Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag

It has been a long time since I’ve written anything for the blog so I decided to try the Mid-year book freak-out tag thingy that’s so freakin popular in the book community on the internet. Though I’ve never been tagged obviously, I’m doing it because I’m bored and I don’t really care about the etiquettes to be followed here. Also, I’ve always wanted to have a book blog and I hope this is a start and not an end to that idea. So here goes nothing. 

Best books I’ve read so far in 2021:

Arranged in no particular order or preference, these are the books I loved so far.

I’m glad this question says ‘books’ instead of ‘book’ because there was no way I was picking one out of all the ones I gave five stars to. Even though I did narrow down the list from ten books to six, (yeah, taking four out took out half of my heart) it’s still too many to elaborately review.

So I’m gonna try and keep this short. If you love grimdark fantasy like Red Sister or The Witcher, you’ll probably enjoy The Poppy War and leave mostly un-traumatized. If genocides and killings aren’t your thing but magic and humor is then The House in the Cerulean Sea would scratch that itch for you. But if you want your magic un-humored with a dash of creepy ghosts and unsolved mysteries, The Broken Girls would be perfect as long as you don’t mind having to hold your pee in- all through the night after reading it.

If you’re one of those ‘I want realistic fiction, magic is just so fake.’ kind of person, The Death of Vivek Oji and A Woman is no Man will make you bawl over how terrible the world is and make you wish you could whack everyone until it was better.

Now, despite all of these books being interesting if they don’t seem to catch your attention because you believe that modern literature isn’t good enough for your refined tastes but you secretly crave some anyway try If We Were Villains- its got Shakespearean theatre and an elite academia setting with posh students plus a murder. If nothing catches your interest then I honestly don’t know what to do with you, man. Go read Percy Jackson and don’t talk to me until you like books.

New releases that I haven’t read yet but want to:

Again in no particular order, here they are.

Just some that caught my eye, the first two because I’ve read from the authors before and have had my mind blown and the last one because it has twin sisters and I have a sibling, what a coincidence. Hence worth a read, no?

Books that disappointed me:

Because I’m not the nicest person on earth and I enjoy quite a bit of drama, *judges books with no qualifications to show for it* I’m going to rank the books that disappointed me because I can. And I want to. (Lol, I really am bored.)

The worst one of these three was definitely Night of the Mannequins because I had EXPECTATIONS, obviously. It has been so hyped and loved and hauled so many times on the YouTube book community, I decided to give it a shot. I made sure the lights were on and my bladder was empty because I was prepared to be scared. To not sleep for three nights in a row but then this book happened and now I’m just dejected. Read it if you’re oblivious to mental health tropes. 

The second biggest disappointment to me was The Maidens because I adored Alex Michaelides' debut novel- The Silent Patient. I wanted cult vibes (like, Bunny by Mona Awad-- really good stuff, read if you haven’t) and gruesome murder. What I got was an underdeveloped plot twist and a lady with paternal issues.

The last one by default is The Transcendent Kingdom. Not the worst book I’ve read, just not worth all the hype it got. It made me really angry for no obvious reason and we’ll skip over me trying to diagnose my mental health issues.

Books that surprised me:

None apparently. But maybe If We Were Villains because I thought I’d hate it but I didn’t and it actually made my heart break and made me cry. And The Roommate because the cover really assaulted my corneas and I almost skipped reading it.

New favorite author:

I don’t think an author can be my favorite unless I’ve read more than half of the books they’ve ever published, so I don’t have one. But the most promising ones turned out to be R.F Kuang and Simone St. James. I’ve only read one book by the former because chapter 21 traumatized me so I don’t have the guts to read the sequel. I’ve read two books by the latter and I look forward to reading the rest of her backlist.

Newest fictional crush:

I don’t know, maybe Alosa from the Daughter of the Pirate King because I dig the sarcastic, confident type of characters?

Newest favorite character:

Maybe Darby Thorne from No Exit because I rooted for her, rather desperately. And every freaking character from The House in the Cerulean Sea. They’re so freaking adorable. All of them.

Books that made me cry/ laugh:

Maybe all of the ones I read because either I was happy laughing because of how funny/ cute it was or maniacally laughing out of stress and rage. I did cry out of frustration too, so I’d rather not narrow down a bunch of books.

Best covers of the books I’ve read this year:

Definitely both the books by Nina LaCour I read this year. The cover design and the color palette chosen were absolutely gorgeous. My eyes felt so happy. Also the aesthetic of The Maidens was on point with the vibe the synopsis gave me, the plot is another story though.

Goals for the rest of the year:

To live through it, mostly. But otherwise I’d like to finish reading at least one Brandon Sanderson book. I just started The Final Empire but I’m afraid I’m jinxing it by talking about it before I’m even halfway through. I also want to try a Neil Gaiman book before the year ends and also hopefully read something by Stephen King (but after Carrie, I haven’t found any that don’t make me want to pass out by the sheer thickness of the volume or the scary reputation that precedes it.)

I want to read more books by Indian authors because it has been a while since I've ventured in this path for literature. So, I appreciate any recommendations of books that aren't by Chetan Bhagat or any popular romance writers. (I've read quite a few of Chetan Bhagat's books as a teenager and they're not my type, honestly. No shade if you adore him.)

I’m aiming to get back to blogging at least four times a month without fail by the end of the year but I'm going to start with two and zero false hopes. I also really desperately want to finish the draft zero of ‘project romance’ which barely has a beginning and an ending at the moment. (I can’t believe writing 27k words doesn’t freaking finish the whole story.)

Plus, I want to finish my Goodreads reading goal and maybe hopefully cross it by at least a book. I might not, but a human can dream.

In conclusion, this has been an ambitious if only slightly dramatic blog-post. I hope you’re doing well. I’ll hopefully be back next week.

(I don’t remember how I used to end these things.)

(According to all that I could find there are multiple people who have been credited with having created this tag, so if I can come to a definite conclusion I will link them here.)

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(Disclaimer: I found out T.J Klune said some controversial stuff by claiming that his book was based on the genocide of indigenous people in Canada and I wrote this post before I found out about it, so I’m having an existential crisis and I don’t know what to do. But I’ve decided to keep his book on the grounds that it’s a well written book apart from his misplaced intentions for representation of a historical event. I’m just tired and confused by how every day I keep hearing about new atrocities having been committed and the oppressors having erased it from common knowledge. I don’t know why the world hasn’t collapsed into itself. I’m sorry, I’m just really tired of having to come to terms with the fact that the world has always been far worse than I thought it was.)