2023 is officially over! I hope you all had a great year. I’m looking forward to the new year myself. I’ve changed jobs (although still working in a library) and I’m really excited to learn everything there and get to know all of my coworkers.
(As of writing this, I’ve already started and I’m really enjoying it so far. I’ll keep you guys posted!)
In 2023 I read over 500 books. It’s going to be very hard to narrow it down from that number to just the books that I want to highlight. There were so many fantastic books that I read that I absolutely loved. But I will have to narrow it down some so I’m grouping series that I started/finished into one block of writing. That way I can cram as many books into this post as possible without it being insanely overwhelming (for me and you). Now with all of that out of the way, onto the books!
There is one series that I started years ago and for some reason never finished it, but I did last year. Paper Girls the Complete Story by Brian K. Vaughan was fantastic. There’s time travel, quetzalcoatluses, friendship, mystery, and so much more. I loved these girls. Their friendship was life changing for them. I sometimes think that the friendships we make as children are some of the best. For these four girls it quite literally saved their lives multiple times. As they travel through time trying to save the world, they learn a lot about each other, life, and how to be a good friend. Although that’s kind of hard when there’s a giant tardigrade trying to eat you.
If you are a fan of Stranger Things, time travel, or really fun sci-fi then I highly recommend that you check this series out. I think reading all the volumes back to back or reading the complete collection like I did is the best route. Some of the time travel parts can get a little confusing if you take to much time between readings and forget details (like I do).
I read the entire Lumberjanes series which has a few authors throughout the series, N.D. Stevenson, Shannon Watters, and Kat Leyh. This is another series that I read back to back. It took me about a week to get through all the volumes and I absolutely loved this series. If you’ve ever been and Scout then I feel like this series will really resonate with you. It also deals with friendship, love, and a few other topics that can be a little heavy. I do like that this series always has a mostly happy ending. I loved all of these girls but I especially loved Ripley. I relate to her love of dinosaurs and candy very much.
Be That Way by Hope Larson is a coming of age book that takes place in the mid-90’s. Our main character, seventeen-year-old Christine, keeps track of what happens in her life by keeping a journal. This journal, chronicling an eventful year in her life, is what we are reading. She goes through friend breakups, dating drama, and much more. Her journal is illustrated with things that happen during that eventful year. It’s sad at times, but mostly funny and hopeful. I loved the illustrations but the story is what really drew me in. I can relate to her feeling alone and having not a lot of friends.
Going Zero by Anthony McCarten was a wild ride from almost the first page. In this book we follow ten Americans who have been chosen to disappear. Their task is to stay hidden for 30 days. If they can do that then they get a 3 million dollar prize. They are up against Cy Baxter and his new FUSION technology. If Cy finds all ten people before the 30 days is up, he wins a 10-year, $100 billion dollar government contract. To say he’s motivated is an understatement. We follow a few people throughout this book but mainly we follow Kaitlyn Day, an unassuming librarian from Boston that seems like she would be the first person found. But strangely, she’s outlasting more promising people. It ends up being a showdown between Cy and all of his technology and this librarian from Boston. Who will come out on top?
This was such a great book. There were so many twists and turns and most of them I didn’t see coming. If you’re looking for a twisty mystery that’s full of action, then definitely check this book out!
System Collapse by Martha Wells is the seventh book in the Murderbot Diaries. This is a series that I only will listen to on audiobook. I love the narrator and if they ever replace her I will RIOT. Anyway, in this book we are back with our favorite sassy robot and his group of humans. The lovely Barish-Estranza corporation has sent some rescue ships to a planet that has just recently been colonized and is in jeopardy. But Murderbot has some series issues in this installment. After what happened to him, I don’t blame him. His PTSD flares up all the time while he’s trying to save a colony of humans from becoming Barish-Estranza’s latest conquest. This leads to some issues for his group. But no spoilers here, you’ll have to read it and find out for yourself if he pulls himself together in time to save all the humans. If you are looking for a fun sci-fi series then definitely check this series out!
I read three volumes of Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. This series is just so good. I love how the author reimagines that gods and goddesses and their stories. I know that after reading some reviews that people are annoyed with how much of a slow-burn that Hades and Persephone’s relationship is, but I think it falls in line with how Persephone is in the myths. She’s literally changing her entire life for this man, I should hope she’s taking her time to really think it through and not just jump in. I also really liked the artwork in these volumes, they are so gorgeous! I can’t wait for the next volume, especially since we were left on such a cliff hanger for volume 5!
Numb to This: A Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely is about a college student who survives a school shooting at her college, Umpqua Community College. On October 1, 2015, eight students and a professor lost their lives. This memoir is the author’s account of that day and how she became a survivor. The book deals with a lot of emotions and shows how Kindra tries to move past what happens. She deals with survivor’s guilt and PTSD. It’s hard for her to get over what happened when there’s a new school shooting almost daily.
