Joe's Top 11 Reads of 2021
The end of the year is always the time of the year for lists. I read 153 books last year which is a lot for me. When the year started both kids were still doing school remotely and I didn’t think I’d have much time to read. As it turned out they both went back to school in person in February and I got a lot of that reading time back. Going through the list of books I read in a year is always fun. I read a bunch of story collections in the first half of the year but found myself wanting longer stories so I switched to novellas and novels in the second half of the year. In the end it was a good mix of both overall. I wanted to make a list of my favorite reads this year. These are all rated five stars, but I read other books that I rated five stars that aren’t on this list. I reread quite a few books over the year, many more than I usually do and I didn’t count any of those in this best of list. There were also a few ARC books I read in 2020 of books the came out in 2021 that didn’t make this list.
Slewfoot by Brom. I’d never read anything by Brom before but this book made me a fan. It’s Pillars of the Earth meets the Salem Witch Trials but the witches are real.
Philip Fracassi wrote two of my favorites this year, Commodore and Beneath a Pale Sky. Both of these were great. Beneath a Pale Sky is on my short list of favorite story collections of all time. Every story was brilliant. Commodore was a great read too, it was Stand By Me but the horror is more than just a body.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison makes the list for a variety of reasons. Morrison is a treasure and we all need to read more of her work. While this might not be considered horror by some, the actions of some of the characters are horrific but the writing is beautiful. There was an attempt to ban this book in some schools this year and I wanted to read it for myself.
These last few years I’ve been reading a lot of Chuck Palahniuk and Damned is my favorite of his books. A great blend of dark humor, fantasy, horror. This book is a fast read and made me want to read the sequel as soon as I was finished.
Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby is another book that isn’t necessarily horror, but it’s a violent book with some horrific elements. Loved this one.
I wrote a review already this year for Cunning Folk by Adam Nevill. This book had one of the most gut wrenching scenes I’ve ever read. If you read the book, you know what scene I’m talking about.
Scanlines by Todd Keisling is another quick read that hits hard. This one had me remembering the days of dial-up internet. Trigger Warning for suicide discussion in this one for basically the entire book.
Zero Saints by Gabino Iglesias was the perfect book at the perfect time for me. When I read it, I needed something dark and gritty that I couldn’t put down and this one delivered. He also wrote Coyote Songs which is great also, but Zero Saints is my favorite Gabino Iglesias book.
My first foray into Death’s Head Press’ splatter western series was The Magpie Coffin by Wile E Young and it was great. I’ve read a few of the others in this series and this one is still my favorite. Everything I wanted from a western horror book.
The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson is his newest collection and just like everything he writes, every story is perfect. A great blend of horror, sci-fi and weirdness. I never miss an Evenson book.
Finally, A Complex Accident of Life is a blackout poetry collection from Jessica McHugh. She uses pages from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to create these poems. This book is part poetry and part art and it’s mesmerizing.
Other books were close to making the list, but these are the ones that hit it out of the park for me this year. You can’t go wrong with any of them. I hope you’ll give a few of them a shot in 2022 if you haven’t read them yet. Happy reading!
