Among all the chaos and bad luck I had last year, there is one accomplishment that I'm proud of - I finished ALL my reading challenges I pledged to finish, and I'm a little proud of that. I have to add that I was very careful not to put too much on my plate and sometimes read as little as four or seven books per challenge, but that technique helped me finishing them, some of them even quite early in the year.
The main challenge was the big Goodreads Reading Challenge, which counts every book you read and for which I pledged to read 100 books in total this year, which I achieved at about the mid-year mark, and I'm currently at 149 read books.
I joined the most challenges, evidently, for the Shine and Shadow Group. For the dark read, suitably named Deep Dark Depths, I've read 15 books from various horror subgenres and the light challenge Let There Be Light required me to read eight books either in the group reads, buddy reads, or from books other group members told me to read. It is for the Mid-Year Bingo that I was super careful, and pledged the absolute minimum of nine books, but it worked and I could check that one off.
My Horror Aficionados challenges were: the summer challenge Complete the Word, for which the word I chose was FEAR, so I read four books whose first letters of the titles make up the word "Fear". The Song Title Challenge where I had to find a book matching seven given song titles, and finally MOUNT TBR, which is a challenge for which you can only read older books on your to-be-read list. For this challenge I even went a step further and decided to read only physical books on my shelves I have bought more than a year in the past. I pledged to read one book a month and for the first time this year, I made it! I also discovered so many gems I didn't know I had right in front of me. I will continue joining this challenge again and again every year, until I have read all my books - it is so much fun and so satisfying to see that mountain vanish before your eyes.
Finally, I joined a board game named Roll-For-It Challenge 2024; I actually had to roll a dice and read the seven kinds of books that were given on the digital board.
The talk about challenges and reading with people reminds me of something I want to do with you guys! I know it's hard to do a reading challenge together, since this blog is mostly a one-way communication line (even though I know at least one person is trying to keep up with my reading challenges 🖤), but I have thought of a way to nevertheless read together with you guys, if you want to, that is.
In the new year, I'm planning on doing a column about short stories by Stephen King, since I think that his best work always stemmed from his short stories, and I'll be discussing one or two short story every month in a new column here. I will be starting chronologically with his first short story collection, Night Shift, and the first post will be on the first story Jerusalem's Lot. So please join me in reading one or two Stephen King short story/stories a month, it will be fun. Let's start with this short story in January, shall we?
Well, let's now get back to other things to look forward to in the new year, namely new titles. I have a little selection here already, but as it is each year, the list will grow longer. For now, have fun deciding which ones you want to read!
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Even though I'm not a fan of his every book, I certainly do think that Hendrix is a good feminist and succeeds well in capturing problems women face. Women from every walk of life, whether they are young teenagers, or burnt-out house wives, or aged former rock stars, or older sisters shouldering responsibilities in the family. His book scheduled for next year, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, follows the titular wayward girls - loose girls who are sent to the Wellwood Home in St.
Augustine, Florida, where they can have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and forget any of it ever happened.
I do feel like, if any man at all, Hendrix is the one who can totally pull this off and I definitely want to read this, despite it being a historical novel, which isn't my favorite genre - but I'll take one for Hendrix. He hasn't published anything this year, so it was about time for a new Hendrix book in the next.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Nope, that's not a typo and no, you don't see double. What this is, is my most anticipated book of the year 2025, I sense strong The Only Good Indian vibes here.
West coast USA, the year is 1912 and we're following a Lutheran priest who in his diary transcribes the life of a vampire that haunts the fields of a Blackfeet reservation. The journal found in a wall unveils a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet found dead in the snow.
Wow.
SGJ doesn't only write, he writes writes. He has his matchless style, and really puts thought into his work, so I'm one hundred percent sure there will be some deeply emotional surprise moment here. I'll have to wait until March, though...
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica
Another (post) apocalyptic /dystopic novel from the author who gave us Tender is the Flesh a couple of years ago and blew our minds with it.
A woman, a member of the Sacred Sisterhood, writes about her life in her cell in a convent. Outside, the world is ending - floods, power and internet outages, a dog eat dog world. A stranger makes her way into the convent and joins the ranks of the so-called "unworthy", and as the two women grow closer, the narrator is inspired to think about her own past and the future of the world.
To me this sounds insanely compelling, especially because we have seen how powerful Bazterrica can write dystopia. But Queralt from ShiSha has received an advanced reading copy and I think she dnf'ed? We do have different tastes in books, but still, I would be lying if I said that didn't dampen my excitement a little bit. I'm not crazy about the cover but I don't want to lose hope that this might be good.
When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
After a series of incidents, struggling actress Jess finds herself on the run along with a five-year-old boy, whose father follows them leaving a horrifyingly bloody trail behind him.
Depending on the title, I personally think the boy is a werewolf, but who knows?
I think Nat Cassidy writes wonderfully, I don't always connect with his characters, but I think he writes solid, proper horror. I unfortunately missed his novella in the last year, Rest Stop, which my friend Adrienne says she had to interrupt reading to calm down to be able to keep on reading! So I guess I'm excited to read not one, but two Cassidy books in the next year.
Never Flinch by Stephen King
Oooo, a new Holly Gibney book!
