Another a year, another almost impossible task trying to each choose our Top 10 Reads of the year! Like past years I won’t be including re-reads, sometimes my opinion of a book could change and evolve after I had read it, so some surprises may be up near the top, as well as perhaps a book or two that didn’t make my reviews on here initially due to genre limitations. But here they are, ready for a countdown! And since it’s the end of the reading year, don’t forget to enter our “Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway”! Today I’m going to countdown my favorite reads, five to one.
5. “For You and Only You” by Caroline Kepnes
I can almost guarantee that any entry to Caroline Kepnes’s “You” series will always be a favorite of the year for me, just because I love Joe and all of his horribleness so much that any adventure he has I will accompany him on. And “For You and Only You” is just a new setting with a new cast of similarly awful characters to accompany him on, this time going after the snobs and Massholes of Boston and Harvard. Joe is once again obsessed with a new woman, and in the name of love does terrible things to terrible people. Is it a familiar story for him? Sure! But Kepnes still has the darkly humorous and satirical voice for Joe that makes the read a lot of wicked fun.
4. “Night’s Edge” by Liz Kerin
This mother-daughter vampire story really put my emotions THROUGH IT this year. As a mother to my own daughter who I absolutely adore (and am constantly in worry of failing as a mom), the story of young adult Mia having to care for her vampiric mother Izzy, and all the toxic codependence that comes with having to care for a manipulative parent who has to hide from the world during the day, was a breathtaking and heartbreaking horror novel. I love vampire stories when they are done to cater to my standards, and this one had moments of terror, moments of heartache, and moments of coming of age that all came together to be a devastating horror story about mothers and daughters. I cannot wait for the sequel, which comes out in a few months.
3. “Delicate Condition” by Danielle Valentine
I’m done having kids, and if there was ever going to be a book that would scare me to death about potential impending pregnancies, “Delicate Condition” would be it, so it’s good I read it when I was through. Danielle Valentine’s pregnancy based horror novel about a woman with a stressful and very strange pregnancy, feelings of being watched, and the all too real horrors of being pregnant when surrounded by people who don’t understand or take you seriously. The tension of Anna Alcott’s pregnancy journey is a feminist telling of “Rosemary’s Baby” in a lot of ways, while being a critique of misogyny and toxic positivity that mothers are supposed to have about having children, no matter how terrifying it can be. Even when it’s not a potentially demonic one! I loved this book, absolutely tearing through it and being very, very freaked out.
2. “Here In The Night” by Rebecca Turkewitz
This book is probably the most surprising read of 2023 for me, if only because I had no idea what to expect when I picked “Here In The Night” up, and completely adored it. This short horror stories collection by Rebecca Turkewitz is a horror story collection, yes, but it has a tone and feeling about it that feels more realistic, more muted, and incredibly bittersweet, anchoring the horror tales with women characters, queer characters, and characters who may be dealing with something supernatural, or crime thriller, but always has underpinings of real life scares that these demographics face every day existing in modern life. Not only did the stories creep me out and get under my skin, they also brought out a lot of emotions that I hadn’t been expecting. I just loved this collection.
1. “Lore Olympus” by Rachel Smythe
“Lore Olympus” Review (Vol. 1)
Of all the books that I read in 2023, there is one that really stands out and one that I have been gushing about to anyone who will listen, and that is “Lore Olympus” (for the purposes of the list I’m just clumping all volumes into one grouping). I have been adoring the story of Persephone and Hades and the Greek Gods and Goddesses around them, as it takes one of my favorite myths and puts it through a modern lens that makes ALL of the characters compelling and interesting. I love the love story. I love the way Smythe has written Hera. I love the humor and the heart and the artwork. I love how it tackles deep topics that tug at the heart strings while also making me laugh out loud. There was no way this wasn’t going to be my number one read of 2023. Just phenomenal.
The Library Ladies 
Delicate Condition almost made my top 5, it was amazing😁
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Agreeeeeed, it was such a great and upsetting read! -k
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