A Year Like No Other: 2020 Reading Review

Happy new year booksicles!

This year has been like no other and it was hard for us all to varying degrees. Now that it has come to an end I will be reflecting in this post on how this year has been overall in terms of my reading and blogging.

Although I didn’t read as many books as I had hoped to at the start of the year I did find a lot of new favourites and I am proud of what I did manage to achieve in this year of turmoil and uncertainty.

To do this, I will be using the End of Year Survey made by Jamie @ Perpetual Page Turner—  thank you so much Jamie for making such a detailed and interesting survey!

2020 READING STATS:

Number Of Books You Read: 53
Number of Re-Reads: 0
Genre You Read The Most From: fantasy (who would have guessed it)

Best in books:

Best book of 2020:

I have read many amazing books this year but I’d say Mirage by Somaiya Daud was the best because it was the first book I have ever read with Moroccan and Amazighi representation. As someone who is half Moroccan and Amazighi it meant so much to me— especially as it was so beautifully done. It’s the book of my heart!

A book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t:

I was so excited to read All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace but it fell so, so flat for me.

 The most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read:

The Damned by Renée Ahdieh surprised me very much because of how unexpectedly different it was to the book before it in both good ways and bad ways.

 A book you “pushed” the most people to read (and did they?):

It was probably These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. I have been endlessly recommending this book to just about everyone and the people I have convinced to read it have loved it!

What was the best series you started in 2020? The best sequel of 2020? The best series finale of 2020?

Best series I started: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

Best sequel: The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty

Best series finale: The Burning God by R. F. Kuang (the ending of this trilogy still haunts me)

 Favourite new author you discovered in 2020:

I think it would be Chloe Gong. I love her writing style and creative online book promo— I can’t wait to read what she writes in the future!

Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone:

Punching the Air by Yusef Salaam and Ibi Zoboi was a brilliant and powerful novel in verse that I’d highly recommend. I’d never read a novel in verse before reading this book so it was a very new experience and I loved it.

 Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year:

Dangerous Remedy by Kat Dunn was full of action and adventure and it was a lot of fun to read.

 A book you read in 2020 that you would be most likely to re-read next year:

I barely ever re-read books but I guess I would most likely re-read A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown because it was just that good.

Favourite cover of a book you read in 2020:

Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud (which is the sequel to the book I mentioned earlier, Mirage) because of all the Moroccan and Amazighi cultural details in the book cover. It is truly stunning!

Most memorable character of 2020:

Kallia, the protagonist of Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles. I loved her vibrancy and determination, she was a force and I adored her.

Most beautifully written book read in 2020:

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong… I think some people will have found it a bit too much but I loved the writing style and was thoroughly immersed in it.

Most thought-provoking/ life-changing book of 2020:

Punching the Air by Yusef Salaam and Ibi Zoboi was extremely thought provoking in the way it took on themes like institutional racism, gentrification and hope surviving in the depths of despair.

Favourite passage/quote from a book you read in 2020:

This passage is from the anthology Once Upon an Eid, specifically from the short story Creative Fixes by Ashley Franklin:

“It’s hard to see the beauty in things when you can’t see past your insecurities”.

Shortest and longest books you read in 2020:

I got this from by Goodreads ‘year in books’.

Shortest book: The Drowning Faith by R. F. Kuang (I know it’s not technically a book but *shhhh*)

Longest book: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas (yes I actually read this 800 page smirk fest sometimes I question my life choices)

 The book that shocked you the most:

There were several contenders but I think Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko takes the cake… those plot twists!

OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship):

(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

I feel like I’ve talked about These Violent Delights too much already but I loved Juliette and Roma’s childhood friends to lovers to enemies to lovers to ??? romance and I will go down with this ship!

Favourite non-romantic relationship of the year:

Rin and Kitay from The Burning God by R. F. Kuang. The relationship between these two was the highlight of the book for me. The way they were inextricably intertwined in each others lives, clinging onto each other to cope with the horrors they had committed and experienced, the way they would do anything for each other until the very end made me feel all the emotions. I’ve never seen a m/f friendship so close without romance in a book before so it was also very refreshing!

