Favourite Books of 2016

So, I guess this was a bit late but I still wanted to do it!

Most people on BookTube have been doing either their top 10, or top 16 books of the year but a lot of them only read 40 or 50 books. So, they are calling a huge chunk of them their “favourites”. I read 60 books but am only going to do my favourite 5, I think that number makes it clear that these are actually really great books (from my point of view), rather than that I am just picking a bunch to fill a quota. These aren’t necessarily books published in 2016, just ones I read in 2016. They are in the order that I read them, oldest first.

This was a fantastic book, it was just so well done. Obviously not her most famous book but I think this is better than Gone Girl. It is about the murder of a young family, and the only surviving daughter is looking for the truth behind the crime, which her brother is in prison for. I would say this has a couple of “twists”, one of which is actually incredibly heartbreaking. I haven’t seen the movie, I have it recorded and ready to go though.

This book has been talked about a lot in the last year or so, and for good reason, this is an excellent book. It is told from the point of view of a 5 year old who was born, and lives in, Room, with his mother who was kidnapped and held there. The writing style takes a few pages to get used to but it is fantastic once you do. In this case I have seen the movie, and it sucked in comparison to the book. So, if you have only seen the movie don’t let it put you off reading the book!

Now, some of you may have noticed that most of the books I don’t like are YA, this however is YA historical fiction and one of my favourites. This is another very popular and much talked about book and it is obvious why. This follows a group of teenagers during WWII and is told from multiple perspectives. Unusually, I found all the perspectives equally interesting and it really was just a great book that I would recommend to everyone.

This was the first book I received from my book subscription service, The Willoughby Book Club, and probably my favourite book of 2016. If it hadn’t been sent to me I wouldn’t have picked it up, even the first couple of pages weren’t really my thing but it got so good after that. It is set in 1800s Iceland and follows a woman sentenced to death for murder. It is amazing!

Another very popular book! I actually had this on my kindle for quite a while and kept putting off reading it. I am glad I finally picked it up though because it is amazing! I imagine most people know the main plot but if not, it follows Mark, an astronaut left behind by his team on Mars. There is quite a bit of technical astronaut-ing in this but it doesn’t interfere with the enjoyment of the story. This is very well done, it made me laugh and cry. Again, I have recorded but not yet watched the movie version.

So, it was actually a struggle to keep this to just 5 books, but equally it would be a struggle to get to 10 that really were all on a similar level.

I will put in 2 honourable mentions because these 2 books were also amazing. I guess that is cheating but I am the boss of the blog so ha!

This is just a beautiful book. It focuses on 2 sisters, one is dying of cancer, the other was conceived so she could be a donor for her to keep her alive. Again there is a movie, both the book and movie made me cry, but they have different endings which I wasn’t expecting. I saw the movie, several times, before reading the book so if you have only seen the movie, the book is definitely still worth it.

This is another book that I had for quite a while before reading it, and again I am glad I finally picked it up. It follows a boy with schizophrenia and is told from his perspective. A lot of books about mental illness seem to get massive hype, everyone claims to love them, I normally hate them. This one however is really fantastic, everyone should give it a go.

What were some of your favourites of 2016?

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