The Terror of Knowing

It’s yet another Tuesday, so that means another Top Ten Tuesday. For those who don’t know, Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the book bloggers and list lovers, The Broke and the Bookish, and each week they post a topic for bloggers to respond to.

This week’s theme is Top Ten 2016 Released I Didn’t Get To. It’s safe to say I get very excited anticipating and pre-ordering new releases, but it can often be weeks or months until I get round to reading them. Often, I’m hesitant to get to them in case they prove to be disappointing in some way, meaning all my excited anticipation was for nothing special. I know this is a silly mindset to have because, at that rate, I’d never read any books ever for fear of them being not as good as I’d anticipated! However, last year I was particularly susceptible to this mindset, as well as not being up-to-date enough with books series to read the latest released book. The list below is a mixed back along those lines, so let’s just get to it…

10. The Muse by Jessie Burton (x)

After being pleasantly surprised with the direction Burton’s debut novel, The Miniaturist, took, I decided to pre-order her new novel, The Muse, which seems to be centred around the backstory of a lost masterpiece and somehow involves rural Spain so I’m all about that. The cover is so incredibly beautiful that sometimes I just pull it out from my bookshelf and have a look at it… but I still haven’t got around to actually, oh you know, reading it.

9. Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi (x)

I don’t read a lot of “middle-grade” (I wouldn’t even call it middle-grade because the UK doesn’t really use that classification) but I had a vague inclination to read some Tahereh Mafi since a lot of booktubers have read Shatter Me. Now, Shatter Me doesn’t completely appeal to me since I’m kind of mostly over dystopian, by this point, but when I heard Mafi’s latest would be inspired by the likes of The Secret Garden and The Chronicles of Narnia and be something of a modern-day fairytale, I became very excited for the book… and then didn’t get around to reading, or even buying, it. I will, though, I will. 

8. A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir (x)

I thoroughly enjoyed An Ember in the Ashes when I read it back in 2015. One of the things I enjoyed about it, however, was that it seemed like that rarest of things – a standalone fantasy, and I was all about that. Then it was announced that it, in fact, had done quite well and so conveniently was not limited to one novel… I was a bit bitter about that (hey, I didn’t say I was a rational or logical person about books), but I still bought it. And then I promptly forgot most of the storyline from the first novel so didn’t allow myself to pick up A Torch Against the Night until I had re-read it… and I haven’t had the time/drive to re-read yet, so this still remains unread too.

7. The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye (x)

I saw this quite by chance in Waterstones towards the latter half of the year and fell in love with the cover and the whole Russian magicians having magical duels vibe. Cut to a few weeks later when I’d bought it from Amazon, and it’s still on my shelf. In my defence – I didn’t know about this book’s mere existence until, like, November, so considering I already had TBRs in mind for November/December, it’s not altogether surprising I didn’t get to it before 2016 finished. However, I wish I’d known about this novel’s release back in May, then I’d definitely have got to it last year. 2017 is definitely its year.

6. Smoke by Dan Vyleta (x)

After seeing this on Jean/Bookishthought’s channel, I immediately knew I wanted to read it. Basic concept: sin is visible, through smoke. I had to know how that concept was executed, so when I was in Oxford I bought this, a full-price hardback, in Waterstones… that alone should be enough to tell anyone how much I wanted to read it. However, I then heard some less than favourable reviews about it, and I’ve been too nervous to try it since then!

5. A Million Worlds With You by Claudia Gray (x)

Why have I not got to this third book in the Firebird trilogy? Simple: I still haven’t read the second book, Ten Thousand Skies Above You. Why didn’t I read the second book sooner? Because I didn’t want to “run out” of books and have to wait anxiously for the next one… yeah, I know, that logic is flawed as hell. However, now I have acquired this third book (it’s oddly been out-of-stock most places online – why??), I have no more excuses and I really want to read the whole trilogy in one glorious marathon because I adored the first book, especially the Russian-y universe/world – I can’t wait to see that other worlds Marguerite explores!

4. The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (x)

Much like the previous book, I didn’t read this third book because I hadn’t read the second book and I hadn’t read the second because… (join in if you know this one)… I didn’t want to “run out” of books and have to wait (like some kind of peasant) for the next release. I really fiercely enjoyed the first book, The Queen of the Tearling, and found it a lot more gritty/dark and, well, adult than I was initially expecting but I really liked that element of genuine threat underneath it all. Plus, it was a fantasy book with a lot of court politics and political machinating which is how I like my fantasy tbh (I love the courtly King’s Landing stuff in ASOIAF too). I’ll get to this, and the first two, I am so bloody determined that 2017 will be the year I complete series.

3. Nevernight by Jay Kristoff (x)

I’m going to be honest: at the time at which I purchased this, I knew very little about it other than it had a stunning hardback design complete with black sprayed edges. Yeah, I’m shallow and fickle, what of it? However, I was happy to then learn that it also sounded right up my street – a book about a school of assassins. Um, yes please, that sounds like an awesome idea that I would like to read right now. But, as ever, so many amazing sounding books, so little time.

2. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (x)

I’m downright ashamed I never got to this in 2017, especially since it had top billing in a lot of my Anticipated Reads-esque posts, and for good reason! It’s part of the Hogarth Shakespeare’s re-tellings/”remixes” of Shakespeare plays… and this one is Margaret Atwood’s take on one of my favourite plays, The Tempest. It sounded ah-may-zing, I was so excited for it that I allowed myself to use up a gift card on it in Waterstones, and then I proceeded to… not read it but stare wistfully at it every so often. I’m disappointed in myself too, yes.

1. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater (x)

Ok, if I was ashamed of myself over Hag-Seed I am even more embarrassed that I didn’t get to The Raven King in 2016. I anticipated this so much, I was so excited, I was so nervous about what would happen… somehow, miraculously, I’ve managed to steer clear of anything remotely spoilerific for months (I’m mildly impressed by this) so I’m still good to go on reading this fourth and final book of the Raven Cycle. The only problem? It’s the fourth and final book of the Raven Cycle. So once I’ve read it, there are no more new Raven Boys books. You see my dilemma, I’m sure… and it sure is a tough one.

That was my Top Ten Tuesday featuring releases from 2016 that I unfortunately didn’t get to last year. Do any of these books feature on your Top Ten list? Which books were you anticipating in 2016? Did you get to them already?

Comment below/link your own post below if you have one – I’d love to read it!

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