I like to pretend that I’m a harsh critic. I don’t want to give 5 stars to just any book.
However! These are 5 books I read in 2021 that I gave 5 stars to, going all over in terms of genre. I’m going to recommend these without spoilers so hopefully, I can convince you to read them too.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
This book is a nightmare. Colson Whitehead tells a story of the Nickel Academy, which was a real reform school in Florida that operated for over 111 years. Whitehead’s version tells the tale of Elwood Curtis, a young black man in the 1960s, abandoned by his parents and raised by his grandmother. Just as Elwood is about to enrol in a local black college, he is in the wrong place at the wrong time and his future disappears. Elwood is taken to the Nickel Academy, which promises to teach young men how to become ‘honourable and honest.’
The Nickel Academy is hell on earth. The abuse is constant and comes in all forms. Elwood tries his best to hold onto his positive outlook, even though his new friend Turner thinks he’s incredibly naive. Elwood and Turner become entangled and try their best to get through the Nickel Academy even when the repercussions of their time there follow them decades later. Whitehead’s story is devastating and brutal, and harder to take when you learn the Nickel Academy didn’t shut down until 2011. It’s difficult content to get through, but it was an impactful read with a killer twist at the end.
A Winter’s Promise (Book 1 of Mirror Visitor Series) by Christelle Dabos
This book is what caused me to start a Bookstagram in the first place because I just had to talk to someone about it. I hadn’t read a book this whimsical... ever? A Winter’s Promise is the first book in the Mirror Visitor series by Christelle Dabos, a series translated from French.
This is a fantasy story that follows Ophelia, a young girl who can travel through mirrors and has the ability to read the souls of objects. Ophelia lives with her large family on the Ark of Anima, she has a peaceful existence running a museum that she loves. Until she is arranged to marry Thorn, who is from the faraway Ark of the Pole. A Winter’s Promise follows Ophelia on her tumultuous journey trying to fit in on a freezing new Ark while trying to navigate the various powers of the different clans.
I have never read a book as unique as this. Also, I haven’t had to put down a book and look up a word’s definition in literal years until this book. This is the kind of writing that makes you feel like you’re learning something, and also totally lost at the same time. I have yet to read the rest of the series, but even as a standalone, this book is stunning.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
This feels like an obvious recommendation at this point. A historical fiction, this story starts with Monique Grant, a young woman who is handpicked to write Evelyn Hugo’s biography. Evelyn has lived a lavish, calculated, old Hollywood life. She begins her story of stardom in the 1950s.
Taylor Jenkins Reid does an amazing job of making me love and hate Evelyn. She has depth, attitude, she’s ruthlessly honest but calculating and shrouded at the same time. Evelyn is burdened with secrets, and all alone, but unwaveringly strong. This book explores sexuality in a new light, discusses what it means to live authentically to one’s self, and the price of being true to one’s identity.
I don’t want to talk about the plot at all, nothing should be spoiled. The last 40 pages hit you like a truck. Immediate 5-star rating after that.
House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) by Sarah J. Maas
I have a shameless love for House of Earth and Blood. I read this book in January of 2021 and fell in love. Bryce Quinlan is a strong woman who loves getting completely intoxicated and dancing the night away with her friends. However, after one such evening she comes home and realizes her friends have been murdered. Years later, the attacks start again so she has to team up with the fallen angel Hunt Athalar to solve this mystery.
This is a fantastical murder mystery with a sassy mean protagonist. This book is filled with characters you can’t help to love and lots of twists and turns. Heartbreak comes quickly and often. I reread this book at the end of 2021 and while it moves slow, it was still 5 stars. The second book in the series comes out in February 2022.
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
This is a story based on Georgia Hunter’s ancestors. In the Spring of 1939, the Kurc family is living in the hometown of Radom, Poland, just trying to live life as normally as possible as danger looms over all of Europe. This is a tale following different members of the Kurc families and how they fare through the horrors of the Holocaust.
This is a heart wrenching and heartwarming recount of events, I cried multiple times throughout the book. As with many books about the Holocaust, it feels hopeless and horrible and neverending, but stories about families like the Kurcs tug so deeply at my heartstrings, and what it takes to endure and come out the other side.
Blog Post By Kendal @whatskendalreading
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