While 2020 has been a memorable year for the most unfortunate host of reasons, there is at least one part of it I will remember fondly, and that is all the wonderful reads I discovered this year. This was the first year I dipped my toes into the wonderful realm of audio books, which has certainly helped me expand my reading time. Whether I’m getting ready in the morning, doing chores, or spinning yarn at my spinning wheel (yes, I am that kind of history nerd), being able to dive into a story at the same time has been the most wonderful boon.
In total, I’ve managed to read 35 books this year, 28 being fiction and 9 being non-fiction. Just like my professional editing specializations, my reading tastes lean toward fantasy, speculative, historical, and literary fiction. In this post, I’ll cover my top fiction reading recommendations from 2020 grouped into their respective genre categories. Hopefully this list will help you find your next delightful read too.
High Fantasy Recommendations
The Witcher Series by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Premise:
“Geralt the Witcher—revered and hated—is a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.”
My Response:
I was first introduced to the Witcher series through the recently released Netflix adaptation. While I had reservations about the show, the world and story still fascinated me enough to play the videogame adaptation The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. After spending several weeks being addicted the videogame’s world, characters, and story, I simply had to read the books. I then spent the next two months being addicted to the books themselves. Even though there are seven books in the series, I ended up finishing the whole thing in a matter of weeks.
Andrzej Sapkowski is a literary genius. His books have the same worldbuilding depth as Tolkien’s, the same narrative pull as Rothfuss’s, and the same literary depth as Le Guin’s. Such. Good. Books. I highly recommend. Also, do note that the series wasn’t published chronologically. I would recommend starting the series with The Last Wish, which wasn’t published first but is the earliest book in the story’s timeline.
Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner
The Premise:
“Onna can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she’s denied a place at the nation’s premier arcane academy. Undaunted, she sails to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping to find a place at a university where they don’t think there’s anything untoward about providing a woman with a magical education. But as soon as Onna arrives, she’s drawn into the mysterious murder of four trolls.
Tsira is a troll who never quite fit into her clan, despite being the leader’s daughter. She decides to strike out on her own and look for work in a human city, but on her way she stumbles upon the body of a half-dead human soldier in the snow. As she slowly nurses him back to health, an unlikely bond forms between them, one that is tested when an unknown mage makes an attempt on Tsira’s life. Soon, unbeknownst to each other, Onna and Tsira both begin devoting their considerable talents to finding out who is targeting trolls before their homeland is torn apart.”
My Response:
Unnatural Magic delightfully twists high fantasy conventions while still providing a captivating mystery and entrancing story. High fantasy worlds so often borrow from the medieval era that we often don’t even notice that historical influence anymore. Unnatural Magic instead pulls historical inspiration from the Victorian era. Its entirely new magical world is populated with cultures, technology, and social structures that borrow heavily from the mid-to-late nineteenth century. I naturally loved it to pieces. The book will always have a place on my shelf as another one of my favourites.
Low/Urban Fantasy Recommendations
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
The Premise:
“Far beneath the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. The entryways that lead to this sanctuary are often hidden, sometimes on forest floors, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in plain sight. But those who seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them.”
My Response:
Erin Morgenstern is one of my all-time favourite authors. Her characters are so relatable and compelling. Her gentle and melodic voice pulls you in, and the magical places and experiences she creates for her characters and readers are so profoundly beautiful. The stories she tells are the ones that stay with you and make the world feel all the brighter for their existence. I first fell in love with Morgenstern’s writing with her debut The Night Circus, released in 2011. While her most recent work is certainly different and a touch more experimental, the story is still just as entrancing and enjoyable. If I had to pick a favourite from 2020, The Starless Sea would be a close contender.
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
The Premise:
“A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real)—until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets.
There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate . . . or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere.
El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.”
My Response:
I won’t lie, when I first read the premise of Novik’s A Deadly Education, I was a bit trepidatious. Naomi Novik is another of my favourite authors. Her previous works were high fantasy, heavily influenced by classic folktales, and written in a very lyrical writing style. Her book A Deadly Education takes a different direction as another urban fantasy take on the teenager‑goes‑to‑wizard‑school plot. I was worried that I wouldn’t like her new direction and that the plot and world wouldn’t be as unique and compelling as in her previous works.
