Back for another annual post. Every year, around this time, I look at my physical tbr and think to myself which out of these books are the scariest to read. Which books are making me the most apprehensive?

First of all, I want to look back on the books I mentioned last year and see if I read any of them.

1. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson – No, but I do plan on reading it this year. It’s on my list!
2. Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan – No and I am not sure if I am going to get to it this year.
3. White Teeth by Zadie Smith – I actually ended up unhauling this book as I just knew I wasn’t going to read it.
4. The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu – Another book I unhauled. I read the first couple of chapters and I just didn’t enjoy it.

Plot: The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever. What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real? This is the book that has been on my TBR the longest and I plan on reading it in July of this year. I am intimidated by it mainly down to the fact that I have hyped this book up so much in my head that I am worried it won’t meet the hype.

Plot: Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Now I am a big R.F. Kuang fan. I love her Poppy War trilogy but last year I read Babel and DNFed it about 50% of the way through. Since then I have been worried about not loving her newest release as I want to desperately love it! Yellowface is obviously very different from Babel but I do have that underlining worry.

Plot: England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness —a man made of smoke. Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a lifetime of brutality, doesn’t have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When two grizzled detectives are recruited to escort them north to safety, they are forced to confront the nature of difference, and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous. What follows is a journey from the gaslit streets of London, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh, where other children with gifts—the Talents—have been gathered. Here, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, Marlowe, Charlie and the rest of the Talents will discover the truth about their abilities, and the nature of the force that is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts.

This is purely down to the size of the book. Is just under 700 pages and I am intimidated.

Plot: All legends are born of truths. And just as much lies. These are mine. Judge me for what you will. But you will hear my story first. I buried the village of Ampur under a mountain of ice and snow. Then I killed their god. I’ve stolen old magics and been cursed for it. I started a war with those that walked before mankind and lost the princess I loved, and wanted to save. I’ve called lightning and bound fire. I am legend. And I am a monster. My name is Ari. And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil.

Another book that intimidates me due to page number! I plan on taking this on holiday next month as I truly think that will be the only time in the year I would even attempt to read that book. IT’S 832 PAGES LONG!