I struggle to say that I liked this book because of the subject matter but I think that this is an important book for everyone to read. Especially if you have dealt with something like this before. It’s a very hopeful memoir.
I read the first four volumes of Choujin X by Sui Ishida. In this series we follow Tokio and Ely as they both become Choujin. We see them learn about their powers and try to get a handle on how they work. Tokio and Ely aren’t alone at the Choujin school, there are other people dealing with becoming Choujin as well as instructors who are showing them the ropes. I really enjoyed the first four volumes of this series. I liked how the further we get into the series the more people we see. It’s interesting to see how other people dealt with becoming Choujin. I can’t wait to read the next volume!
I read the first nine volumes of Laid-Back Camp by Afro. This is such a fun slice of life manga. I’ve never read any manga that are about camping so when I stumbled upon this one I had to give it a try. And I’m so glad that I did! We follow a group of girls, Rin, Nadeshiko, and the members of the Outdoor Exploration Club, as they go on camping trips throughout Japan. The artwork in this series is gorgeous. I love the quiet moments that the girls experience while camping. Sunsets, sunrises, eating together, it’s all just so wholesome. I will definitely be reading more of this series this year.
And I finished up The Promised Neverland by Kaiu Shirai. I was so sad when this series ended but man these kids have been through so much! It was nice to see them get a happy ending. I think I want to watch the anime now to see how it compares. Have any of you watched it?
A stand alone book that I really enjoyed was Starter Villain by John Scalzi. Now I’ve read a few books by Scalzi and loved all of them. The Kaiju Preservation Society was one of my favorite books that I read in 2022. So when I saw this one was coming out I was excited to say the least. In this we follow our main character Charlie, who is down on his luck. He’s living in a house that his siblings want to sell out from under him, he’s divorced and he lives alone with just his cat as a companion. His only goal in life is to open a pub. But he can’t even get approved for a loan. Nothing seems to have gone his way for a long time. And then his uncle leaves him his supervillain business – including a volcanic island as a secret base!
This was such a fun book. Charlie was a great main character. He was at times clueless but he could also be ruthless when he needed to. My favorite part of this book was a scene where Charlie was talking to another one of the villains on a laptop and every time the other guy annoyed him he would just shut the laptop. It was so funny and a perfect example of Charlie’s personality.
Another series that I got into was Silver Spoon by Hiromu Arakawa. This series follows Yuugo Hachiken as he leaves behind the business of the city and starts his high school career at an agricultural school called Oezo Agricultural High School. He thinks that this school will be an easy place to get away from everything that he’s leaving behind but boy is he wrong! At this school, everyone wakes up super early to do chores like mucking out horse stalls, feeding pigs, mostly just taking care of a lot of animals. He quickly realizes that this high school is much more work than he was anticipating. Of the eight volumes that I’ve read so far, I have immensely enjoyed this series. The characters are great but the artwork is what really drew me in. The animals are so cute and the landscapes are gorgeous. If you’re looking for a fun but low stakes manga then you should check this one out.
In Cordyceps by Ian Duncan we follow a group of people as they are trying to get out of south Florida while a zombie outbreak is happening. But the difference between regular zombies and these zombies is that these are mushroom/spore based. The virus spreads by tall spore ladened stalks that stick out of the infected dead. The spores then float on the wind and infect new people.
The mushroom aspect of this story is fascinating. If you are looking for a different kind of zombie story then check this book out. It was a really fun read and since I live in south Florida it was cool reading about a bunch of places that I recognize. There’s also two more books after this that I haven’t had a chance to read yet but I’ll try to get to them this year to see if they hold up.
One of the most brutal – and one of my favorite – series that I started last year was Tokyo Revengers by Ken Wakui. These characters are deeply flawed and not afraid to fight and kill to protect what/who they love. In this series we follow Takemichi Hanagaki who finds out that middle school girlfriend was killed by the vicious Tokyo Manji Gang. When he goes to pay his respects to her brother he somehow travels back in time to when he was in high school. He vows to prevent her death in the future by becoming the leader of the Tokyo Manji Gang. But it seems that every time he goes back in time to fix something, it changes something for the worse in the present time. Will he every be able to fix everything? I guess I’ll have to keep reading in order to find out! I can’t wait to read the next volume of this series, I really enjoy it.
Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker was another book that I really enjoyed. It’s about blood sucking preschoolers who’s teacher dies at their school under less than ideal circumstances. Now the hunt is on to try and figure out who killed their teacher and the only witnesses are a room full of four year olds.
This was fantastic! There were so many good twists and turns throughout the book that I didn’t see coming. It was fast paced and all of the characters are pretty horrible people. They’re those kind of rich people that send their kids to a private school and then gossip all day and do nothing else. I really loved this and I want to read more of this author’s work. There’s another book that they wrote called Big Bad that caught my eye that I’m going to try and read this year.
That is it for my favorite books from 2023! I hope you all had a great year and I wish you a fantastic 2024.
BookWorm Blog 