Happy new year? Best books of 2020. Genres of the year.


 Dear Reader, 

did I accidentally just title this blog after a Holly Bourne book? Oh well, please do not talk to my lawyer, I don’t have one. Oh look already sidetracked, so unlike me wow.

Hello! Hola! Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! And I’m praying to every God up there, a happy new year. Or just a slightly better one, to be honest, anything would knock this shit storm of a year out the park.  Seriously though, my hopes ad prayers to all of you for next year and a metaphorical slap on the back and 24k karat gold star for getting through- whatever the fuck those last 365 days were.

Now that you’ve made it, tend to your battle scars while I state some of the best books of 2020 because let’s face it the only thing good about this year was the extra reading time and the two Taylor swift albums. 

In the first initial lockdown, I read a book that contained all the steamy romance I needed in a time of complete isolation. Therefore I decided it deserved an honourable mention, A court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Mass. Also known as my saviour and one of the Goddess’s I will be praying too for a better 2021, her and Mahalia of course. NO, before you ask, I have not finished this series but don’t worry, the only scribble of a resolution I have written for 2021 in my poetry sketchbook is to finish all my Sarah J. Mass books. That and obviously the compulsory, Marry brad Pitt’s younger self and become best friends with Michelle Obama resolutions that I’ve had since I was about 6- this is my year. 

A cruel prince, Got me through the heatwave and then continued to supply me with Pinterest content till this very day. All of those books deserve some seriously expensive adaptations, 2021 get on it. 

Obsidio distracted me from the apocalypse for a whole 24 hours, something I imagined impossible. I will never stop blabbing about how bloody amazing that series is. Definitely will be rereading them in 2021 or the rummmouuurrredddd sequel... (take my money).

I had to mention my sisters' keeper, even though I did not read it my sister did which really bonded us. I have really lovely memories of both of us reading in the sun, waiting for our mother to scream at us that the dishwasher wasn’t done. Ah, mi familia. 

SCYTHE. That shit made me question my very life when I probably had enough to question- but I don’t care because it was bloody BRILLIANT. Thunderhead, 2021 I Promise. 

Am I normal yet? By Holly Bourne really helped me seek out help for my anxiety this year, so a very very special thank you to that book. 

A very large expanse of sea, you made me fall in love and get my two closest friends to fall in love as well, which helped us connect even with all the distance. 

To my yearly re-reads, we were liars and a boy called Christmas, you brought me normality and comfort in a time of anything but. 

Finally, my top genres of 2020- which you can probably already guess by now. 

In the second place, Romance. Simply because the only thing that counted this year was our love for each other, this world and all the things we took for granted before. And for me, reading about it helped me find it anyway and anywhere I could. 

In first, Fantasy. Never before have I ever needed more to getaway. To slam the reality behind a magical unbreakable door and hide out in the fictional worlds of heroic characters who endured worse even if just on a page. I truly believe that is what got me through the most this year, not just by reading something dystopian like the darkest minds and realising shit could be worse, but being able to find a way to subside it all and forget. I also found that reading fantasy settled my anxiety more than almost everything, just getting completely lost in something else, something magical. Forgetting was a wonderful thing. 

So thank you to all those magical authors, who whisked me away. 

Until next year, 

Issy 

X


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