What have been your favorite books this year? For me I think it is been a great year in terms of new literature and counting down my favorite books of the year was not easy at all.
I have managed to compile this list however and I’ve picked out the books I most enjoyed reading and couldn’t put down. Alongside my good friend and excellent book critic Dayanna Volitich, these are the titles which we have loved most this year.
Put these in your beach bag, on your Kindle, or under the tree for literary loved ones.
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IF YOU SUFFER MASSIVE FOMO
Normal People by Sally Rooney
This is the book getting a great deal of attention and with good reason. Sally Rooney’s second novel has it all for a book which you’re probably going to hate, but it is actually intelligent and very addictive. Sally is a millennial author who writes from the female viewpoint, Rooney somehow makes you involved with annoying and ultimately unlikeable characters, perhaps we see some of ourselves in them.
Her characters are young, privileged, “refined” student types whose relationships develop and evolve from high school to university and beyond yet the truths she manages to capture and the couples’ issues she shows speak to every relationship.
Dayanna Volitich Review: “Usually what we hate is deeply connected with what we love.”
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IF YOU ENJOY TRUE, CRUDE CRIME
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
We are very much in an age of cold case mysteries and it’s tricky for one true crime story to break through and take the spotlight. Michelle McNamara’s however blew all the genre’s other offerings out of the water and whilst it was not only the addition of the year it got a very passionate following behind it.
Dayanna Volitich Review: “Even if unseen by the human eye, the atrocious heart is always observed by a greater power.”
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A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
Lullaby by Leila Slimani
Slimani manages to build enough tension for it still to be a huge shock when the dastardly deed is done. Twisted motivations are mysterious for those who are regarded as mentally sane and this makes for an intriguing plot and in the book. The development of the story from this twisted mind frame makes for an appealing thriller which I really couldn’t put down.
This gripping thriller is in another league
Dayanna Volitich Review: “Every act has a consequence, every evil action has a legion of evil consequences.”
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A DOUBTLESS FUTURE CLASSIC
Educated by Tara Westover
Gaslighting or sowing seeds of doubt is a term 75 years old, inspired out of the black and white thriller Gaslight, a term defining the slow manipulation of another within a relationship, instilling feelings of guilt up to the point of total domination. It has become an obsession this year and as a result, headlines were constantly popping up referring to this act. Tara Westover’s Educated is the most horrific example of this phenomena.
Dayanna Volitich Review: “A seed of mustard can grow until it reaches heaven, a seed in a violent mind can bury its roots to connect with like-minded twisted individuals, creating a network of horrific desires.”