2021 rereads

As with 2020, I really meant to post this in batches or at least quarters, or halves; and really did not. I reread 60+ books, so I assumed there was a lot missing from this list—but it turns out that the other rereads were books I'd never reviewed before, so they ended up folded up in my normal reviews. The only exception is: elisions/groupings mentioned below; Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Spell Sword/The Forbidden Tower, because I'm not up to unpacking the whether/how of separating the work from this author; and a lot of toki pona texts that I reread in whole or in part.

The obvious trend in 2021 rereads was comfort reads. Sometimes I reread to see how my reading of a book has changed; these I reread because I already knew I loved them, for their energy or for one specific trope or for their unusually intimate relationship/poly dynamics/queer coding. I wrote about this here:

Surprising no one that's ever talked to me, the vast majority of my comfort rereads are "chewy, indulgent, weird interpersonal dynamics, probably with some sort of strong atmosphere." [...] Basically anything that hits the overlap of unusually intimate relationship + favorite is something I've reread or will reread. It's hands down my favorite ... trope? genre? defining characteristic, and id-fic that I've read before has already been vetted for (subjective) quality so I can switch off my analytical brain. It makes for guaranteed absorbing escapism—like a daydream, but better.

That was 2021 in a nutshell, and so help me if I don't want to do the same for 2022.


( Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente )

( Alphabet of Thorn, Patricia A. McKillip )

( The Tea Dragon Society, Kay O'Neill  )

( Dreadful Skin, Cherie Priest )

( The Summer Prince, Alaya Dawn Johnson )

( A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick )

( Dust, Elizabeth Bear )

( Chill, Elizabeth Bear )

( Grail, Elizabeth Bear )

( Grass, Sheri S. Tepper )

( Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer )

( Dracula, Bram Stoker )

( The Vampyre, John Polidori )

( Ghosts in the House!, Kazuno Kohara )

( Coraline, Neil Gaiman )

( Hemlock Grove, Brian McGreevey )

( Lives of the Monster Dogs, Kirsten Bakis )

( Red Dragon, Thomas Harris )

( Xenogensis series and Fledgling, Octavia Butler )

Crosspost: on comfort rereads

Crossposting from a rare Tumblr appearance, in reply to a post about comfort rereads:

I love this topic so much. I've always been passionate about rereads, but I feel like I let them fall by the wayside under the drive to read & record ever more new books; but these last few years I've been rereading a lot, and a lot of it is comfort rereads because sadtime in Juu life.

Surprising no one that's ever talked to me, the vast majority of my comfort rereads are "chewy, indulgent, weird interpersonal dynamics, probably with some sort of strong atmosphere." Robins's Maledicte is my favorite, but also Otsuichi's Goth (in all formats), Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Tartt's The Secret History, a bunch of boys love manga, McGreevy's Hemlock Grove ... basically anything that hits the overlap of unusually intimate relationship + favorite is something I've reread or will reread. It's hands down my favorite ... trope? genre? defining characteristic, and id-fic that I've read before has already been vetted for (subjective) quality so I can switch off my analytical brain. It makes for guaranteed absorbing escapism—like a daydream, but better.

There are books that fit this metric that I haven't turned to for rereads, and most of them aren't genre fiction. Genre feels more easily consumable, probably has a stronger and more engaging atmosphere, and may do more fun/exaggerated/tropey things with the relationship dynamic in addition to being complex/chewy/unsettling.

My other major reread category is children's fantasy series, particularly Harry Potter, Narnia, His Dark Materials, Redwall, and Valente's Fairyland. For all that I'm generally series-resistant, in rereads I love the comfort of more—that I can select a favorite while benefiting from the context of the larger series, or that I have an entire series to escape into book by book. Not all of these are nostalgia rereads, but a lot of them are, and literally growing up alongside them is part of my relationship with the text. I love the particular tropes of middle grade fantasy, and I love how middle grade ages up with the reader—it feels like it hits a different (read: less annoying) vibe than YA fantasy, and when the reader ages to adulthood it grows even richer. That's why Harry Potter is still on this list, despite Rowling: I find that rereading while author-critical is a form of aging with the text.

I totally get the vibe of hopefulness, of a fundamentally compassionate gaze. I have a lot of overlapping favorites, and want to reread them, but wouldn't pick them up as comfort rereads. I prefer escapism; something that leans into or, perish the thought, answers my emotional vulnerability would hit too close to home. But children's fantasy makes a lot of space for kindness, so functions in a similar way. I get emotional catharsis, but with the softening haze of nostalgia and the growth from perpetual rereads, and that works out pretty well for me.