Best and Worst Books I Read in 2020 (Spoiler-Free)

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! 

Today I'm going to be talking about the best and worst books I read in 2020. Two of these books were new releases, while the rest have been out for at least a couple years.

Without further ado, let's get into the post, beginning with the best books I read. 

Best

These books aren't in any particular order, as I find it difficult to rank books I enjoy. All I include here are synopses and my spoiler-free thoughts.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Salt to the Sea is a YA Historical Fiction novel that takes place during World War II. This story is told from the perspectives of four characters. Joana, a Lithuanian nurse, Alfred, a Nazi and fanatic of Adolf Hitler, Florian, an East Prussian, and Emilia, an orphan from Poland. 

It tells the story of Joana, Florian, and Emilia trying to reach the MV (motor vessel) Wilhelm Gustloff, a German armed military transport ship (Alfred is aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff). 

The Wilhelm Gustloff was originally meant to be a cruise ship, then it served as a hospital ship in 1939 to 1940. Its mission during World War II was to evacuate German refugee civilians from East Prussia, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, and Estonia.

I thought Salt to the Sea was well written. I thought the first sentences in the first four chapters went together very well, and I frequently think of those sentences during random times. The story itself is in first person by the characters I mentioned in the last paragraph. It has around 100-200 chapters, but the chapters are very short. All in all, the book is 391 pages, so it's pretty standard for a YA novel.

I'm glad there are books that cover this since schools don't (I only know because my sister didn't know about it when I told her about it, and I assume my parents don't know either). People constantly reference or talk about the RMS Titanic, but I've never heard anyone mention the MV Wilhelm Gustloff. Basically, the ship was attacked by a Soviet submarine, causing it to sink. An estimated 9,400 people died, which makes it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.

More than 1,500 people who were on the Titanic died of the estimated 2,400. I'm not saying the Titanic wasn't tragic; it definitely was. One loss of life is too much, but let's say 1,700 people aboard the Titanic died--that still leaves 7,700 that would've died on the Wilhelm Gustloff. Again, I'm not trying to come off as insensitive, because they are both very tragic for very different reasons.

Overall, Salt to the Sea was very thought provoking. It's one of the best books I've read. I gave it five stars on Goodreads. If you enjoy historical fiction, I'd highly recommend checking this book out. This book is about a tragic time in history, so it is a bit heavy emotionally, but I'd still recommend it.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Angel is the first book in The Infernal Devices series, which is a prequel spin-off of The Mortal Instruments. I have been wanting to read this series for a while, but I knew that I had to read City of Bones and City of Ashes first (I'm reading by publication order). While the original three books in The Mortal Instruments series weren't a favorite of mine, I did definitely enjoy Clockwork Angel.

This story follows Tessa Gray, an American girl, as she tries to locate her missing brother in London. She crosses paths with the Shadowhunters, including Will and Jem, the two mysterious boys she is attracted to.

This story is a mix of Historical/Speculative Fiction and Urban Fantasy, because this story takes place in 1878. The plot has the standard "Down-worlders" (paranormal creatures like vampires, demons, warlocks, werewolves) that The Mortal Instruments

has.

Most people who love this series love Will, and I do, but I don't. I actually like Jem a bit more than Will. He's a bit more level-headed. On a certain level, I relate to him more, but we'll see what happens.

I find this book to be more enjoyable than City of Bones, the first book in The Mortal Instruments series. I hope the rest of the series isn't a letdown. I'm excited to read the last two books in this series. What I'm not looking forward to is the rest of The Mortal Instruments series, however maybe the added trilogy in that series will be better than the first trilogy. Maybe we're finally done with the aspect I hated that I will mention later in this post.

The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan

Yes, I'm aware that this is a series and not a single book, but I had to include it here. 

The Trials of Apollo is the spinoff series of The Heroes of Olympus which, in turn, is the spinoff of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This is the third series in the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, which includes the other two series I mentioned.

I read all of these books in 2020. My mom, sister, and I had gone to the library just before the pandemic got incredibly bad so we would have some books to read during quarantine. 

While there, The Hidden Oracle was one of the books I picked. I would've picked the other ones up as well except they were checked out at the library we went to, so I ended up reading The Dark Prophecy, The Burning Maze, and The Tyrant's Tomb (The Tower of Nero wasn't out yet) as e-books. I read those four at the beginning of the pandemic in March, and honestly, I'm glad I did. Those books kept me from going insane for the first few weeks. 

