MY FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2021: FICTION

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THE TIME HAS COME!!!!!! TIS TIME FOR MY FAVOURITE (fiction) BOOKS OF 2021 LIST!!! and this year the list is REALLY LONG–18 books to be precise. a) because i loved all these books a lot and i refuse to edit down my list and b) because this year i got a lot better at picking up the kinds of books I thought I knew I’d enjoy.

without further ado: HERE IS THE LIST. The list is kind of in order, though I’d say that the first 7 are the crème de la crème best books ever literary perfection 10/10 would read again and again and again.

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The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye

(my review)

One chapter into this book and I already knew it was going to be a favourite. What I didn’t know was that it would be MY FAVOURITE BOOK OF THE YEAR. The King of Infinite Space put me through the ringer, and I fucking loved every single second of it. The character work is impeccable, and the writing is just gorgeous. The relationships in this book are so beautiful they make me want to scream (especially THE ROMANCE). I truly feel like I experienced every single emotion reading this book. Anyway, I LOVED IT IMMENSELY. If you like character-focused stories and yearning, read The King of Infinite Space.

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Devotion by Hannah Kent

Oh my god this book. Just thinking about it makes me want to weep. I know “beautiful” is a really easy word to throw around when it comes to describing books, but Devotion is one of the few novels that truly deserves it. Hannah Kent’s writing is mesmerizing: her imagery is unreal, and the way she writes atmosphere and details and characters is just brilliant. Honestly I’m frustrated because I don’t know how to convey to you how good this book was. It’s the kind of novel that feels so raw: you feel every single emotion these characters feel, and you feel them SO keenly. Devotion is truly a novel that’s in a league of its own.

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The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney

I just ADORE this book; it’s officially joined my list of all time favourite books this year. First of all, Lisa McInerney is one of the best writers working today; she writes narrative voice like no other author I’ve read. The Glorious Heresies is funny and devastating by turns, and it was such a visceral novel for me, too: I honestly felt like I was in physical pain reading it because I felt SO strongly for the main character, Ryan, and what he was going through. Plot, character, writing: The Glorious Heresies is brilliant on every single level.

(The Glorious Heresies is part of a trilogy of books focusing on a group of characters–to that end, I want to give a special mention to The Rules of Revelation, the third book in the trilogy, which I also loved and found such a poignant ending to these characters’ stories.)

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Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Is anyone surprised!!!!! I don’t know guys maybe Sally Rooney is so popular because her books are actually really good… And god was Beautiful World, Where Are You GOOD. I remember so distinctly reading this book like my life depended on it at the end of the summer, so engrossed was I in it. Rooney does an incredible job with her characters, as per usual, and I loved the fact that in this novel we’re given this outsider perspective to the characters and asked to judge their actions and words for ourselves. So much Rooney discourse is invested in intellectualizing her novels–and like, of course, Rooney’s books are very intellectually engaging–but I feel like a lot of it forgets the fact that Sally Rooney writes such moving character relationships. She’s always been an author whose focus lies in these relationships, and I loved how she portrayed them here through a quartet of interconnected characters.

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Euphoria by Lily King

It honestly feels like this book was designed for me. It has every single thing I love reading about: a secluded setting, a focus on a very limited group of characters, engaging ideas, romance, and gorgeous writing. I INHALED Euphoria over a day and a half and emerged from it feeling like I’d experienced the emotional equivalent of being run over by a car. The character dynamics here are some of the best I’ve ever read.

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Tipping the Velvet Sarah Waters

Sarah Waters is officially one of my favourite authors ever. I read four of her books this year–Fingersmith, Tipping the Velvet, The Night Watch, and Affinity–and honestly any of them could’ve made this list–they’re all that good. What can I say about Sarah Waters that hasn’t already been said? She is a master of historical fiction. There’s just no one else that does it like her. Fingersmith or Tipping the Velvet have been my favs of her so far, though I think Tipping the Velvet edges out Fingersmith by just a bit. It’s a coming of age novel, and it’s about performance and gender and sexuality and identity and I felt like I lived 12 lifetimes just reading this book. If you haven’t read a Sarah Waters novel yet, you are missing out on some absolute historical fiction excellence.

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Abigail by Magda Szabó (tr. Len Rix)

(my review)

One of the most precisely written and poignant books I’ve read this year. Abigail is the kind of book whose every word feels like it was carefully thought over; there is not a single word in this novel that feels out of place. It starts slow, and initially seems like a slice-of-life story, but then slowly but surely it builds up to such an incredible and affecting climax. And there are so many lovely elements about this book, too: it’s set in a boarding school, it’s about female friendships, it’s a coming of age story, it’s about father-daughter relationships–all elements that are impeccably and beautifully rendered by Szabó.

