For the purist who would prefer I split out the genres, I have decided to put them together for the simple reason that I didn't read that many of either genre. My reading time this year was divided almost evenly between preparing for the CYBILS (meaning middle grade fiction) and my road narrative research.
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Twelve: The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente
Review
This is the final volume in the Fairyland series which began when a girl left the washing up to fly on the back of the Green Wind. Over the course of five books and one short story, we see the ebb and flow of a fantasy world as it is melded by its latest conquerer. Fairyland shares a lot in common with Oz except that its creation and exploration is a more personal one and not driven by the author's desire to give something to all of his most ardent fans.
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Eleven: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan
Review coming
The Sword of Summer is the start of the current Rick Riordan middle grade fantasy series. This one is unusual in that it's main character is homeless and mortal — so mortal that he dies at the end of the first chapter. What makes this story stand out for me though are two of Magnus's companions: Hearthstone and Blitzen. Frankly I would read a series with just these two — as they are adults who have experienced some awful things but survived. They are the sum of their experiences, a journey that Magnus has only just begun. I know it's a kids' book but these are the two most interesting adult characters that Riordan has included in any of his children's books.
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Ten: The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
Review coming
Earlier in the year I read PopCo and was completely smitten with it. A friend of mine recommended that I try The End of Mr. Y next. While PopCo is a lot like Burn Notice in tone, though from the point of view of a burned out British cryptologist who has found herself working for a toy company. The End of Mr. Y reads like a Haruki Murakami novel but set in England and drawing from Victorian fiction tropes.
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The Ghost of Graylock by Dan Poblocki
Review coming
I don't know why I haven't read all his books. I adore his horror. The Ghost of Graylock is a supernatural mystery that does what all good horror stories should: bring the worst actions of mankind into cold focus. Are the ghosts the monsters or are the living? Then take the question and set it against the landscape of an abandoned sanitarium and you have an instant page turner.
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Eight: Steal the Sky by Megan E. O'Keefe
Review
Steal the Sky has the honor of being my favorite book read in January. There's derring-do, shape changing, heists gone bad, and general mayhem that could lead to a full on revolution.
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Seven: The Doldrums by Nicholas Gannon
Review
I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. My father until recently was an antiques dealer. I grew up in a house full of things older than any of us. These weren't things we had inherited, they were things he either was planning to sell but didn't have space for yet or couldn't sell. Some of them, like his phonograph collection, were machines he had purchased for fun.
So like Ottoline of Chris Riddel's series, I grew up in an ever changing house, filled with collections. Our road trips always involved at least one trip to a house turned museum where we would look at old things in situ or we'd go to barns turned into antiques malls.
Archer lives in a house full of his grandparents' treasures. They have long since gone missing. He and his over protective parents live in the house and it has essentially become his prison, save for being let out to go to school. He wants nothing more than to go on an adventure to find his grandparents. He and a neighbor, who has a tragic back story involving a ballet accident, hatch a plan to escape during a field trip. But weird things happen.
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Six: The Inn Between by Marina Cohen
Review
Just outside the California border, things start going weird. Even cars need time to cool down. An over worked car and an over tired driver is a terrible combination. At the point where no one feels they can go any further, they spot an old hotel (think the house behind the Bates Motel) cleverly, although not so subtly, named the Inn Between.
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Five: The Firefly Code by Megan Frazer Blakemore
Review
After books and books and books of urban fantasy rehashing the Celtic folklore of the Seelie and Unseelie courts going to war and dragging humanity into the fray, Shadowshaper was a breath of fresh air. This book draws on Latin American and Afro Caribbean stories.
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Four: Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
Review
After books and books and books of urban fantasy rehashing the Celtic folklore of the Seelie and Unseelie courts going to war and dragging humanity into the fray, Shadowshaper was a breath of fresh air. This book draws on Latin American and Afro Caribbean stories.
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Three: Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
Review
Bone Gap I read originally for my road narrative project. It's an urban fantasy / horror involving a kidnapped woman. The boy who saw her taken is face blind and can't give a good enough description to the police. So no one believes that she's been taken. He decides to find her himself and ends up learning about a terror living on the edge of their town.
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Two: The Lost Compass by Joel N. Ross
Review
The Lost Compass ends the adventure that began in The Fog Diver. It involves a treasure hunt through the nanobot created fog. There are air pirates, cities on the ruins of old skyscrapers, and tons of derring-do. I really hope there are other adventures in this dystopian world.
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One: The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett
Review
The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett is the 41st and final Discworld book. Pratchett's daughter has stated many times that no one else will be given the opportunity to write books set in Discworld. After having now read the closing book I can see why she is so adamant. This book is the perfect closing for an epic series spanning 30 years.
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