Reading these books was one of the highlights of 2020 for me. I had been wanting to read these ones since 2019, but I elected to read Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard first because it's a shorter series, being only three books long. I'm glad that I waited.

When The Tower of Nero came out, I read it as an audiobook because that was the only way my library had it online (they bought the e-book copy a few days after I listened to the audio). It was the first audiobook I listened to, and I really enjoyed it. The narrator (Robbie Daymond) did a really good job differentiating the voices, because these books have a large cast.

(If you're interested in reading the Goodreads review I wrote for The Tower of Nero, here's the link: The Tower of Nero: Alexandria's Review (opens in new window))

These books follow Apollo, who has been turned into a mortal by Zeus after the events of The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus book 5). He has to complete these trials as a human named Lester Papadopoulos in order to regain his godhood. They're told in first-person from Apollo's perspective, which is a nice change of pace from the third-person narration in The Heroes of Olympus. 

You don't have to read Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus before reading these, but I'd recommend it, because there are a lot of references to old events and characters, plus spoilers for the conclusions of both Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus.

An Ember in the Ashes Quartet by Sabaa Tahir

This is another series I read the entirety of last year. I had heard good things about this series, plus I thought the premise was interesting.

This story has a world based on ancient Rome, and honestly, I could tell. I enjoyed the setting, the romance, and I loved the characters. Laia is one of my favorite female protagonists, which is saying a lot since most female protagonists tend to either annoy or bore me. I have more male protagonists that I like than female ones.

An Ember in the Ashes follows two protagonists who switch off telling the story in first-person.

Our first protagonist is Laia, a scholar girl who decides to risk her life to spy for rebels that promise to rescue her brother, who was arrested for treason.

Our other protagonist is Elias, the finest soldier at the school Laia infiltrates (a school that trains children and teenagers to become deadly soldiers for the government [Martial Empire]). He wants to be free of the life he's been forced into.

I don't want to speak much about it, because I feel like this is a story you should go into with very little information, because that's how I enjoyed it. All I knew was that this was a YA Fantasy/Romance that took place in a world based on ancient Rome. That's literally all I knew. 

Personally, I loved this series. I tend to have a problem with most series, because usually when I read a trilogy, I love the first two, but I end up liking the third one less (this happened with The Hunger Games and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard). This happens especially when a series is longer. I had initially thought this series was a trilogy, until I found out that the fourth and final one was slated to come out December 2, 2020 (I read the fourth one about a week after it was released, because my library got it as an e-book). 

When I started this series I loved the first two, and I kept wishing that the third one was just as good. I didn't even give every book in Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus five stars, even though I love both those series.

The An Ember in the Ashes Quartet didn't disappoint. I gave every book in this series 5 stars on Goodreads because I loved the story, the characters, and the romance. This series left me wanting more. I don't think this series is for everyone (as most books aren't), but it's one of those series that I highly recommend. 

I think I've talked enough about this series. Let's move on to the next book.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I feel like everyone has heard of this book by now. This is one of my sister's all-time favorite books, by one of her all-time favorite authors. I read this book toward the beginning of quarantine last year, around the same time that I was reading the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.

I had never read a Jane Austen book before reading Pride and Prejudice, but I had heard a lot about it and my sister had made me watch the movie with Keira Knightley not long before I read it.

This story follows the Bennet family, most notably, Elizabeth Bennet in Regency England. I'm not going to say much about the plot, because I have a hard time describing it. It's one of those books that you should just read yourself to see if you like it. If I try to summarize the plot, I'll just do it a disservice, because it won't do the book justice.

While I think this book is unarguably the best classic I read last year (arguably the best classic I've ever read), I don't think it's for everyone, though I think it's worth trying to read.

It's a decently descriptive (though not "annoyingly" so) book, and it's full of what most people would consider "intelligent" language because this book is seen as a "smart" person book. There are a lot of large words, though they aren't used pretentiously. The language just flows gorgeously with the book. 

Pride and Prejudice has a high AR (accelerated reading) level, being listed as a 12.0 (senior in high school vocabulary level), so it is a book that is more difficult to read as far as language goes, even though I understood enough of the words to get the gist (context clues are an amazing tool).

I gave this book five stars, and I definitely think it deserves all the accolades it has gotten in the past 200 years. This book is a classic for a reason, and it is deserving of being a good one.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm is another classic I read last year. I read this one not long before I read Pride and Prejudice. This one was very easy to get through. I read it within three hours. By ten that morning, I had already been done with it.

Animal Farm is meant as an allegory for the Russian Revolution of 1917, stretching to the Stalinist era in the Soviet Union. 

