2023 in books
I read 127 books in 2023, which is... quite a lot.
Some data:
Time for my top 10!
10. Marianne Cronin - De honderd jaar van Lenni en Margot
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot - translated by Marion Drolsbach - realistic fiction (Adult)
Lenni (17) is dying. At the hospital she meets and quickly becomes friends with Margot (83). They decide to draw a painting for each one of their years of life. Lenni's story is intertwined with Margot's memories, and it's a book that will make you smile as much as it will make you cry. I thought it very therapeutic.
9. T.J. Klune - Het gefluister achter de deur
Under the Whispering Door - translated by Anneke Bok & Claudia De Poorter - magical realism (A)
Wallace has died. He ends up in a sort of halfway house, where he struggles with accepting the fact that he's dead, and where he, for the first time in his existence, forges connections.
I also read Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea sea this year, but didn't think that one lived up to the hype. Under the Whispering Door, though, really spoke to me, in both the world and the characters Klune created.
8. Hannah Moskowitz - Teeth
fantasy (Young Adult)
Rudy (16) is pulled along with his family to the middle of nowhere, where magical fish can save his brother with cystic fibrosis. There, loneliness drives him into the arms of Teeth, a half-fish, half-human who turns Rudy's entire life upside down.
Ever since reading Gena/Finn, I've wanted to read more of Moskowitz' writing, and this year I finally managed. Teeth is a short one (took me just under 2 hours) but it totally destroyed me.
7. A.R. Capetta - The Heartbreak Bakery
contemporary romance/magical realism (YA)
Syd (17, agender, no pronouns please) is reeling from a breakup and ends up putting all those feelings in brownies ... which start breaking people up, including the owners of the most important part of Austin - the Proud Muffin bakery. Together with cute delivery person Harley, Syd sets out to get those couples back together with more magical bakes - and learns quite a bit about love and what it means along the way.
After the heartbreak from book 10-8, The Heartbreak Bakery is - ironically enough - a ray of sunshine. Joy radiated from every page, it was such a delight! It's also the queerest of my already very queer top 10.
6. L.D. Lapinski - Reisbureau Wereldvreemd
The Strangeworlds Travel Agency (Strangeworlds Travel Agency #1) - translated by Mechteld Jansen - fantasy (Middle Grade)
Flick (12) learns she can travel through worlds and goes on an adventure when she discovers the multiverse is in trouble. I raved about this series before and I stand by it. It is so magical and wonderful.
5. Ali Hazelwood - De liefdeshypothese
The Love Hypothesis - translated by Marjet Schumacher - contemporary romance (A)
This one snuck in just before the deadline - I read it on 18 December. Fake dating! A grump with a big heart! This one apparently started its life as a Reylo fic, and it retained everything that makes me such an avid fic reader. This one had me happy stimming so much that I had to get up and grab a glass of water just to regulate myself.
4. A. J. Hackwith - The Library of the Unwritten
Hell's Library #1 - fantasy (A)
A book about a library full of unwritten books, I mean, could anyone resist? Aside from that, this got amazing characters, is centred on the concept of storytelling and the power of belief and great world-building. I'd freely recommend this to anyone who likes Good Omens, especially because of the way heaven is depicted, which reminds me so much of both GO itself as a lot of its fanfic.
(This is the first part of a series, but our library didn't have the second part, so I can't yet vouch for the rest of it.)
3. Rainbow Rowell - Eleanor & Park
contemporary romance (YA)
This book, set in 1986 (does that make it historical romance?), had a very profound effect on me. I loved this one too much to even be able to put it into words. It made giddy with joy. It made me cry. It touched me so deeply. I loved every minute spent with it. I love the characters, I love the way they love, I love all the comics and music stuff.
2. V.E. Schwab - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
fantasy (A)
Addie La Rue, an 18th century French woman, made a deal with the devil for freedom and becomes something of a ghost - any kind of doorway, and the person she is talking to forgets ever meeting her. Over the course of 300 years, she adapts to life, to Luc - the devil -, until eventually her world sharpens and someone does remember her.
