My Favourite Reads October- December 2020
Some books were sent to me as PR copies by publishers. These have been noted with an *
I had intended to write this over the Christmas break, but decided to give myself a complete switch-off over the festive period. Almost two weeks away from my laptops (yep, plural) was just what I needed. Now we’re back in a strict lockdown, I’m shunning any ‘new year’ content in favour of what I actually want to share right now - a list of books for you to read while you’re stuck at home.
I read 90 books last year (89.5 if you want to be pedantic) and surprisingly, the months that I read the least were April and November -the full lockdown months. I find it hard to switch off from reality when reality is more disturbing and stranger than fiction. Over the past year I’ve had many, many days when all I do is obsessively scroll through my news feeds. I’m not one for new year’s resolutions, but one thing I want to try to do differently this year is put my phone down and escape into fiction when I feel the urge to purge the news. I already read a lot, so I don’t necessarily need to read more, but I want reading to feel like a refuge.
I’m probably going to continue sharing reviews of my favourite reads in the same format as last year -providing a summary every three months. October wasn’t the best reading month for me - I read quite a few uninspiring and forgettable books during that month - but I picked up some absolute gems that have made it onto my ‘all time favourites’ shelf towards the end of the year. Read on for mini reviews of my favourite reads from the past few months. Links will take you to Bookshop - they’re affiliate links which means I earn a small commission if you buy from that link.
GHOSTS BY DOLLY ALDERTON
Ghosts surprised me. I’m not a massive Dolly Alderton fan (I don’t dislike her, I just haven’t read her previous book or listened to her Podcast) so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was just crossing my fingers that I hadn’t accidentally purchased chick lit and ended up loving it. The premise is very basic: Nina has the perfect life with a successful job and owns her own flat in London. She meets Max and instantly falls in love, feeling like everything is going to plan - but then he ghosts her. Suddenly everything is going wrong as she drifts apart from friends, deals with a nightmare neighbour and is heartbroken that her beloved dad has dementia. It sounds like basic chick lit, but it’s written with a lot of heart and plenty of wit and I raced through it.
THE DIVINES BY ELLIE EATON*
This is my kind of novel - a coming-of-age story with flashbacks of friendship and bullying at a prestigious girl’s school, juxtaposed with the narrator’s present day life. I don’t know why, but I’m always sucked in by books set in boarding schools or college campuses. I’m also a sucker for anything studying the toxic friendships of teenage girls. The Divines is based around an all-girl’s school where posh young women give each other boy’s names as nicknames and feud with the neighbouring ‘townies’. Something terrible happened during Josephine’s final days at the school, which is preluded to throughout the story but that isn’t all there is to this book. I loved Ellie Eaton’s writing and was really interested in how she portrayed the differences in class in Britain. I’m really excited to read whatever she writes next.
PLAIN BAD HEROINES BY EMILY M DANFORTH*
I have mixed feelings about Plain Bad Heroines. I was very excited to read it and was thrilled when it turned up on my doorstep - a huge wedge of a book filled with beautiful illustrations. I loved the opening chapter - detailing an unfortunate incident at a boarding school over a hundred years ago, where two girls who were having an illicit affair were stung to death by a swarm of yellow jackets. I loved the premise - half the book is set in the past, detailing the curse on the school and the other mysterious deaths that occurred there, interjected with a contemporary story of a Hollywood film crew making a movie about what happened in the past. I also loved that all the big love stories were between strong female characters. But honestly, it was just too long. There were entire chapters were nothing happened and I grew bored in the middle - only for the modern day story to pick up pace, but ultimately fizzle out. I’d still recommend reading it if the premise interests you, but it just didn’t live up to its expectations for me.
