Wow, look at that. I’m here again to share another installment of Books of the Year. Today I’ll be posting about all the random fiction books I read in 2023. It wasn’t my favorite category by any means. *sighs* I’ve come to the realization that I don’t like modern fiction at all. When you read classics and then try to read the cheap, modern fluff, there is no comparison.
Read: 9 books
Average Year Written: 2010
Average Rating: 3 Stars
Average Page Count Per Book: 280
Best: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Worst: Letting Ana Go by Anonymous
Titles in italics are re-reads and ones with asterisks are audiobooks.
Letting Ana Go by Anonymous – 1 Star
The author’s intentions may have been good, but this book is a manual for anorexia. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, but especially people recovering from eating disorders.
A Sidekick’s Tale by Elisabeth Grace Foley – 5 Stars
Meredith needed a husband quick to save her ranch. Her farmhand offers to fill that place. His best friend gives an old family ring to make it official. What follows is chaos, hilarity, and a lot of unexpected twists. It’s such a random, absurd book. I couldn’t stop laughing.
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee – 2 Stars
Cute, feisty little Scout has grown up… I was expecting this to be a great sequel for To Kill A Mockingbird. It was tragically boring, long, and lacking any depth or moral. *cries*
Priceless by Joel & Luke Smallbone – 3 Stars
James Stevens’ life crumbles and he loses everything. He takes whatever work he can find including driving a truck across the country to an unknown destination. His curiosity gets the better of him, and when he opens the truck, he finds two women. They are caught in human trafficking and James fights to save them.
It was a fine story, but horribly written as movie novelizations usually are.
Fault in Our Stars by John Green – 2 Stars
One afternoon, while attending the dreaded Cancer Support Group, Hazel meets Augustus Waters. What follows is a story of life, death, and love.
I have mixed feelings on this one. On one hand, I didn’t enjoy it very much. I don’t like modern fiction as already stated. I don’t like romance stories. I don’t appriciate the questionable content.
I kept reading because of Augustus. When I read the book, I was searching for purpose and meaning in life. I was very confused about truth, about my place, and about God.
Augustus was desperate to do something meaningful with his life before he died. His worst fear was that he would die, and the world would go on as if he never existed. I connected with that so deeply.
For my whole life up until this year, when God finally broke through in my heart and changed my whole mindset, I would fall into fits of depression because I hated the thought that I would die, and the world wouldn’t ever know that I was there. My life would have been nothing, worthless, purposeless.
That’s the reason that, at the time, I liked Fault in our Stars. It offered me a bit of hope that just like Augustus, one day maybe I could understand that my life was needed even if I didn’t do big things.
No Place Like Here by Christina June* – 3 Stars
A story about a girl who goes to work at camp to escape troubles at home…and falls in love with a handsome young man. Or two.
A suprisingly cute, but forgettable, cliché story.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg* – 5 Stars
Claudia’s parents didn’t appreciate all that she did in the home, so she decided to teach them a lesson by running away. But she wouldn’t live in the woods or on the streets. No, she was a little lady of style and would live in comfort. She enlisted the help of her brother, Jamie, and together they fled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where their adventure began.
Goodness, this was such an adorable little story! Mostly because it reminded me so much of my younger self and my siblings. I could totally see little me planning an adventure like Claudia’s and dragging Jehosheba along with me. 😂
Dearest Josephine by Caroline George* – 4 Stars
You can read my full thoughts here. All in all, I thought it was a cute little romance and I loved how the ending was a surprise.
Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow* – 2 Stars
“Cutting is a fence you build upon your own body to keep people out but then you cry to be touched. But the fence is barbed. What then?”
I wrote a full review about this book that I’ll probably share later. For now, all I’ll say is that I appreciate the rawness and openness of this story. It shows the mind of a cutter, all the fears, the pain, the struggle. Because it was so well written, it was very easy to get back into the self-harm mindset. Read with care if you have struggled with SH. There is a lot of heavy content – sexual abuse, drugs, alcoholism, poverty, suicide, etc. and I’d say to read cautiously, if you decide to read it at all. It is a very dark story with very little light or hope.
~Hattush
Have you read any of these books? Did you enjoy them? Do you prefer classics or modern fiction? Let’s talk!
Daughter of the Light 