oh! the hero complex

After a few years of not reading as much as I used to — combined with some not-so-great record-keeping for the books I DID read — I think it’s safe to say that I’m back, baby. Growing up, I was very happy being known as The Weird Girl Who Reads All The Time, and 2022 was apparently the year I reclaimed that part of my identity.

My goal was to read sixty books over the course of the year; I kept the number low on purpose because like I said, I haven’t had great luck with reading goals lately, and sixty books felt really achievable. I had a stack, both physical and electronic, of books to read, and I dove in with a lot of hope!

2022 ended with me having read 103 books (granted, I read the same book three times!), so I really am back on my game! I did start the year with two books that I hadn’t finished in 2021 (White as Snow by Tanith Lee and Yuwu by Meatbun), which gave me a nice boost, but it was great to see that I can easily make reading a ton work with my schedule.

As for the books I read, here’s my list of my top ten reads from 2022!

The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch: I saw Kameron Hurley tweeting about how much she loved this book, and how she went back to reread it almost immediately, and had to jump on it. Little did I know I was going to read this book three times over the course of the year, and recommend it to basically everyone I talked to. A murder mystery time travel apocalyptic thriller might seem like a total mess from the outside, and in less sure hands it would have been, but this story hums along, fascinating, terrifying, and propulsive, to an ending that feels both totally surprising and inevitable. I have only one issue with it overall (the epilogue falls flat), but what an incredible ride. Bonus points for a disabled protagonist who never falls into the ~Inspirationally Disabled~ trap.

Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner: MY LONGEST YEAH BOY EVER!! Look, if you haven’t read The Queen’s Thief series…please go give it a try! I was terrified of this book before diving in — I managed to stay unspoiled, thank goodness — because the stakes were so high, both in-universe and for my expectations, but MWT knocked it out of the park. I reread the entire series before starting Return of the Thief, to make sure everything was fresh in my mind, and that was an excellent decision. There are no gimmicks, no flashy twists, just a powerhouse drive to the end of Eugenides’s story. Everything felt earned, gracious, even divine. A glorious ending to one of my favorite series of all time.

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo: My first Nghi Vo novel, and definitely not my last. Every word is meticulous, polished, and somehow still delicate, and the story of an eldritch, hungry Hollywood and the aspiring actress fighting for her place in the stars is totally irresistible. It shows the beauty in monstrosity, as well as the cost of stardom — that seductive lure that all too often leads to ruin. And there’s an extended Tam Lin-inspired sequence! Perfection!

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki: I didn’t expect to feel so much from this novel, and yet I did. Two very different women, on opposite sides of the ocean, are brought into brief, elusive connection, leading to an almost obsessive search by one woman to find the other. Quantum mechanics, questions of identity, Zen Buddhism, and cats all interwine in a hilarious, often heartbreaking story. This story has a special place in my heart because my cat, Orpheus, spent most of the time I was reading it curled up into the curve of my shoulder, purring constantly. Obviously he was a fan, too.

Wise Children by Angela Carter: What can I say about Angela Carter that hasn’t already been said? The woman was incapable of writing a boring sentence, and this joyous, madcap rush through the London theater scene, to Hollywood, and everywhere in between, demonstrates that magnificently. I smiled the entire time I read this book. Just beware: like Kate Bush, once Angela Carter gets into your head, she will never leave.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon: Oof. Big oof all around. Rivers Solomon did not hold back in their exploration of a generation ship built along the lines of the antebellum South. Society is built on the backs of thousands of Black slaves, while the rich, white characters exist in comfort and luxury. It’s a brutal read, with a taut mystery at its center, and incredibly alive — the details of the worldbuilding, like how each deck has its own dialect, and the glimpses of the technology powering the generations ship, are real, almost tangible, without ever taking away from the weight of the narrative.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao: I’ve followed Zhao’s Youtube videos for a while, and they are a delight, but I was a latecomer to Iron Widow. I regret that now, because I want this book in my brain at all times. It is brutal, uncompromising, even ugly — but there’s a sense of wonder embedded in it as well. There’s hope. Wu Zetian is a furious whirlwind of a girl, hellbent on revenge for her sister, but also possibly the only hope the world has left. I love ANYTHING to do with kaiju, so this was right up my alley — and the last two pages left me absolutely screaming for the sequel.

