Welcome to 2021, another year likely to entail us stuck indoors with nothing much to do (or, in my case, stuck in a trailer with a mask on for ten hours a day), with an increasingly smaller selection of comfort television and films to rewatch over and over again.
2020, while terrible in a variety of ways to say the least, did allow me one thing I haven't been able to really experience since teenage summer holidays: disappearing into books for literally days at a time. Despite working solidly since September, I made more of a dent to my TBR than expected last year - so I'm hoping it might be one silver lining to 2021 also.
To celebrate, kill some time, and organise a list that will inevitably change in less than a month, I've put together ten of the novels I'm most excited to read this year.
I remember hearing about this book months ago as I fell in love with R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War and Asian-inspired literature in general. Back then it was sold as Mulan meets The Song of Achilles, with a little bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender in there - I'm not usually sold on comparisons in book blurbs but when you put three of my favourite stories in the world together I'm going to interested. Here's hoping it doesn't disappoint.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/56337658-she-who-became-the-sun
What more is there to say than there's a new Leigh Bardugo novel, styled as dark academia, being compared frequently to The Secret History? In all honesty, I haven't even read up on what the book's about - I just know I want to get to it, and get to it soon.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/52198857-ninth-house
I saw this book in Waterstones back when I was in university and was always intrigued. Cut to a few years later when I get approved its sequel on NetGalley for review so I now have an excuse to buy the first one. It's unfortunately been collecting digital dust on there for a while just because I read so much fantasy that I try and diversify my list a bit. But I'll get to it this year, I swear.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/45419659-sorcerer-to-the-crown
Another book that's been sat on my shelves for a while now, but maybe a little more deliberately. I love my classical mythology, but given the often grim tone of their retellings I like to put a bit of space between each one. Last year I read Natalie Hayne's other Greek retelling, A Thousand Ships, based on the women of the Trojan War. I definitely enjoyed it, though wasn't utterly blown away as I've read that story a thousand times. I'm hoping that a retelling of Oedipus' slightly less overt-old story will show off the author's style a little more.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/36524694-the-children-of-jocasta
Girls of Paper and Fire is one that I've been seeing around for a while but just wasn't that engaged with because the title and cover make it seem like just another YA fantasy novel - which there's nothing wrong with, but I've read enough in my time to veer in different directions now. But the more I heard about it and its representation, plot and writing, the more I gradually became interested in it. Who knows, maybe it will turn out to be another YA fantasy novel, but I'm always willing to follow a good recommendation.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/38530684-girls-of-paper-and-fire
I started learning Korean about a year ago, fueled by a love of Korean cinema and the desire to learn more about it's cultural. As part of that, I'm trying to read more Korean literature, and Pachinko is one that comes up again and again on recommended reading lists. The specific period and themes it explores (the early 1900s, family and the relationship between Japan and Korea) are areas I know less about too, so I've got high hopes for it.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/40730474-pachinko
Ah yes, another sequel that's been on the digital shelf for ever that I keep putting off. Look, I didn't dislike Strange the Dreamer, I just felt so betrayed by its ending completely changing the story it was telling. For a while, I didn't want to read the sequel at all. That passed, but now the page length is making it less attractive to me. But I know I'll enjoy it when I read it, even if it doesn't live up to what Daughter of Smoke and Bone meant to me. I just have to get around to it... easier said than done.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/45158895-muse-of-nightmares
8. Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell
Hamnet received so much positive critical acclaim last year that when I was finally able to go into a bookshop again (for as long as it lasted) it didn't take me long to pick it up compulsively (look, I felt like a kid in a candy shop, it had been so long since I'd been surrounded by so many books). Honestly, the synopsis itself always puts me off a bit; a story about marriage and family strife isn't really my cup of tea. But Maggie O'Farrell writing a story about Shakespeare's son? Come on, of course it's on the list.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/43890641-hamnet
Finishing the Nevernight series has been a long time coming, but I'm determined to do it in 2021. Jay Kristoff's books are ones that I really want to be able to sit down and focus on which is why I've been putting it aside for now. They're so full of action and twists and beautiful writing that you really need to be focused to be ahead of the game (if that's the way you like reading like me). Hopefully, with all the free time we're likely to have, I'll be finishing Mia's story off sooner rather than later.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/39283509-darkdawn
10. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
One of the most strongly-advertised books of last year, Piranesi was getting on my nerves a little bit by how often I saw it - I read the synopsis the first time and immediately put it on my list. It worked! Now leave me alone! That being said, the positive reviews of this book kept flooding in and with a 99p price on kindle who can you really complain?