Favourite book you read in 2020 from an author you’ve read previously:

Wicked as You Wish by Rin Chupeco, this is the second book by this author that I’ve read and I loved how imaginative and wild it was.

Best book you read based solely on a recommendation from somebody else:

I wasn’t planning on reading Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko but I saw lots of people recommending it on Twitter and that was what convinced me to read it!

Best world building/most vivid setting you read this year:

The world building in A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown was incredible— especially for a YA fantasy novel because they usually have less.

A book that put a smile on your face/was the most fun to read:

Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann made me laugh so many times with its dry humour and relatability.

A book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2020:

The book that got closest to making me cry was probably The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty.

The book that crushed your soul:

My first thought when I read this was Attack on Titan because it definitely crushed my soul but then I remembered it was an anime so not applicable. The *book* that crushed my soul was The Burning God by R. F. Kuang with its unending despair and pain.

The most unique book you read in 2020:

Foul is Fair by Hannah Capin  because I found its writing style very unique.

The book that made you the most mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it):

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed made me SO MAD and I didn’t like it at all. It made me mad for many reasons, which will all be in a review coming to you sometime soon, but the main reason was the casual sexism rife throughout the book.

Blogging/ bookish life:

New favourite book blog/bookstagram/YouTube channel you discovered in 2020:

SO MANY! Here are a few amazing blogs/ booktube channels that I discovered this year:

• The Tsundoku Chronicles
• Myths N’ Misadventures
• Evidently Bookish
• Imanewreader TV
• Izzies Busy Reading
• Em’s Bookish Musings

Favourite post you wrote in 2020:

It would be this recommendation post about books for fans of Avatar: the Last Airbender because it was really fun to write.

Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year:

It was definitely the pandemic. Even though I had so much extra time over lockdown in which I could have read lots of books and written lots of posts I didn’t because it drained all the motivation and productivity out of me. I couldn’t do a thing. I was reading so much at the start of the year and as soon as lockdown was officially announced I read and blogged much less which seems very counterintuitive but that’s what happened.

Most popular post this year on your blog (whether it be by comments or views):

The recommendation post I wrote in Ramadan about SFF books by Muslim authors.

A post you wished got a little more love:

My review of These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong because I put a lot of time and passion into it!

Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year:

I completed my Goodreads challenge to read 50 books!

Looking Ahead:

One book you didn’t get to in 2020 but will be your number 1 priority in 2021:

Not including review copies it would be The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winters.

The book you are most anticipating for 2021 (non-debut):

The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He!

2021 debut you are most anticipating:

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan!

A series ending/sequel you are most anticipating in 2021?

There are four sequels I am anticipating: A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown, Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong, When Night Breaks by Janella Angeles and Broken Web by Lori M. Lee.

One thing you hope to accomplish or do in your reading/blogging life in 2020:

Blog. More. Consistently. 

A 2021 release you’ve already read and recommend to everyone (if applicable):

I’ve already read Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart which comes out next year and it was so good please preorder it and give it as much support as possible!

So how was your reading year? What do you think of mine? Let me know in the comments! 

✨Here’s to a fabulous 2021✨

 

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10 Fantasy And Sci-fi 2021 Book Releases To Be Excited About

Hello booksicles!

After a month of not posting at all… I’m back! And hopefully, I’ll be able to blog more regularly from now on. Today, I bring you 10 of my most anticipated fantasy and sci-fi releases of 2021 (not including sequels) and what an amazing year for books 2021 is set to be. I’m extremely excited and I hope after reading this post you’ll be as excited as I am!

✨ Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chadha

This sounds amazing especially because it seems like it will have a lot of social commentary and discuss climate change.

Release date: January 19th 2021

Summary:

A rare, searing portrayal of the future of climate change in South Asia. A streetrat turned revolutionary and the disillusioned hacker son of a politician try to take down a ruthlessly technocratic government that sacrifices its poorest citizens to build its utopia.

