NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at 2023. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish...

NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at 2023. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy revisiting our archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading.

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We’re counting down the best of our 2023 reviews, which I’m sure you’re all curious about. Counting down from ten, these are the first five reviews in terms of page views. This is an interesting selection compared to last year.

Let’s get into it!

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A | BN | K

Review by Sarah

Grade: A

I could go on for another nine thousand words about all the ways this novel examines the elemental desire to tell a story, and the motivations behind selling a particular narrative. I’m still thinking about all the different ways that powerful storytelling and convincing arguments (or “argu-cussions”) are explored in this novel.

All of these people are dedicated to helping, to rescuing people in terrible circumstances, and I was both comforted and inspired by their determination to keep trying, even when things are decidedly Not Fine. My favorite parts of the past Murderbot books were all here: the sarcasm between the humans, Murderbot, ART, and other machine intelligences, and the absolute rush of the adventure plot coexisting alongside a thoughtful, nuanced examination of what it means to be a person, and how difficult it is to have emotions and feelings. The series as a whole and this book individually are about how important it is to recognize the autonomy of other beings, and for one’s own personhood to be recognized and acknowledged.

I’ll probably start over at book one, and read the series through again. I think this might be the seventh or eighth time? Either way, I have little to none objectivity about this series, and I loved this book.

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A | BN | K

Review by Carrie

Grade: Rant

I WANT to recommend Lizzie Blake’s Last Mistake for the ADHD representation, which I thought was balanced, realistic, and positive (again, I don’t have ADHD so I’m speaking as an observer of the many other people in my life who do have it). Also, the sexual tension between Rake and Lizzie is certainly something.

However, the Paragraph of Crap, which villainizes the woman who gets an abortion while holding Rake and Lizzy up as Relationship Goals for having a baby together, ruins the entire story. Of all the directions this book could have taken, I’m floored that it went with “bad people have abortions and good people have babies.” We need more books that deal with neurodivergence in a positive manner but I can’t recommend this one.

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A | BN | K

Review by Carrie

Grade: A-

My goodness, I have a LOT to say about The September House, a haunted house story that is emphatically not a romance. This book tackles mental illness, domestic violence, alcoholism, messy parenting, and the logistical difficulties of getting gasoline fumes out of antique upholstery. I didn’t so much read it as eat it in one big gulp, and, having gulped, am not sure how to digest this book, which starts with a kind of dry humor and slides inexorably and effortlessly into pure horror.

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A | BN | K

Review by Lara

Grade: A

There are a few things that made this book unputdownable. There are the conversations between Isabelle and Aaron that I mentioned earlier, there is the richly drawn Jewish community of which they are part (secondary characters can so often be plot bunnies, but not this time!). It also felt so good reading a book that built the emotional closeness of Isabelle and Aaron so effortlessly until they confess their feelings for each other in a suitably dramatic way.

I have my eye on some of the secondary characters, hoping that their turn will come as this seems to be the first in a series. If you need a truly immersive story that will keep you rapt from the word go, then this is the book for you. I loved this story, and I cannot wait for news of book two.

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A | BN | K | AB

Review by Carrie

Grade: B+

I’d suggest this book as good for people who want to know about cis female anatomy, biology, culture, and orgasm. You don’t have to have any knowledge about sex and orgasm to keep up, and I found my understanding of something I had known about but not fully understood was deepened. It’s a solid, entertainingly written book that gives science-based advice about happy sex and orgasm.

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What are your predictions for the top five? Let us know in the comments!

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