alaina cyr

Last year I posted Books I read in 2016, ranked from best to worst, so here’s my list for this year.

I realized that more than half of the books I read in 2016 were written by white men, and thus all the recommendations I got from Goodreads were for books also written by white men. My goal for this year was to read at least 26 books written by People of Colour or trans/non-binary people, and I believe I have exceeded that goal (though there are still a few books on the list below written by cis white people).

Book count:

Page count:

As with last year’s post, I’ve broken down the list into different categories based on how I enjoyed the stories:

• Numbers 1 – 10 are joining my list of favourites
• Numbers 11 – 18 were very good, and I would happily read them again
• Numbers 19 – 31 were good, but not my taste. I would not choose to read them again, though I may recommend them to someone else.
• Numbers 32 – 38 were not so good, would avoid re-reading and would only recommend to others in very specific circumstances
• Numbers 39 – 40 were terrible and I would not recommend to anyone

Best Reads of 2017

1. The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan
2. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
3. Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1) by Seanan McGuire
4. Small Beauty by Jai Qing Wilson-Yang
5. The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie
6. Bow Grip by Ivan Coyote
7. Version Control by Dexter Palmer
8. The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy
9. Rise: A Newsflesh Collection by Mira Grant
10. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
11. Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
12. The Mothers by Brit Bennett
13. Birdie by Tracey Lindberg
14. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
15. A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett
16. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
17. Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy, #1) by Mira Grant
18. Shadows Cast By Stars by Catherine Knutsson
19. Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
20. Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Depestre
21. American Street by Ibi Zoboi
22. Blackout (Newsflesh Trilogy, #3) by Mira Grant
23. He Mele A Hilo by Ryka Aoki
24. Holding Still For As Long As Possible by Zoe Whittall
25. Blood Oranges by Kathleen Tierney
26. The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor
27. The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer
28. A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott
29. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
30. If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
31. Killer of Enemies (Killer of Enemies, #1) by Joseph Bruchac
32. Deadline (Newsflesh Trilogy, #2) by Mira Grant
33. One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul
34. The Illegal by Lawrence Hill
35. Discount Armageddon (InCryptid, #1) by Seanan McGuire
36. Annabelle by Kathleen Winter
37. Fellside by M.R. Carey
38. The First Bad Man by Miranda July
39. Faust Among Equals by Tom Holt
40. Adam by Ariel Schrag

Got any recommendations for my 2018 list? Leave a comment!