It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Only it was never the best of times. 2024 is my personal 2020 and made me miss pandemic times we were sitting in peace at home, watching movies and reading books.
What got me so worked up, you ask? Well, this whole year was cursed, I don't have any other explanation. It all started with the year's first subway attack where some jerk hit my head with his beer bottle, the second one happened later in the year by two teenager boys who thought they were being funny. In February came a heartbreak over someone who just wasn't that into me, which killed my remaining hope I could maybe end up as anything other than a lonely cat lady; later a concussion because of a head wound resulting in eye problems; a shoulder disease which left me unable to use my left arm - still ongoing -; a death in my extended family; damage caused by overflowing toilets at work (twice in two weeks) causing sewage water (aka piss and shit) raining into our classrooms; my washing machine at home breaking down and more water damage in my kitchen - but at least it's clean water -; a major falling out with someone I thought was a friend; I keep having nightmares of this woman I don't know who has scary icy blue eyes and I wish she would leave me the fuck alone; and finally all this resulting in a breakout of gastritis in my body, causing me perpetual nausea. I even re-started smoking for a while, which only made things worse so I quit again. I'm not even mentioning the general catastrophe the world is in, wars, inflation, ever deteriorating life conditions, climate, yada, yada, yada... Most people I talk to are having a hard time.
Under these circumstances I really tried my best to keep my spirits high and keep up with my
reading and cinema, which obviously wasn't always possible. There was a big chunk of time when I read a lot of self-help
books, but ultimately I think they were a waste of time and not really worth mentioning here or anywhere. So, I'm finishing this year with a feeling that I wasn't always able to choose the better books and what I've read didn't always bring me satisfaction or joy, which of course might be due to how I feel generally, which is not very good.
On the positive side, though, I'm so very grateful for my friends at especially the Otherland and Hammett who stood by me and seriously helped me carry on, all my friends proved to be the real deal. Despite my wonderful support system though, I'm still very ready for this year to be over and hope that the next will bring health, joy, friendship and physical therapy before all.
Let's leave all this behind, and go over to my reading year...
First come the non-freaky books which are usually monthly reads or buddy reads with the members of the Shine&Shadow group on Goodreads, I think they actually all are monthly reads, except for two books. The first of those two is A Bang, A Whimper and A Beat: Industrial Music and Dystopia by Karen Collins. There's no better source on the subject. This is a whole, a consummate and complete work on industrial music from in-depth analyses of both industrial music and dystopia, to their key connection (It’s THE MACHINE, of course!) to political connotations, fandom on both sides, the fashion, style, feelings and opinions of select fans and more. Home library material.
The second one is A Journey Round My Skull by Frigyes Karinthy, a book recommended to me by some algorithm which saw that we have read two books from Hungary in my reading group. At this point I'd like to give a shout out to this algorithm which gives me tons of usually ridiculous recommendations. Example: Because I have read The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, I was recommended The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, because... you know, I thoroughly enjoy reading about Evelyns who have seven of something. Another example would be recommending The Descent just because I've read an unrelated book with the title The Ascent. I'm still waiting for The Stairway or The Lift.
Anyway, A Journey Around My Skull is about an author who starts hearing train noises where there are no trains, everyday at the same time. Examinations find a tumor in his head, and so we follow him and his screwed perception of the world and his symptoms. It was quite paranoia inducing for a person like me who is scared of illnesses, but a very engaging read.
My other reading journeys took me to northwest London and West Africa, following two girls' friendship in Zadie Smith's Swing Time; to Catalonia with George Orwell's account of his time fighting against fascism in Homage to Catalonia; to 1960s Nigeria in Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; to a Hungarian couple's honeymoon in Italy with Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb, to beautiful Budapest, following an embittered actress's life under communism with Magda Szabó's The Fawn, and finally to New York, to the life of three sisters who lost their fourth sister to drug addiction in Blue Sisters by Coco Mellor. And additionally, a very useless book about how it is great to rent people for emotional purposes, Rental Person Who Does Nothing: A Memoir by Shoji Morimoto, which was merely a failed attempt of the author at being interesting. These were the "other" books.
A nice thing this year was that I have received quite a number of review copies from authors I hadn't heard of before, and that I could review their work, and I'd like to thank them wholeheartedly. Thank you to my friends, especially the Shine and Shadow crew which always supports me and reads with me, and of course the Otherland and Hammett bookstores. And thank you, reader of my blog.
Well, my friends, now it's finally time to announce the Protean Depravity best books of the year. As always I'm citing the five runners up and the one winner.
Now, can I please get a drumroll for the PROTEAN DEPRAVITY BEST BOOKS OF 2024? Here we go!
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Novel of the Year 2024
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
Myrrh by Polly Hall
American Narcissus by Chandler Morrison
Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk
And the winner is...
I loved reading all the runners up, but if I'm being honest with myself, it was only Polly Hall's Myrrh, the tale of two women, of adoption, of childlessness and screwed family connections that was able to keep me glued to the pages, engaging me like no other book did this year. That deserves to be rewarded, and so Myrrh is the Protean Depravity Best Book of the Year 2024!
Congratulations, Polly Hall! 👏👏👏👏👏
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Freakiest Book of the Year 2024
WereCage by Ian Fortey
So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison
The Vile Thing We Created by Robert P. Ottone
The Radiator Boy and The Holly Country by Zoltan Komor
Unhinged by Vera Valentine
And the winner is...
