Happy New Year!!!!!
December gave spec fiction another great month of reading with 33 books linked this month, keep up the good work, this is just fabulous. This months post I’ll feature a few of these book and then some stats wrapping up 2019.
First up and completely appropriate for the season is The Christmas Witch by Carla Caruso whcih was reviewed by Theresa Smith Writes who says “This novella was a lot of fun. It’s a romantic comedy on the one hand, but with a dash of supernatural quirk on the other. There’s a lot of little funny moments, particularly with Mina’s family – her nonna and her mother – along with some rogue spell casting that leads to a few very amusing outcomes. And of course there is romance, the magical Christmas sparkly kind that typifies hallmark movies and keeps us coming back year after year for more. All in all, The Christmas Witch is an enjoyable novella, perfect for those who like to indulge in a bit of Christmas love and laughter while they countdown to the big day.”
Next is The Old Lie by Claire G Coleman and reviewed by Marianne who says “Â The astute reader will begin to make the links between the characters and see the parallels with events in Australian Indigenous history as the story progresses. If the battle descriptions are a little tedious, and if the connections only very gradually become clear, they are worth persevering through for a powerful, heart-breaking and thought-provoking read.” Which sounds a lot like her first book Terra Nullius which I thought was a very powerful read, so I’ll be checking this one out.
Ju Transcendancing reviewed the three books in The Linesman series by S.K. Dunstall Linesman (#1), Alliance (#2) & Confluence (#3). She says “Loved this series, one of the best I read this year.”
Oddfeather Creative reviewed Highway Bodies by Alison Evans, a book I’ve had on my shelf since it’s release earlier this year and which I’m now moving up my TBR pile. She says “Highway Bodies can be seen as a prolonged metaphor for queer teens living in a world that means them harm, and Evans has achieved this very effectively through the bodily disgust and controlling behaviour of zombies and non-ally survivors respectively. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good zombie horror thriller, anyone who needs to understand the perils of living as a queer teen in the world today, or anyone who likes to see their hometown as the setting in a book. I got a kick every time the survivors fled to an outer suburb of Melbourne that I’ve visited!”
Now for some of 2019s stats
A total of 321 books were linked for Spec Fiction this year which I think is fabulous and well up on last years 233 books. Let’s aim for 400 in 2020.
Our top reviewer in spec fiction in 2019 was Ashleigh @ The Book Muse who linked a whopping 34 books this year. Her biggest contribution was 13 books by Emily Rodda who writes children’s books, some of which I have read and the others are on my list to send to my niece for presents.
Surprisingly I was next with 13 books linked in spec fiction, I didn’t realise I read so many this year. Next were Eleni with 12, Amanda @ Mrs B’s Book Reviews with 11, Emily @ A Keyboard and an Open Mind with 10, Jennifer Cameron-Smith with 9 and Veronica Strachan with 8. Everyone else averaged around 6 which is just wonderful.
The book most reviewed in 2019 was a book that was in my top reads of the decade and the year A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird with had 15 reviews linked to it.
The Lost Girls by Jennifer Spence had 9 reviews linked to it.Â
Bruny by Heather Rose had 7 reviews linked to it.
The Author most reviewed in 2019 was Emily Rodda had 13 reviews linked to her various books.
Kate Forsyth had 10 reviews linked to her various books.
Jessica Townsend had 10 reviews linked to her books in the Morrigan Crow series.
A.J. Betts had 9 reviews for her books Rogue and Hive combined.
Thank you all so very much for your contribution to AWW and especially Speculative Fiction, I love going through all your reviews each month and seeing what you have been reading.
Thanks for doing the spec fic round up Claire. It’s a great way to pick my next read.
My pleasure, I’m never sure anyone reads it, so I’m glad it gives you some reading ideas.
I only read a small amount of speculative fiction – I don’t know why – cause I love what I do read, so it’s good to get some more ideas here.
As an editor for the non-fiction and poetry pages, it’s also interesting to see how broadly many of our regular reviewers read.
It is interesting to see what you there’s read. I don’t read too much spec fiction, I enjoy it when I do too. Glad you got some ideas. I look forward to seeing what you read this year.
34! I certainly read a lot! I think many of the ones I read overlapped with several genres!
You are a gun!!
I need to get reading more for this year…in between all my writing and everything else.
I feel I’m a bit slow this year, and considering my challenges I need to get reading lol. I’d like to read a few more spec fiction books.
Yes, me too! At least the challenges I’ve chosen, a good percentage of the categories will work for many books I read. There are a few I might have to work to find but I’ll focus on what I can easily check off for now, and then move into the ones that I may need to research for a bit more.
Yes, I’m exactly the same. I’ve got all my A-Z except Y and many overlap for the two bingos and the baclist challenge.
In the STFU Challenge, I think the climate category may be a challenge – in my clean out I gave one away that could work, and they have to be Aussie authors.
Hmmm I’ll think about the climate one.
Thanks, it’s one I’m gonna leave for now and focus on the rest.
What did you give away?
The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble – I think. I’ve given so many away, and I need to resort my boxes and get another for my English literature books from uni.