We did it! 2020 is over. And now it’s time for my yearly reading wrap-up / VERY IMPORTANT “Best Of” list. I know you’re excited to see what random stories I loved this past year.
2020 was the year when my reading normalized itself. By that I mean that I was able to apply my brain to something aside from the comforting pages of romance. Now, to be clear, I love romance. I think it’s an exciting genre that uplifts and redefines our concepts of happiness and fulfillment; and a lot of really smart women worked harder than ever this year to show that romance novels are some of the most revolutionary stories around. For instance: romance authors raised half a million dollars for the Georgia senate runoff elections. Suck your own dicks, patriarchy.
But in 2020, I didn’t read just romance! With the help of my friend Jenny (a blessing to a picky reader such as myself), I rediscovered my love of science fiction and fantasy—another branch of fiction that’s doing some amazing things. I read my first-ever cozy mystery. I willingly read a book by a cisgender man for the first time in literal years (spoiler: I could 100% tell it was written by a man, and not in a good way). And most importantly: I returned to literary fiction—the genre that has been my “home” for over a decade, but which I had to take a long, long hiatus from because my life was too depressing for me to cope with books where Happily Ever After wasn’t promised.
Things are looking up! And since I’m sure you just want to hear about the books, let’s get on with it already.
Renae’s Official “Best of 2020” Books List
*note: this list contains both 2020 releases and backlist titles
Adult Fiction
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
From my review: “Temporada de huracanes, translated by Sophie Hughes and published here as Hurricane Season, is a grim study of life for queer outcasts in rural Mexico…. The book is gory, dark, and repugnant; the author’s prose is at once dense and breathless, luring readers into the grimy town of La Matosa, where a dead Witch is only one of many, many atrocities waiting to be told.”
How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
From my review: “How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang’s first novel, is a gorgeously written, yet gruesome coming of age story, set during California’s gold rush era. The story winds its way back and forth across time, showing the various ways in which Lucy’s family has tried—and failed—to find a sense of belonging among their new neighbors. I loved this book.”
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
From my review: “What I loved about Mexican Gothic especially was how, even amid the classic notes of a familiar genre, the author never lost the cultural touchstones of Mexico, of her protagonist’s mestizo heritage, or of what the Doyles—white, opportunistic European settlers—represented in the larger scheme of things. These themes are subtly woven through the narrative, and the twists of the plot perfectly accentuate issues of class, ethnicity, and gender.”
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
From my review: “Harrow the Ninth is EXTREMELY my shit. If somebody scanned my brain to see which tropes, themes, style conventions, and plot twists I love, then dressed that blueprint up in some necromantic party clothes, you’d probably have a close approximation of this book. I felt seen on a very deep and personal level. Plus, I was entertained as hell.”
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
From my review: “If you’ve ever wanted to experience the film The Descent, but with a subtle, psychological menace rather than jump-scare monsters, boy do I have the book for you! …This book is phenomenally good! I never would have thought that a book with literally two characters (who don’t even meet IRL), trapped in a pitch-black cave system would be so enthralling, but it was.”
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
From my review: “Conjure Women is not a story that seeks to shock readers’ conscience through an exquisitely detailed laundry list of atrocities visited upon Black people by their white masters. Yet neither does Atakora pretend such atrocities didn’t happen. Rather, this novel dwells in a more nuanced middle place…Conjure Women is an beautifully written novel that explores slavery, womanhood, and freedom.”
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
From my review: “This isn’t a long book. It’s not a difficult read, and although the story is mysterious, I don’t think it’s confusing. Rather, Piranesi is beautiful, strange, and otherworldly. It’s a book about a solitary man who lives in endless Halls, full of Statutes and the Sea. It’s a book about how the man fills his days, about how he takes joy in the House and in his companions, the silent Statutes.”
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
From my review: ” Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half is an intricate story about families, secrets, and identity. This is a multigenerational story that, rather than sprawling across hundreds of pages and years, seems to distill itself into only what is most essential… This family portrait is uncomfortable, but ultimately…hopeful?”
Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
From my review: “Francesca Ekwuyasi’s Butter Honey Pig Bread is a gorgeous, thoughtful book about family, trauma, and (eventually) healing…. This is a slow, deliberate novel. It’s not long, but the author doesn’t rush into things. She takes her time, peeling away at each narrator with careful knife-strokes. Butter Honey Pig Bread is almost suspenseful, in that way that a good exploration of personality can sometimes be.”
Romance
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
From my review: “You Deserve Each Other is a pure delight from the prologue to The End. This book combines the very best of the enemies to lovers, second chance love, and forced proximity tropes, and with extra flair. Now that I’m an Adult, I rarely stay up past 10:00, but I gulped this book down under the covers until nearly dawn. No regrets.”
A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane
From my review: “In a nutshell, this book is about what happens when an alpha male warrior gets out-played by a quietly enraged queen: he falls for her, but proceeds to fuck it all up because he’s a big doofus. (Also, revenge happens.) You love to see it!”
The Soldier’s Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian
No review for this one! But trust me, it’s brilliant.
A Big Surprise for Valentine’s Day by Jackie Lau
From my review: “I’ve liked every Jackie Lau book I’ve read, but A Big Surprise for Valentine’s Day was just about perfect. It’s a small town, friends-with-benefits novel, featuring good food and nosy families. The author’s writings is strong, and though there are a LOT of sex scenes, each scene is used to further along their developing relationship.”
The Lord I Left by Scarlett Peckham
From my review: “Absolutely, utterly perfect and adorable. Earnest, virginal Methodist reverends with awkwardly large bodies are an untapped goldmine.”
Young Adult
When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk
From my review: “When You Were Everything is a book that, I feel, cuts straighter and deeper into what it’s like to be a teenager girl than many I’ve read before. This book is excellently written, perfectly plotted, and features a main character who felt so painfully real to me that I never wanted her story to end.”
Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
From my review: “There are few things as haunted in the United States as a decaying town in the middle of Nebraska, inhabited by a jungle of cornfields and inbred white farmers…. Burn Our Bodies Down is a delicious and suspenseful horror novel set amongst stalks of corn and unspoken tragedies, narrated by a girl who is violently, ravenously hungry for a family.
The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
From my review: ” I’m not sure the best marketing team in the universe could have described this novel to me in a way that accurately captures every single layer and color of brilliant, painful, surprising raw talent Erin Bow shows here. It’s a subtle and yet blindingly powerful story. I didn’t even notice the havoc being wreaked upon my emotions until I WAS SUDDENLY NOT OKAY.”
Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena
From my review: “Hunted by the Sky is an amazing, well-plotted fantasy debut, based on medieval Indian culture…. Altogether: good stuff. Stabby girls out for revenge is one of my favorite plots.”
Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff
From my review: “Places No One Knows is a slightly bizarre, introspective character study. It’s very pretty, very plotless, and very emotional. And it’s a book whose success derives entirely from (a) the style and aesthetic of the prose (very adult litfic) and (b) the exploration of the protagonists’ psyches. I loved it, obviously.”
Aw, it was my genuine pleasure to help the teeniest tiniest bit with getting you back into SFF, and I am so thrilled that it went well for you. What a great genre, no? I love it!