The fantasy category is interesting because I think, based on being a big fantasy reader myself and meddling in fantasy book spaces, you could broadly categorise fantasy readers into categories of romantasy, YA fantasy (throne of glass, the final strife, so let them burn, his dark materials etc.) and then adult high fantasy fans (wheel of time, LOTR, ASOIAF, Sanderson etc.), and then sort of like a mild fantasy where it’s more fantasy elements, magical realism in more contemporary or literary fiction. And the selection of the books in this category this year doesn’t quite target any single of those categories of fantasy readers imo to the point where a lot of fantasy readers didn’t really have anything to vote for. I hardly saw any of those books talked about online aside from The Familiar and the Emily Wilde sequel. I personally largely belong to the third group I mentioned and so despite being a massive fantasy reader my whole life I had nothing to vote for in this which feels weird lol (I did read the tainted cup but didn’t like it much)
I think that describes the nominees really well. I'm wondering if whichever GR staff member curated this year's list isn't a fantasy reader and just went by the numbers, because I can't imagine what a reader that would have read many/most of those would look like.
I think T. Kingfisher's What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night are her least scary horror works so mifht be worth a try if you typically avoid horror! The Twisted Ones and the Hollow Places are her most scary BY FAR in my opinion
PLEASE check out That's Not My Name! It was my 2nd favorite thriller of the year behind only S.A. Cosby. It's so well written, it's incredibly tense from page 1, it features incredibly realistic and not annoying teenage characters. While 90% of adult thrillers are problematic and glorifying trauma, That's Not My Name was a breath of fresh air!
Mari, you are so right when you said this year the awards feel so bland. The only categories that felt interesting to me were the two YA categories and the horror category, probs because they're the only categories with a significant amount of diversity in terms of race/culture/sexuality etc.
I do think it would be interesting if a Fourth Wing book went up against SJM though! Not because that would break any barriers or anything positive for the genre obviously, but just because I would be interested to see who would come out on top. By the numbers, if House of whatever whatever came out last year, Fourth Wing would have destroyed it. It will be interesting to see what the numbers for Onyx Storm are next year, to see what momentum it is still pulling. Look, I just like to insert drama into my meaningless book awards! Lol
I read The Women for my work book club, and I absolutely hated everything about that book. The writing, the FMC, the silly instalove relationships, the lack of story and character development, the ridiculous ending-I could go on. It was also man-centered to be a book called The Women. I’m still mad that I read it. I will never read another word by KH. The Ministry of Time was one of my biggest disappointments of the year. I wouldn’t consider it science fiction, though.
Time travel is pretty solidly in SF genre wise but I was also disappointed by Ministry of Time! It felt like it was balancing a lot of things but ultimately didn't have a clear thesis? It seems more popular with people who don't read a lot of books in a year.
@ Yeah, I don't know what it wanted to be-time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy-it was too much of nothing special. It felt more like literary fiction to me despite the time travel, but that may be just me.
@booksandbags oh yeah in terms of like, marketing categories I think it's Commercial Fiction but given Orbital's nomination in this category at least Ministry of Time has a speculative element.
I've described The Ministry of Time as "scifi for people who don't actually like scifi." The time travel elements were "whatever the plot requires" when the book remembered to have a plot; it's otherwise very slice-of-life-esque, imo.
Yeah I'm a Fantasy reader but I'd only heard of a few of those and read none of them, like y'all brought up some books that WERE popular and WERE great like Blood Over Bright Haven but were bafflingly omitted. (I can forgive them leaving out niche releases like Song of the Mysteries, which is the 11th book in a fairly dense series of books). With YA Fantasy and Romantasy having their own categories I don't understand what the criteria is now for what Fantasy books make the cut
I got The Wedding People free as an Amazon Prime freebie, or maybe it was $1.99. That may have helped people see it. I don't think I would have picked it if I had to pay full price for it. I thought it was okay but I wouldn't call it great. Thanks for the video!
This stream cracked me up 😂😂 I agree, small town romance books give me KKK/M@ga vibes, thought I was the only one lmao. I was extremely disappointed by the SJM win, I wasn't surprised per se, but House of Flame and Shadow was *awful*. Not a good sign for the romantasy genre that her books continue to dominate smh.
My biggest disappointment from these nominees is that I didn't add any new and interesting books to my TBR. Some covers got me to click through, but ultimately none of the synopses in any of the genres I read interested me enough to want to read it.
I have never read an Abby Jimenez because I have heard less good things from people with taste more similar to mine than people with taste less similar BUT I do get excited to see a Minnesota author being read by so many people.
I read one book of Freida McFadden and it was a interesting ride. It was enough to try another one but that second one I tried was The Teacher and not only was it bad but the messaging at the end was so icky that i won't read anything else of her
if sjm one day has no haters i am dead. she is just such a vile person and i wouldn't want to support someone like that by giving them money by consuming her books, also her vileness bleeds into her books, i have no understanding why people like that.
