Worst & Best Books of 2024

I did read a lot this year but mostly mediocre books. Still, it's a good reading year. Here are the books I have chosen to feature as my worst and best reads. (These are not in any particular order.)

~ The Worst ~

01 - Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
What's it about: evil wizard with amnesia, fruitless endeavors, lots of egotistic/evil people, lots of dumb servants
What I think: Gav, the wizard with no memory, is basically an idiot until the plot needs him to be otherwise. I don't know why, I thought he's an a-hole who simply can't function without his memory, not that he tries very hard to get it back. So many unfunny things happened but maybe I don't get the humor because I find every scene that is supposed to be funny just awkward and embarrassing. Too much self-introspection and ramblings for me to enjoy bust mostly Gav is a character too annoying to root for.

02 - Find Me by Alafair Burke
What's it about: murder, crimes, lawyers who don't lawyer, cops who curses a lot, liars
What I think: There are quite a lot of annoying characters and the twist at the end pissed me off. The mystery is mostly about a past crime that didn't interest me enough to care what happens but mostly there is not a single character who made me care about them. Supposedly this is part of a series which I didn't read but it's also a standalone but it didn't hold up to its premise.

03 - Exiles by Jane Harper (Book 3 of Aaron Falk)
What's it about: missing woman, past mystery/crime/murder, people enjoying their mundane lives
What I think: Lots of slow-moving, dull drama that focuses on a detective (Aaron Falk) obsessed with a lady he met once for a couple of minutes and is madly in love with for reasons only romantic fools would understand. There is two mysteries here which aren't connected which is surprising but kind of stupid but mostly because why the heck not? Why made them seemed to connect and then say it's not? Supposedly this can be read as a standalone but even if I read the previous books, I probably still wouldn't be able to enjoy this book. I thought the mysteries are secondary to Falk's enjoyment of his life.

04 - Vanishing Edge (A National Parks Mystery Book 1) by Claire Kells
What's it about: murder, camping, hiking, some investigating, more hiking
What I think: Quite a boring book but mostly because the main character whose name I can't even remember is rather uninteresting. It's her temporary partner Harland who is the truly interesting character and who also does all the fun, interesting things which we only hear about because the main character wasn't around to witness them. The mystery solves itself so she didn't even have to figure out who did the crime.

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~ The Best ~

05 - Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller
What's it about: laundry, socks, friendship, family
What I think: This is a charming, sweet, back in the days type of feel-good book. It's so innocent in that the two ten-year-old characters can go about New York City by themselves without worrying about getting kidnapped or being bullied. The drawings are fun and cute.
Favorite quote: "She thought of life as something that unfolded around her and happened to her while she was content being an observer."

06 - The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Yoko Tanaka
What's it about: an elephant, connections, family
What I think: This was lovely, heartwarming and the illustrations are so lovely but it's a shame they are black and white.

07 - TImber Creek K-9 Mystery Series by Margaret Mizushima
What's it about: K-9, handlers, animals, search & rescue, murder, crimes, small town, light romance
What I think: I didn't read the 9th book because it is still on hold at the library but I enjoyed this series so far. I might not like the romance bits but the rest I like especially the dog, Robo. Also, I actually don't mind the series being long.

08 - Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series by Marthe Jocely, illustrations by Isabelle Follath
What's it about: murder, mystery, friendship, finding corpses
What I think: This is what you would imagine a young Agatha Christie might be if she had a morbid preoccupation at a young age. It's a fun series and I really liked the friendship between Aggie & Hector Perot (supposedly this is meant to be a young Hercule Poirot) and the mysteries are good.
Favorite quote: "I am not untidy. I merely surround myself with a plethora of possibilities."
- The Body Under The Piano, Book 1

What's your worst and best books you had read this year?