoa squad + Mika. Yu would include Guren (his mentor) and Asuramaru (his sword demon) in this, but I’m with Mika in considering those two sometimes helpful but shady as hell!
21. Best book read solely on a recommendation
‘A Man Called Ove’ - this was recommended by YouTuber Merphy Napier. She said it was heartwarming, but I still wasn’t expecting how much it would fill the gap of “realistic absurdism” left by Terry Pratchett. But ‘A Deadly Education’, recommended by my college best friend, was a close runner-up. I had doubts, as the premise and first chapter didn’t really grab me but ended up really enjoying it.
23. Best debut book
It isn’t new, but I was startled to realize that ‘House of the Spirits’ was Isabel Allende’s first book, because it is truly masterful.
24. Best worldbuilding/vivid setting
The plantation-like generation ship in ‘An unkindness of ghosts’ is uncomfortably believable…but so are the lovingly-rendered details of the lower-deckers’ culture. I also loved the spider civilization in ‘Children of Time’ – the way they are very advanced in fiber and chemical tech compared to metal-working, for example.
25. Most fun
‘Mooncakes’ is a sweet graphic novel about a witch and a nonbinary werewolf fighting a demon-summoning cult and falling in love, which brightened up a really dark day. ‘A Master of Djinn’ is arguably a little silly in places, but damn if I didn’t love every minute of Agent Fatma solving magical mysteries with her kickass girlfriend and adorable newbie partner. And, of course, ‘The House in the Cerulean Sea’, which broke me out of my ‘Windup Bird’-induced reading slump.
26. Made me cry
I don’t remember literally crying, but if I hadn’t read it before ‘The Sparrow’ might have done it, because I love all the crewmembers of the Stella Maris and what happens to them (and to many of the aliens they befriend) is tragic.
27. Hidden gem
‘The Merro Tree’ – out of print and seldom discussed but, I’d argue, ahead of its time and a ton of fun.
28. Crushed my soul
‘The Sparrow’, in a good way. ‘The Windup Bird Chronicles’, not in a good way. The ennui is infectious. I got stuck in the middle of not only this book but three others.
29. Most unique
‘The Only Good Indians’ is probably the first thriller I’ve ever read that made me root for both the monster and her victims. Runners up include ‘The Sparrow’ and Harry Turtledove’s ‘World War’ series, because despite holding up really well over several decades they haven’t spawned imitators, and ‘In the Vanisher’s Palace’ for blending fairytale and sci-fi in a way you wouldn’t think would work but totally does.
30. Made me mad
‘Wild Seed’ - I had to put this one down several times because I hated the male MC so much. But you are supposed to! Fuck you, Doro, you manipulative, eugenicist bastard.
