Books of 2024
2024 was easily one of the worst years of my life. Depression hit me pretty hard in April and it hasn’t given up its stranglehold. I stopped doing a lot of stuff. I had a pretty bad reading year over all, but I did reach my reading goal so here’s the obligatory list.
The Witchstone by Henry H. Neff: 10/10 What a wonderful late-year surprise this was! A creative, funny, and emotional tale that had me at the edge of my seat all the way through. I got this book for free on audio and frankly I wish I had paid for it. It’s that good. There’s a lot that I love here that a short little paragraph isn’t enough to express it. Expect a full review of this as soon as I get my hands on a physical copy.
The Bloodsworn Saga by John Gwynne: 10/10 Oh now this is some good shit right here! It’s bloody, it’s intense, it’s has some great characters, memorable epic moments, incredible worldbuilding, and more! These books just slap all the right buttons. Cannot recommend this trilogy enough!!
Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb: 10/10 A wonderful slice of life story that tugged at my heart. I will be reading the other two books and possibly more Robin Hobb novels in the future. If they’re as good as this one, then she will go down as one of my favs.
Warriors: Into the Wild Graphic Novel by Erin Hunter, Natalie Riess, and Sara Goetter: 9/10 Excellent! I love the art, I love the subtle changes to the characters’ personalities, and I love the goofier vibe. Can’t wait to see more!
A Starless Clan 6: Star by Erin Hunter: 9/10 Easily one of the best arc finales we’ve gotten in years!
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux: 9/10 A fantastic summary of cryptocurrencies’ many scams, grifters, and general absurdity. If you know nothing about the scam that is cryptocurrency, highly recommend you check this out.
The Redemption of Wolf 302 by Rick McIntyre: 8/10 My favorite Yellowstone wolf book so far. Wolf 302’s story was so fun to learn about. Bro basically bummed his way through life until he finally wisened up at age 80 in wolf years and became a valiant pack leader. I love wolves so much.
The Rise of Wolf 8 by Rick McIntyre: 7/10. Not as good as The Reign of Wolf 21, but still a cool story about the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction program. I enjoyed it.
The Deadlands 1: Hunted by Skye Melki-Wegner: 7/10 Land Before Time meets Wings of Fire. A pretty cute and creative YR about intelligent Cretaceous dinosaurs. I liked it. A great gift for dinosaur obsessed kids.
A Starless Clan 5: Wind by Erin Hunter: 6.5/10 Pretty slow but I wasn’t bored. I loved the ending twist.
Ivypool’s Heart by Erin Hunter: 6/10 I hated the surprise reveal and Ivypool’s grief was shallow. But, I do like Icewing and the wildcats are pretty neat (stupid names aside).
Red Rising by Pierce Brown: 4/10 DNF I really wanted to like it, but the problems kept stacking up with each chapter. At 47%, I had to tap out. Very disappointing :(
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton: 3.5/10 DNF What is this? An adult xenofiction about animals surviving a zombie apocalypse? Now that sounds great… too bad it wasn’t. The main character’s name is Shit Turd. No, I am not joking. That should give you an idea of how obnoxious this book was. Very disappointing.
The Inheritance Cycle: Murtagh by Christopher Paolini: 3/10 DNF. I’m saddened to see Paolini has not improved as an author over 20 years. This book has all the same problems as his others.
Riverstar’s Home by Erin Hunter: 3/10 DNF. It ruins a great character who had a lot of potential.
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake: 3/10 DNF. I wanted to finish this one because it would’ve made for a good roast review, but my brain was melting from the pretentiousness so I gave up.
Lightlark by Alex Aster: 2/10 DNF. An infamously bad book that I couldn’t finish because it was boring.
Moth Flight’s Vision by Erin Hunter: 2/10 Easily one of the worst Super Editions in the franchise.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: 2/10 It’s as bad as I expected it to be.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros: 1/10 I hope the next one is even worse. I want my bingo!
Requiem’s Song by Daniel Arenson: 1/10 Guys! I found the cure for insomnia!
Powerless by Lauren Roberts: 1/10 It’s shameful that something this low quality is being sold for money.
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas: 1/10 DNF I’ve read worst quality books this year, but this is the only one that pissed me off. I’m never reading SJM again. Do not tell me the books get better. I don’t believe you nor do I care.
And then there’s Tailchaser’s Song by Tad Williams which I did not finish and am not ranking as I plan on returning to it at a later date. So far, I do not like it but I’m struggling to figure out why. Expect a review for this book once I finish it.
Oh and I read a bunch of Warriors novellas but they don’t really count.
So a few things. I’m gonna stop reviewing these shitass romantasy books because they’re all boring and bad in the same ways. I like reading bad books but the books need to be uniquely bad to be worth my time. The SJM rip-off trend is more draining than the YA dystopia trend of yesteryear. I’m tapping out after Onyx Storm.
Also, I’m gonna try and get that Amygdala review out. It’s at the bottom of my priority list as I want to go back to yapping about stuff I enjoy like Beastars and WereWorld. Amygdala is miserable. I took a break from it because forcing my way through that dreck was draining my already fragile mental state. I’ll get back to it eventually and that review will be out when it’s done. Sorry for baiting y’all with “it’ll be out by this year” but life hits ya hard and well… yeah.