WereCage by Ian Fortey !
Yes I know, it's a little older with a publication date in 2022, but I've read it this year and of all the freaky books, this one was the one I liked most. A world in which you turn into Nic Cage on full moon when bitten by one Nic Cage, and starting to turn into him, doing unnecessary, over-the-top stunts and speaking in movie lines... A dream world, or a nightmare? Especially if, in the end, everyone will have turned into him... This was pretty awesome.
Ian Fortey, congratulations, you wrote the Protean Depravity Freakiest Book of 2024! 👏👏👏👏👏
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Novella of the Year 2024
Changes in the Land by Matthew Cheney
Cymbals Eat Guitars by Josh Hanson
The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir
Woodworm by Layla Martinez
Cranberry Cove by Hailey Piper
And the winner is...
Woodworm by Layla Martinez!
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Anthology of the Year 2024
Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories, ed. by Sarah Coolidge
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fifteen ed. by Ellen Datlow
Hot Iron and Cold Blood: An Anthology of the Weird West, ed. by Patrick R. McDonough
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, ed. by Jordan Peele
The Darkest Night: 22 Winter Horror Stories, ed. by Lindy Ryan
And the winner is...
Hot Iron and Cold Blood: An Anthology of the Weird West, ed. by Patrick R. McDonough
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Collection by a Single Author of the Year 2024
A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez
Mouth: Stories by Puloma Ghosh
You Like It Darker by Stephen King
Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima
The Inconsolables by Michael Wehunt
And the winner is...
The Inconsolables by Michael Wehunt AND Mouth:Stories by Puloma Ghosh
We're going to do something different this year because I have not one, but TWO winners for the category Short Story Collection I couldn't decide between: Michael Wehunt's The Inconsolables and Mouth:Stories by Puloma Ghosh both win the title of Protean Depravity Best Short Story Collection by a Single Author 2024, double congratulations! 👏👏👏👏👏 👏👏👏👏👏
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Short Story of the Year 2024
The Third Transformation by Maximiliano Barrientos (Through the Night Like A Snake)
Hide and Seek by P. Djeli Clark (Out There Screaming)
Best Served Cold by H.E. Edgmon (The White Guy Does First)
Soroche by Mónica Ojeda (Through the Night Like A Snake)
Myopiatropolis by Tom Over
And the winner is...
"Soroche" by Mónica Ojeda AND "Myopiatropolis" by Tom Over
Since I just decided that two runners up can win in one category, I will do the same for this year's selection of best short story too, and announce two winners:
Soroche by Mónica Ojeda which was published in the anthology Through the Night Like A Snake and Myopiatropolis by Tom Over, which was published independently. Both short stories deal with different present-day phenomena which are equally alienating as well as terrifying - Ojeda tackles love and dating in the age of social media and revenge porn in tragicomic ways, while Tom focuses on the dreadful post pandemic office-life.
Congratulations you both for having written these wonderful short stories which made the Protean Depravity Best Short Story of 2024! 👏👏👏👏👏 👏👏👏👏👏
Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Cover Art of the Year 2024
Cymbals Eat Guitars by ?
Supplication by Emma F Dolan
Bury Your Gays by Andreea Dumuta
Flesh Communion and Other Stories by Lynne Hansen
Mouth:Stories by Suzanne Saroff
And the winner is...
Cymbals Eat Guitars, although I couldn't find out who made the cover art... This year's list is full of surprises and first-of's, so why not anounce "anonymous" as the best cover art maker of the year?
The cover is a pastiche of The Clash's album cover for London Calling on which bassist Paul Simonon smashes his bass guitar on stage, re-modeled for him to look like a zombie trying to keep balance. It suits well because the novella is exactly about a band who is literally thrown into the Zombie apocalypse and who has to fight them off, sometimes with their instruments.
Love it! So, congratulations whoever made it... 👏👏👏👏👏
Bonus Category: Protean Depravity Runners-Up for Best Film of the Year 2024
Handling the Undead (Norway, Thea Hvistendahl)
In a Violent Nature (Canada, Chris Nasher)
Late Night with the Devil (Australia, UAE, USA, Cameron and Colin Cairnes)
Longlegs (USA, Osgood Perkins)
The Substance (France, UK, USA, Coralie Fargeat)
And the winner is...
In a Violent Nature by Chris Nasher...
This was such a tough choice because ALL the runners up, and so many more movies, horror movies interpreted in unique and original ways have blown my mind this year. I'm so happy there seems to be a sort of revival with incredibly talented filmmakers out there doing their thing. In A Violent Nature was just a film which kept me engaged a little more than the other runners up, and I love the reinterpretation of a trite subgenre, so Chris Nash's work wins the first-time title of Protean Depravity Best Film of the Year! 👏👏👏👏👏
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 2024
Not a Speck of Light by Laird Barron
The Nightmare Box by Cynthia Gómez
House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias
Model Home by Rivers Solomon
The Off-Season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird ed. by Marissa Van Uden
Huzzah to all winners and
non-winners! Please survive the festive days and have a wonderful New Year's Eve and hopefully an awesome new year 2025 for all of us!
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