Lots more reading this month!  Especially since I hardly wrote anything!  Did some editing and wrote a couple of chapters, but otherwise I’ve been busy reading…

I’m not sure how my coworker heard about Paperbacks from Hell before I did, but I was quite excited for a book about horror paperbacks from the author of Horrorstor and My Best Friend’s Exorcism.  Turns out I had read a bunch of these and had a couple sitting on my TBR pile.  Gotta love a book about books 🙂

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic that’s been on a TBR list in the back of my brain for a long time, and this year’s Nanowrimo novel drove me to pick it up.  It takes place during the French Revolution, and while it didn’t help much with my novel, it was a good adventure story.

I saw this one on Dawn Kurtagich’s Instagram and decided that I needed to read it.  Thornhill is a ghost story that is told in two parts: the novel part, that of a girl’s diary years ago; and the graphic part, of a girl who has just moved in near the abandoned Thornhill orphanage, which is told only in images.  The effect is haunting and won’t be soon forgotten.

I was so, so excited for The Becoming of Noah Shaw!  I loved the Mara Dyer series so much that I think it would be impossible for this to live up to that.  It was strange seeing Mara from an outside perspective, and I had forgotten what a jerk Noah was.  But I do love this world, so I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next book!

Nevernight keeps popping up on the book sites I follow.  I hadn’t actually read a review or summary of the book, however… yet the title made me curious enough to download it.  I can’t say I would recommend reading via ebook, because there are footnotes, and it took me a long time to get used to the author’s style.  The world is quite rich, and I ended up really enjoying it.  Hopefully I’ll be reading book #2, Godsgrave, next month!

A friend from college had recommended Lamb and Christopher Moore in general way back when, and I’ve had this book sitting on my shelves for literally years.  I brought it along to read while on vacation in the Azores, because it was almost Christmas and I couldn’t find The Twelve Frights of Christmas (I’m afraid I got rid of it!).  It was definitely amusing and somehow actually taught me more about the Bible…

The artwork on the cover of Erased convinced me to pick up this manga.  As you know, I don’t read a whole lot of manga, but this was a cool story.  Man occasionally relives seconds of his life until he changes something that saves lives, but when his mother is murdered he forces himself to go back to his childhood to prevent the murder of one of his classmates.  When I checked this out of the library, I thought this was a 2-book series that was complete, but turns out there are five volumes and counting…

Another book I just kept seeing, Milk and Honey is the only poetry collection I read this year.  Some of the poems really blew me away with their truth.  Others not so much…

I thought I would never win a Goodreads giveaway again, and I’m so happy it was this book.  Josh Malerman’s first book, Bird Box, is one that has stayed with me.  Unbury Carol (out in April 2018) was another unique thriller, taking place in the Wild West.

• Best Overall: Unbury Carol
• Best Audiobook: Feed
• Goriest: Nevernight
• Fastest Read: Louis Undercover (1 day)
• Slowest Read: Born at Midnight (13 days)

The full list (links take you to my Goodreads reviews):

1. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
2. Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix
3. Feed (Newsflesh #1) by Mira Grant (audiobook)
4. Thornhill by Pam Smy (graphic novel)
5. The Becoming of Noah Shaw (The Shaw Confessions #1) by Michelle Hodkin
6. Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
7. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
8. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
9. Louis Undercover by Fanny Britt (graphic novel)
10. Erased, Volume 1 by Kei Sanbe (graphic novel)
11. Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman (ARC)
12. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
13. Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls #1) by C.C. Hunter (audiobook)