Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag!

5:00:00 PM

Hi hello and welcome to the Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag! This is an incredibly popular book tag that was originally created by Earl Grey Books and Chami back in 2016. It's done in the middle of the year to kind of wrap up your first six months of reading and share some good book recommendations. I love this tag because of the variety of answers that you can see from all of the wonderful people that answer these questions every year! I hope to be able to share some new or exciting books with you and find some new recommendations to add to my TBR for the remainder of 2022. With that, let's get started!

___________________________________________________________________________


1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2022

“It’s possible to feel the horror of something and to accept it all at the same time. How else could we cope with being alive?”

Ever since I finished Sundial I feel like I’ve been screaming about it to everyone I know. This book caught me so off guard and, as the kids these days say, it has me in an absolute chokehold. I don’t know if I can accurately describe what about this book has made me love it so much but I am obsessed in every way possible. The atmosphere was eerie, the characters were wild, and I just fell so hard into this book and I genuinely do love it with my whole heart. Catriona Ward crafted such a fantastically creepy and heartbreaking story and it’s one that has stayed with me long after I finished reading. I know this book isn’t for everyone but I won’t stop suggesting it whenever I get the opportunity!


2. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022

"Yeah, it hurt. Life does. Being alive hurts. It’s a simple fact of existence. Especially when you have the weight of the entire world on your shoulders. We all wish that we could be happy at every moment of every day. But without pain, we wouldn’t be able to appreciate what it means to feel good. We wouldn’t know what love felt like if we never experienced hurt."

Okay so technically this book is the 11th one in the Eluding Destiny series but like, it's definitely a sequel because I say it is. This one was just *chefs kiss* perfection. It had everything I wanted, including a nice ending to the story arc that had been going through this whole series. I think I spent most of the time with tears in my eyes because of how much I loved these characters and I was so ready for the ending that would kickstart a new beginning if that makes sense. This was just fantastic and got five million stars from me, for sure.

3. New release you haven’t read yet but want to

“But the truth is, death is everywhere. Death comes for the roses and the apples, it comes for the mice and the birds. It comes for us all. Why should death stop us from living?”

I know, shame on me, I haven't read Gallant yet. But rest assured I have 4 copies of it sitting on my shelf to look at and cry over how pretty they are! But yeah, obviously I have to read this because V.E. Schwab is my favorite author and it's honestly offensive that I haven't read this yet. I may be a bit biased but I have yet to give anything V.E. Schwab writes less than 5 stars and I just know that Gallant is going to be another fantastic book from her. 




4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

"You were meant for better things," she whispered. "Better than me."
"Bullshit. We're both nightmares."
Wren smiled, distant and sad. "Some nightmares are worse than others, and they all come to an end."

If you're on BookTok and you somehow haven't seen any videos about Nighstrider, you're massively missing out! I can already tell that this is going to be a new favorite book and I cannot wait for the Kickstarter for Nightstrider on the 6th of July!
5. Biggest disappointment

"Wherever you are, whatever you fight, may your eyes see much, may your rage burn bright."

I was so excited about this book. I really, genuinely was. It was on my most anticipated releases of 2022 post from earlier this year and everything. And it let me down. Reading this was like being on a roller coaster where I was enjoying it, then not, then something would grab me and pull me back in, and then I wasn't happy again, and it happened all throughout the book. And then the ending gave me the vibes of a movie that I just really did not enjoy which just made me sigh and get even more frustrated. Extasia put me in such a huge reading slump and caused me to not enjoy anything I read for a long time after finishing and that was just not fancy. I don't think I necessarily hated it but it's not something that I think I want to pick up again, unfortunately.

6. Biggest surprise

"I don't get inside their heads. I crawl into their psyche. It's the only way to understand their delusional mentality because you can't think like a rational person would. A convoluted mind is one that forms its own reality."

If you've been on BookTok at all this year then you definitely know about the Mindf*ck Series by S.T. Abby. Don't let the cover fool you, this series is incredible. I absolutely flew through this series (granted the books are pretty short) and I found myself loving every single book more than the previous one. All I'm going to say is it has a female serial killer and there's a romance that you won't end up caring about because you're so invested in the female serial killer. I really was so surprised at how much I ended up loving this series!


7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

"After all, what exactly is a family, if not a brotherhood and sisterhood afflicted with the same terminal disease?"

"What have you done today to deserve your eyes?"