This one came as a total surprise for me. I DNF'ed another of Schwab's books. It's a bit longer than I'm easily comfortable with. It's also the most popular book of the books I read this year, which is rarely an endorsement. But the premise turned out to be too promising for me to pass it up, and I loved it so much. Not many books have this much to say about the beauty of living or about leaving a mark on the world.
1. Jennifer Lynn Barnes - The Final Gambit
The Inheritance Games #3 - mystery (YA)
I hesitated for the longest time between 1 and 2, but eventually this one won, because it's so hard to write the last part in a trilogy (I mean, sure, Barnes has written a fourth part, but this is still very much a conclusion to the trilogy) and still have it be so amazing.
I devoured this series. I'm not even a mystery reader! But the characters, the choices, the riddles, it all held me in its thrall, even in this final instalment. A fine winner in a good book year!
Some data:
- My main genres were contemporary romance (21%), realistic fiction (20%) and fantasy (16%), which is mostly interesting because I would never label myself a fantasy reader but apparently ... there's enough of it to make the top three!
- I DNF'ed 86 books and another 66 ended up on my 'Not for me' list (probably about half of those I tried and half I knew based on certain aspects in the reviews/summary were just not my thing). I'm pretty proud of that, actually! I decided to try and spend as little time as possible on books I don't truly enjoy, so I try to DNF anything that might end up in 3 stars or less, unless there's a really good reason to finish it (specific challenge I was having trouble with, a Tailored Book Recommendations rec ...). About 30 of the books I read ended up being 3 stars or less and I ended up with an average rating of 3.9. Not bad!
- The oldest book I read was from 1782 (Riskante relaties, or Les Liasons Dangereuses, also incidentally the longest book I read this year - took me just over 6 hours!).
- The newest book I read was Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha, my only instant-buy author, and was published November 28, 2023.
- I read 73 standalones and 33 starts to a new series (most of which I will never continue, because I am not the greatest at following series and/or because they weren't worth reading the second part XD).
- I also finished 7 series and read the last currently available book in two more. A book from two of those series ended up in my top 10.
- I read from 57 (Punk 57, incidentally the worst book I read this year) to 63 (De hel van '63) in my sequential numbers project. I usually aim for 10/year, so that's a little low, but I just put a hold on 64, so I'll be able to start off the new year well!
- Almost 60% of the books I read were from the USA. My aim for 2024 is to lower that percentage and to up my percentage for books that were originally written in Dutch (currently lying at 9%), though that's going to be tough. I've collected various resources over the years to collect books I want to read based on their release in the US (and that's not even mentioning things like Riveted Simon Teen's free reads), and it's been tough finding good resources for more local books. Even though I definitely do not believe Dutch/Belgian books are intrinsically worse than American ones, the fact remains that it's easier to find well-written US books (average rating of 4.1 for 2023) than Dutch books (average rating of 2.7 for 2023), just because I know that market so much better.
- Though it's not at all significant, I still thought it funny that two tropes repeated itself over the year: I read two fake bachelor shows (The Charm Offensive and If the shoe fits) and two Groundhog Day-style YA romances (If I See You Again Tomorrow and See You Yesterday).
- 8 of the books in my top 10 have queer components (unsurprisingly).
- And speaking of that top 10, before I go into it, I want to give a special shout-out to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow for being a romance novel about a friendship.
Time for my top 10!
10. Marianne Cronin - De honderd jaar van Lenni en Margot
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot - translated by Marion Drolsbach - realistic fiction (Adult)
Lenni (17) is dying. At the hospital she meets and quickly becomes friends with Margot (83). They decide to draw a painting for each one of their years of life. Lenni's story is intertwined with Margot's memories, and it's a book that will make you smile as much as it will make you cry. I thought it very therapeutic.
9. T.J. Klune - Het gefluister achter de deur
Under the Whispering Door - translated by Anneke Bok & Claudia De Poorter - magical realism (A)
Wallace has died. He ends up in a sort of halfway house, where he struggles with accepting the fact that he's dead, and where he, for the first time in his existence, forges connections.
