Unlike the rest of 2020, my reading year was actually not terrible!!
As I talked about in my yearly recap, 2020 was the year that I joined the online book community, and it impacted me in so many ways, from reading more books that represented me to finding books that will be favorites for years to come!
So today, I’m very excited to recap my reading year by sharing my favorite and least favorite books, disappointing and surprising books, and bookish stats. This took me a long time to write and format (and Google Sheets hates me so it took even longer for the graphs 😭), but it was still so much fun to do, especially because I love screaming about books and stats!
WORST BOOKS:
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (1 star)
I’m not going to say anything about this other than this: please don’t support this racist author and book, it was absolutely terrible.
We Used to be Friends by Amy Spalding (2 stars)
This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2020, especially because I was so excited for a YA book centered on friendship rather than romance!! However, the characters frustrated me so much and the plot was extremely confusing to follow, so I didn’t end up liking it at all.
Always Never Yours by Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka (2 stars)
This book was also boring, and I couldn’t find myself connecting to the characters at all!! I honestly just skim read the last half because it was not interesting at all. 😳
DISAPPOINTING BOOKS:
The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum (2.5 stars)
This book is probably the one I’m most sad about being a disappointment to me, especially because literally everyone in the book community loves it!! However, I had high expectations for it and they were not met: I didn’t get the romance and the dialogue and plot all seemed really unrealistic to me. 😭 [read my review]
Lucky Caller by Emma Mills (2.5 stars)
I was really excited to pick up Emma Mills’s new book, especially I absolutely love two of her other contemporaries—Foolish Hearts and Famous In A Small Town!! However, I was severely disappointed by Lucky Caller, and I honestly don’t remember anything about it other than that it lacked the special heartwarming feeling I got from Emma Mills’s other books.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2.5 stars)
This book is so hyped, and I thought I would love it!! But going into it, I found that I really disliked Lara Jean as a protagonist—she didn’t feel 3-dimensional at all. In my review, I wrote “like, nothing really happened?” which I still agree with; I just didn’t get the point of this book! [read my review]
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour (2.5 stars)
I really enjoyed reading We Are Okay by Nina LaCour in 2019, so I thought I would love this one too! But I was just… so bored throughout it (it took me like 2 weeks to finish it, which is terrible considering I typically take 3-5 days to finish a book!!), I didn’t enjoy the romance, and the ending also felt so rushed. [read my review]
This is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Safi (2.5 stars)
This was another one of my most anticipated 2020 releases that unfortunately fell flat! The writing style was so annoying, and I started to lose interest after around the 50% mark because the plot started to get really confusing as well.
SURPRISING BOOKS:
You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson (4 stars)
You Should See Me In A Crown is the kind of book that creeps up on you in the best way possible, and I’m so glad I enjoyed it. I honestly thought that I wouldn’t like this book when I started it, but as I continued reading, I grew to love the cast of characters, the themes and basically everything about it!! [read my review]
I’ll Be The One by Lyla Lee (4 stars)
This book was so cute and I think I only read it in a few sittings because of how hooked I was!! I absolutely adored Skye as a main character, and the messages about standing up for yourself were so powerful. Also, the K-pop references were so fun. [read my review]
Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim (4.5 stars)
This book was so, so gorgeously written, and I simply adored the worldbuilding and romance. I also read this in just a few sittings because it was so easy to fall in love with, and I cannot wait to pick up the sequel!
Iron Heart by Nina Varela (4.5 stars)
As I’ve talked about before, I didn’t love the first book in this series (Crier’s War) as much as I thought I would, but this sequel completely made up for that. The writing was even more beautiful than it was in the first, and I found myself absolutely adoring the romance!! (Crier and Ayla have my heart 😭)
The Girl and Ghost by Hanna Alkaf (4.5 stars)
This book succeeded in: (1) reminding me why I love middle grade so much, (2) making me tear up due to its themes and gorgeous writing, and, (3) being impossible to put down because I was so invested in the story! I loved it so much, and the ending also had me shocked!!
FAVORITE BOOKS:
What I Carry by Jennifer Longo (5 stars)
This is such an underrated book, and I actually read it twice in 2020 to help me get out of a reading slump. The lovable characters, messages about family and friendship, and the way it was written with interweaving flashbacks all combined to make it an amazing read!!
Famous in a Small Town by Emma Mills (5 stars)
The small town vibes in this book are so perfect, and what really made it a favorite were the characters—specifically their amazing friend group. I just LOVED the friend group in this!! I also adored Emma Mills’s signature humor and binge-worthy writing.
When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore (5 stars)
Anna-Marie McLemore’s books are so, so gorgeously written and I especially loved this one!! The main characters Miel and Sam have such a lovely romance and I also adored the atmosphere and themes. (I’m planning on rereading this soon and I’m so excited!)
The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (4.5 stars)
This book is really hyped, and now I finally understand why! The characters are SO well written, and I loved every single one of them because they just felt so real. Also, Roshani Chokshi’s prose is gorgeous and I highlighted so many beautiful quotes! [read my review]
Picture Us In The Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert (5 stars)
I know I never shut up about this book, because it was my favorite book of 2020, and is also probably my favorite book all time. (I finished rereading and annotating last week as my first read of 2021 and I cried!! a lot!!) So I’m going to keep this brief and just tell you to just GO READ IT. [read my review]
STATS:
✧ ♡ ✧ ♡ ✧
Total Books Read: 78
Number of Rereads: 5
Average Rating (including rereads): 3.84/5
✧ ♡ ✧ ♡ ✧
Fun fact: I didn’t keep track of my 2020 books in any way other than Goodreads, so I had to go through all 78 of them a week ago and note down all this information in a spreadsheet!! It was… not an experience I enjoyed, which is why I’m definitely going to be using a spreadsheet for 2021.
Because of this, I was only able to track a little bit of information, so I only have 4 graphs for my stats!
I know I talk about loving contemporary a lot, but I was actually really surprised by these results?? I thought I would have read way more fantasy than I actually did. I also really need to start reading non-fiction more, because as you can see that I only read one nonfiction book in 2020!! Another thing I’m really disappointed with is that I read only 11 middle grade books, even though I absolutely adore MG books and how heartwarming they are.
The ratings graph is a bit confusing, so just to clarify, the numbers on the actual slices are the amount of books I gave that rating to (ex. I gave 8 books a rating of 5 stars), and the labels and percentage are on the outside of the graph!
I’m not too surprised by this, because as you can probably tell from all these graphs, I was very limited in my reading for 2020 and the majority of the books I read were YA contemporary novels.
However, I thought I would have more 4.5 star ratings, because that’s a rating I found myself using so often!! (Also: I think the 5-star ratings is a little inaccurate because I reread quite a few 5-star reads in 2020, so apart from rereads, I actually only had 4 new books I rated 5 stars.) I’m still so glad that the majority of my ratings were 4 stars or above, though!!
what were your favorite books of 2020? do we share any opinions about these books? do you enjoy looking at stats and graphs as much as i do or were you bored lol?
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