As mentioned in my previous blog post, 2022 was a pretty hectic one for us. Whilst it was all very exciting and life changing stuff, unfortunately, my reading had to take a serious hit as a result. Last year, I only managed to read a measly 19 books. (Well under half of what I usually read!) Not exactly one for the record books.
Because I read so few books in comparison to normal, I am only going to share my top three favourite books read this year instead of my usual five. However, I do have to say, all three of these books really do deserve to be shouted about!
1) The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
What I thought: ‘The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue’ was the first book I read in 2022 and one of my favourite books I have ever read of all time. It is unbelievably beautifully written with such intelligent and poetic use of language, and I just absolutely adored Schwab’s writing style. I’m also a big fan of magical realism, especially when executed flawlessly, which this was – a truly impressive feat considering how complex and intricate the storyline is. I really enjoyed the moral and existential message behind the book and can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone who enjoys magical realism as a genre.
2) How to Kill Your Family – Bella Mackie
I have killed several people (some brutally, others calmly) and yet I currently languish in jail for a murder I did not commit.
When I think about what I actually did, I feel somewhat sad that nobody will ever know about the complex operation that I undertook. Getting away with it is highly preferable, of course, but perhaps when I’m long gone, someone will open an old safe and find this confession. The public would reel. After all, almost nobody else in the world can possibly understand how someone, by the tender age of 28, can have calmly killed six members of her family. And then happily got on with the rest of her life, never to regret a thing.
What I thought: ‘How to Kill Your Family’ was a thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish, especially for fans of dark humour. It’s a testament to Mackie’s writing how often I caught myself rooting for the anti-hero throughout, and perhaps a damning indictment of my own character how often I found myself relating to her. (It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.) Rounded off with an excellent plot twist, this is another book that I would recommend to anyone.
3) The Ink Black Heart – Robert Galbraith
When frantic, disheveled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity.
Robin decides that the agency can’t help with this—and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.
Robin and her business partner, Cormoran Strike, become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie’s true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits – and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways…
What I thought: If you’ve read any of my previous book roundups, you’ll know that Robert Galbraith’s (J.K. Rowling’s) Cormoran Strike series is one of my favourite book series of all time. (Probably second only to Harry Potter…) I’m honestly obsessed with them and it’s like Christmas has come early every time a new one gets released. Christmas came early for me this year when the sixth book in the series, ‘The Ink Black Heart’, was delivered at the start of autumn. One of my favourite things about this series is how long each of the books are, combined with Rowling’s incredible talent for storytelling and world building. It’s a combination that allows you to get truly immersed and lost in the world of the books, so you feel like you’re actually there on Denmark Street with Strike and Robin. Combining this with their autumn release dates just makes for the cosiest reading experience imaginable. It’s a feeling that I absolutely adore and one that is always bittersweet to have to say goodbye to when you eventually do turn the final page.
‘The Ink Black Heart’ might have been one of my favourite books in the series so far. The tackling of online crime and abuse was so different to the types of cases that these novels usually take on and yet so prevalent in our society today that it was really engaging to read. Knowing about Rowling’s own real-life experiences online and the mirroring of those themes made reading her fictionalisation of the issue especially pertinent and thought provoking.
Now that life has calmed down a little bit, I plan to make an effort to start reading more regularly again in 2023 and hope to be sharing my five favourite books with you as normal this time next year. (Famous last words…)
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