Mid-Year Freakout 2023

Realizing I didn't have a favorite book yet for the year 2023 until I recently read the new Bazterrica made me question the books I have been reading these past six months. None of them could hit me hard enough and that made me ponder why. I don't really have an answer for the why, maybe I was more focused when mostly at home during the pandemic, maybe the books really aren't that great, I don't know.

At the same time the Shine and Shadow group over at Goodreads opened a thread called the "Mid-Year Freakout" which consists of questions to help you take stock of the past six months' reading. So here's a wrap-up of what I came up with for that thread.

The best book I have read in 2023, and I already stated that here as well as in my review, is Agustina Bazterrica's short story collection Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird. I just really love reading short stories in all their forms and these here are very very short, like sometimes two or three pages short. I have been told that when they are that short they're not called short stories anymore but can take different designations like flash fiction, microfiction or even postcard fiction (because it fits on a postcard). Whatever it is what Bazterrica wrote, I love it and couldn't get enough.

The best sequel I have read in 2023, on the other hand, is the very long Don't Fear the Reaper, the second book of the "Lake Witch Trilogy", written by the lovely Stephen Graham Jones. Again, I'm gushing about it in my review and it's obvious that this is a book that touched me but also shook me with its horror elements.

Another sequel I'm still planning on reading is The Son of Rosemary, which is the sequel to Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin, that I buddy read with the ShiSha group last fall. The ratings for The Son of Rosemary are so bad that I'm seriously interested what Levin could have done to deserve so many one star ratings, so I should read that one very soon just out of curiosity.

A new release I haven't read yet, but want to, is definitely Fresh Dirt from the Grave by Bolivian author Giovanna Rivero, which again is a short story collection consisting of six tales. I already have been given a copy from the Otherland and I'll be reviewing it for them as well as my PD.

There has been one book, The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi, of which the publication date was due quite some time ago but has been postponed to July 2023, and that is my most anticipated book at the moment. The blurb says "A darkly comic, boundary-pushing (I'm already sold by this point) debut following an adrift Pakistani translator in London who attends a mysterious language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days, but at a secret, sinister cost", and that sounds extremely good to me.

My biggest disappointment of this year was unfortunately Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy, which follows a chain-smoking lesbian nun who has messily bleached hair and is apparently very punk rock in appearance but her constant babble about the lord and his ways really annoyed me by 20% and I stopped reading. I seriously thought that a person who does not fit in might be a little more critical towards the institution of religion, but a nun is a nun no matter how edgy she looks.

My biggest surprise was that Chlorine by Jade Song made me actually enjoy a book about teenagers, - shock and panic, the end of the world might be near!

A favorite new author I discovered in 2023 was probably Andy Marino who wrote It Rides a Pale Horse. I have many favorite authors but I can only think of his name when talking about new authors.

I was asked to name a newest fictional crush and I really couldn't think of any, but there's one character whose story really affected me and I was rooting very much for his vengeance, which is Ajay from Age of Vice by Deepti Kapur. Ajay goes to jail instead of his employer and that alone upsets me, I wanted him to come back and burn everything to the ground. So it's not really a crush, but someone I sympathize with.

My newest favorite character is probably JD from Don't fear the Reaper, and I wrote a whole blogpost about it, please go over there and read why.

A book that made me cry, but not the way you think, is the Practical House Plant Book just because my plants never look that good and lush and it makes me shed tears from jealousy.

But seriously, I actually tear up super easily, I'm a total sap who even cries at plants in a book so it would be easier to list the books I didn't cry while reading.

A book that made me happy is Nubia: The Awakening by Omar Epps and Clarence A. Haynes, because it was written by my best friend and it is his life's work and dream!

The most beautiful book I have bought so far this year ... This is a tough choice because there were many books that had absolutely gorgeous covers this year and I'm easily impressed by bookish beauty - I have been called a cover slut lately, and I can't even disagree. The flip side is, of course, as it is with humans, that there are many no-good and boring books with beautiful covers; clickbait people and clickbait books.

I think I would go for Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep: Ghost Stories by Adam Soto in this category because staring into the abyss is something I do on a daily basis and the cover offers little voids to look at.

I didn't even know how to begin answering the next question, which goes; What books do you need to read by the end of the year?
All of them, presumably.

From all the Shine&Shadow reads I joined this year, I probably most enjoyed Exhalation by Ted Chiang, but also Akwaeke Emezi's autobiography Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir. Emezi's writing is just so sublime it even turns a memoir into a delicacy.

Finally I was asked to share a personal accomplishment I have achieved this year, and this wasn't the answer I gave in the thread, but I'll write it here - I have been offered to co-moderate the Shine&Shadow group and I said yes! You can find me in my usual Wolf Queen mask and my ShiSha handle "Nailer of Souls".

In this role I will be organizing group reads (deciding the monthly theme, setting up a nomination/voting thread, counting the votes, announcing the winner, setting up the discussion thread, nailing the souls etc.) and I'll be mostly doing the dark reads, or the shadow reads. I'm happy and excited about this, mainly because I can push themes and authors I like, but I'll use my power with great responsibility, promise.