Mirk Reads 2024
Couple of months late, couple of marks (?) short, but here's the books I read in 2024! Very, very brief impressions below the cut. Probably a little spoilery.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (reread)
Still deeply enjoyed it! This time was for a group read with friends, and it was really fun to see who enjoyed it and who bounced off. Harrow is still my fave of the series but recontextualizing Gideon after the other two (currently-published) books was very interesting.
Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
My notes from this one are, verbatim:
a) I think it’s a little weird to do Spirits Of The Land stuff in America without acknowledging like. Anything about Native Americans? b) She should have kissed the island. Go full Just Like Home with it
It was fun and spooky, but again, both points stand.
Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne
I like pursuing The Horrors in February, I guess. This one had a lot of good ideas and needed to pick like one or two to really commit to, but there were a couple of very strong images that stuck with me for months. Benefited, while I was reading it, from my having just started and abandoned an entirely different "Americans go to Italy and get super Haunted" book that was way worse.
Death in the Spires by KJ Charles
At this point I do just read every KJ Charles book that comes out, for a tropey good time. This one was advertised as NOT A ROMANCE, DEFINITELY A MYSTERY, DO NOT LOOK FOR A HAPPY ENDING HERE, which sent me and P on a rabbit hole of realizing that (some?) romance readers are waaaay way stricter about happy endings than we are. I like Charles's mystery plots in her romance novels, but I think I was expecting more emphasis on/complexity to the mystery when that's the focus rather than the romance? Also, as a friend pointed out on bluesky, it's VERY funny for characters to talk about how changed and aged their college buddies are... like ten years later. They are barely 30 in the present day. God bless.
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen
Probably my favorite book I read in 2024! Reminded me why I like Gothic fiction. It's set in the Netherlands and centers on bog bodies, and it's a deeply haunting and tragic book in the best way possible. I'm always saying that all the wlw books I read are in no way messy enough, but this was true Gothic obsession and melodrama and mess, and I was miserable after finishing it because I couldn't think of anything that would give me a similar reading experience. A great time. Very fucked up. Maybe I should read Fingersmith.
The Magpie Lord / A Case of Possession by KJ Charles (both rereads)
Moped around for awhile after MDDT and decided to get off my slump by rereading the Charm of Magpies series, since I felt like some of the horror in the first one echoed the MDDT horrors. It did not, in retrospect! But I do still enjoy them! Charles writes a damn good romance with a fantasy subplot. Can't remember why I didn't read the third book this time. Around this time I stopped taking notes when I finished a book, which was FOOLISH. Do not do that, future Mirk!
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske (reread)
More magical gay historical romance. Still a good time! If you liked The Magpie Lord you will probably like AML. Great side characters, fun romance, blood magic, "houses that love you" as the author puts it. I reread this and the sequel to prepare for the third book, and then did not manage to finish the third book; of the three, I think this is my favorite romantic plot. It's so tender. What the fuck.
Lady Eve's Last Con by Rebecca Fraimlow
Rompy! The setting pitch is Roaring 20s in Space and it did in fact deliver that. I remember enjoying it and having no complaints apart from "they could have pined more," which is ALWAYS my complaint. I do also love a plucky con woman, and lord knows I love a princely woman. Great times were had by all.
There Should Have Been Eight by Nalini Singh
It Was Fine. I wanted to read a thriller instead of a romance, and it sure was a thriller! Normally, I don't mind if I can guess a mystery before it's revealed because that usually means the author did a good job with foreshadowing but this was just... very bland, and the characters were not very well-developed, IMO.
The Deepest Lake by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Another thriller, but one that I feel like did not go hard enough or scathing enough on its critique of a specific kind of person. Get meaner 2k25!
A Reckless Truth by Freya Marske (reread)
I did still like this one, but every time I read it, I'm like... how did the background ship get more tumult and drama and yearning than the main ship? Is it because the background ship is m/m and the main ship is f/f? I feel like that's not not why! Anyway. They're on a boat this time! Got blindsided by the dead old lady lesbians AGAIN, though.
The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
Stop reading Lucy Foley books, Mirk, you get pissy and irritated every time. WHAT happened in this one.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by S.J. Maas
Technically a reread but I was too busy yelling the first time I read it. A buddy read with P, who had NOT read it. Still not for me! And this time I can confirm it's not because I don't like romance, because [gestures upwards]. It's specifically Maas. We don't have time to get into all of that, but I did get a couple of days of tormenting Oscar out of it.
Swordcrossed by Freya Marske
Not from her previous series, and has a great setting! Disappointingly lower stakes than The Last Binding, though, and I spent the whole time wishing it was about [redacted character for spoilers] instead, especially when said character was revealed to be in the B-couple. They deserved better!
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Oh this was a good time! Had a lot of my faves: a crunchy mystery, a lot of horrifying murders, a Wild Old Lady and her Too-Stiff Son Figure. There were some deeply weird authoritarian leanings, though, that I am. Very curious about where we'll go from here.
The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson
I like folk horror, and I liked this folk horror, but some of the story leaned too hard on Womanhood™, especially cis womanhood, for my taste.
And that's all! I'm gonna try to read 25 books this year, and I think I'm like... six? Eight? In so far.