My thoughts on the Goodreads Choice 2023 Horror finalists (BookTube Collab)

Check out ‪@BeautifullyBookishBethany‬'s video here: • Reading Horror Finalis...
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Books discussed:
Holly by Stephen King
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
A House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher
Rouge by Mona Awad
Lone Women by Victor Lavalle
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas
The September House by Carissa Orlando
My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon
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[@talking_to_trees]

I think SK is just lumped into horror regardless of what he writes anymore, and you touched on a very apt point about votes being linked to how many people would have read a book; so yes, SK has the benefit of a fan base that is several decades running. Thanks so much for your round up. I have actually not read any of these and I am looking forward to doing so based on your thoughts.

[@NovelFindsByKassi]

I really enjoyed Our Share of Night this year. It was one that wowed me. I'm still thinking about it daily. So glad you also enjoyed it.

[@rainbownotation]

T kingfisher is one of my favourite authors right now! I’ve also read “Hollow Places”, “The Twisted Ones”, and “Nettle and Bone”, loved all of them. She’s also done an online graphic novel under her actual name Ursula Vernon, called “Digger” about a wombat taking this sort of dark journey. I recommend them all and can’t wait to read “Good Bones”.

[@troytradup]

I almost picked up Vampires of El Norte the other day just because of the cover. There should really be a shop where you can buy book cover posters.

[@BigDog366]

I'm currently reading Our Share of Night based on your recommendation in a previous video and I'm blown away by it, can't put it down. Interesting you say the list was 'diverse'. To me, it seemed to be lacking diversity, in that only one novel (Our Share) had a male lead? I'm seeing this in all categories, historical, crime, horror, whatever. By and large, no books about men.

[@christine7956]

Our Wives Under the Sea deserved to win for something. It is incredible.

[@tyghe_bright]

I find the Goodreads awards vaguely interesting. They're an indicator of what's popular, driven by name recognition and what's been heavily promoted. But not as an indicator of quality or anything I'd be interested in. Horror was the most diverse category, and that does reflect the state of horror as a genre in books and film. I do give some credence to judged awards, especially as my taste leans literary. If something has been shortlisted for the Pulitzer, Booker--or the Bram Stoker, I'm more likely to take a closer look at it.

[@sarahcountryman1776]

A video on Friday?! Hooray!! I agree about the classification of Holly. I think A House with Good Bones should have won. Yes, definitely a popularity contest.

[@bessdavies6440]

I've read all of Mona Awad's novels - Bunny (in my opinion) is still the very best one. I liked Rouge, it was like a weird fever dream. All' Well was also well done for me. I would recommend reading Bunny: it's quite different and is very "dark academia-y" I stopped using GoodReads because there's no real meritocracy on it. Plenty of fantastic books don't get rewarded or even advertised at all, and then in the other hand there's plenty of mediocre (or downright bad) books that get all the glory and get pushed a lot due to popularity. I also don't like that people can just rate books before they're even published

[@jamiea4791]

Love to see Mariana Enriquez as your top pick, I need to get to Our Share of Night but I absolutely loved her two short story collections that were translated to English. I actually ordered the UK editions because I liked the covers so much better than the American ones. I thought for sure that Grady Hendrix would've had it in the bag, especially seeing lukewarm reviews for Holly, and though I love King it's so telling when there were more votes on Holly than there are ratings on the actual book.

[@peteypickles3262]

When seeking a horror recommendation, one would do well to consult Criminolly, rather than Goodreads!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you! 😊

[@WildeBookGarden]

I loved Silver Nitrate! I definitely see why a lot of people felt it was too slow but I found the building tension really enjoyable

[@wendypridmore2005]

I agree with you. Popularity over quality

[@Kayyouhu77]

I just finished Vampires of El Norte. I love Isabel Canas' writing, but didn't enjoy it as much as The Hacienda for two reasons. It was a little too heavy on the romance - although it was a GOOD romance story. And it was a little too light on the horror. It had a good premise that I felt should have been developed more. In short - not enough vampire, too much emo. Still, a good amount of tension and danger at the end. But it just didn't creep me out and give me the shivers the way Hacienda did. I'm glad I read it anyway.

