Top Ten

I was just thinking now about the books I'd put in my Top Ten. Usually I struggle to remember any details about books, even the ones that I've enjoyed, but there are a few that have stayed with me, so I suppose they should be the ones that go into my Top Ten. These are what I've come up with so far:

1) Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Obviously. My favourite ghost story, it ticks all the boxes for me.

2) The Terror by Dan Simmons. I loved the mix of historical fact and fiction. I loved the characters, especially Crozier and Goodsir. I loved the setting and the descriptions of the frozen conditions. Even the supernatural elements were just the right side of 'too weird' for me. I think about this book a lot.

3) The Solitude Of Thomas Cave by Georgina Harding. To be honest, it was a bit of a toss-up between this or The Fisherman for number 3, but (at the current time of writing) I've only just finished the John Langan book, whereas this one I've read a couple of times. 

4) The Fisherman by John Langan. Loved this, but will have to see how long it lingers in my mind. For now, it's pretty high up on the list.

5) The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I don't 'love' this, I struggle a bit with some of the writing, but I do enjoy the overall story of the haunted house, and in this case I think it helps that I've seen the film too, just to pad out some of the images and events.

6) Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I'll put this here because it's the first, but also probably the best, even though I read it ages ago. It kind of represents the whole series though.

7) The Ascent Of Rum Doodle by W. E. Bowman. Very funny book!

8) The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. First foray into 'grimdark fantasy' and really enjoyed it, looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

9) A Court Of Thorns And Roses by Sarah J. Maas. My introduction to the Maasverse.

10) I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. Not exactly a book you can 'enjoy', but I do keep thinking about it.

For now...

2025 Five Star Reads

These are the books I rated 5 stars on Storygraph in 2025:

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

The Solitude of Thomas Cave by Georgina Harding

An Echo In The Bone by Diana Gabaldon

Written In My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon

Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon

The Body: A Guide For Occupants by Bill Bryson

The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Terror by Dan Simmons

The Fisherman by John Langan

Do I still agree with all of these? I would say yes to the Outlander books, just because the whole series has been so enjoyable, and I can't fault Diana Gabaldon's writing. The Body is the only non-fiction, but I found it so interesting and it was written with Bryson's usual humour and accessibility. Dark Matter will always be a 5 star read, obviously! I'm not sure if I like The Solitude Of Thomas Cave, and The Haunting Of Hill House as much as I think I do, or as much as I think I should, but they are stories that have lingered with me afterwards, when so many don't. The Fisherman was weird, and there were aspects of it that I struggled with, if I'm being really honest, but I also loved it, and I loved the writing style. It certainly didn't disappoint. And what can I say about The Terror? Just phenomenal!

Top Books Of 2025

Just looking at my reading journal and thought I'd try and choose my favourite (and maybe least favourite, not including DNFs) books from each month, and then my favourites for the whole year.

January

I re-read Dark Matter, finishing it on the 1st, so that would be my favourite. I liked the other two books also, so I'm not going to choose a least favourite.

February

In Feb, I only read books 7 and 8 of the Outlander series, so they can both be a tie for favourite.

March

In March I read book 9 of Outlander, so that was my favourite. Least favourite was The Drift by CJ Tudor, not what I was expecting, and not my cup of tea.

April

I think the best book I read in April is going to be The Body: A Guide For Occupants by Bill Bryson, because it was so well-written and interesting and accessible. Close second is Ghostwriting by Eric Brown, an unexpectedly good short story collection. I think maybe Dolly by Susan Hill was a bit of a disappointment.

May

The Haunting Of Hill House was a re-read in May, and although I struggle with some of the writing, it's still a favourite overall. The Ritual by Adam Nevill didn't live up to the hype for me.

June

Absolutely no question, The Terror by Dan Simmons blew everything else out of the water! The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero was just weird, and a struggle to get through.

July

No really good books in July, but I did enjoy The Turn Of The Key by Ruth Ware. All The White Spaces by Ally Wilkes was disappointing.