The Hammett clientele will be happy to hear this, as Stephen King, beside being the King of horror, has made himself a pretty good name in the crime field too, and his main investigator, the autistic Holly, has successfully starred in his previous crime stories Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, The Outsider and If It Bleeds.
We are following Detective Izzy Jaynes from the Buckeye City Police Department which receives a threat letter announcing to kill thirteen innocents and one guilty in an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man. She won't be able to solve this alone, so asks Holly for help.
Meanwhile, Holly has taken on a side job as the bodyguard of a women's rights activist on her book tour. She too is being threatened by people who don't like her feminist message. The entwining of these two storylines promises a spectacular conclusion.
Sounds like King has been brooding over the recent regression of women's rights and the outcome of the elections in his country and I'm very sure he's poured all of it into this story, can't wait to read!
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
Another political work. People find that their older parents get hypnotized and put in a trance-like state by far-right cable news. Brutal attacks ensue.
I'm pretty sure this book is based on Chapman's short story “The Spew of News” which was published in Andrew Cull's Found: An Anthology of Found Footage Horror. It was amongst my favorites of the anthology back then, and I can imagine a good Zombie story to stand for the divided state that the USA is currently in.
Mind you though, this must have been written before the election and the now imminent rise of the far-right in the States. Interesting.
Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud
Well, Cathedral of the Drowned is the continuation of that story, which doesn't sound less bonkers; Charlie Duchamp is literally torn in half - his brain is in a jar on Jupiter’s jungle moon, Io, and his other half is hanging on the wall of Barrowfield Home filled with a murderous rage.
So, double note to myself: definitely read these two little books which both sound fantastic. Plus, they must be much more awesome than regular novellas, as they are written by master Ballingrud?
Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou
In an apartment haunted by women's ghosts, the unnamed narrator tries to narrate her story to her child.
I'll try to keep this as vague as possible because I think the remaining cover description already tells too much for my taste.
It is always wonderful to discover brand new names with exciting concepts, and Sour Cherry seems to scratch that itch.
A story that tackles toxic masculinity and deconstructs the idea of what makes one a monster, reminiscent, from what I read, of the French folk tale of Blue Beard. What more could you ask for? I'm sold.
Strange Stones by Edward Lee and Mary SanGiovanni
Literary scholar and Lovecraft critic Professor Everard is in trouble when a witch, who doesn't like his work, curses him by sending him into an alternate dimension where Lovecraft's creations are actually real and alive. He needs to find a way to get out of there as soon as possible.
Although I know Edward Lee as a writer of the extreme horror, I recently discovered in a couple of short stories that he very much uses the Weird in his writing too. So it's actually not that big of a surprise to see his name on this cover.
I yet have to read a book by Mary San Giovanni, which might very well be this one, as it sound like loads of fun and definitely one of the works I'm impatiently waiting for.
Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield
My life is practically dedicated to reading weird and freaky books, but I'm not lying when I'm saying that I was flabbergasted to find a book where the villain is beet. You know that funny, pink, vegetable which makes for delicious soups and salads, especially for the ones of us short on iron. I mean, have you even seen that cover? Is there any way I could miss this?
From the cover description: "When Elise and her boyfriend, Tom, set off for Minnesota, all she knows about harvesting sugar beets (Beta vulgaris)
is that her paycheck will cover a few months’ rent on their Brooklyn
apartment. She’ll try anything to escape the incessant debt collection
calls—and chronic anxieties about her body and her relationship. But as
the grueling graveyard shifts set in, Elise notices strange threatening
texts, a mysterious rash, a string of disappearances from the workers’
campsite, and snatches of a hypnotic voice coming from the beet pile
itself."
This is too good to be true.
And One Day We Will Die: Strange Stories Inspired by the Music of Neutral Milk Hotel by Patrick Barb
Do you know the 90's indie folk rock band Neutral Milk Hotel from Louisiana? If you do, you will see the ingenuity of what the editor Patrick Barb did here by turning their songs into fantastic short stories. Because they are STRANGE, let me tell you. They sound beautiful but weird, their lyrics are always a little off, and in 22 short stories you can now experience their cult classic songs in written form.
The anthology features strong names like Joe Koch, Christie Nogle, Brian Evenson, Ai Jiang and John Langan.
From all the books listed here in this post, this is possibly the one I'll be anticipating most, and while I wait (luckily only until end of January), I'll listen to some Neutral Milk Hotel in memory of the good old days.
These were the books I'm excited for. If you're looking for movies, I already did a post for the first worthwhile movies of the new year here.
Just as a little reminder, here are some dates to mark in your calendar:
On the first weekend of February, (01. and 02.02.2025) the Fantasy Filmfest White Nights will take place. I don't know or haven't heard of many of the films selected so far, they all seem kind of science fictiony to me. The ticket sale starts on January 3rd.
Later in February, from the 13th to the 23rd, the 75th Berlinale will await me, and I hope that I'll be able to enjoy it this year.
And finally, the Final Girls Filmfest which, this year, is March 5 through 9, and guess who will be there on a book table and selling horror books written by women?
In the hope that we'll have many more things next year to look forward to. Have a great week!
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