For the first time since I started this annual personal reading challenge, I managed to finish both of the lists that I “required” myself to read and made it through more than half of my “optional” list.
For my reaction, I will break it down into three sections each for the fantasy and young adult fantasy categories – opening round thoughts, final round thoughts, winner thoughts.
Let’s start with young adult fantasy.
Opening Round:
I immediately realized that I had not done as good of a job reading through the potential nominees for this section as the actual fantasy section. Aside from the obvious works from authors like Rebecca Ross and Holly Black, and a couple that just released prior to the opening round announcement – Heir and For She is Wrath, I’m not sure what I could have done to make sure that I read more. Most of the BookTubers that I watch do not read a large amount of YA.
I also decided right away that I would not read Reckless (I did not read Powerless last year) and Your Blood My Bones (I *really* did not like the author’s debut work.)
My vote: Where the Dark Stands Still
Final round:
The first thing I noticed? Where the Dark Stands Still did not make it into the second round which I was bummed about because that was my favorite book of the list. I did not find out until the winners were announced that it *just* missed making it into the final round.
When the final round opened, I had read almost all of the books in this category except for, I believe, For She is Wrath, Where the Library Hides, Heir and perhaps one other book. Even though I ranked Wisteria above The Invocations, at the time of voting, my highest rated book was, quite surprisingly, The Invocations which thus earned my vote in the final round.
Winner:
I was not surprised at all that Ruthless Vows won. I actually voted for Divine Rivals last year. I did not talk much about either book at the time of reading since the boycott of St. Martin’s press was active. Due to this boycott, I simply logged Ruthless Vows in my reading spreadsheet and did not give it an actual rating. Even though I found my reading experience of it much better than several books that precede it on my ranking, I did not take time to go back and try to rate it several months out. If I did rank it based on my approximate raking, I would probably put it at the bottom of my top 10. With all the potential that Ross set up in the first book, Ruthless Vows ended up severely disappointing.
Now to adult fantasy.
Opening Round:
This list was incredibly underwhelming. Several books that I would have loved to see on this list were not here. Additionally, for whatever reason that Goodreads does not disclose, several books did make the list that had only a hint of fantasy and were perhaps written by an author who has written fantasy before. I also really did not like the fact that they put Black Bird Oracle on the fantasy list rather than the fantasy romance list. Goodreads really needs to make that line between the two categories a lot more firm but they won’t bother because they never listen to their users. I did manage to succeed in reading half of the list prior to opening round. My vote: A Sorceress Comes to Call
Final Round:
When I saw that Black Bird Oracle made the final round but A Sorceress Comes to Call did not, I knew that this already disappointing list had gotten even worse. I do find it really interesting that a few well-known names in the fantasy world who have had commercial success in the past did not advance out of the opening round: T. Kingfisher, Katherine Arden, and Lev Grossman. (I may not have cared particularly much for his book but he has had commercial success with The Magicians trilogy and has a well-known TV adaptation for that work.) I ended up voting for: The Tainted Cup which the next highest personal rating that made it out of the opening round. (I read Somewhere Beyond the Sea after voting closed for the final round.)
Winners:
I am mildly surprised that T.J. Klune managed to sneak a win over Leigh Bardugo, just a little over a thousand votes. Usually Bardugo is a powerhouse in the fantasy genre. I guess just enough people disliked The Familiar to give Klune the edge. In my personal ratings, I also much preferred Somewhere Beyond the Sea.
Once again, the Goodreads Choice Awards does what it does best, measure popularity and name recognition, not literary merit.
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