2024 Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag (+ Mid-Year Wrap-Up)

Hello, everyone! Long time, no talk. I seem to be saying that a lot, I’m sorry about that! Based on the way the rest of my life is balancing out at the moment, I think I’ll be popping in and out on this blog for a little while before getting a more precise schedule going again. I have to spend more time reading so I can get a bit more writing material prepared, after all! I hope everyone’s summer has been going well.

(Please forgive me if I’m being exceedingly verbose at all! I’ve not been writing much lately so it probably shows, haha.)

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1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2023

I’ve talked about Gone Girl and Fight Club a fair bit in various wrap-ups and tags this year, and I’ll mention them again! I really enjoyed both of these which has flavored my reading year well, I think. I picked up both of them as inspiration for a novel I was working on, and they were very beneficial on that front and as entertainment otherwise. Good stuff!

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2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2023

The only series I’ve really been reading this year is Lemony Snicket’s All the Wrong Questions but I think it fills the prompt well enough anyway. I quite enjoyed the first book in the series, Who Could That Be at This Hour? but it took until the second installment for me to really fall in love with the books overall. Middle grade always keeps me afloat in more slumpy times!

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3. New Release(s) You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To

This one is definitely going to Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar. I’ve heard generally very good things about it, and I was planning on reading it regardless of general reception anyway. As I’ve been focusing on my physical TBR and not buying so many brand new books lately, I haven’t gotten the chance to read it just yet. Hopefully soon, though!

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4. Most Anticipated Release(s) for the Second Half of the Year

I mentioned both of these in a past Top Ten Tuesday post as most anticipated 2024 releases, and that still very much applies! Joelle Wellington’s debut, Their Vicious Games, was an excellent young adult thriller exploring race, class, and the dissolution of desperate individuals — it definitely made me interested in picking up her next title, The Blonde Dies First. And I started exploring the Riordanverse last year just in time for this newest wave with The Wrath of the Triple Goddess, so I’m riding it!

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5. Biggest Disappointment

This unfortunately goes to Greywaren without a shadow of a doubt for me. I had such high hopes for the conclusion of The Raven Cycle spin-off series, the Dreamer Trilogy, but it left me not only very disappointed but also extremely frustrated. I detailed my thoughts in a (spoiler-free) Dreamer Trilogy review if you’re curious about the nitty gritty!

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6. Biggest Surprise

I read Remarkably Bright Creatures for a local book club and only would’ve read it for that reason. However, I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I expected! It is perhaps a bit hokey but quite heartwarming and even if it isn’t a favorite or anything, it was a nice time.

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7. Favorite New Author (Debut or New to You)

I’m actually not really sure who to put here! A fair amount of my reads this year have been by new-to-me authors but I’m not sure there’s one that stands out as a favorite. If I were to read any of these authors’ other work, it’d probably be by Gillian Flynn or Chuck Palahniuk.

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8. Newest Fictional Crush

As I’ve been reading primarily middle grade and young adult stories and then adult novels with generally unlikable characters, this question doesn’t feel quite relevant to me. Not sure I have anyone to say here!

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9. Newest Favorite Character

I think I have to go with the whole cast of characters in the All the Wrong Questions books. The Lemony Snicket quirk and intrigue is strong with all of them which I love.

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10. Book(s) That Made You Cry

Although I used to be much more of a crier when it comes to books, I’ve either hardened or been reading fewer sad books — both of which are very plausible! Nothing to add here.

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11. Book(s) That Made You Happy

Definitely going to have to say She Drives Me Crazy for this one! I reread this romance to help pull me out of a particularly grisly reading slump and it served me well.

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12. Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought So Far This Year (Or Received)

I’ve thoroughly exhausted this topic at this point but give me all the nature horror and then some. I’ll be honest and say a lot of why I picked up House of Hollow and Together We Rot was because of their covers — and I don’t mind saying that, because look at them!

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13. What Books Do You Need to Read by the End of the Year?

I’ve been taking pretty much all pressure off of myself in terms of “needing” to read anything. So rather than that, some books I want to finish by the end of the year include:

• The Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1) by Octavia Butler
• Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
• The Wrath of the Triple Goddess (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #7) by Rick Riordan
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• The Blonde Dies First by Joelle Wellington

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Brief Mid-Year Wrap-Up!

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Books Completed: 19
Average Rating: 3.63 stars
Most Read Genre: Fantasy
Top Intended Audience: Adult / Middle Grade

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So far, my reading year isn’t exactly where I wanted it to be initially but I think I’m mostly at peace with it at the moment! I tend to find favorite books in the latter half of the year for whatever reason anyway so even if I were more displeased, I wouldn’t ultimately mind so much.

There are many more books that I’ve been reading but have yet to finish, so this isn’t the fullest picture but it’s full enough for the time being, I think. It’s about time I get back to reading!

Have you read any of the books mentioned here? Did you enjoy them? Why, or why not? What are some of the favorites you’ve read during the first half of this year? Least favorites? Any personal answers for the questions presented in this tag? (Consider yourself tagged!) I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!