It´s again Bauernsilvester, the night before New Year’s Eve, and so like everyone else I´m thinking back on the last year. It´s been a good one for me, mostly, with a lot of things happening that put me on surer foot, that made me think I might actually get the hang of the whole being and adult thing. I accomplished a lot of things (started a PhD, even though that needs a lot more work, got a full-time job I´m actually good at and which I like, moved into a new apartment which I love) and so I´m actually cautiously looking forward to 2019. Last year I was still unsure, so afraid that the good thing which happened the year before would become undone in 2018. That didn´t happen, obviously, but that fear is still there, and now I actually have more to lose. Still, I´m looking forward to the new year.
Part of looking back on 2018 is making my top ten lists. Or, at least, one top ten list. I actually made a top ten movies list for twitter (with Crazy Rich Asians as number one…god, I love this movie), but halfway through this I realised I was slowly running out of movies I watched (or remembered) this year. It´s not as bad as it sounds, but I also know I couldn´t get ten series for a top ten series list together either (however, apart from Stranger Things which is currently my number one, such a hypothetical list would also include Castlevania, which is way better than a video game adaptation has any right to be, and the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which I´m currently watching…oh, and American Gods! I completely forgot that series happened this year and not last…and Mrs. Maisel too…Ok, I watched more than I thought.) I didn´t watch a lot, as you can see, but what I did instead was read. And 2018 was full of good books. So here I present to you my top ten books of 2018:
10) Shadowsong by S. Jae-Jones
I´ve read the first book, Wintersong, during my holiday in Crete this year, and while I liked it, it didn´t really fascinate me like that. Which probably was also the fault of my surroundings, reading a book taking place during winter on a greek island is not exactly fitting. But I liked it enough to start the second one, and that book I loved. I loved learning more about this world, about what consequences Liesls freedom had, seeing how she and her friends and family tried to find their own ways, to build their own lives. And the finale was breath-taking. I´m trying not to spoiler anything, but the truth about the brave maidens actions, and how exactly sacrifice works in this setting was so amazing and satisfying. I loved this book and especially the ending so much.
9) Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister
I wanted to put at least one non-fiction book on this list, and this book was one of the three non-fiction books which made me think the most this year. It deals with female anger, and how, especially in 2018 and onwards, it can be a transformative power. As a pretty shy person, who is always afraid about doing things wrong, reading about how powerful anger can be is very uplifting and important. I´m still working on the courage necessary for anger, but that book certainly helped.
8) Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne
2018 was the year I truly fell in love with D&D and this book reads like a D&D campaign. While it´s mostly a hilarious deconstruction of classical fantasy tropes like the dark lord and the chosen one, the party formed by the main characters is exactly the kind of chaotic mess my group always manages to be. But the story has heart, and the characters are more than deconstructions, they grow in their own ways, and while I couldn´t stop laughing, the story captured me to. I can´t wait for the next book to come out!
7) The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton
That book made Tessa Gratton an auto-buy author for me. I love retellings and reimagining’s of older stories, and this explicitly feminist take on King Lear took my breath away. Especially since a lot of things Elia says about love, and her own take on it, and how she loves were so resonating with me. The characters are all broken in their own way, and I love how it all ties back to their mother, the last queen and how she died. The truth of her death is so fitting in the whole story, and I wish I could talk about it without spoiling everything. And Bran…oh god Bran. I liked him in the beginni9ng, and then he just digged deeper and deeper, so caught in his own resentment that he could never come out of the darkness he banished himself into. I hated him in the end, but I can still understand how he ended up where he ended up, and I can understand him. Though I´m always going to root for the king of Aremoria in a possible love story. Guy has his own goals, but he´s one of the good ones.
