It’s been a pretty chaotic year, what with family medical emergencies and other craziness (said other craziness being…more family medical emergencies), so I’m pretty happy to see the last of 2019.
One good thing that 2019 did have was some fantastic books. Click the jump for a rundown of the five best (“best” here meaning “my favorites of the ones I got around to reading and which I definitely want to re-read”).
The Twisted Ones
T. Kingfisher’s skillfully quirky writing style comes with some very unsettling images in her first foray into full-length horror. There’s several different ways to terrify a reader featured here (unexplained noises at night, monster chasing you, unsettling statues that may possibly be alive, an eldrich horror that’s doing its best to break through into our world), and I still love the narrative device of a story-within-a-story (in this case three layers deep, as the main character reads a journal written by someone trying to describe the story contained within a mysterious diary that’s been stolen by a truly poisonous spouse). There’s also a very appealing hound dog and a room stuffed full of dolls.
Full review here.
This Is How You Lose The Time War
Calling Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar’s novella a love story doesn’t even begin to summarize what happens in this tale about a war that’s fought in – and with – time. The two opposing agents Red and Blue are the best their warring nations have created, and they quickly become addicted to their competition, and then to each other. This is an example of a time-travel done perfectly, where cause-and-effect is used as both a weapon and a way to send impossible love-letters in seeds and bones and hidden in the growth rings of trees.
Full review here.
Snow, Glass, Apples
An example of an artist and an author working at the top of their game, this is a Neil Gaiman short story that I remember not being able to get out of my brain for a while afterwards (good luck reading the original fairytale ever again without thinking of this one), and some truly sumptuous art by Colleen Doran. This graphic novel makes me want to comb through Neil Gaiman’s other stories to find another one that Doran can illustrate.
Full review here.
In An Absent Dream
This isn’t the happiest story in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series. In fact I’d argue that it’s the most tragic of all of them, keeping in mind that this is an entire series about the heartbroken children who have to face life in the mundane world after they’ve had an adventure in a fantasy-world paradise. McGuire has created one of my favorite worlds in this one: the Goblin Market. It’s filled with every fantasy creature you can imagine and the market stalls contain any treasure you could want, costing whatever you have in your pockets, like pencils or string. It’s a gorgeous children’s adventureland, but one with ironclad rules that you absolutely cannot break, or you’ll face something worse than just not ever being allowed to come back.
Full review here.
The Starless Sea
A mystery, an adventure, and several interlocking love stories. Erin Morgenstern’s first book in eight years is absolutely worth the wait. It’s at the top of my re-read pile for very good reason; I could write several full-length reviews and still not capture all of the gorgeous imagery in this book set in a maze-like underground paradise filled with books.
Full review here.