I also read Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea sea this year, but didn't think that one lived up to the hype. Under the Whispering Door, though, really spoke to me, in both the world and the characters Klune created.
8. Hannah Moskowitz - Teeth
fantasy (Young Adult)
Rudy (16) is pulled along with his family to the middle of nowhere, where magical fish can save his brother with cystic fibrosis. There, loneliness drives him into the arms of Teeth, a half-fish, half-human who turns Rudy's entire life upside down.
Ever since reading Gena/Finn, I've wanted to read more of Moskowitz' writing, and this year I finally managed. Teeth is a short one (took me just under 2 hours) but it totally destroyed me.
7. A.R. Capetta - The Heartbreak Bakery
contemporary romance/magical realism (YA)
Syd (17, agender, no pronouns please) is reeling from a breakup and ends up putting all those feelings in brownies ... which start breaking people up, including the owners of the most important part of Austin - the Proud Muffin bakery. Together with cute delivery person Harley, Syd sets out to get those couples back together with more magical bakes - and learns quite a bit about love and what it means along the way.
After the heartbreak from book 10-8, The Heartbreak Bakery is - ironically enough - a ray of sunshine. Joy radiated from every page, it was such a delight! It's also the queerest of my already very queer top 10.
6. L.D. Lapinski - Reisbureau Wereldvreemd
The Strangeworlds Travel Agency (Strangeworlds Travel Agency #1) - translated by Mechteld Jansen - fantasy (Middle Grade)
Flick (12) learns she can travel through worlds and goes on an adventure when she discovers the multiverse is in trouble. I raved about this series before and I stand by it. It is so magical and wonderful.
5. Ali Hazelwood - De liefdeshypothese
The Love Hypothesis - translated by Marjet Schumacher - contemporary romance (A)
This one snuck in just before the deadline - I read it on 18 December. Fake dating! A grump with a big heart! This one apparently started its life as a Reylo fic, and it retained everything that makes me such an avid fic reader. This one had me happy stimming so much that I had to get up and grab a glass of water just to regulate myself.
4. A. J. Hackwith - The Library of the Unwritten
Hell's Library #1 - fantasy (A)
A book about a library full of unwritten books, I mean, could anyone resist? Aside from that, this got amazing characters, is centred on the concept of storytelling and the power of belief and great world-building. I'd freely recommend this to anyone who likes Good Omens, especially because of the way heaven is depicted, which reminds me so much of both GO itself as a lot of its fanfic.
(This is the first part of a series, but our library didn't have the second part, so I can't yet vouch for the rest of it.)
3. Rainbow Rowell - Eleanor & Park
contemporary romance (YA)
This book, set in 1986 (does that make it historical romance?), had a very profound effect on me. I loved this one too much to even be able to put it into words. It made giddy with joy. It made me cry. It touched me so deeply. I loved every minute spent with it. I love the characters, I love the way they love, I love all the comics and music stuff.
2. V.E. Schwab - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
fantasy (A)
Addie La Rue, an 18th century French woman, made a deal with the devil for freedom and becomes something of a ghost - any kind of doorway, and the person she is talking to forgets ever meeting her. Over the course of 300 years, she adapts to life, to Luc - the devil -, until eventually her world sharpens and someone does remember her.
This one came as a total surprise for me. I DNF'ed another of Schwab's books. It's a bit longer than I'm easily comfortable with. It's also the most popular book of the books I read this year, which is rarely an endorsement. But the premise turned out to be too promising for me to pass it up, and I loved it so much. Not many books have this much to say about the beauty of living or about leaving a mark on the world.
1. Jennifer Lynn Barnes - The Final Gambit
The Inheritance Games #3 - mystery (YA)
I hesitated for the longest time between 1 and 2, but eventually this one won, because it's so hard to write the last part in a trilogy (I mean, sure, Barnes has written a fourth part, but this is still very much a conclusion to the trilogy) and still have it be so amazing.
I devoured this series. I'm not even a mystery reader! But the characters, the choices, the riddles, it all held me in its thrall, even in this final instalment. A fine winner in a good book year!