The Bookshelf 2024

A Christmas Cannibal 2024 in Review

The Bookshelf 2024

Stephen King’s Fairy Tale was sitting on my bedside table for months, mocking me. I began thinking it might be my version of Book of the Dead from the Evil Dead franchise. How the heck was I supposed to sleep next to that? And what was the alternative? Keep ignoring it? Hide it away forever? Then the book wins, man. It wins! Damn you, Sai King. Freaked me out before I even start reading the damn thing. It took me a long time to mentally prepare for Fairy Tale. After a couple of weeks I moved the bookmark past the dedication page. That’s progress, right? It just seemed like a huge challenge to take on. Or a journey to begin. Especially so soon after The Unbearable Lightness of Being almost ruined my soul. Fairy Tale took me four months to finish. My habit of reading more than one book at a time doesn’t help. The reason I am telling you that is because Fairy Tale is probably the best book I read all year. Sometimes taking that leap is worth it. King’s You Like it Darker is a close second.

Elsewhere, I am forever grateful to my book club for broadening my horizons. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro and Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami were both brilliantly written, but way outside the scope of what I would usually read. The Last Passenger by Will Dean also gets credit for a great premise.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King (2022)

Those people Next Door by Kia Abdullah (2023)

Welcome to the Splatterclub Vol III by Various Authors (2024)

The Villa by Ruth Kelly (2023)

The Rail Yard Apparitions by Samuel Brower (2015)

Them by Jon Ronson (2001)

The Last Passenger by Will Dean (2023)

Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1989)

You Like it Darker by Stephen King (2024)

Resurrection Mixtape by Jeff Bowles (2022)

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

The Hike by Lucy Clarke (2023)