THE END OF MEN BY CHRISTINA SWEENEY-BAIRD*
Not everyone will want to read about a pandemic at the moment, but I relished the escape from reality to read about a deadly plague that sweeps the world. At least the plague in The End of Men is worse than our own - it doesn’t affect women but wipes out most of the men across the world. The story is told from the perspective of several women over a long time frame from the beginning of the pandemic to the aftermath - the structure reminds me of World War Z (read it: the book is infinitely better than the film). We see the impact of the pandemic from many different female characters that are each revisited several times throughout the novel, including the doctor who discovered the virus and an anthropologist who is collecting stories to remember the victims.
LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND BY RUMAAN ALAM
This was one of my favourite reads last year. I read it in one sitting, completely hooked by the story. I couldn’t put the book down until I was finished and then spent the rest of the evening and the next day thinking about it. I’ve seen mixed reviews for this - I think some readers are expecting it to be a fast-paced end-of-the-world novel with a neat ending. It isn’t. It’s highly ambiguous throughout and can be frustrating if you absolutely have to know what is happening. It reminded me a bit of Station Eleven, in that it is more about the individual characters than the wider picture. Something has happened - we don’t know what - and a family on vacation have to deal with the unknown when the owners of the Airbnb they’re staying in turn up on their doorstep in the middle of the night. You don’t need to know more - just know that it’s brilliant.
GIRL A BY ABIGAIL DEAN*
Girl A was another of my favourite reads of 2020, and another book that I devoured in one sitting and couldn’t stop thinking about. This is one of those incredible books that is wonderfully written and completely deserving of all the praise, but will crossover into the mainstream and end up on all the best sellers list. It’s the story of Lex, known to the public as Girl A - the oldest girl of a group of siblings who escaped atrocious abuse locked in their family home. The story effortlessly flashes through two timelines - what happened when the siblings were children and what is happening in the present (their mother has died in prison and Lex is tasked with sorting out her estate). A word of warning - I haven’t cried so much reading a book since A Little Life. There is a lot of trauma detailed in this book (and it definitely comes with a trigger warning for abuse) but it never feels gratuitous or verging on torture porn.
ABSORBED BY KYLIE WHITEHEAD*
This is the first release from New Ruins, a new imprint focused on the blurred boundaries between literary and genre fiction (which I’m all there for!). Absorbed tells the story of insecure Allison, who worries that her boyfriend might leave her for someone more interesting - and instead absorbs him into her body. She then begins to take on some of his characteristics, becoming more confident in herself and making new friends and she navigates a new world where her she has to cover up his disappearance. I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to whatever New Ruins publish next.
THE BELLWETHER REVIVALS BY BENJAMIN WOOD
This book fits snugly into my list of ‘books you will enjoy if you love The Secret History’. It’s the story of Oscar, a well-read young man who left school at 16 and works in a nursing home in Cambridge. He meets and falls in love with Iris, a Cambridge student and soon falls into her tightly knit group of academic friends, including her enigmatic but unstable brother, Eden. So far, so Secret History. Nothing will ever topple TSH as the leader of the dark academic genre and to be honest, this isn’t even halfway up my list of books in this category - but I did get completely sucked in and thoroughly enjoyed it. The basic premise is that Eden is convinced he can heal people with the power of music. He takes this to the extreme with disastrous consequences which are hinted to right at the beginning of the book (again, very TSH to reveal a murder in the opening pages).
EARTHLINGS BY SAYAKA MURATA
If I give you trigger warnings for abuse, incest and cannibalism, please don’t turn away in horror! Honestly, this book is brilliant! It’s utterly bonkers and yes, the aforementioned things happen but it’s also wonderfully written and completely engrossing. I read this in one sitting, flying through the pages. The novel begins during the protagonist, Natsuki’s childhood, detailing her idyllic trips to her grandparent’s mountain home with her large extended family. Things get weird pretty much straight away, as Natsuki and her cousin believe they are actually aliens and proclaim their love for each other. The second part of the novel focuses on Natsuki as an adult, returning to the house in the mountains and being reunited with her cousin. It’s very odd the whole way through and the finale is particularly crazy, but its also an interesting portrayal of a woman battling against the system and wanting something other than the ordinary.