"I think all of us feel empty most of the time and we merely pretend to fill the vacuum with laughter, crying, apologies- anything to make us feel human."

You know that TikTok sound that's like "we're all gonna be safe and we're all gonna have a good time. what the jesus christ was that?" That's this book in a nutshell. But holy crap it made me fall in love with Eric LaRocca's writing. It was short but super effective with the creep factor and it sold me on reading pretty much anything that he writes in the future. I loved the simplicity of the story but that it was still so atmospheric at the same time. Definitely up my alley!

8. Newest fictional crush

"Olympus might look gorgeous on the surface, but the pretty is only skin deep. Once you dig a little, all you find is rot."

You probably think I'm going to say Eros, huh? But it's Psyche! And maybe not like, crush crush, but I really love her. I love her confidence and how just unapologetic she is. She's so fantastic and I really appreciated the positive fat representation that was present throughout the book. And the relationship between Psyche and Eros was also chefs kiss and was great to watch unfold throughout the book! 





9. Newest favorite character

"Love is like a gaseous compound in the empty wonders of outer space. It can’t be limited to one small box because it expands endlessly in every direction. There’s always infinite room for it to grow. It doesn’t in any way lessen the love that’s already taking up space. That love simply morphs together to create something larger, complex, and even more beautiful."

Milly from the Eluding Destiny/Arcane Gods series! I adore her so much, oh my goodness. Like, I love Laila and Jeremy, and Micah is adorable, but I there is just something about Milly that I can't help but want to die for. She's sassy and headstrong and very much like Laila, but also has her own unique personality that is beyond charming. I've had the best time reading about Milly and seeing her grow up over the past few books and I am so excited to see how she continues to grow as the Arcane Gods series goes on. 

10. Book that made you cry

“The old gods may be great, but they are neither kind nor merciful. They are fickle, unsteady as moonlight on water, or shadows in a storm. If you insist on calling them, take heed: be careful what you ask for, be willing to pay the price. And no matter how desperate or dire, never pray to the gods that answer after dark.”

I read this for the second time earlier this year and I cried all over again while reading it. I actually bought another copy specifically to annotate and it was such a fun thing to annotate my first book and have it be this one. But yeah, this time around I just felt so much more connected while reading, and being able to pinpoint my favorite moments and quotes just allowed me to become more emotionally invested than I was previously. I laughed at Addie's sass, cried at how much I related to Henry, and wished I had more of Luc. This book is just perfection.

11. Book that made you happy

"There wasn't going to be a happy ending, she reminded herself. She was a monster and he was a hero. Everyone knew how that story ended."

I have seen that a lot of people actually didn't enjoy this book but I am not one of them. I loved this so frickin much. I haven't read a ton of YA lately but I absolutely devoured this book! This was such a fun story and I really fell for it harder than I thought I would. By the end, I was already dying to read the next book and I am not ready for the long wait that comes after you fall in love with a book, find out it's the first in a series, and then realize you have to sit there and contemplate your life until the next book comes out. Only a Monster definitely made me very happy and I am so excited to see where the story goes after the end of book one! It was such a fun read and if you're looking for a good YA fantasy to read, I highly recommend picking this up.

12. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

“There'd always been something wrong with Charlie Hall. Crooked, from the day she was born. Never met a bad decision she wasn't willing to double down on. Had fingers made for picking pockets, a tongue for lying, and a shriveled cherry pit for a heart. If her shadow had been one of those magic ones, she was pretty sure even that thing would have run away.”

Did I buy this purely for the cover? Yes. Have I read it? No. Will I? Well, I don't really know. I've heard so many mixed things on Book of Night and it kills me because I was so excited for a dark academia book from Holly Black. I absolutely loved The Folk of the Air series so when it was announced that she was writing an adult book? I lost it. But there are so many things that are making me wonder if I should even really bother with reading this, unfortunately. I feel like I'll compare it to Ninth House and honestly, nothing compares to Ninth House. I'll probably pick it up but it's definitely not as high of a priority as it once was.

13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I have a blog post about some more 2022 releases I want to get to that you can check out here if you'd like to see them! But some more books I'd like to read are:

___________________________________________________________________________

And that's it for the Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag! I had so much fun doing this and having a short wrap-up of my reading so far in 2022. I'd love to know some of your answers for the tag so please feel free to link me to your responses in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you in the next chapter!

Share This Story

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

You Might Also Like

0 comments

Thank you so much for checking out my post! I'd love to chat, so please feel free to leave a comment :D