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

Our Share Of Night is on my Kindle . I really want it picked up it up on 2024.

[@eriebeverly]

I think you might like Vampires of El Norte because it's mostly a historic romance with some underachieving vampires in the mix. It's not horror but I think it accomplishes what Cañas set out to do in terms of asking questions about gender roles and class divides. If I were picking any from the longlist that I think would be an Olly book it would be Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison. An actual horror novel that at times is very funny.

[@diamondslashranch]

I don’t go to good reads anymore because it always felt like a popularity contest to me. I want the opinions of readers who appreciate well crafted books.

[@sdruss83]

That's like saying you don't like youtube because their "Popular" tab doesn't interest you. I'm not happy about it, but goodreads is still the best online tool to track your reading/TBR. Also, simply follow the people who you respect the opinions of... I want to switch to Storygraph but it's just not complete enough yet.

[@alloralou4722]

I used to be on good reads as well and I felt the same way.

[@FrshChees91]

I only read 2 nominees across all categories lol one of them was a winner! The Wager

[@breehuds5863]

I have several of these horror books on my list to read but have only read Hendrix How to Sell a Haunted House. I was so excited for it to come out only to be in the minority and think it was absolutely terrible. In fact I only gave in 1 star and DNF. Because of this book I decided this past year to focus on older horror instead. I usually have better luck. However, I think Silver Nitrate, Our Share of Night, Monstilio, Dead Eleven and A House with Good Bones have potential.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Sorry you didn't enjoy it more!

[@krisprepolec5616]

I am aware that my tastes are not those of your average American (and not just because I am Canadian) but I was surprised to find that most of the things that I voted for in the first round did not make it to the second round.

[@nc9726]

I think if it had been released earlier, Tananarive Due’s THE REFORMATORY would’ve easily ranked on this list (it has only been out a few weeks). It’s an important and genuinely chilling novel. I thought SILVER NITRATE was okay but I had a very hard time believing the young protagonist could learn occult skills so quickly as to take on, let alone defeat seasoned occultists. The chapters were also painfully over written.

[@joemountains1539]

Yes to THE REFORMATORY which may be the best critically reviewed book on the long list.

[@diggingdachshundfinds]

I would like to hear your recommendations on creature horror selections

[@DuncanMcCurdie]

I think Homesteading was the term you were looking for in The Lone Woman synopsis.

[@fiberartsyreads]

I don’t read a lot of new releases either. I haven’t read any of these 😂

[@johnward5404]

Did everyone read a different Grady Hendrix book than me? I read one and was not impressed.

[@Natali_Talis.Library]

I voted for Silver Nitrate, although GoodReads has been a popularity contest for a long time, so sadly it was obvious who the winner would be

[@Natali_Talis.Library]

Also Our Share of Night was a VERY close second for me

[@sandeesandwich2180]

I don't read horror at all, so I thought I would have read none of this list. But I did read A House with Good Bones. I have read about 11 of T Kingfisher's adult books (and a bunch of her children's books). A House with Good Bones is totally in Kingfisher's wheel house --- it's creepy with an element of fantasy similar in tone to What Moves the Dead. My favorite of her books is Swordheart. It is fantasy, but it is also very funny and engaging, and I think you would like it, even if fantasy is not your jam.

[@caramcnulty8129]

I think they missed the boat by not putting "The Reformatory" by Tananarive Due on the list.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

It was on the longer list but I guess didn’t get enough votes for the final 10. Have heard great things about it

[@elliyo4286]

I loved 'what moves the dead', definitely need to look into their new book! As to the criticism regarding 'holly', I don't get why people don't want books or media in general to 'be political', whatever they mean by that. So much stuff is political, from bodily autonomy to protecting those most vulnerable; I feel like a lot of this criticism on 'blah blah is too political' comes from the more conservatige, right-wing side towards more left-ish, feminist people. Maybe that's just my perception though! But I see mostly feminists, activists, marginalized people or themes getting attacked, or people talking about those issues getting told they're 'too political'. I dunno. 'our share of night' also sounds really interesting!

