Reading Vicariously

I’ve seen everyone else making their “best of” posts this year and of course I wanted to join in the fun! I decided to wait a few days to make sure I could account for every single thing I read by Dec 31st.

It was a lot of fun to look back through the year at all that I’ve read. It has undeniably been a crappy year in many ways, but I’m fortunate to say that reading has not been one of them. A short list of all the amazing things that have happened in the bookish world this year are:

1. Starting a #bookstagram
2. Reading more books this year than the last few years combined
3. Contributing reviews/articles for Night Worms
4. Joining the review team at Beyond the Veil
5. Interviewing some great authors like Patrick Delaney, Craig Wallwork, and Patrick Lacey
6. Discovering a whole new world of indie/small press horror
7. And OF COURSE meeting so many wonderful people in the book community!!!

To celebrate all the good books I’ve read I wanted to make a brief post highlighting some of the best! These haven’t all specifically been released in 2020, just the best I read from the year. Also though my year was mostly horror, but this post encompasses all genres.

I decided to give my absolute top 20 picks first, but then give a few shout outs in various mediums afterwards. Enjoy!

Top 20 of 2020 (in no particular order)

1. Crossroads by Laurel Hightower (blog review)
2. True Crime by Samantha Kolesnik (blog review)
3. The Raven by Jonathan Janz (IG post)
4. Valentine by Elizabeth Whetmore (IG post)
5. Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
6. Ghost Summer Stories by Tananarive Due (blog review)
7. Tome by Ross Jeffery (buddy review)
8. Kill River by Cameron Roubique (IG post)
9. Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke (blog review)
10. There There by Tommy Orange
11. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
12. Uzumaki by Junji Ito (IG post)
13. Of Foster Homes and Flies by Chad Lutzke (IG post)
14. The Switch House by Tim Meyer (blog review)
15. Hell on Mars by J.Z. Foster and Justin Woodward (blog review)
16. Labyrinth of the Dolls by Craig Wallwork (blog review)
17. Recursion by Blake Crouch (IG post)
18. The Living Dead by Daniel Klauss and George Romero (blog review)
19. The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper (BTV review)
20. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (IG post)

Other Must-Reads from the Year!

Novels

• Ghost Mine by Hunter Shea
• Captain Clive’s Dreamworld by Jon Bassoff
• Jennifer Strange by Cat Skully
• A Voice So Soft by Patrick Lacey
• The House That Fell From the Sky by Patrick Delaney
• Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie
• The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Novellas

• The Balance by Kev Harrison
• The Ethereal Transit Society by Thomas Vaughn
• Go Down Hard by Ali Seay
• Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones
• Starving Ghosts in Every Thread by Eric LaRocca
• The Night Silver River Runs Red by Christine Morgan
• The Buck Stops Here by Sean Seebach
• The Magpie Coffin by Wile E Young
• Crazytimes by Scott Cole
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

Graphic Novels

• Black Stars Above by Lonnie Nadler
• The Plot by Michael Moreici and Tim Daniel
• Coffin Bound by Dan Watters
• Hope, Vol 1 by Guy Adams
• Undone by Blood by Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson
• Blue in Green by Ram V
• Farmhand by Rob Guillory
• Saga by Brian K Vaughan
• Chew by John Layman
• Nailbiter by Joshua Williamson
• The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire
• Gideon Falls by Jeff Lemire
• Monstress by Marjorie Liu

Short Story/Poetry Collections

• Face the Music by Mark Towse
• Hunger Pangs by Scott Thomas
• A Collection of Dreamscapes by Christina Sng
• Underworld Dreams by Daniel Braum
• Wyrd and Other Derelictions by Adam Nevill
• Who’s There by Dimas Rio
• Negative Space: An Anthology of Survival Horror
• The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories

Nonfiction

• How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones
• The Fire This Time by Jasmyn Ward