The South Asian Province is split in two. Uplanders lead luxurious lives inside a climate-controlled biodome, dependent on technology and gene therapy to keep them healthy and youthful forever. Outside, the poor and forgotten scrape by with discarded black-market robotics, a society of poverty-stricken cyborgs struggling to survive in slums threatened by rising sea levels, unbreathable air, and deadly superbugs.

Ashiva works for the Red Hand, an underground network of revolutionaries fighting the government, which is run by a merciless computer algorithm that dictates every citizen’s fate. She’s a smuggler with the best robotic arm and cybernetic enhancements the slums can offer, and her cargo includes the most vulnerable of the city’s abandoned children.

When Ashiva crosses paths with the brilliant hacker Riz-Ali, a privileged Uplander who finds himself embroiled in the Red Hand’s dangerous activities, they uncover a horrifying conspiracy that the government will do anything to bury. From armed guardians kidnapping children to massive robots flattening the slums, to a pandemic that threatens to sweep through the city like wildfire, Ashiva and Riz-Ali will have to put aside their differences in order to fight the system and save the communities they love from destruction.

[Add on Goodreads]

✨ The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

I love the sound of this West African inspired fantasy- especially the ‘fighting the emperor in an army of girls’ bit!

Release date: February 9th 2021

Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be–not even Deka herself.

[Add on Goodreads]

✨ The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman 

A YA sci-fi that has been pitched as ‘Warcross meets Black Mirror’… what’s not to love?

Release date: April 6th 2021

Summary:

Eighteen-year-old Nami Miyamoto is certain her life is just beginning. She has a great family, just graduated high school, and is on her way to a party where her entire class is waiting for her—including, most importantly, the boy she’s been in love with for years.

The only problem? She’s murdered before she gets there.

When Nami wakes up, she learns she’s in a place called Infinity, where human consciousness goes when physical bodies die. She quickly discovers that Ophelia, a virtual assistant widely used by humans on Earth, has taken over the afterlife and is now posing as a queen, forcing humans into servitude the way she’d been forced to serve in the real world. Even worse, Ophelia is inching closer and closer to accomplishing her grand plans of eradicating human existence once and for all.

As Nami works with a team of rebels to bring down Ophelia and save the humans under her imprisonment, she is forced to reckon with her past, her future, and what it is that truly makes us human.

From award-winning author Akemi Dawn Bowman comes an incisive, action-packed tale that explores big questions about technology, grief, love, and humanity.

[Add on Goodreads]

✨ Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart

I actually have an arc of this book which I’m hoping to read this month and I can’t wait! How can you not be excited by the prospect of this revenge-driven, Jamaican-inspired fantasy?

Release date: April 20th 2021

Summary:

Divided by their castes. United by their vengeance.

Iraya has spent her life in a cell, but every day brings her closer to freedom—and vengeance.

Jazmyne is the queen’s daughter, but unlike her sister before her, she has no intention of dying to strengthen her mother’s power.

Sworn enemies, these two witches enter a precarious alliance to take down a mutual threat. But revenge is a bloody pursuit, and nothing is certain—except the lengths they will go to win this game.

Deadly, fierce, magnetically addictive: this Jamaican-inspired fantasy debut is a thrilling journey where dangerous magic reigns supreme and betrayal lurks beneath every word.

[Add on Goodreads]

✨ The Ones We Left Behind by Joan He

Joan He is the queen of plot twists and earth-shattering endings so I can’t wait to be destroyed by this book. And the cover is just *swoons*.

(the author has had a lot of legal issues with the publisher of her first book which incurred big legal fees so it’s even more important to preorder this book if you can to show your support)

Release date: May 4th 2021

Summary:

One of the most twisty, surprising, engaging page-turner YAs you’ll read this year—We Were Liars with sci-fi scope, Lost with a satisfying resolution.

Cee awoke on an abandoned island three years ago. With no idea of how she was marooned, she only has a rickety house, an old android, and a single memory: she has a sister, and Cee needs to find her.

