Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
‘Shall not I drive you through seas no other man would dare, shall not we together see lands that are the stuff of legends? Shall not we venture together under skies where the stars have not been named yet? Shall not we, you and I, weave such a tale of our adventures that the whole world will be in awe of us?’
I’m a huge fan of Robin Hobb’s Fitzchivalry Farseer series, yet Ship of Magicsat unread on my TBR for years. Every time I picked it up I just couldn’t get into it. But lockdown gave me the perfect excuse to sit down and give this nearly 900 page tome another go. And I’m so glad I did, because it marked the start of a fantasy trilogy that’s one of the best I’ve ever read. The plot follows a cast of characters from charming pirates desperate for power, to teenage girls caught up in their family’s machinations, to priests-in-training searching for god. It’s definitely a character-driven story so it is slightly slower-paced, but there’s also plenty of action, with ships battling on stormy seas and fist fights in portside taverns. It’s a must-read for fantasy fiction fans.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
‘The sound of the scream rings in the air after it has finished, like a struck glass. The guests are frozen in its wake. They are looking, all of them, out of the marquee and into the roaring darkness from where it came.’
After reading Lucy Foley’s The Hunting Partylast year, I knew I was in safe hands when looking for a fun murder mystery to keep me entertained during the long days of lockdown. The Guest Listsees the characters converge on a remote Irish island to attend a wedding, only to find themselves trapped by a violent storm during which one of the guests is found dead. The plot moves along at breakneck pace but doesn’t neglect its cast of three-dimensional characters, whose jealousies and rivalries are thrilling to watch unfold. There are a few plot holes, but the story was entertaining enough for this not to matter too much.
The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson
‘Good people don’t bow their heads and bite their tongues while other good people suffer. Good people are not complicit.’
In her debut novel, Alexis Henderson has created a dark, dystopian, blood-soaked world in which one woman’s refusal to obey the rules could prove to be the saviour or the downfall of her community. Set in the fictional settlement of Bethel, where women are expected to lead lives of submission and obedience, Immanuelle discovers the truth behind the all-powerful Church after witches gift her with her mother’s secret diary. It’s a claustrophobic, bloodthirsty story about a classic battle between good and evil; only the two may be less clear cut than it first seems. Immanuelle is an outsider, a figure of suspicion for her neighbours, and throughout the story we see her wrestle with the darker sides of her personality. After all, if you call someone a witch enough times, don’t be surprised if they start to believe it.
Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton
‘No more shots. Not yet. Fear thinning her skin, exposing her smallness. As she takes off her T-shirt to make a bandage she glances at the wall of the library that faces the garden, the shuttered windows too small and too high up for escape.’
A suitably dark book for such a difficult year, the beauty of Three Hoursis nevertheless in the way it shows how love and bravery can triumph in even the darkest of times. When students and teachers find themselves under siege from gunmen during a blizzard, they must find the courage to fight for survival. The whole story takes place over just three hours and flits between the perspectives of trapped students, parents desperate for news, and police trying to identify the gunmen. It’s a gripping, claustrophobic read from start to finish, and at around 300 pages is all too easy to read in one sitting.
Death by Shakespeare by Kathryn Harkup
‘Tempers were short, and most men carried weapons. It was the fashion that all gentlemen wore swords and virtually every adult male carried at least a dagger. Groups of men suddenly engaging in sword-fights with fatal results, as they do in Romeo and Juliet, was not just a convenient plot device; it was often the reality on London’s streets.’
I don’t read much non-fiction, but this book was such fantastic, gory fun I had to include it on my list of the best books of the year. Kathryn Harkup explores the many ways in which Shakespeare killed his characters, from poisonings to stabbings to snakebites, and just how realistic these deaths were. She also uses the Bard’s plays as a jumping-off point to explore the world of Elizabethan theatre, including how they made fake blood for fight scenes (spoiler: it wasn’t fake) and how they sourced costumes for plays. It’s a macabre journey through history and a fascinating insight into life in Tudor England.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
‘He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something… there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.’
As well as having one of the best titles of 2020, this was also one of the best books I read this year. When children from a tight-knit American community start going missing, Patricia Campbell and her fellow book clubbers decide to investigate. Suspicion quickly falls on James Harris, a handsome stranger newly arrived to the neighbourhood. Is he a child-snatcher, a murderer, or something worse? This book was witty, gory fun. As well as having plenty of humour, it also has moments when my heart was in my mouth and the suspense was almost unbearable. It will make you laugh, it will make your skin crawl, it will make you cheer for the characters to succeed – what more could you want?
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
‘So this is how men go to the devil, he thought bitterly. Cap in hand and short of hope, all their prayers gone unanswered.’
Stuart Turton’s first novel, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, was my favourite book of 2018, so my expectations were pretty high for this second offering. Thankfully, Devilis just as intricately plotted, incredibly clever and increasingly bonkers as its predecessor. Set in 1634, we are introduced to Sherlock Homes-style detective Samuel Pipps, who is being transported by ship to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may or may not have committed. But no sooner are they out to sea than inexplicable things start happening. Are the other passengers to blame, or is something supernatural stalking the ship? Here we have so many things I love in a story: an intriguing mystery, a claustrophobic setting, a colourful cast of characters and whispers of the supernatural. It’s a brilliantly entertaining, twisty-turny murder mystery.
The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.E. Schwab
‘The old gods may be great, but they are neither kind nor merciful. They are fickle, unsteady as moonlight on water, or shadows in a storm. If you insist on calling them, take heed: be careful what you ask for, be willing to pay the price. And no matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark.’
This was easily one of my most anticipated books of the year and I worried it would fail to live up to expectations. I am, after all, a huge V.E. Schwab fan. But this was the joyful, uplifting, hopeful book I needed to read in 2020. It follows Addie, a girl who longs so fiercely for freedom that she makes a deal with the devil to live forever – only she is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Addie is a wonderful character, brim-full of hope and the desire to live and love and experience everything the world has to offer, despite the curse she lives under. Schwab’s writing is beautiful and lyrical, her prose outstanding. It’s probably the best work she’s created so far, and I highly recommend it.
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
‘Now she knows she was foolish to believe that evil existed only out there. It was here, among them, walking on two legs, passing judgement with a human tongue.’
This intensely atmospheric historical fiction book is based on the true story of Norway’s 17thcentury witch trials. When the menfolk of the small island of Vardø are wiped out in a storm, the women are left to fend for themselves. Newly arrived to the island with her husband, who has been summoned to take control of these unruly women, is Ursa. Her friendship with Vardø native Maren forms the backbone of the story, set against the cold, brutal landscape of remote Scandinavia. But arguably the real star is Hargrave’s writing, which is beautiful, lyrical, and shows admirable subtlety when introducing the book’s terrifying villain.
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley
‘He saw Mori straightaway by the window, because the spray of mechanical parts on the table caught the light. He was making a toy octopus. He was adjusting something in its insides. The octopus was trying to steal the silver spoon from the sugar bowl.’
Natasha Pulley followed up her bestselling book The Watchmaker of Filigree Streetwith this fantastical sequel, following familiar characters Thaniel Steepleton and Keita Mori as they journey to 19thcentury Japan to investigate strange goings-on at the British Legation. This book joins Watchmakeras one of the most charming and unique stories I’ve ever read. From a metal octopus that runs on clockwork to ghosts revealed by clouds of icing sugar, you’ll long to spend as much time as possible in this fantastical steampunk world. With a cheeky sense of humour and magical realism that transports you to a uniquely different time and place, this was my most entertaining and memorable read of 2020.
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