Another year gone, another chunk of my TBR taken down.
Problem is, the TBR continues to grow and all of these have already been replaced.
Since we still have 18 days to go in the year, this isn’t my final count, but here are my stats for 2023 – these counts include children’s, manga, novellas and novels.
582 books read
82,432 pages read
902.5 hours listened
Not bad IMO, but nowhere close to where I wanted to be by this time of the year. Was really hoping to cap 100k pages read but that’s what 2024 is for, right?
Anyway, the real reason you are here. Top Reads of 2023.
I have laid them out below, starting with trad, indie (which I didn’t read as much of in 2023), novellas, manga (doesn’t include series I started in previous years), and honorable mentions. Most will have my blurbs, some won’t. Those that don’t, you’ll just get the book blurb from Amazon.
All covers have links to purchase or wishlist.
Top 10 Trad Reads
rachets up everything you loved about TJoK tenfold, leading to a read that is both gut-wrenching & awe-inspiring. It is a sequel that simply blows its predecessor out of the water. What a remarkable read.
In a cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow has begun the last book he will ever write.
It is the story about the sun-drenched summer days of his youth in Whistler Bay, and the blood-stained path of the killer that stalked his small vacation town. About the terrible secret he and his companions, Nat and Harper, discovered entombed in the coves off the bay. And how the pact they swore that day echoed down the decades, forever shaping their lives.
But the more Wilder writes, the less he trusts himself and his memory. He starts to see things that can’t be real – notes hidden in the cabin, from an old friend now dead; a woman with dark hair drowning in the icy waters below, calling for help; entire chapters he doesn’t recall typing, appearing overnight. Who, or what, is haunting Wilder?
No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does.
“An origami puzzle of a book, the mystery so beautifully crafted you don’t see the folds, with edges sharp as a paper cut.”—Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls
Severe climate change has ravaged the country, leaving behind a charred wasteland. Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable if solitary life on one of the last remaining farms. Their private existence is disturbed the day a stranger comes to the door with alarming news.
Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm, but the most unusual part is that arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Henrietta won’t have a chance to miss him. She won’t be left alone—not even for a moment. Henrietta will have company. Familiar company.
Told in Iain Reid’s sparse, biting style, Foe is a “mind-bending and genre-defying work of genius” (Liz Nugent, author of Unraveling Oliver) that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.
Top 5 Indie Reads
Top 5 Novellas
is DOOM meets Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. A taut, thrilling novella that provides plenty of jump scares, ooey gooey gore, and intense shoot ’em up action. This one implores you read it in one sitting.
isn’t so much a ghost story as it is an examination on grief and the impossibility of letting go while losing our life in the process. It’s both haunting and beautiful in its execution and will remain in my mind like the lingerers of HOME. Highly recommend.
Top 5 Manga
Johan is a cold and calculating killer with a mysterious past, and brilliant Dr. Kenzo Tenma is the only one who can stop him! Conspiracy and serial murder open the door to a compelling, intricately woven plot in this masterwork of suspense.
Everyone faces uncertainty at some point in their lives. Even a brilliant surgeon like Kenzo Tenma is no exception. But there’s no way he could have known that his decision to stop chasing professional success and instead concentrate on his oath to save peoples’ lives would result in the birth of an abomination. The questions of good and evil now take on a terrifyingly real dimension.
Years later, in Germany during the tumultuous post-reunification period, middle-aged childless couples are being killed one after another. The serial killer’s identity is known. The reasons why he kills are not. Dr. Tenma sets out on a journey to find the killer’s twin sister, who may hold some clues to solving the enigma of the “Monster.”
In 2020, a large creature rampages through Tokyo, destroying everything in its path.
In 1959, Asa Asada, a spunky young girl from a huge family in Nagoya, is kidnapped for ransom—and not a soul notices. When a typhoon hits Nagoya, Asa and her kidnapper must work together to survive. But there’s more to her kidnapper and this storm than meet the eye.
When Asa’s mother goes into labor yet again, Asa runs off to find a doctor. But no one bats an eye when she doesn’t return—not even as a storm approaches Nagoya. Forgotten yet again, Asa runs into a burglar and tries to stop him on her own, a decision that leads to an unlikely alliance.
5 Honorable Mentions
and Bernard Cornwell
with the grimdarkness of Michael R. Fletcher. It’s a gritty tale of revenge that has me clamoring for Book 2. Definite recommend!
Chances are, if you’re a target of Billy Summers, two immutable truths apply: You’ll never even know what hit you, and you’re really getting what you deserve. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business—but he’ll do the job only if the assignment is a truly bad person. But now, time is catching up with him, and Billy wants out. Before he can do that though, there’s one last hit, which promises a generous payday at the end of the line even as things don’t seem quite on the level here. Given that Billy is among the most talented snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, and a virtual Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done, what could possibly go wrong? How about everything.
Part war story and part love letter to small-town America and the people who live there, this spectacular thriller of luck, fate, and love will grip readers with its electrifying narrative, as a complex antihero with one last shot at redemption must avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. You won’t ever forget this stunning novel from master storyteller Stephen King…and you will never forget Billy.
Founders Trilogy and Gareth Hanrahan’s
Black Iron Legacy will find a ton to love here. Highly recommend.
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