My best books of 2024 | classic, gothic & a fantasy series

I think I enjoyed Agnes Grey the most by Anne Brontë. It's quite short, it's a governess novel and it's just about her experience of being a governess and not being treated very well and going through different families.

We were reading for a book club after watching Saltburn because I loved Saltburn and I hated Brideshead Revisited. This for me just had zero interest after reading, I think I managed to get a good few hours into the audiobook, but it was not grabbing me.

My favourite on this reread has been the prequel that is set, is it hundreds of years before the original series, it is Clariel. It's kind of the origin story of how someone can turn into the villain.

I got it from the library and it is incredibly depressing because it's about the treatment of women in jobs that usually have a lot of men working in them. I would still really recommend it if it's a topic that you're interested in, but I am very glad I read Ducks.

Everyone was saying it just turns into this big battle and it becomes very video gamey, and it already felt a bit like I was sort of listening to cut scenes from video games because the dialogue was so simple. I just wasn't working for me so I DNFed that as well.

I thought Piranesi was going to be like that. It's a little bit darker. It has like a slant of dark academia in it, and it's quite funny. I highly recommend it, flawless execution, I would say.

The moment this got announced, I knew it was going to be the one for me and this did not disappoint. I loved reading about the relationship between the sisters and I loved this apocalyptic backdrop.

If you want to start with the first one that was written, that is Sabriel. The audiobooks for the original trilogy are read by Tim Curry, and they're so good.

It's the writing of this that I loved, which means I probably should read more Angela Carter. Did I love the actual retellings and what they did to the stories? It's like, felt a little bit predictable, but I enjoyed the vibes.

I took this with me when we went to York, partly to see the York Minster and kind of put everything together. It was really helpful, really interesting.

I didn't read that much of it, to be honest. For this, it was the writing style that absolutely put me off. I could not make it through the sentences.

My favourite book of all time is always going to be Wuthering Heights. I reread it again this year. I did tabs this time for the first time because I was preparing for the literary pilgrimage that I was leading.