Books that made an impact pt 1 - 2024

Hello all, and happy holidays! It’s officially that strange and liminal space at the end of the year where time goes out of joint and leftover food seems to multiply as soon as you close the refrigerator door. What better time to reflect on some great reads from the past year, eh?

Disclaimer: this is all E’s doing, so if you think it’s rubbish, blame her. There is at least one book that should be on here (based on M’s rave review) that she hasn’t gotten round to reading yet so be better than her and go read Gorse by Sam K Horton now!!

Disclaimer the second: This is not a ‘best of’ list. The idea of writing one of those is hive-inducing. This is a list of books that stuck out in some way, made us think some thinky thoughts, or otherwise impacted E’s creative practice or approach to books. Capiche? Onwards!

Fen by Daisy Johnson: 2024 was the year of reading more short story collections, as E wanted to get more familiar with the format. Fen had a compelling central premise - the location (one Johnson was intimately familiar with) that ties everything together and lets magic and secrets seep out into the prose. Not quite folk horror, not quite fantasy, it straddled the line and brought that liminal (there’s that word again) influence to the stories inside.

Boy Parts by Eliza Clark: A fearless debut that’s not afraid to ‘go there’, with a compelling narrator with little to redeem her. This provoked thoughts about unreliable narration: how do we as authors walk that delicate line between the character’s truth vs that of the book? This was a question we grappled with while writing The Needfire; Boy Parts delivers on that exceptionally well I think.

Where Peace is Lost by Valerie Valdes: While Valdes’ past books have been more openly humorous and silly (and were used as a comp for our own space opera for that reason!) Where Peace is Lost is contemplative and serious. This works so well with the characters and conflict of the book, as ex-peacekeeper Kel Garda struggles with the responsibility she still holds close when a once-dormant war machine awakes on the planet where she is sheltering. It was a beautiful exploration of the quiet side of science fantasy, and showed how a character’s internal journey can be a compelling driver.

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter: Yeah, yeah, I hadn’t read this one until this year, and instead of regretting all the time I wasted I’m just glad I finally did. Never has a collection so defined the word ‘lush’ as TBC, and it was a joy to be subsumed by the prose. Sometimes the beauty of the words themselves elevate a work, and E will be thinking about the indulgence and richness of these stories for a long time to come.

Saltblood by Francesca de Torres: First of all holy HELL is that a good cover, right? Secondly, this is a work of historical fiction that is partially grounded in what little is known about famous female pirate Mary Read. de Torres winds the tricky path between fact and fiction beautifully, drawing a picture of a fully-formed person out of sometimes sensational historical record. As authors who write fiction influenced by historical people and events, this was a very thought-provoking read indeed.

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch: From the past to the (near) future - obviously this book has been lauded and your mileage may vary on whether your own feelings align with said praise, but E came away from reading feeling like she’d been punched in the gut. This is a story about moving forward when every step could crumble beneath you, about grounding a tragedy in human stories so that the reader never feels distanced. It was masterfully done, even if I’m not sure I ever want to read it again.

A Magician Among the Spirits by Harry Houdini: A non-fiction book read as research for our second novel with Solaris, this served two purposes. Firstly, it gave a huge amount of useful info about Spiritualist séances and the tricks they pulled in order to draw in audiences (more on that if you read our book…) Secondly, it helped pull a lot of things into place regarding our protagonist and her motivations for debunking fraudulent mediums. It was a surprisingly entertaining and quick read as well!

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir: Short and sweet, this novella has a killer premise and uses its length perfectly. A masterclass in not over-explaining but rather letting the emotion and motivation of the characters drive things to their inevitable conclusion. As someone who struggles to know how much to put on the page it was a timely reminder that sometimes less is more.

Okay, we’re halfway through and I’ve used this as procrastination for long enough… part 2 will come in a few days! Thanks for reading folks.