Jocasta is a student at Beecher. She has good friends, great classes, and even a messy situationship with her former TA. Oh and she happens to be the daughter of Death.

Want to know what happens next? Grab a copy of Death's Daughter by S.A. Barnes, out now💜💀📚

Books of 2024: Wrap-Up.

Hello world!! I read sixty-three (63) books in 2024, and here they are! The pages-out books are stand-ins for library books and other borrowed books (which were ADHD for Smartass Women, When Among Crows, Ghost Station, and The Killing Floor). Mostly these are shelved in the order I read them, save for the stack at the end (Ordinary Monsters is Too Tall to fit on my current shelf arrangement, and the borrowed books are out of order).

I posted individual photos (and sometimes reviews!) of everything pictured here, which you can find tagged with their titles or authors, or you can see all of them if you peruse my "books of 2024" tag. Now, for the Highlight Reel, in order of when I read them:

FIVE FAVES

The City We Became by NK Jemisin ★★★★★ Always love Jemisin, but this duology had me laughing more than I remembered for her other books, which I definitely needed! Excellent cast (your honor I love Paolo so much and also literally all of the boroughs), I tore through this by staying up past my bedtime too many nights in a row.

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed ★★★★★ Perfect tiny little gutpunch of a book MADE FOR ME, I loved it so damn much. Everyone please go read this immediately.

The Actor and the Target by Declan Donnellan ★★★★★ I was not expecting this to rewire my brain, but it DID, over and over and over again. Very dense chewy book, which I read hoping to get inside an actor character's head better, but honestly I think anyone who does any kind of art or creative endeavor should read this, because OOF was it insightful. (I have ordered his second book that came out this year, but it's hugely on backorder apparently.)(Go figure: The first one was SO GOOD.)

Leech by Hiron Ennes ★★★★★ This was a reread for me, and I'm so glad I revisited it--it holds up even better than the first time through, because so much of it falls into place once you know what's really going on. Masterclass in POV, very gothic, very fucked up, very Deep Winter book, I very much think anyone who was An Animorphs Kid would enjoy the hell out of this (but mind the content warnings, of which there are Many).

Self-Portrait with Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka ★★★★½ This one also hit my perfect trifecta of weird-and-funny-and-fucked-up exactly right, which I wasn't expecting? Pleasant surprise there at the end of the year. Come for the family heart crimes, stay for the unhinged overseas texts to your husband about an art heist, what a blast.

TWO TWOS

turns out i didn't actually read any 1-star books this year, so here's the bottom of the barrel, and yes i DID write lengthy salty reviews about both of these, if you're interested in the particulars of My Beef

Ordinary Monsters by JM Miro ★★ This was too damn long and ~Messy™~, and all of that just to end on a cliffhanger because it's a trilogy. Why did I bother with this 600+ page brick (oh, right: because it sounded promising)(it was Not, or at least not Enough).

Ghost Station by SA Barnes ★★ This was TOO DAMN FRUSTRATING (bad science, bad scientists, stupid characters, etc), and there was JUST ENOUGH neat promising worldbuilding in the background that Could Have Been Cool to make this otherwise mediocre experience enraging. Super bummed, because I wanted to read this author's other stuff, but now I don't trust her and therefore shan't.

God dammit I fucking knew I’d find the romance

Can someone less romance inclined start writing space horror because I simply cannot deal with another SA Barnes book with a basic ass romance subplot

My face flushes. I don’t know what to do with that response.

“If you’d have let me explain,” he says, moving closer, “I would have told you that you just surprised me.”

That’s not exactly a good thing, is it?

“And I’m not avoiding you. I was trying to give you the space you seemed to want,” he says. He gives me a knowing look. “You’re not exactly easy to figure out sometimes, Claire Kovalik.”

No surprise there, though Kane always seems to have a better feel for what I’m thinking than anyone else, including me at times. I shift uneasily. I’m still not sure where this is headed. “I don’t want you to pity me, either.”

He tugs gently at a strand of hair that’s come free from my scraped-together ponytail, tucking it behind my ear. “If you think this is pity, then we probably do need to have a larger conversation right now.” His mouth quirks upward as he leans closer. 

I finished my 9th book of the year and my second February book. This sci-if horror was slow at first but damn-it took off and it kept it up, I read from page 65 all the way to the finish line in one sitting. Which given my inability to read mentally lately is a huge sign that things are on the up and up.

Rating is 5 out of fucking 5.

“How do I explain that I always knew the consequences would one day come back around? That there’s a difference between me punishing myself and punishment being exacted?”

This sci-fi horror was recommended to me by being described as Titanic meets Alien.; and I have to say it lived up to it. The unreliable narrator and the claustrophobic atmosphere that takes place on this luxury cruise spaceship is amazing. It also has a bit of found family if you squint.

Like I said briefly before- it took a while for me to get into it. I can’t say if that was the book or me. I spent days not wanting to pick up a book- but all the while wanting to read but just not being able to. I will say once I hit chapter 8, it was unputdownable.

I never expected to get a new ship from this horror novel, but I found one I will gladly go down with. Kane Behren and Claire Kovalik (our MC) will forever have me in their corner. I absolutely adored everything that would happen whenever they interacted. I squealed at one point- like sitting there and reading and squealed.

This book was super interesting especially since a few conversations that can come from this is about survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and corporate blame during tragedy. It certainly leaves me thinking about it after the fact. For sure this novel is going to stick with me.

Books of 2024: GHOST STATION by S. A. Barnes.

I've been intrigued by this one since the hardback release, but since I'm more of a paperback person I Waited™, intending to preorder said paperback.