It's truly crazy how fast this year went past.
And although we were spared most of the dreaded catastrophes on the bigger scale, on a personal level this year has taken a toll on me - it was a rough year, to say the least. After watching my father, my best friend, and numerous good friends who returned to their own countries after the pandemic disappear from my life and the jarring legalities and heritage ugliness, I was very thankful to be able to at least travel in the summer to think about things, to soothe the hurt and confusion some.
Apart from that, the year was pretty unusual and even abnormal really, as there weren't any restrictions and lockdowns in 2023. Last new year's eve I was out with a heavy case of COVID and considering they say whatever you do on new year's eve is how your whole year will be, my hopes were really moderate in that respect. But ultimately it was a so much better year than the last one and the one before, but not necessarily bookwise. So yes, hooray, that went well, kind of...
Coming to my reading year - as usual, I'll first mention my reads I didn't review here and my Shine&Shadow (ShiSha) reads which weren't speculative fiction, ShiSha first. I didn't take part in all the World Tour Reads this year. Being organized quarterly, they only take place 4 times a year now, and I skipped one (The Bitch by Pilar Quintana from Colombia) because the book seemed way too melodramatic for me. The World Tour reads I did take part in were:
- The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun for South Korea, which was about the real phenomenon of people vacationing in countries which have been hit by disasters,
- from United Kingdom we read Brick Lane by Monica Ali, a book which presents us the life of a British family of Pakistani origin,
- and finally Imperium by Christian Kracht for Germany, a discussion I'm honored to have moderated. Imperium is a historical fiction focusing on the life of August Engelhardt, a real life character who left Europe for New Guinea at the turn of the century in order to create The Cult of the Sun, in which members are only allowed to worship and eat coconuts. I still don't know what I think about this book.
For miscellaneous other discussions I read Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi, in which Emezi recounts the challenges of living as a god among mortal human beings, which was very hard to take seriously, considering it's written by someone who in all seriousness thinks they are a god and should be treated as such. I've also read the cyberpunk novel Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller, which is a kind of clifi/ecological fiction focusing on four people trying to save their city in a world plagued by a weird illness, in which your memory is replaced by the memory of the person who infected you.
A couple of years ago I was gifted the book İki Buçuk Yaprak Çay by Ildikó Bellér-Hann and Chris Hann in Istanbul where I stayed with a friend who is of Laz descent, a people who live on the eastern Turkish Blacksea Coast and I finally got to finish this informative book about the Laz people for the Book Bingo Challenge.
During my stay in Istanbul this year, on the other hand, I was gifted the two books Başkalarının Tanrısı by Mine Söğüt and Yine by Özgür Ağaoğlu by the owner of the Publishing House İmge while we were looking for translation projects. Both books focus on outsiders of society in different ways.
And speaking of translation projects, I have good news for the next year: I secured and I am currently working on the German translation of an anthology of science fiction short stories from Turkey for the German publishing house Memoranda. I am very excited about this, having only translated theatre plays in the literary field before, this will be my first printed book as a translator. So I'm working on this project most of my time when I'm not at my day job, read or blog. I will give a few little teasers here before the publishing date which is scheduled for fall 2024 so you can have a taste of what the stories are like. I'm reeeallly excited for this!
And speaking about Science Fiction, I had set my eyes on finally finishing Douglas Adams' Ultimate Hitchiker's Guide, but somehow stopped reading after The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, so one yearly goal (among many) failed.
Apart from these I found Tonight, It's A World We Bury by Bill Peel interesting in which the author tackles the stigma surrounding Black Metal and its closeness to right wing/national socialist movements and tries to promote red and anarchist Black Metal bands as well as take a closer look at certain aspects the genre shares with leftist thinking. Another non-fiction book I enjoyed reading and learned a lot from is The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart which is about the life and achievements of earth worms.
If you know you know, I have the not so secret passion, the guilty pleasure of reading smut involving supernatural tentacles (and not tentacles attached to animals), and this was the year I discovered author Jaime Vincent and his gay tentacle series, which a very dear goodreads friend and I read and reviewed each Wednesday. So much so that the term "Tentacle Wednesdays" became a fix term for us and apparently many people who read our reviews couldn't wait for Wednesdays to come, haha. I didn't expect this whole ordeal to get any further attention but it interestingly did. Unfortunately my friend became ill and had to pause reading for her treatment, but we still managed to actually finish all Jaime Vincent books. It was super fun and who knows, maybe we'll pick this up in the future, since she made a full recovery.
