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. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor – I CANNOT BELIEVE I STILL HAVEN’T READ THIS BOOK
2. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang – I read this and absolutely loved it!
3. Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro – Yeah… I did not read this.
4. The First Binding by R.R. Virdi – I planned on reading this last May but ended up having to choose other books for work.

Plot: A young family moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

I haven’t read much horror but that is not why I am intimidated. Google this book and all you will see is discussion over the way it is written. The pages are all uniquely different from one another in the way the text is displayed, the plot is very complicated and overall it will be a more difficult read compared to other horror novels.

Plot: Composed at the rosy-fingered dawn of world literature almost three millennia ago, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. This fresh, authoritative translation captures the beauty of this ancient poem as well as the drama of its narrative. Its characters are unforgettable, none more so than the “complicated” hero himself, a man of many disguises, many tricks, and many moods, who emerges in this version as a more fully rounded human being than ever before.

I have been waiting to tackle this epic for years and I find classics to be hard to follow and enjoy hence why I have been putting it off for so long.

Plot: A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar. Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling is a delight to high society, but she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him? The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholemew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red’s quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads into her grave danger . . .

Daughters of Night was my favourite book of the year it came out. So the anxiousness that I feel about picking up her next book is very strong.

Plot: As the son of Hades, Nico di Angelo has been through so much, from the premature deaths of his mother and sister, to being outed against his will, to losing his friend Jason during the trials of Apollo. But there is a ray of sunshine in his life—literally: his boyfriend, Will Solace, the son of Apollo. Together the two demigods can overcome any obstacle or foe. At least, that’s been the case so far… Now Nico is being plagued by a voice calling out to him from Tartarus, the lowest part of the Underworld. He thinks he knows who it is: a reformed Titan named Bob whom Percy and Annabeth had to leave behind when they escaped Hades’s realm. Nico’s dreams and Rachel Dare’s latest prophecy leave little doubt in Nico’s mind that Bob is in some kind of trouble. Nico has to go on this quest, whether Mr. D and Chiron like it or not. And of course Will insists on coming with. But can a being made of light survive in the darkest part of the world? and what does the prophecy mean that Nico will have to “leave something of equal value behind?”  Nico will have to face demons both internal and external as his relationship with Will is tested to the core in this standalone adventure featuring two of the most popular characters in the Percy Jackson saga.

This goes for any of the new Percy Jackson books because I am so far behind and I am just worried I won’t love them as much as I did when I was younger.