It tells the story of a group of animals that live on a farm. The animals wish to be free of the humans that overwork and mistreat them. Therefore, the pigs take over. Under this rule, the "lower class" animals believe they will work less and be treated more fairly. They believe they will live in a paradise of justice and equality.

The amount of imagery, metaphors, and slogans in this book is crazy. I read it and it left me thinking, which I'm going to assume is the point. 

I really enjoyed the version I read (the Kindle edition published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2009). This was one of the three different editions my library had as an e-book. At the time, this was the only one available to borrow. I'm glad I read this edition.

I have no clue if these are included in every edition of this book, because this is the only edition I've read. At the end of this book, it has essays written by George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair if don't want to use his made-up name) that give context in regards to the time period this was written about. I enjoyed those essays, believing they added more to my overall enjoyment and understanding of Animal Farm. I enjoyed getting the allegorical and satirical story, while also getting the history behind it.

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

This was a book I also read as an e-book from my local library (most of the books I read in 2020 were e-books). This is a YA Fantasy/Romance novel.

An Enchantment of Ravens follows Isobel, a human artist that paints portraits for the fair folk, who are magical beings that live in their kingdom.

The fair folk are immortal, but they cannot bake or paint without crumbling to dust, so they crave human Craft (which we would call baking, drawing, painting, and other creative endeavors). Therefore, Isobel is constantly getting clients to paint portraits for.

One day, Isobel gets her first royal patron, Rook (the autumn prince), as a client and makes a grievous mistake. Isobel paints "mortal" sorrow in Rook's eyes. The fair folk have rules about showing mortal weakness. This portrait causes problems. Rook could lose his throne, and even his life.

Because of this, Rook whisks Isobel away to stand trial for her crime, but trouble comes their way, both romantically and deadly.

I feel as if that's all the information needed to read this book. I was incredibly interested in this book because Isobel is an artist, and I haven't read (or seen) many YA books with protagonists who are artists (I can only think of three off the top of my head, including this one). I also enjoy Fantasy and Romance, so I was hoping I would enjoy this one.

Thankfully, this one didn't disappoint. Generically, the average rating on Goodreads isn't very high, being 3.66, but if you enjoy art, Fantasy, Romance, YA, and fairy-like creatures, I'd recommend it. It isn't for everyone. It kind of falls under the Insta-love trope, but that didn't bother me. The only thing that bothered me was that I wish it was a bit longer. In my opinion, I thought it was resolved well, but I wanted more. It's only 300 pages, compared to the 350-500 I was used to reading last year.

I really enjoyed the characters. Isobel was a strong character that didn't annoy me. She isn't the kind of girl searching for a prince charming, which I generically don't mind because I love fairy tales, but the Twilight Saga gave me my fill of that last year.

I gave this book five stars on Goodreads, mostly because I enjoy art and fairies. 

Worst

These books were the worst books I read in 2020, ordered from "best" to worst. Again, these "mini-reviews" are spoiler-free.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Crucible is a historical fiction play that is supposed to take place during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692-1693. Since it's a 143 page play, there isn't much of a summary to give on it. It was written as an allegory for "McCarthyism," which was a time where the American government accused others of being communists, leading to "witch hunts" (Second Red Scare). 

I read this in April during the beginning of quarantine. I was in the mood to read a classic, but I also wanted something short. I had just read Animal Farm by George Orwell a week prior (which I listed as a favorite 2020 read). I was looking online at standard high school assigned reading lists and came across this one, so I checked it out as an e-book. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. I gave it three stars on Goodreads. I just don't think it's re-readable for me. It isn't the kind of short book I would re-read for the fun of it. If I had to, I would, but I wouldn't search this play out. I'd sooner read a different classic.

Midnight Pearls: A Retelling of The Little Mermaid by Debbie Viguie

Midnight Pearls is exactly what the title says--a retelling of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Unfortunately, this retelling disappointed me. This was a book I bought at a local library bookstore for about seventy-five cents. I was excited because I was only about eight and it was the first YA book I ever owned. 

At the time, my sister had been reading YA books in high school, therefore I was excited to have a Young Adult book of my own. I had picked it up dozens of times and had never gotten far. This book is only 208 pages long, so I had tried reading it when I was younger because it's on the shorter side. 

It follows Pearl, an unusual girl who was found by a fisherman and raised by him and his wife. She doesn't look like the other people in her village. She has incredibly pale skin, dark blue eyes, and silver hair. She's best friends with James, the prince of the kingdom they live in. Suddenly, the kingdom is in danger and Pearl's past threatens to tear the two of them apart.