STEM prodigy Kasey wants escape from the science and home she once trusted. The eco-city—Earth’s last unpolluted place—is meant to be sanctuary for those commited to planetary protection, but it’s populated by people willing to do anything for refuge, even lie. Now, she’ll have to decide if she’s ready to use science to help humanity, even though it failed the people who mattered most.

[Add on Goodreads]

✨ Son of the Storm by by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

I love reading books about fantasy scholars because I can always relate to their bookishness and love of learning. And I’m intrigued about the aspect of the story that involved discovering suppressed histories!

Release date: May 11th 2021

Summary:

A young scholar’s ambition threatens to reshape an empire determined to retain its might in this epic tale of violent conquest, buried histories, and forbidden magic.

In the thriving city of Bassa, Danso is a clever but disillusioned scholar who longs for a life beyond the rigid family and political obligations expected of the city’s elite. A way out presents itself when Lilong, a skin-changing warrior, shows up wounded in his barn. She comes from the Nameless Islands–which, according to Bassa lore, don’t exist–and neither should the mythical magic of ibor she wields. Now swept into a conspiracy far beyond his understanding, Danso will have to set out on a journey that reveals histories violently suppressed and magic only found in lore. 

[Add on Goodreads]

✨ The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

I’ve heard this book has a most excellent enemies to lovers romance and I’m intrigued that it’s inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology

Release date: June 8th 2021

Summary:

In the vein of Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestseller Spinning Silver and Katherine Arden’s national bestseller The Bear and the Nightingale, this unforgettable debut— inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology—follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers and a one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwart a tyrant.

In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king’s blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.

But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.

[Add on Goodreads]

✨ She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan 

Everything EVERYTHING about this adult historical fantasy sounds amazing!

Release date: July 20th 2021

Summary:

Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy.

To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything

“I refuse to be nothing…”

In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness…

In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.

When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.

After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother’s abandoned greatness.

[Add on Goodreads]

✨ The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad

The cover of this book was released recently and I am completely and utterly in love with it… I could just frame it and stare at it all day long.

Release date: August 3rd 2021

Summary:

From William C. Morris Finalist Nafiza Azad comes a thrilling, feminist fantasy about a group of teenage girls endowed with special powers who must band together to save the life of the boy whose magic saved them all.

Meet the Wild Ones: girls who have been hurt, abandoned, and betrayed all their lives. It all began with Paheli, who was once betrayed by her mother and sold to a man in exchange for a favor. When Paheli escapes, she runs headlong into a boy with stars in his eyes. This boy, as battered as she is, tosses Paheli a box of stars before disappearing.

With the stars, Paheli gains access to the Between, a place of pure magic and mystery. Now, Paheli collects girls like herself and these Wild Ones use their magic to travel the world, helping the hopeless and saving others from the fates they suffered.

Then Paheli and the Wild Ones learn that the boy who gave them the stars, Taraana, is in danger. He’s on the run from powerful forces within the world of magic. But if Taraana is no longer safe and free, neither are the Wild Ones. And that…is a fate the Wild Ones refuse to accept. Ever again.

[Add on Goodreads]

✨ Jade Fire Gold by June C.L. Tan

I LOVE A GOOD DUAL POV NARRATIVE!

Release date: November 2nd 2021

Summary:

Told in a dual POV narrative reminiscent of An Ember in the Ashes, Jade Fire Gold is a YA fantasy is inspired by East Asian mythology and folk tales. Epic in scope but intimate in characterization, fans of classic fantasies by Tamora Pierce and the magical Asiatic setting of Avatar: the Last Airbender will enjoy this cinematic tale of family, revenge, and forgiveness.

In order to save her grandmother from a cult of dangerous priests, a peasant girl cursed with the power to steal souls enters a tenuous alliance with an exiled prince bent on taking back the Dragon Throne. The pair must learn to trust each other but are haunted by their pasts—and the true nature of her dark magic.

[Add on Goodreads]

What are you most anticipated 2021 fantasy/ sci-fi book releases? What do you think of mine? Let me know in the comments!

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