[@BandysBooks]

Fun to hear your thoughts. House With Good Bones was enjoyable, but not the best Kingfisher ever. It’s definitely a fun read though. Vampires of El Norte was a disappointment for me. I loved her previous book, The Hacienda. This one was too romance heavy and the vampires were barely in it. The setting and time period was fantastic though and it does discuss class and gender well. The September House was so good. I found it via a recommendation from another booktuber and honestly devoured it. I think it’s definitely worth a read. It’s a fun haunted house story. Lone Women was decent. I loved LaValle’s book The Changeling, but for Lone Women, I just feel like the western vibe isn’t my thing. Silver Nitrate was just okay for me. Compared to some of Moreno Garcia’s previous books, I felt like this could’ve been a bit better. The concept was super cool, but I hated the resolution between the two MCs relationship and I felt like it dragged a bit. I hadn’t heard of Our Share of Night, but it sounds great. I’m adding it to the TBR.

[@RamAbballah]

I keep wondering if I should give T. Kingfisher another shot. I read The White People by Arthur Machen and really liked it. I think The Twisted Ones was recommended to me by Amazon's algorithm after that since it's based on the Machen story. I thought it was terrible, unfortunately, and never really fulfilled it's potential. I'm looking forward to Lone Women. I dug The Changeling and The Ballad of Black Tom. Our Share of Night was also great. I loved Holly, too, and didn't think his politics were any more involved than usual. The climax did have a couple small bits that made me stop and go, "really?" however, which is unusual for Stephen King in my opinion, especially in a story without supernatural elements. I'm a bit wary of Grady Hendrix. I wonder if I would like his tone.

[@kyrilson71]

I agree that Holly is more of a thriller than horror. Enjoyable book and I didn’t feel like it was too preachy. I hated How to Sell a Haunted House, though. The two MCs weren’t compelling to me and I just can’t see a puppet being scary. Just stomp on it, for crying out loud. I thought Chucky was lame too, so maybe there’s a common theme there that I should avoid. A shame because I’ve liked his other books. Our Share of Night looks very interesting! Will prob add that to my tbr for 2024.

[@TheWordN3rd]

I honestly domt know how you do a voting awards contest without it being a popularity contest, but it really is frustrating to hear how many books that dont actually meet genre criteria end up being in these lists and even winning.

[@bighardbooks770]

🦇

[@RoseArnoldd]

Mona Awad writes weird chick lit in my opinion 😂 Bunny is…weirder

[@brad2306]

I find T. Kingfisher to be a little too campy for my liking, although I did enjoy what moves the dead.

[@RobynRedman-xv6px]

Great summary - I really enjoy your content and get lots of great recommendations from your channel. I do wish you wouldn't need to comment so often on the importance of "representation" in horror writing and imply that there is something wrong with enjoying the works of white male authors. While I understand these comments are well-intentioned, they do come across as rather condescending. There is an underlying implication that anyone outside of the white male demographic needs extra help and cannot possibly meet the standards set out by their white male predecessors. I personally wouldn't encourage readers to seek out authors from some minority group, regardless of whether they truly enjoyed their work. What would be the point? At the end of the day, we just want a good, well-written story. It shouldn't matter who wrote it.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Glad you’re enjoying the channel! I don’t think I’ve ever said that it’s bad to read books by white men, I’m reading one right now and loving it, but I do believe that having books from as wide a range of authors as possible will only make the horror genre better.

[@paulflint6254]

I saw it too. Don't agree with this kind of categorising tbh. It is not representative of the best books, it's subjective.

[@DDB168]

I assume these are all contemporary horror ? (published this year). God how boring 🤣H olly was always going to win it because it's probably had the most sales / reads, therefore it gets the votes. I wonder if they have a best sports books of 2023 category? I kid of course. As if !

[@leonoldfield9765]

I didn’t enjoy “How to sell a haunted house” at all. I had to force myself to finish it. “Silver Nitrate” was better but nothing special.

[@adox66]

I read and didn’t enjoy Our Share Of Night. Extremely bloated and uneven I thought was pretty poor tbh.

[@kevintooroian8957]

Thanks for the Hendrix spoiler. Very disappointed.

[@BigDog366]

Hah, same here. I had that on my to-read list and didn't know anything about it. Now I do.