On a last note, I decided to take no more shit this year - I decided to just stop reading books I don't enjoy and not to force myself as I would have done in the past. So the books I couldn't stand to read anymore were;
Ascension by Nicholas Binge, a "thriller in which the sudden appearance of a
mountain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean leads a group of scientists
to a series of jaw-dropping revelations that challenge the notion of
what it means to be human", so the description says but I wouldn't know because I didn't make it so far, I just didn't vibe with it after 30%.
I think I have already mentioned dnf'ing Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy which is about a nun investigator, a nun who used to be and whose image, to a certain degree still is, punk rock. I hate it when people think punk is in the image and the way you look and not in the mind. So I hated it when she talked about "the Lord's ways" and all, smoking and wearing net stalkings but being subordinate to a religion of stiffing hierarchy.
Help, A Bear is Eating Me! by Mykle Hansen was just plain unreadable. The premise is very funny - an asshole of a main character being stuck under a car and a bear slowly nibbling at his foot while he rages about life and his wife and his mistress. Unfortunately the premise is everything that's good about this book and nothing else is. I quickly donated it to the Otherland Bookshop afterwards.
My reason for interrupting The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie was of course not the writing but the fact that I preferred listening the audiobook version but totally forgot that this is a Poirot adventure and the faux-French/Belgian accent of the narrator just killed my ears. It was so exaggerated that there was no way for me to concentrate, it sounded ridiculous so I broke it off.
I can't give a concrete reason why but I think I'm done reading "culinary cozies" in which people who cook or bake a lot, who usually own a café or a restaurant try and investigate a murder that happened at their own café or restaurant. Blackmail and Bibingka by Pia M. Manansala is the third installment of my favorite culinary cozy but I couldn't finish it, maybe I've grown out of it.
Before going over to the best books, I first want to express my appreciation, as usual. My thanks go to all the awesome
authors for writing the books they write - please keep writing! A
special thank you goes to the authors who supported me by giving
interviews, by sending me review copies and generally by reaching out,
I'm very grateful, thank you so much! And a last mention goes to the
Otherland Bookshop who provides me review copies of all the wonderful
books and lets me review them for their newsletter (subscribe!). And of course, I am most grateful for my friends who read with me, it is so much more fun when we read together and can talk about it.
Well, my friends, finally the time has come to announce the Protean Depravity best books of the year. I love this part of the year and I hope you do too!! As always I'm citing the five runners up and the one winner. Plus, this year, I have two additional categories as a surprise for you guys, I hope you like them!
Now, can I please get a snare drum roll for the PROTEAN DEPRAVITY BEST BOOKS OF 2023? Here we go!
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Novel of the Year 2023
A History of Fear - Luke Dumas
Natural Beauty - Ling Ling Huang
Don't Fear the Reaper - Stephen Graham Jones
It Rides A Pale Horse - Andy Marino
Extended Stay - Juan Martinez
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Freakiest Book of the Year 2023
Rouge - Mona Awad
Baby Fights - Robert Essig
Xcrmntmntn - Andrew Hilbert
Walking Practice - Dolki Min
Nothing's Worse Than A Clown Gone Bad - Ponk Vonsydow
The winner is...
Xcrmntmntn by Andrew Hilbert!
I mean, yes, fighting babies, a universe of clowns and pantomimes, beauty cults with jelly fish, aliens stranded on Earth preying on lovers... This is all pretty freaky but the cake goes to the giant pile of shit from outer space (Sorry to have associated cake and shit in the same sentence, you will need to forget that connection, please). Andrew Hilbert, you killed meaning with your book. And won the title of the Protean Depravity Freakiest Book of the Year!
👏👏👏👏👏
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Novella of the Year 2023
Linghun - Ai Jiang
Sleep Alone - J.A.W. McCarthy
#thighgap - Chandler Morrison
Our Own Unique Affliction - Scott J. Moses
Soft Targets - Carson Winter
The winner is...