The fantasy category is interesting because I think, based on being a big fantasy reader myself and meddling in fantasy book spaces, you could broadly categorise fantasy readers into categories of romantasy, YA fantasy (throne of glass, the final strife, so let them burn, his dark materials etc.) and then adult high fantasy fans (wheel of time, LOTR, ASOIAF, Sanderson etc.), and then sort of like a mild fantasy where it’s more fantasy elements, magical realism in more contemporary or literary fiction. And the selection of the books in this category this year doesn’t quite target any single of those categories of fantasy readers imo to the point where a lot of fantasy readers didn’t really have anything to vote for. I hardly saw any of those books talked about online aside from The Familiar and the Emily Wilde sequel. I personally largely belong to the third group I mentioned and so despite being a massive fantasy reader my whole life I had nothing to vote for in this which feels weird lol (I did read the tainted cup but didn’t like it much)
I think that describes the nominees really well. I'm wondering if whichever GR staff member curated this year's list isn't a fantasy reader and just went by the numbers, because I can't imagine what a reader that would have read many/most of those would look like.
I think T. Kingfisher's What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night are her least scary horror works so mifht be worth a try if you typically avoid horror! The Twisted Ones and the Hollow Places are her most scary BY FAR in my opinion
PLEASE check out That's Not My Name! It was my 2nd favorite thriller of the year behind only S.A. Cosby. It's so well written, it's incredibly tense from page 1, it features incredibly realistic and not annoying teenage characters. While 90% of adult thrillers are problematic and glorifying trauma, That's Not My Name was a breath of fresh air!
Mari, you are so right when you said this year the awards feel so bland. The only categories that felt interesting to me were the two YA categories and the horror category, probs because they're the only categories with a significant amount of diversity in terms of race/culture/sexuality etc.
I was shocked over Somewhere Beyond the Sea. Leigh Bardugo's book was beautifully written.
I do think it would be interesting if a Fourth Wing book went up against SJM though! Not because that would break any barriers or anything positive for the genre obviously, but just because I would be interested to see who would come out on top. By the numbers, if House of whatever whatever came out last year, Fourth Wing would have destroyed it. It will be interesting to see what the numbers for Onyx Storm are next year, to see what momentum it is still pulling. Look, I just like to insert drama into my meaningless book awards! Lol
I read The Women for my work book club, and I absolutely hated everything about that book. The writing, the FMC, the silly instalove relationships, the lack of story and character development, the ridiculous ending-I could go on. It was also man-centered to be a book called The Women. I’m still mad that I read it. I will never read another word by KH.
The Ministry of Time was one of my biggest disappointments of the year. I wouldn’t consider it science fiction, though.
Time travel is pretty solidly in SF genre wise but I was also disappointed by Ministry of Time! It felt like it was balancing a lot of things but ultimately didn't have a clear thesis?
It seems more popular with people who don't read a lot of books in a year.
@ Yeah, I don't know what it wanted to be-time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy-it was too much of nothing special. It felt more like literary fiction to me despite the time travel, but that may be just me.
@booksandbags oh yeah in terms of like, marketing categories I think it's Commercial Fiction but given Orbital's nomination in this category at least Ministry of Time has a speculative element.
@ I agree 100% with Orbital. Just because it is set in space does not make it a sci-fi novel, and I really loved It.
I've described The Ministry of Time as "scifi for people who don't actually like scifi." The time travel elements were "whatever the plot requires" when the book remembered to have a plot; it's otherwise very slice-of-life-esque, imo.
Yeah I'm a Fantasy reader but I'd only heard of a few of those and read none of them, like y'all brought up some books that WERE popular and WERE great like Blood Over Bright Haven but were bafflingly omitted. (I can forgive them leaving out niche releases like Song of the Mysteries, which is the 11th book in a fairly dense series of books). With YA Fantasy and Romantasy having their own categories I don't understand what the criteria is now for what Fantasy books make the cut
I got The Wedding People free as an Amazon Prime freebie, or maybe it was $1.99. That may have helped people see it. I don't think I would have picked it if I had to pay full price for it. I thought it was okay but I wouldn't call it great.
Thanks for the video!
This stream cracked me up 😂😂 I agree, small town romance books give me KKK/M@ga vibes, thought I was the only one lmao. I was extremely disappointed by the SJM win, I wasn't surprised per se, but House of Flame and Shadow was *awful*. Not a good sign for the romantasy genre that her books continue to dominate smh.
i read the stephen king book
My biggest disappointment from these nominees is that I didn't add any new and interesting books to my TBR. Some covers got me to click through, but ultimately none of the synopses in any of the genres I read interested me enough to want to read it.
I have never read an Abby Jimenez because I have heard less good things from people with taste more similar to mine than people with taste less similar BUT I do get excited to see a Minnesota author being read by so many people.
Lower your Phantasma expectations, Mari. My friend just read it and it's wildly uneven in quality and borderline erotica.
Boo Hisssss at the fantasy category. My favs are so low 😭
If Storygraph did an awards voting would it be based on the UK publishing dates instead of USA?
I read one book of Freida McFadden and it was a interesting ride. It was enough to try another one but that second one I tried was The Teacher and not only was it bad but the messaging at the end was so icky that i won't read anything else of her
Yesss If Books Could Kill shoutout!
Romance and romantic books rule the market.
Loved this collab! ❤ I’m liking GR less and less lately. Such a disappointing line up of books. 😭
if sjm one day has no haters i am dead. she is just such a vile person and i wouldn't want to support someone like that by giving them money by consuming her books, also her vileness bleeds into her books, i have no understanding why people like that.
I’m the other person who bought You Like it Darker, I guess. 😂 I’ve only read the first three stories though, so I didn’t vote for it.