My 2021 top 10!

It was pretty hard to narrow down, but here are my top 10 reads of 2021 (I’m counting the Broken Earth Trilogy as one - even though I also technically only read books 2 and 3 in 2021... this is my blog let me be!) 2021 was a great reading year for me -- I hit my 50 book reading goal for the first time since 2018 and found many incredible books in the process. This is a list of the 10 that stood out to me with that little something extra.

✨ Annihilation — Jeff VanderMeer

This is one of those books that I feel truly changed me. I read it compulsively and with bated breath. I bought the rest of the Southern Reach Trilogy but will be very tempted to re-read this before continuing (despite remembering everything and not being generally fond of re-reading.) I can't wait to read more by VanderMeer!

✨ Boy Parts — Eliza Clark

Boy Parts revived a literary passion inside me. I love contemporary fiction and so was expecting to enjoy this, but this surpassed my expectations and pretty much destroyed me. Breathtaking.

✨ I Who Have Never Known Men — Jacqueline Harpman

I can't believe it took me this long to read such a foundational sf work. I can so clearly see its influences across feminist/dystopian sf today. A poignant and moving tale (which kept me company when recovering from my second vaccine!)

✨ Broken Earth Trilogy — N. K. Jemisin

I wrote my MA thesis centred upon this trilogy. So yeah, I guess you could say I liked it. Not even writing 20,000 words could turn me off this magnificent story. N. K. Jemisin is a star and I'm excited to pick up some of her other series.

✨ Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead — Olga Tokarczuk

This book was everything I dreamed it would be and more. It kept surprising me with the beauty of the writing, the tenderness and harshness. Reading this was truly an original experience.

✨ Open Water — Caleb Azumah Nelson

Open Water is an incredible debut. I read it quickly, without coming up for air. The prose is bold and poetic, and the characterisation is beautiful and raw without feeling cliché. A beautiful book which I'll be recommending to all.

✨ No One Is Talking About This — Patricia Lockwood

Now this one is something else. The structure of No One Is Talking About This is so smart; just when I thought I knew what this book was (and was enjoying it for that), Lockwood pulls the rug from underneath and quite suddenly I was somewhere else, enjoying it even more. The starkness between the two parts highlight the strengths in both, and altogether make for a unique and moving novel.

✨ Piranesi — Susanna Clarke

What more is there to say about Piranesi? I absolutely loved this book. It's such a skill for a novel to be so dazzlingly clever and yet so fun and easy to read. A hugely well-deserved winner of the Women's Prize; this one blew my mind and is still occupying my thoughts months later.

✨ Luster — Raven Leilani

I seem to never tire of a messy young female protagonist! This book is uncomfortable and darkly funny. I particularly liked the grotesquely beautiful descriptions of bodies and art.

✨ Animal — Lisa Taddeo

I loved Lisa Taddeo's Three Women, so was so excited for this. I found Animal tough to read at times, which is unusual for me. The violence is so visceral and the emotions are so raw that I found myself needing to take breaks. But I thought it was absolutely amazing and loved the exploration of female rage.