That title is a really nice way to put the fact that 2020 woke up one day and just threw my TBR out the window and laughed.

Not even a good, proper villain laugh. You know, the sort that’s all deep and rumbly that you grudgingly have to admit they were obviously born for the role they play. No, not that. The high-pitched, obnoxious sort of laugh that grates on your nerves.

So, obviously, I had all the best intentions to read books in 2020, and then … 2020 happened. Needless to say, there were some books that unfortunately fell to the wayside.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is books I meant to read in 2020 but didn’t get to.

The list is obviously greater than 10. By … a lot. I refuse to be an overachiever on this one, so I’m going to limit this TTT to ten answers. I can hear you breathe a sigh of relief. To be fair, any more than that is just depressing to me, and I don’t need another reminder of all the books I had good intentions with and never quite got around to.

The books listed here, though? Obviously my priorities for 2021 and also likely good reads that you should for sure check out. And hey, if you read them before I do … you can let me know if they’re any good. xD See? Win-win.

Harrow the Ninth

She answered the Emperor’s call.

She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend.

In victory, her world has turned to ash.

After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman’s shoulders.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath — but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her.

Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor’s Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• Gideon the Ninth was freaking fantastic!
• I need more Harrow and Gideon in my life.
• Lesbian necromancers in space is always a good idea.
• I miss the characters’ sarcasm and biting wit.
• Lots of drama to ensue, I’m sure.
• … did I mention the necromancy, guys?

The Year of the Witching

In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• Biracial protagonist.
• Dystopias are always fun.
• I need more witchy books, please and thanks.
• Down with the institution! Overthrow the … patriarchy?
• Anything where religion goes awry sounds like a fun time.

Plain Bad Heroines

A highly imaginative and original horror-comedy centered around a cursed New England boarding school for girls—a wickedly whimsical celebration of the art of storytelling, sapphic love, and the rebellious female spirit.

Our story begins in 1902, at The Brookhants School for Girls. Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it The Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, The Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way.

Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer, Merritt Emmons, publishes a breakout book celebrating the queer, feminist history surrounding the “haunted and cursed” Gilded-Age institution. Her bestselling book inspires a controversial horror film adaptation starring celebrity actor and lesbian it girl Harper Harper playing the ill-fated heroine Flo, opposite B-list actress and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara. But as Brookhants opens its gates once again, and our three modern heroines arrive on set to begin filming, past and present become grimly entangled—or perhaps just grimly exploited—and soon it’s impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins.

A story within a story within a story and featuring black-and-white period illustrations, Plain Bad Heroines is a devilishly haunting, modern masterwork of metafiction that manages to combine the ghostly sensibility of Sarah Waters with the dark imagination of Marisha Pessl and the sharp humor and incisive social commentary of Curtis Sittenfeld into one laugh-out-loud funny, spellbinding, and wonderfully luxuriant read.

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• Horror comedy sounds like my kind of book.
• Always up for some good sapphic romance.
• Love me some creepy school settings!
• Sounds like a compelling mystery.
• Story within a story is one of my favorite tropes.
• Give me all the curses and ghosts and dark things, please.

The Head of Mimir

The young Heimdall must undertake a mighty quest to save Odin – and all of Asgard – in the first heroic fantasy novel set in Marvel’s incredible Legends of Asgard

It is a dark time for Asgard. The Allfather is trapped in a bewitched Odinsleep, inspiring an all-out assault from the Frost Giants. They evade the gods’ defenses with uncommon ease, as if guided by augury. Heimdall, a quick-witted young warrior still finding his place amongst Asgard’s defenders, believes it no coincidence that Odin lies enchanted and that the Giants are so well-informed. Sneaking into Odin’s inner chambers, he discovers that the severed head of Mimir, a great source of wisdom, is missing. Accompanied by his sister, Lady Sif, Heimdall must quest across the Ten Realms to retrieve it, lest mighty Asgard fall.

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• Heimdall. Duh!
• Always ready to dive into some Norse mythology.
• Even better that it’s a spin on Marvel’s Norse mythology take.
• Sounds like a fun, fast-paced mystery.