 
There isn't much more I can say without spoiling it. Again, it's only around 200 pages. This book only has twelve chapters. I read through it in a single sitting in the morning while I was alone. About halfway through, the romance bothered me. The characters were fine, but everything that happened before was pretty much erased and tossed under the rug as if it never happened.

The part I enjoyed the most was the sibling dynamic of two characters introduced in chapter five. I enjoyed their relationship and wish there were more moments between the two. This book was a three as well (it was bumped up because of the siblings). I did enjoy it, but I hated the romance and the ending.

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Where do I begin with this book? I read this series throughout 2020 just because I could. All four books technically count under this list, but I'm particularly speaking about New Moon, which was undoubtedly the worst book in this series. 

In case you don't know (somehow), Twilight follows the story of seventeen-year-old Bella Swan, a normal, plain, clumsy girl who moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father after her mother and baseball playing stepfather decide to move to Florida. She transfers to Forks High School and proceeds to meet the mysterious bad boy, Edward Cullen, in her Biology class. They begin to have feelings for each other, but Edward has a secret. He's a vampire (this isn't a spoiler, it's literally on the blurb).

I can't talk super in-depth about New Moon without spoiling the events for Twilight, but I will try my best. 

This book was a pain to get through. Compared to the two days it took me to read Twilight, this one took me around two weeks to finish. I couldn't stand the constant self-pity Bella wallowed in after the first couple chapters. This wouldn't normally be a big deal, but this book is 563 pages long. For about 450 pages of it, we are stuck in Bella's mind. She is super depressed (and has been for months), but is suddenly cured within the last hundred pages. 

What was the point of her wallowing in self-pity and being depressed for months, if she's just going to suddenly be fine and never have these thoughts and feelings again? I don't understand it. Her "depression" isn't really touched upon in the last two books, because she's suddenly "cured." If this is going to be conveniently solved, why bring it up to begin with? Just to add word count? Pretty bad way to add words if that's the case. 

I go more in-depth on my sister's blog at this link--The Real World According to Sam--and on my own blog. (If you wish to read my spoiler review for New Moon, it's linked here: New Moon is Worse Than Twilight, Here's Why (opens in new window))

I gave New Moon a two on my Goodreads, but it's really 1.5 stars. The last book in my list just barely edges New Moon on problems. It edges it on a microscopic level. Both are very problematic, for very different reasons. At least I understand how some girls would think the same way Bella does. Don't let my ratings deceive you. The last book is only rated higher on my Goodreads for one reason. 

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare is the second book in the Mortal Instruments series, which follows 15-year-old Clary Fray, who lives in New York and is flung into the world of the Shadowhunters, special humans who hunt demons. 

I can't say much about this without spoiling it, and I'm not going to waste my time going in-depth explaining why I disliked this book so much here. Maybe I'll do a review for it in the future, but at the moment I don't feel like writing about it. I gave it three stars on Goodreads, but it's really a 2.5. 

I'm going to preclude this by saying that I was spoiled for this series by the internet regarding the plot twist at the end of City of Bones. To be honest, if I hadn't been spoiled, I most likely would've DNF'd this book, especially after the incident in the Seelie Queen court. If you've read it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't, I don't care to mention it. The most I can say without spoiling is that I particularly hate the choice of "forbidden romance" Mrs. Clare decided to go with. 

At least the forbidden romance aspect in Twilight made sense and didn't make a specific scenario romanticized enough to seem palatable (even though it obviously isn't).

Most people dislike this series because of how similar to Harry Potter it is, and I can't really say I disagree, but I find this less of a problem than the forbidden romance aspect I mentioned in the paragraph above. Another common complaint is Mrs. Clare's writing style. I didn't think it was great, but it was better than the Twilight Saga. After all, let's not forget this little gem from New Moon (page 476, paragraph 3),

"Aro started to laugh. "Ha, ha, ha," he chuckled."

In my opinion, City of Ashes was the worst book I read in 2020. I could've done without the forbidden romance angle. That was the worst part about this book. Other than that, it was fine. It didn't need this extraneous detail. What was the point? Honestly, if the two scenes I hated most weren't included, I probably would've enjoyed it more. Unfortunately, they were, and I didn't. 

So there you go! 

Those are best and worst books I read in 2020. I intend to do another for 2021, as long as I have at least two books I disliked.

See you next post,

Lexi K🖌