I'm not gonna lie, I really killed it in 2016. I always make time for reading, but as a working, writing, mothering adult I don't usually manage quite so many books. There was a fair amount of escapist reading in there, but I'm still absurdly pleased. Even if it makes picking five favorites rather more of a challenge this year than in previous years.
Jessica Khoury's The Forbidden Wish was a clear winner for me for 2016, though. I listened to it on audiobook first, and then I read it, and then I listened to it again. It has everything I need to absolutely lose myself in a book: a genuinely complex heroine, the supernatural, a rogueish romantic interest, and just enough authentic drama to keep me up at night - and mooning over the story the next day. If you read even one book I recommend this year, it should be this one.
Not surprisingly, Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom were flawless - and I told her so and she tweeted back to me so THAT HAPPENED. Bardugo is a national treasure. Each tremendously gripping and masterfully-crafted in their own right, they hung together in all of the right places and diverged in surprising, delightful ways. I do not typically enjoy books that switch perspectives, but her pacing was spectacular and I cared so much about everyone that I was all too willing to follow her characters anywhere.
Sarah Porter's Vassa in the Night was a grim, glorious little surprise. I'd read a review that said if you liked weird, you'd like this book, and do I love some weird. But there's more to it, even, than that. Reminiscent of Kelly Link but with more to hold on to and a far greater investment in the lives of the characters she's tormenting, I took my time with this one, savoring the strangeness of the world and the hot-beating heart at the center of it.
I read Lev Grossman's The Magicians a few years ago, and Quentin Coldwater was such a selfish prick I almost didn't finish the series. While I get he had some growing up to do, I found it so stifling to be limited to his perspective and spent most of the book wanting to throttle him. The Magician King, with Julia's voice, was a breath of fresh air, and Quentin's growing maturity was dynamic and believable. The Magician's Land knocked my socks off, and I am so glad I gave the series another chance.
The world-building in Sharon Cameron's The Forgetting was inventive and unique, and I was bound to love a book where writing one's own story played so central a role. I really enjoyed the narrator and the detail that was put into her culture, and the direction the story took was surprising. I appreciate when books aren't what I expect, and books that remind me of some of my favorite episodes of Star Trek.
What did you read this year? What did you love?