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Elmet by Fiona Mozley

(my review)

What a gorgeous novel. Elmet is a slow novel, but where it dwells on things, it dwells on them with such beauty and insight. It’s a novel about nature and family and gender and violence, and where all of these things might’ve been very clumsily handled, Mozley presents them to us with such a deft, subtle hand. It’s the kind of book you have to sit with for a bit to let it settle, but it’s also the kind that really lingers with you over time.

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The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

(my review)

Hello incredible fantasy!!!! Tasha Suri has quickly become one of my favourite fantasy authors, and The Jasmine Throne is a very clear example of why. This is an incredibly propulsive novel: I couldn’t stop reading it. But it’s also such a well-executed one. What I am always interested in is characters, and Suri gives us some really compelling characters here. The world is so cool–I love the magic that’s based in nature–and the romance is a lovely touch. I thought I felt lukewarm about this book and then by its end I was crying my little heart out.

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Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

Another Tasha Suri!!! Sorry but I couldn’t choose just one, and I just loved this book so much. Empire of Sand is, in one word, ANGST. This book gave me so much angst and I was living for it. There’s just something really moving about seeing characters who’ve gone through so much pain and trauma find and support each other.

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People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Friends to lovers excellence!!! I read a lot of romance this year, and I enjoyed, even loved, a lot of it, but People We Meet on Vacation is one of the few ones that I think really earned it’s place on this list. I loved it so much I read it twice. Again, so much delicious angst here, and the way that Emily Henry structures this story is really clever and well done. I loved seeing Poppy and Alex’s relationship grow over time, and I can’t wait to see what Henry has in store for us next.

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If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

Every time I think about this novel I just go, wow, I really loved that book. If I Had Your Face is just a really, really good novel. My review of this book on Goodreads just says “[saoirse ronan voice] women–” and I stand by that review. At its heart this is a novel about women and their relationships with each other, and I ate it up. So many interesting themes, too, about beauty and class and work in South Korea. I will read literally anything that Frances Cha comes out with next.

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One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun (tr. Jung Yewon)

(my review)

This was such an unexpected favourite of mine this year. It’s both an incredibly grounded story and a story that feels larger than life; both realistic and allegorical. I finished it and gave it 4 stars, and then it just haunted me for days and next thing I knew I was bumping it up to a full 5 stars. There are are so many little details from this little novel (novella?) that I’ve thought about often since I finished it, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. (it is criminally underhyped!!!!)

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Alligator by Dima Alzayat

The best short story collection I’ve read this year. Alligator is a collection that’s just, like, objectively perfect in my opinion. I’m working on a full review of this, but for now I’ll just say that these stories are written with such precision and craft on Alzayat’s part. You might prefer some of her stories over others, but I feel like not a single story in this collection is anything less than stellar.

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Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King

(my review)

Another Lily King book!!! Lily King has become one of my favourite authors this year. This is a collection of tender, moving stories about characters just…living their lives, I guess. It’s not a very flashy collection in terms of its subject matter, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that it is boring in any way, because it’s really, really not. King’s stories are so humane, always interested in the small moments that build character dynamics over time–whether those dynamics are between romantic partners, family members, friends. And I think the key characteristic of her writing for me is how sympathetic she is towards her characters, how human they always feel. I will pretty much read anything that Lily King writes at this point.

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Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung (tr. Anton Hur)

(my review)

Unsettling, creepy, twisted short stories. Reading a Bora Chung story is basically just a process of internally screaming what the fuck as you continue to keep reading because her stories are impossible to put down. These stories do not pull any punches, in the absolute best way possible.

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Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

So much of the fantasy that I’ve tried to read hasn’t worked for me because I always feel like it lacks flavour. (Granted I’ve read very little fantasy so take this with a grain of salt but) I find the worlds and characters really self-serious a lot of the time. And that’s not always a bad thing, but it would be nice to get some levity on occasion. Enter Gideon the Ninth. This book has so much PERSONALITY. It’s funny and chaotic and it doesn’t take itself too seriously–except when it does. Tamsyn Muir is so good at balancing serious, high-stakes stuff with the chaotic humour of her characters. I can’t wait to see where this series goes (though I desperately need to reread the first two books because I missed out on a lot of the details the first time around) (who am I kidding I’ll probably miss out on the details the second time around too, but a girl can dream).

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The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

Finally, a novel that, like If I Had Your Face, I just really loved. It’s one of those novels where not much really happens, but also a lot happens. It’s slow and very psychological and circumscribed in its setting–most of the action takes place in a pregnancy ward–but the way that Donoghue writes the small (and big) dramas of this setting was very affecting and memorable.

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