Since it’s new years eve and I promised a blog post before Christmas, I thought it was only right for me to post, so i’m going to look back at what I’ve read this year. From the point of view of my readers, it may look like I haven’t read much at all however, I have read quite a bit, but didn’t have the time to review them, or didn’t think that they were worthy of a review in the first place. So here’s a list of my top 3 books that I have read this year. (reviews of the other 2 will be published in the new year).
Number 3 – The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
This is a wonderful book, and I really enjoyed going back into the fantasy world after reading a few non fantasy novels. Tomi Adeyemi has cleverly created a beautiful fantasy world, very different to our own, but highlighted some of the problems in our society today. This book managed to get an important message across, despite all the things that were going on in the novel. The novel highlighted the issue of racism in our society today, despite the novel not being set in our world and the book is a clever way to educate teens on the faults in our society and can inspire them to make a difference. This book got into my top 3 because of the message it gave, the beautiful world it was set in, and the fascinating characters, who each had a different story to tell.
Number 2 – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
This book, I have done a review of already, so if you are interested, you can check that out here http://larawhitfield.co.uk/?p=823. Anyway, I really loved this book, despite not being a huge Sci-Fi fan, but this book ticked all the boxes. I loved all the characters, (especially Aech) and how the book wasn’t just about winning the competition and finding the Easter egg, but also about making the world a better place, whether you’re in the Oasis or in the real world. I longed to meet the characters, and be a part of the oasis, and it makes you wonder what the world could be like in 50 years time. The 80s references and snarky comments added to the overall enjoyment of the book, and is probably the funniest book I’ve read this year, which definitely helped it get to second place. And now, for first place…
Number 1 – The Power by Naomi Alderman
Now this book was an interesting one. Naomi Alderman wrote about a dystopian reality where women are in control, because of an electric jolt released from women’s fingers. And in my opinion, is an accurate depiction of what would’ve happened if this really happened. Obviously, I will be writing a detailed review on this book, but I think I might wait to read it again, as it’s quite confusing in some sections, and I’d like to read it again anyway. The book wasn’t a nice one, some of the content was upsetting, in fact it was quite horrible, but her brilliant ideas, and execution of the book was incredible. This novel really makes you think about our society and the patriarchy. I know that swapping gender roles or who’s in charge is not an original idea, but again, the execution was great, and done very cleverly. Despite the book losing some traction towards the end, it was an amazing book to have read, it was a tough one to get through, so when I finished i, it felt like an accomplishment, and I’ve never read anything like it before. Also, the book received very high praise from Margaret Atwood, which is possibly one of the highest forms of praise possible (I’m joking…well, not really). Anyway, I’ll go on forever about this book if I carry on talking about it, but a detailed review will be published, once I have refreshed my memory.
By the way, these are not reviews of the books, I am aware that I have been very vague. I am also aware that not all of these books were published in 2018. In fact, only The Children of Blood and Bone was published in 2018, this is just a list of my 3 favourite books that I have read this year, if you were wondering. Thank you for reading, and stick around for more reviews, especially ones of The Power and The Children of Blood and Bone, they are long overdue. If you would like to be notified when I post book reviews, you can subscribe by email, where it will be delivered straight to your inbox, just go to the contact me page and sign up, it’s as easy as that. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram, I will link them right here. Thank you for reading and Happy New Year, leave your list of favourite books you’ve read this year in the comments…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaraNjtbbtc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/njtbbtc/?hl=en