I am so glad that I still took a chance on this book. From the first chapter I was hooked. Novik’s take on a magic school was completely new, the social dynamics of the magical society felt realistic, and I couldn’t help but fall in love with the defiant and fierce protagonist. A Deadly Education is another of Naomi Novik’s works that I highly recommend.
Speculative Recommendations
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
The Premise:
“It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmanoeuvre his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.
The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined – every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.”
My Response:
Suzanne Collins has been one of my favourite authors ever since my fifth-grade teacher read the Gregor the Overlander series to us in class. (Yes, I was a fan of Suzanne Collins before she wrote The Hunger Games, and yes, I am somewhat proud of that fact.) President Snow is the embodiment of corruption and evil in the original Hunger Games series. Yet as I followed Snow through his teenage years, I found him quite the sympathetic character until his moral fall at the story’s end. This prequel was as fascinating and gripping as the originals, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Historical Fiction Recommendations
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
The Premise:
“Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Bergensdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny northern town of Vardø must fend for themselves.
Three years later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both heady with her husband’s authority and terrified by it. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa sees something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God and flooded with a mighty evil.
As Maren and Ursa are pushed together and are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them with Absalom’s iron rule threatening Vardø’s very existence.
Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1620 witch trials, The Mercies is a feminist story of love, evil, and obsession, set at the edge of civilization.”
My Response:
This was another mesmerizing historical tale. The setting and history are fascinating and the story’s central romance is heart wrenching. The feminist perspective in this tale is certainly present but never heavy handed. This tale is dark but also has so much beauty in it. If you’re in a place where you can handle a dark story, I wholeheartedly recommend The Mercies.
Historical Fantasy and Other Genre-Blending Recommendations
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Premise:
“In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child – not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power – the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.”
My Response:
Old mythology often sounds strange and illogical to modern ears. Madeline Miller’s Circe holds true to the myths while still making them accessible to a modern audience. The gods and mortals’ actions and motives make sense. The protagonist and her mortal loves are deeply sympathetic. Even Odysseus becomes complex and sympathetic in this story. (I always found him irritating in lit classes for his pride and self-centredness.) Then in addition bringing humanity to these mythic characters, the tale itself is riveting and fascinating. Circe is another brilliant book to add to your shelf.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Premise:
“After receiving a frantic letter from her newly wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.”
My Response:
Mexican Gothic twists genres together into a haunting tale set in 1950’s Mexico. It’s got mystery, history, romance, and a tasteful dash of gothic horror. It’s an entrancing take on a gothic haunted-house mystery that manages to feel both classic and utterly unique. I enjoyed it very much. If you too enjoy gothic mysteries, then I would wholeheartedly recommend it.
Widow’s Welcome by D.K. Fields
The Premise:
“Dead bodies aren’t unusual in the alleyways of Fenest. Muggings, brawls gone bad, debts collected – Detective Cora Gorderheim has seen it all. Until she finds a Wayward man with his mouth sewn shut. As Detective Gorderheim pieces together the dead man’s story, she’s drawn into the most dangerous story in the Union of Realms: the election. Gorderheim just wants to find a killer but nothing’s that simple in an election year. Dark forces conspire against the Union and Gorderheim finds herself at the rotten core of it all. She’ll find the killer, but at what cost?”
My Response:
This novel’s genre is hard to pinpoint. It takes place in the fantastical world of Fenest, marking the story as high fantasy. This fantastical world also heavily borrows from the Victorian era, making it lean toward historical fantasy. But while its world is fantastical, the plot follows the structure of a classic detective mystery with a fair amount of political intrigue thrown in.
The way that this story blends genres makes it entirely unique and captivating. Overall, I enjoyed it very much. My only hang-up was that I thought this was a stand-alone book. It’s actually the first book in an as-of-yet unfinished trilogy. Just so you can avoid the mid-book confusion that I had, know that, while significant progress is made, the story and mystery will not be fully resolved by the end of book one.
I have a couple of these books. You are reminding me of why I got them. Perhaps I need to do more reading.