Sofia's Reviews > 2020 on Goodreads

☟ Scroll down for the best and worst books of 2020 on my shelves ☟

This has been an apocalyptic year, to say the least. Quite honestly, the only good thing that's come out of this is the fact that I'm now a rather prolific reviewer. I got my account in May, so don't count on a review for every book I've read this year. However, I have been trying to review each book I finished (or didn't finish) recently.


I was originally going to type up a list of every book I read this year... but guess who bailed at the last minute for the sake of her poor fingers?


This year, I read 143 books, which added up to a total of 57,009 pages. My average rating is a 3.2, because of all those trashy YA fantasy books I'm addicted to. I've been trying to broaden my horizons recently, which has actually turned out pretty well. My average book length is 398 pages.


I read more books with every month, from a month like February where I hardly read anything to the month of October, with 23 books read. It's been a wild year, but my reading pace and level has increased dramatically. I'm so grateful for all the extra time I've had recently, most of which has been spent on books.



TOP 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2020 (that I've read, at least):

Probably the list you've all been waiting for.


10. The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

This is the third book in the Folk of the Air series, which started with The Cruel Prince. It follows Jude Duarte, exiled High Queen of Elfhame. And it is wickedly genius. It starts off a little dull, but I wanted to scream at the ending. Maybe you should check it out. *cough*


9. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This book. This book. It's simplistic, almost innocently so, but so heartbreakingly beautiful. It follows Marie-Laure, a blind girl who lives in Paris during World War II. During the same timeline, a boy named Werner, who is fascinated with mechanics, is enlisted to help the Nazis. The chapters are short, the prose enchanting. It's the best WWII book I've ever read.


8. Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

SJM books are, for the most part, guilty pleasures. But this one tore my heart to shreds. Not as much as number five on this list, but enough to make me cry. A lot. Aelin Galathynius is training under Rowan Whitethorn, coping with severe trauma and the pain of her past. Obviously, there's a lot of emotional baggage that comes with this book. Let this be a warning.


7. Uprooted by Naomi Novik

This was a reread, but it was just as good as I remembered it being. Agnieszka, our protagonist, is a clumsy 17-year-old who never expected to be forced to learn magic with a mysterious wizard called simply the Dragon. But she is needed to face the threat that lurks in the woods. It's so unsettling. It's so beautiful. It's so magical. My opinion is actually unpopular, because apparently people either love this or hate it. I, obviously, love it with all my heart.


6. The Riddle by Alison Croggon

I don't know if this is objectively good, but I love it so much. The Riddle is the second book in the Pellinor series. It's gorgeous. I've shed so many tears over it. This book follows Maerad and Cadvan, two Bards (kind of like wizards) who are on a quest to find the Treesong, which will destroy the threat that haunts Edil-Amarandh. There's so much angst, it's crazy. And amazing.


5. The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

I still haven't recovered from the ending of this book. Oh my Galathynius, this was so good. It's about Celaena Sardothien, notorious assassin, and her journeys across Erilea. She goes through heartbreaking pain, copes with betrayals and deaths. It's a wonderful, depressing backstory and probably my favorite book of the series.


4. Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

*screaming* THIS WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN SIX OF CROWS. That's kind of an unpopular opinion, but I didn't like Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom was perfection. Fight me. Anyway, our crew of mismatched criminals is low on luck. Inej has been captured, Kaz is more angsty than ever, Wylan is stuck looking like Kuwei, it's just a bad situation for everyone. Ugh, it's so perfect.


3. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

This is a classic and also a romantic mystery following an unnamed narrator who marries a man she barely knows, Maxim de Winter. She moves to a grand and very lonely estate, where she proceeds to mess everything up. Nobody likes her, and the staff constantly compares her to "the previous Mrs. de Winter," a mysterious woman named Rebecca who died at sea years ago. Our narrator is very insecure and constantly worries about how Maxim must not love her, Maxim is still in love with Rebecca, Maxim wants her to be a new Rebecca. This book sneaks up on you quietly. It starts out slow and ends in a finale so shocking and painful that part of me is still dead.


2. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

I've been screeching about this book for a while now. It follows a diverse cast of characters whose stories, while wildly different, are intertwined more closely than they could ever imagine. It's an epic fantasy a la Tolkien, with dragons and queer queens and ancient magic and, uh, dragons. It's extremely slow, with excellent worldbuilding and strong, fierce, but often morally grey characters.


1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Excuse me while I cry for love of this book. It's about a French girl named Addie LaRue, who traded her soul for immortality. But no one will ever remember her. She can't say her name or tell her story. Her relationships dissolve. She lives the life of a ghost. This book is quiet, reflective, simple. The writing is absolutely beautiful and lyrical. I saw so much of myself in the story, in the little moments throughout that made me look up, close the book, and sit in silence for a moment. Gorgeous.




TOP 10 WORST BOOKS OF 2020 (that I've read, at least):

It's time to spill the tea. Note: #1 is worse than #10.


10. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

This opinion is so unpopular, it's almost painful. But Ari and Dante is SO. CHEESY. It makes me want to aggressively throw up. The repeat-after-me dialogue, the angsty quirkiness, the pretentious writing. Ugh. This book is about two boys who become friends over a summer, Ari and Dante. It's very shallow to me.


9. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

This follows a girl named Shahrzad, who volunteers to marry the Caliph, a serial killer who murders all his brides, to have revenge for the death of her best friend by his hands. His name is Khalid, and he is ✨handsome.✨ So Shahrzad falls in love with him. I do not follow this logic. And then there's the weird pacing and the bad writing.


8. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Where is Tessa so I can knock some sense into her? And then there's Will, who is basically a caricature of a love interest. I cringed so hard reading this. It's about the Shadowhunters, demon killers, and their enemies, an army of clockwork creatures. *cough* The writing is terrible, the characters are worse, the cringe is real.


7. The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye

Ahahaha what a ridiculous book. It's about two enchanters named Vika and Nikolai, who have been raised to battle each other in the Crown's Game for the position of the Imperial Enchanter. It's basically The Night Circus but Russian. The writing and dialogue is painfully cheesy, and the "deadly" competition? It's just turning buildings into different colors and making fountains. There are no boundaries to the magic, so it's really confusing and unexpected, in a bad way. Would not recommend.


6. Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder

This is the first book in the Soulfinders series, which is actually the fourth book in the Study series, which is actually the seventh book in the Chronicles of Ixia. *sigh* Don't ask me, okay? I looked that up. Anyway, it follows Yelena, our protagonist, as she struggles to recover her magic, which was blocked mysteriously. To add to her troubles, relations between Ixia and Sitia are at an all-time low. I had so many problems with this. First of all, the writing was terrible, some of the worst I have ever seen. This is strange because Poison Study had decent writing. These books have been steadily decreasing in quality. There was a lot of modern slang thrown in there, the word "natch" was used multiple times (I'm not kidding), and Yelena kept making extremely stupid decisions. If she just listened to the people around her, half of her troubles wouldn't happen. Whoever made her a diplomat is clearly lacking in the brain cell department.


5. Eragon by Christopher Paolini

This book is about a boy named Eragon, who discovers a mysterious stone that happens to be an egg. And what pops out? A dragon. I might actually reread this because I don't remember much, and I kind of want to bask in its terribleness. Anyway, the writing is juvenile and amateur, lacking grace, and the characters are insufferable. It's basically a Star Wars ripoff that tries (and fails) to be the next Tolkien masterpiece.


4. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

This was painful to read. It follows Princess Lia, who runs away from her kingdom right before her arranged marriage. She runs and hides in a village by the sea, where no one seems to know who she is, even though she's kind of an important person. She chops onions, washes laundry, is worshiped by her maid. And then *gasp* a prince and an assassin show up, and they're both *gasp intensifies* good-looking. *intense gasp intensifies* *aggressive coughing fit* Basically, she gets in a love triangle and the rest of the book is her deciding who to pick. Please, I can get better drama on The Young and the Restless.


3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Oh, look, two CC books on my worst of 2020 list! I feel so... angry! 😃🔫
This is about a ungrateful brat girl named Clary, who goes to a club and witnesses a murder by a guy named Jace who calls himself a Shadowhunter. Turns out, he kills demons for a living. I hate Jace with a passion. I hate Clary with a passion. I hate her friend Simon with a passion. Jace is the love interest, obviously, and he's "not like other boys." He literally said that once. I died. He's sarcastic and rude, much like Clary, who gets really angry in the beginning of the book because her mom says she won't be able to hang out with Simon over the summer. Simon is the useless comic relief character who won't shut up. Apparently this started out as fanfic. Maybe it should have stayed as fanfic.


2. Looking for Alaska by John Green

John Green thinks he knows teenagers.
He's wrong.
This book is about a teenager named Miles who is in search of his "Great Perhaps." Basically, he's having a quarter-life crisis and is justifying it by using the last words of some random poet to make him sound like an intellectual. It's so pretentious and ridiculous. Teenagers do not actually smoke dozens of cigarettes a day and drink liquor in their spare time. Well, maybe some do, but stop romanticizing it. And Alaska is objectified to the point of ridiculousness.


1. From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I'm honestly disgusted. Who knew it was possible to mess up a book so badly? This is about Poppy, the Chosen or whatever, whose Ascension is coming soon. But Hawke comes and messes it all up because, you see, she's not supposed to fall in love because of her dEsTiNy, but she does. *retches* *chokes* *dies* What a waste of precious trees. The writing is full of "...". Like, an absolutely ABSURD number of ellipses. And analogies about stomachs. Please do not ask. Plus, Hawke is a creepy, problematic boi who does not respect boundaries. I can't endorse a creeper.




MY YEAR, BROKEN DOWN:


January
Books read: 11
Best book: The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas
Worst book: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

February
Books read: 2
Best book: True to Form by Elizabeth Berg
Worst book: City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende

March
Books read: 4
Best book: Descendant of the Crane by Joan He
Worst book: An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo

April
Books read: 4
Best book: The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen
Worst book: The Sky Phantom by Carolyn Keene

May
Books read: 21
Best book: The Riddle by Alison Croggon
Worst book: The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs

June
Books read: 8
Best book: Heir of Fire or Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Worst book: As Old as Time by Liz Braswell

July
Books read: 12
Best book: Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
Worst book: Eragon by Christopher Paolini (but there was a LOT of competition)

August
Books read: 8
Best book: Uprooted by Naomi Novik or The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Worst book: Shadow Study by Maria V. Snyder

September
Books read: 18
Best book: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (sooo much competition this month)
Worst book: The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

October
Books read: 23
Best book: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, which is one of my favorite fantasy novels
Worst book: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (though it was hard to pick just one)

November
Books read: 18
Best book: The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black
Worst book: From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

December
Books read: 16
Best book: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, which is one of my favorite books of all time
Worst book: Looking for Alaska by John Green