6) My plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton
Talking about retellings, this book is a hilariously spooky take on one of my favourite classics, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (If you want to know who much I love this book, I’ve read three YA retellings of it this year, and I loved them all). Adding the ability to see ghosts to the story, the three lady Janies turn the classic on its head and give not only Jane but also Charlotte Brontë and her family a better ending (and if anyone deserves that it´s this family). And loved what they did with Mr. Rochester, though major spoilers again. All my favourite parts a spoilers, it seems. Also, there is a little Easter egg to the first book in this series, My Lady Jane. Basically, go, run, by this delightful gem of a book, and then suffer with me since the next one isn´t going to be out till 2020. Why?
5) Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreud
We are in the top five now, an theoretically speaking that book should not be on this list, since it came out in 2013 and not 2018, but who cares? I read this book this year and couldn’t stop thinking or talking about it months after I finished it, so it belongs on this list. It´s another retelling, this time a science fiction take on The Scarlet Pimpernell by Baroness Orczy and it really shows what a retelling can do, while still staying true to the source. The genderbent take on the old tale deals with politics, and feminism and the different takes on rebuilding after a catastrophe and honestly, I just love the main characters so much. I´m also extremely sad that it seems to be last book in this series, as I would love to read more of this world, and there is so much potential there still…
4) Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
Another book which didn´t come out in 2018, but again, nobody cares. 2018 was the year I fell head-first into the Grishaverse, and it doesn´t look like I´m going to resurface any time soon. Ruin and Rising is my favourite book in the trilogy, which might be a bit of a controversial take, but I love the revelations this book offered for the story and the characters. That, and I love a good ending with sacrifices involved, and the story did not disappoint. Also, the Darkling is an amazing villain. Yes, guilty as charged, he is my favourite character. Anyway, I can´t wait for King of Scars next year, while at the same time also being very, very afraid.
3) Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa
Top three time, and this book really deserves it´s spot. I almost but it one higher, and I´m still not sure I shouldn´t switch them around, so just imagine them roughly equal in my heart. Shadows of the Fox is a throughout Japanese story, and I loved nearly everyone in their from the not so cold demon slayer to the half-fox main character who seems to have a habit of picking up friends and companions wherever she goes. No really, Yumeko is so nice, and so good at just picking up people left and right. It has few dark passages (the fate of Yumekos temple, that one village overrun by the souls of hungry angry dead, the main villain of this book period), and I´m not sure what game exactly the mysterious demon, who pops up two times in this story, plays, but I like him. I just like the whole book, and nearly everyone in there and why is it so long till The Soul of the Sword?
2) Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
This one came as a bit of a surprise to me, since I read Uprooted last year and found it a bit too dark for my taste. But I saw the description, knew I had to read it, read the book and fell irredeemably in love. It´s the tale of three girls, finding their way in a very hostile world, and each of them grows into her own strength while their stories and ways continue to cross and overlap. It´s about friendship, but mostly about duty and depts., and how clever thinking and fighting for yourself might just save you. The main character, Miryem, is also jewish, and I loved how big a part her culture played, not only for the story and how people treat her and her family, but also for herself. It´s one of the best books this year and trust me, if you haven’t read it yet, you need to read it now. It´s just perfect.
1) The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
It´s almost sad to say that I found my favourite book this year in February already, but 
it´s true. No other book this year raised in me the same feelings or threw me into the same experience as reading The Belles. The other books on the top three and top five on this list come close, but they are still not the same. And I didn´t even had this book on my tbr! I just spotted it in the bookstore, remembered how people where raving about it online, picked it up, read a bit, put it back, read the beginning again, and finally bought it because I was curious by what I read. And I couldn´t stop reading it afterwards. The writing was perfect, the world-building took my breath away, especially how slowly the corruption underneath all that beauty got revealed and the villain, oh my god the villain…I truly feared her. Reading this book was an experience, which didn’t leave me for months and I´m both looking forward and fearing The everlasting rose because this fight, this revolution is not going to be easy.
So here´s to a new year, full of new and fantastic books and new experiences. May it be at least as good as the last one and hopefully even better. To 2019!
Bookflirting 101 