Best and worst of 2018

Best and worst from last year

As it's the start of the year, rather than a full list of the books I read last year, here are the edited highlights (and a couple of lowlights).  In the order I read them, rather than order of preference...

The Squeeze - Leslie Glaister

Leslie Glaister is a real talent.  This book had sequences so tense my fingers left gouges in the cover.  A story about an unfortunate girl smuggled into the country by a gang of sex traffickers and an ordinary man whose life becomes infinitely more complicated after he meets her.

I am Behind You - John Ajvide Lindqvist

One of his more recent books and part one of a thematic trilogy.  THis was a surreal and really quite brilliant novel. Entirely unpredictable, fast paced and weird as hell.  A group of caravanners wake up to find themselves alone in a vast unending wasteland.

 Unbury Carol - Josh Malerman

Probably my favorite book of the year. A dark fairy tale for adults, a weird western, a quest to save a stricken woman from a dastardly murder plot - this is epic storytelling.  Since Bird box, Josh Malerman has improved with every book (and I loved Bird Box when i read it - must remember to watch the film).

Never anyone but you - Rupert Thomson

A biography of two artists who ran an underground propoganda campaign against the nazis on occupied Jersey in the second world war.  The story spans the lovers' journey from their first meeting as teenagers, through a thoroughly decadent stay in 20s Paris to their retreat to Jersey.  Thomson is an exquisite writer and this book is up there with his absolute best.

A Perfectly Good Man - Patrick Gale

My first Patrick Gale novel and I must read more.  In a non-linear narrative he tells the story of the suicide of a young man, the impact this has on the local parish priest and the small town they live in. Emotional without being sentimental, and with a hugely creepy "villain" lurking in the background.

Black Swan Green - David Mitchell

Yes, I know this puts six in my top 5 but I couldn't leave this brilliant coming of age story out of the list.


Those were my top five-ish for the year.  Honourable mentions to Daniel Handler's All the Dirty Parts and John Probert's Dr Valentine trilogy which were fantastically fun reads.

Biggest disappointments of the year.

I'd heard such good things about this, but, though I thought there were some good sections and the writing was generally pretty tight, the story was very cliched and I saw the big reveal about 200 pages early. Style over substance unfortunately



Worst books of the year

The first of these featured a long meandering narrative that went precisely nowhere.  The others - although I like trashy horror, these took it to new depths.

This was the best book cover of the year - I found it in the charity section at the front of a local tesco.  Sadly the story isn't that good.  Lot's of missed opportunity with the characters they had. It should have been the written equivalent of any number of 70s disaster movies, but it didn't do anything particularly interesting with the cast once the train was buried and they were all trapped together.  It doesn't count as biggest disappointment, because I had no high hopes for it.