All the Murmuring Bones and The Path of Thorns by Angela Slatter: What’s better than an author writing a lot of dark, heady stories set in the same universe? Very little, honestly! Angela Slatter is an incredible writer, and each one of her fairy-tale inspired stories is another monstrous miracle. All the Murmuring Bones tells the story of the last heir of a decaying family, tied to the sea by an old, bloody bargain, and The Path of Thorns takes inspiration not just from fairy tales but from gothic horror. Each book is deliciously written, full of unexpected flourishes and a lot of horror. Not for the faint of heart, but so, so rewarding.

Dark Wizard by Jeffe Kennedy: I am weak for fantasy romance, especially when I get the feeling the main couple actually likes each other, aside from their Grand Sweeping Passion. Forced together because of a truly awful set of social rules, upstart wizard Gabe and familiar Nic (who is brimming over with power, but can’t use it) manage to not only fall in love but maybe set off a small social revolution? All while bantering, arguing about how to run an estate, and discussing the different kinds of wetlands. A sweet, very sexy trilogy — I really hope there’s more!

And there we have it! My top ten books of 2022.

After a few years of not hitting my reading goals (due to reading a ton of fanfic, too much choice, and forgetting to update Goodreads), I delighted myself by hitting my goal of 60 books read in 2022 back in August, with Leigh Bardugo’s King of Scars. I’m at 71 books read now, since I just wrapped up Nghi Vo’s Siren Queen yesterday (a truly heady, delicious book, full of body horror and magic and featuring an unexpected Tam Lin-inspired sequence!), and I should be at 72 by the end of the day, since I treated myself to a reread of Winterlong by Elizabeth Hand.

This isn’t to brag — not that I think many people read this to begin with, so if anything I’m boasting into the void — but what’s different about this year than others? I can only use COVID-related anxiety as a partial excuse (that anxiety drove me headlong into new fandoms, and new fanfic, for months), but I think this year being a success was thanks to a few factors:

1. I actually got organized! Not that I necessarily stuck to it every month, but I started choosing a list of about five to six books at the beginning of each month that I would then choose from as I needed a new book. This let me not only trim down my ever-growing TBR pile (not by much, but what’s a TBR pile that doesn’t fight every effort to trim it down?), but helped me avoid feeling overwhelmed by too much choice. I have a lot of books I want to read, and almost as many I want to reread, so having a plan — and a narrow field to pick from, instead of the vastness of my entire backlog — kept me organized and on track.
2. As soon as I finished one book, I usually immediately started the next. As in, moments afterward. In knitting, there’s this idea of “second sock syndrome” — it can be hard to keep up the momentum to finish a pair of socks after you knit the first one, so what many people advise is starting the second one right away, even if you only knit a few rows. I used the same principle here (and a similar one in writing: whenever I finish a scene or chapter, I always try to write a few more lines, just to give me some power going into the next writing session). Even just choosing the next book to read right away seemed to help.
3. The excitement of posting about each new book I read, both on Goodreads and on Twitter, where I have a running thread with each update, was also a great incentive. Sometimes social media is kind-of sort-of okay!
4. I discovered I really, truly love putting the physical books I read on my shelves, if I decide to keep them. I also really, truly love reorganizing my bookcases, but that’s a different story. Sidenote: I need more bookcases.

These are probably old news, but they got me moving! I’m not in competition with anyone, but it’s been really lovely to challenge myself to read more, and to read widely. While I was on vacation this summer, I even had a little readathon to see how much I could read in 48 hours (lots of Angela Carter, apparently) — I’ll definitely be repeating that in December, over my winter break!

As for what I want to read over the rest of this month, I’d like to read through a few of the samples I downloaded for fantasy romance novels (a true but delicious weakness of mine), finish Winterlong, reread The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers — and after that, who knows? I’ll need to check out my list, and make a new one for October.