Linghun by Ai Jiang!
I love this little book about the horror of loss and grief, particularly for showing the different ways of dealing with this delicate matter. I love the bareness of the story, the stripped-off plot, the focus of it. Congratulations Ai Jiang, Linghun is the Protean Depravity Best Novella of the Year 2023.
👏👏👏👏👏
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Anthology of the Year 2023
Collage Macabre: An Exhibition of Art Horror - Ed. by Gemma Amor
Shakespeare Unleashed - Ed. by James Aquilone
Best Horror of the Year, Volume 14 - Ed. by Ellen Datlow
Howls From the Wreckage: An Anthology of Disaster Horror - Ed. by Christopher O'Halloran
AHH! That's What I Call Horror: An Anthology of '90s Horror - Ed. By Chelsea Pumpkins
Shakespeare Unleashed, ed. by James Aquilone!
Although I am one hundred percent behind the bestness of this winner, it was a little harder to find good anthologies than it was in the previous years. The anthology Shakespeare Unleashed would have won even with stronger competition, it seriously blew my mind and justly wins the Protean Depravity Best Anthology of the Year 2023, congratulations to all the contributors and the editor James Aquilone!
👏👏👏👏👏
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Collection by a Single Author of the Year 2023
Nineteen Claws and A Black Bird - Agustina Bazterrica
The Secret Life of Insects and Other Stories - Bernardo Esquinca
Ten Planets - Yuri Herrera
Fresh Dirt from the Grave - Giovanna Rivero
Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality - Lindsay Wong
The winner is...
Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica!
With each passing year, I have the feeling that the single author collections do get better and better and often surpass the nominees in the novel category with excellent writing, exquisite punchlines and overall greater satisfaction provided. This year I got the most out of Bazterrica's collection of partly really short partly moderately normal sized short stories so much that she wins the Protean Depravity Best Collection by a Single Author of the Year 2023, congratulations!
👏👏👏👏👏
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Short Story of the Year 2023
The first of the new categories is the best short story, as short story collections are really so much better nowadays than full-size novels and there are real gems in there that need to be honored. The very first nominees for this category are;
The Head by Bora Chung (Cursed Bunny)
Thirteenth Night or What You Kill by Ian Doescher (Shakespeare Unleashed)
The Body, The Blood, The Woods, The Stage by Lisa Morton (Shakespeare Unleashed)
Dancing Sober in the Dust by Steve Toase (The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen)
Just A Bit Easier by Attila Veres (hlo.hu)
And the winner is...
Attila Veres with "Just A Bit Easier"!
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Cover Art of the Year 2023
They said I can't judge a book by its cover, they called me frivolous, they called me a cover slut... Well, I could deny it all... Or I could just own it, and do justice to that name by honoring the prettiest covers according to me. I know which one I'll do.
Eyes Guts Throat Bones - Micaela Alcaino
The Secret Lives of Insects and Other Stories - Vince Haig
Maeve Fly - Carly Janine Mazur
The winner is...
Why? Because I'm a sick pervert who likes to lick eyeballs...
No really, this was an especially hard selection, because covers are so beautiful nowadays that they regularly fool thousands of readers into reading books they maybe won't like so much, hypnotizing them with their beauty, making forget that we shouldn't judge them by their covers, but we do. Well that's certainly a skill too and this first year it is Maeve Fly because of the simple fact that I like the colors and I like teeth rows and eyeballs. This is all me.
Congratulations for winning the Protean Depravity Prettiest Book Cover of 2023!
👏👏👏👏👏
On a last note and as usual, next comes the space for all the best books I couldn't read this year. Because no matter how many pandemics come and go, no matter what post-apocalyptic lifestyle you prefer to adopt and no matter what gigantic amounts you read, there will always be some books that remain. Here they are... The Didn't Read Books can still compete in the following year if I manage to read them.
Protean Depravity Best Books I Haven't Read in 2023
The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas
The Specters of Algeria by Hwang Yeo Jung
Agony's Lodestsone by Laura Keating
Hospital by Han Song
Along the River of Flesh by Kristopher Triana
👏👏👏👏👏
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