Favorite Books of 2020
I read around 110 books in 2020 and I loved a lot of them and I also thought a lot of them were just ok. I even absolutely hated some of the books I read this year (looking at you Stephen Chbosky) and that’s alright! It’s boring to only read books you like. Of the books I loved there were some absolute standouts. These are my top 5 books of 2020 pretty much in order 1-5 (although they’re all 5 star reads for me). Some of these are series. I read all the books in the two series mentioned this year and the 5 star rating is for the series overall (although I believe Murderbot isn’t completed yet) not necessarily each individual book involved. I’ve also talked about most of these books a lot already so for the ones that have significant coverage elsewhere on my blog I’ll link to that post and for the purposes of this post I’m going to primarily focus on the aspects of the book that made it top 5 material for me.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by Victoria Schwab - I wrote an entire review for this book which you can read here. Victoria Schwab has long been one of my favorite authors. I have read and loved nearly every one of her books. She has a whole shelf devoted to her works in my library and whenever she releases a new book I always buy it immediately. Because of that I had incredibly high expectations for this book. I started reading the day it came out fully planning to be listing it as my favorite book of the year and it not only met my expectations, but it absolutely exceeded them. This is my favorite book of 2020 but also one of my favorites of all time. The plot of Addie LaRue was great. I loved experiencing all of the settings and time periods, but for me what really put this book over the top was the writing style and the characters. I know there were some complaints from readers about the book being slow, but to me the descriptions and the way Schwab penned the story was exactly the thing that made it stand out above the rest of the books I read this year. I highlighted so many sections of this book and I stopped to reread so many beautiful lines and that made the experience so much more enjoyable for me than a fast moving plot and action packed scenes could have.
The Poppy War (trilogy) by RF Kuang - I first mentioned The Poppy War in my September Wrap-Up. The series begins with Rin, an impoverished war orphan from a rural province, getting accepted into the most elite military academy in the empire. The throughout the rest of the series she gains more power than she ever could have imagined and with that comes far more pain and responsibility than she ever wanted. She becomes a key player in multiple wars fighting for different leaders in each, but most of all fighting for herself. This series is brutal and hard to read at times, but I’m constantly in awe of how well thought out everything seems. Kuang is a masterful writer with plotting, pacing, characters and managing a story arc over multiple books. It’s one of those series where each installment builds on the one before and they get better and better as they go. I honestly don’t really have any critiques of these books. They’re just incredible.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune - I also mentioned this one in my September wrap-up and it was my favorite book of 2020 before the release of Addie LaRue. This book has stuck with me so strongly because of how wonderful the characters are. The society in this book is not great. Linus is overworked and underappreciated and the children in his caseload are never going to have a chance to be loved and successful in life as long as people continue to look down upon anyone with a magical ability. Linus starts off the book living a drab, gray life and then everything is blasted into color when he goes to the orphanage in the Cerulean Sea. The children there are marked as particularly dangerous and there really isn’t much known about any of them, but what Linus finds is so incredibly heartwarming and will just fill you with all the warm and fuzzy feelings you’ve ever wanted. This book brought me more joy than anything else I read this year.
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson - This is book four in the Stormlight Archive, Brandon Sanderson’s ongoing epic fantasy series. Most books in the Stormlight Archive are about 1,000+ pages long and I was worried that their length would mean a slower moving plot or extra bits included that I felt were unnecessary. However, these books are always greatness from start to finish. I particularly loved the focus on mental and emotional health and its affect on the characters who have gone through so much already in the series. This installment continued the overall narrative arc of the series really well, while also operating as an excellent book in its own right. I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait for the next one!
Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - This is an ongoing science fiction series set in space featuring 4 novellas and a full length novel starting with All Systems Red. I read all of them this year. They follow a security android (or SecUnit) who calls themself Murderbot. Murderbot is tasked with accompanying exploratory science teams to new planets. The universe is controlled by corporations and the SecUnits are generally added into the contract between the corporations and the explorers as a method to spy on the people on the planet as well as protect them from anything dangerous they may find. SecUnits are normally entirely controlled by the corporations (who don’t always really have the well-being of the explorers as a priority). However, what the humans on Murderbot’s assigned planet don’t know is that Murderbot has hacked their governor module and is way more self-aware than they think. So when a neighboring mission goes dark it’s up to Murderbot and their team to figure out what is going on and how to save themselves from experiencing the same fate. This series is so great. Murderbot is such a fun character to follow because all they want to do is watch tv shows all day and figure out who they are without the control of the corporation but instead they have to listen in on conversations between humans and constantly try to stop them from making dumb mistakes. I read through all of these books so quickly and really enjoyed them. Recommended for any science fiction fan.
That were your favorite books of the year? I have lofty reading goals for 2021 (more on that in a future post) so I’m looking to add to my TBR!