The Secret Life of Sam

When Sam’s dad dies in a car accident, Sam is shuttled off to the dusty town of Holler, Oklahoma, to live with a long-lost aunt. There he encounters a mysterious mangy cat who leads him to an unassuming tree that turns out to be a portal—a passage through which Sam can revisit his old life for a few minutes at a time.

Sam’s visits to the bayou become stranger and stranger. Pa’s old stories unfold around him in beautiful but sinister detail, and Pa is not quite himself. Still, Sam is desperate to find a way for them to stay together—no matter what it takes.

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• Sounds like it has a lot of Southern charm just from the blurb.
• Unique setting that I don’t get to read about that often!
• Seems like a story that’ll tug on my heartstrings.
• I’m so curious about Pa’s old stories already!

The Archive of the Forgotten

The Library of the Unwritten in Hell was saved from total devastation, but hundreds of potential books were destroyed. Former librarian Claire and Brevity the muse feel the loss of those stories, and are trying to adjust to their new roles within the Arcane Wing and Library, respectively. But when the remains of those books begin to leak a strange ink, Claire realizes that the Library has kept secrets from Hell–and from its own librarians.

Claire and Brevity are immediately at odds in their approach to the ink, and the potential power that it represents has not gone unnoticed. When a representative from the Muses Corps arrives at the Library to advise Brevity, the angel Rami and the erstwhile Hero hunt for answers in other realms. The true nature of the ink could fundamentally alter the afterlife for good or ill, but it entirely depends on who is left to hold the pen.

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• I am so ready to dive back into this world.
• I miss my cast of misfits and dumpster fires waiting to happen.
• More secrets! Bigger stakes! Lots of shenanigans!
• Maybe the opportunity to visit some more Libraries/worlds?
• Look, I miss Hero the most. Trying not to play favorites, but there you have it.
• Just super excited to have the chance to continue this series!

Anxious People

A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined

Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix up their own marriage. There’s a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you’ve got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in a motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• One of my favorite authors!
• I never quite know what to expect with a Backman book.
• You know, other than to feel utterly shattered and broken by the end of it.
• Most likely, I’ll fall in love with all of these characters.
• I’m just so dang curious about that blurb!

Over the Woodward Wall

If you trust her you’ll never make it home…

Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework – without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.

Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.

They live on the same street.
They live in different worlds.

On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a stone wall into the Up and Under – an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures.

And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives.

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• Written by Seanan McGuire, and I just love her writing style!
• Super curious about what she brings to middle grade.
• The premise of this sounds so darn interesting.
• I’m already more than a little in love with this story just from the way the blurb is written.

The Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira

Two worlds at war will bring them together… or tear them apart…

Everson didn’t want to be a soldier. His parents forced him to serve, as all good Indiran men should. The only problem? His first battle against their mortal enemies goes horribly wrong and he winds up stranded on the enemy planet.

Now, Everson has to survive in this strange new land where everyone is out to get him. Not to mention, the planet Mano is covered in unforgiving desert. And he’s the target of traitors who want to use him in a dastardly plot to overthrow their mad king, Xander the Firm, by having him retrieve a piece of mysterious and powerful ancient technology known as the Tinderbox.

But everything changes during a chance encounter with the king’s daughter, Allegra. Despite her station, she’s in as grave of danger from her own people as Everson is. And though their peoples have been at odds for centuries, an unlikely spark forms between them.

As their worlds come crashing down around them, their forbidden love might be the only chance to end this war forever. Or, it might just be the doom of everyone…

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• One of my grandmother’s favorite actors, so I’m curious how he writes!
• I’m a fan of powerful and mysterious artifacts.
• Sounds a lot like enemies-to-lovers to me!
• I do so enjoy forbidden love.
• I also quite enjoy the doom of everyone, so … win-win?

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn’t get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.

Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.

Susan’s search for her father begins with her mother’s possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.

Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan’s. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.

Why I’m looking forward to it:

• I love books about books!
• I’ve heard a lot about this author and haven’t had a chance to read any of their books yet.
• Booksellers sound kind of tough and awesome in this!
• This sounds like a mystery I can sink my teeth into.

Do you have any books you meant to read in 2020 that you’re hoping to get to in 2021? Do we have any in common? Share yours or drop your TTT link in the comments below.

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