I always hesitate to indulge in these listicles, primarily because my reading habits are so eclectic. However, if you’re like me and enjoy reading across a broad range of topics and books, you might find something new to like. 

Here are my favorites from 2020:

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. This is the last novel in Mantel’s historical fiction series about the life of Thomas Cromwell, and Mantel deftly recaps the events of the previous books to give us a heartfelt goodbye to Cromwell (we all know how this ends, am I right?). Whether the historical Cromwell was as noble as his fictional counterpart, I don’t know, but Mantel brings him to life and gives the blacksmith’s son a truly poignant ending.

The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey. Although it was published in 2019, The Grand Dark was my first read of 2020, and it was all the things I loved in one novel. Historians will recognize Kadrey’s Lower Proszawa as a stand-in for Berlin in the shadow of World War I. Kadrey’s protagonist, Largo, is an addict who is looking for a better life. Caught between the hedonism of the rich and the slums of his childhood, Largo’s ambitions takes him into heart of political intrigues that threaten to take Lower Proszawa into another war. It’s a dark and lovely reimagining of post-WWI Berlin set in a fictional world.

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher. Horror is my favorite genre, and while I usually gravitate toward darker fare, Kingfisher’s The Twisted Ones entwines humor with horror to give the reader some genuine laugh out loud moments, all the while satisfying the need for scares. While cleaning out her grandmother’s house, Mouse finds her step-grandfather’s journal, and in doing so is led into the world of the Twisted Ones. A creepy good book to read on a dark winter’s night.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Probably my favorite horror of this past year, The Only Good Indians reeled me in from the beginning and never quite let me go. Jones’s characters are whole people and entirely relatable. One of the hallmarks of an excellent horror story is the ability to create empathy for the characters, so that when they’re manipulated into their own destruction, the reader is horrified by the events. Beautifully done, The Only Good Indians is one of the best horror novels that I’ve read in recent years.

The Vanished Queen by Lisbeth Campbell. Finally, something for our epic fantasy fans. If you love political intrigue set within a fantasy world, I highly recommend Campbell’s The Vanished Queen. A hidden diary by a dead queen inspires Anza to join the resistance against a despotic king. When she is captured, she finds an unlikely ally in none other than the king’s second son. Fans of high fantasy intrigue and action will find a lot to love about Campbell’s work.  

Road out of Winter by Alison Stine. If you love your dark fiction set in the near future, then Road out of Winter might be for you. This is all Winter’s Bone meets The Road. Wylodine’s family, who grows marijuana illegally, has left her behind to tend the crop alone, but the climate is changing for the worse. When spring doesn’t return for the second year in a row, Wylodine stows her grow lights in her truck along with a pouch of precious seeds and leaves the Appalachia. Filled with found families and lyrical prose, Stine takes the reader on a harrowing journey with unforgettable characters. Fans of dystopian fiction will find a lot to love in Road out of Winter.

Sunshield by Emily B. Martin. Need something lighter but not too fluffy? Sunshield by Emily B. Martin did the trick for me. This one is especially for fans of Martin’s Woodwalker series (and if you haven’t read the Woodwalker books, you can jump into Sunshield cold like I did). An outlaw, a diplomat, and a prisoner are brought together for a magnificent adventure. Martin keeps the action coming with a vivid world that resembles the American wild west. If you’re looking for something different, here is a fantasy western that might intrigue you enough to look more deeply into Martin’s worlds.

Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis by Jeffrey H. Jackson. You knew there’d be at least one nonfiction book here, and if you didn’t, well … surprise! My final read of 2020 is Paper Bullets, and it’s a true story—one part spy story, one part love story, written like a thriller. Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe drew on their skills as Parisian avant-garde artists to fight the Nazi regime with the only weapon they had: “paper bullets.” Together, they designed their own PSYOPS campaign and distributed short notes designed to demoralize Nazi troops on the British Channel Island of Jersey. There, they tucked their notes in magazines and slipped them into the pockets of unsuspecting Nazi soldiers. It was a dangerous game. Betrayed in 1944, they were imprisoned and sentenced to death. Even while awaiting their sentence, they fought the Nazis by spreading hope to other prisoners. Fortunately, they survived the war and now their story is being told. It’s a fascinating story of two forgotten heroes of World War II.

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T. Frohock has turned a love of history and dark fantasy into tales of deliciously creepy fiction. A real-life cyborg, T. has a cochlear implant, meaning she can turn you on or off with the flick of a switch. Make of that what you will. She currently lives in North Carolina, where she has long been accused of telling stories, which is a southern colloquialism for lying. Her latest novel in the Los Nefilim series is A Song with Teeth.

You can catch up with her at her website or on Twitter.