August

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton was just beautiful. If You See Her by Ania Ahlborn was another that didn't live up to the hype.

September

I only read three books in September. Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman wasn't amazing, but it did keep my attention, and I enjoyed being able to discuss it with the Thrive Book Club. Wintering by Katherine May went right over my head, and Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be.

October

At the time I absolutely loved At Home With The Horrors by Sammy Scott, although I can't really remember any of the stories now. Hell House by Richard Matheson was of its time I guess, and not good. 

November

Another month of only three books. We Solve Murders by Richard Osman was definitely the best and most fun of the three. The Haar by David Sodegren was weird, but ok. Near The Bone by Christina Henry was good and I want to read more books by her.

December

The Fisherman by John Langan - outright winner for this month! I did struggle with the cosmic horror, but I loved the writing. The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett was probably the biggest disappointment, because I'd enjoyed The Appeal so much earlier in the year.

And if I had to choose my three favourite books for the whole year, I think it would be as follows: 

1. The Terror by Dan Simmons

2. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

3. The Fisherman by John Langan

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Started: 26.12.25

Finished: 28.12.25

Paperback

Louise meets a man in a bar, they kiss, and then she finds out that he's her new boss. Later, she bumps into his beautiful wife Adele, who convinces her to keep their new friendship a secret from David. Louise and David have an affair. Adele and David don't have a happy marriage. Is David a controlling, abusive husband? Does Adele have mental health issues? Should Louise break off all contact with them both? Why does everyone drink so much wine?

On the cover of my book it says "the most shocking ending you'll read all year". This had the desired effect of keeping me reading right to the end. There was certainly an unexpected twist, but it was extremely far-fetched, to the point of impossible, which was a bit of an anti-climax, if I'm honest.

The Night House by Jo Nesbo

Started: 24.12.25

Finished: 26.12.25

Paperback

Part One is about a boy called Richard, who witnesses his friend Tom get eaten by a payphone. Then another friend, Jack, metamorphoses into a cicada. Richard believes that a man called Imu Jonasson is behind all this.

Part Two occurs 15 years later, when Richard attends a class reunion. It turns out that he writes children's books, and the events that happened to Tom and Jack were just part of a story. They were real people from school though, and they are at the reunion, along with several other classmates who also featured in his novel. When the reunion party moves back to the house of Oscar, Richard finds himself being hunted down by all his former classmates who want to kill him because of how much he bullied them at school.

In Part Three, Richard has actually been living in a psychiatric asylum for the past 15 years, after his father killed his mother in an arson attack on their ninth floor apartment. His father fell from the window and also died. Richard is receiving ECT to try and erase the memories of the fire. Once again, the various people that he encounters in the asylum have the same names as the people who featured as classmates in his novel The Night House, which his therapist encourages him to start writing. So it kind of all comes full circle. 

The plot reminded me very much of the film Ghost Stories, where a man with locked-in syndrome imagines an entirely different life for himself based on the people and objects in his hospital room.

The Keeper Of Stories by Sally Page

Started: 20.12.25

Finished: 24.12.25

Paperback

This was a very pleasant surprise! The MC was a lovely woman called Janice, a cleaner who liked to collect stories, though she believed she could never tell anyone about her own.

It was a very character-driven plot, and most of them were very likeable and I was really rooting for everyone to get their happy endings. And there was a 'talking' dog called Decius who was very funny.

Really lovely story.

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

Started: 14.12.25

Finished: 20.12.25

Paperback

I didn't enjoy this one as much as The Appeal. It was a similar format; this time, there were transcriptions of audio files which had been recorded on an old mobile phone. The typed transcriptions had been sent to a Professor by an Inspector, asking for their opinion on the subject matter. The Inspector explained how the transcription service sometimes got words wrong, and also included a key to what certain punctuation meant. This was a slightly clunky way of also letting the reader know about the mistakes.

The person making the recordings was an ex-con called Steve, who was 'speaking aloud' to his probation officer, Maxine. He was explaining about the crime that got him sent to prison for 11 years, but also talking about something that happened in his youth. He believed that a teacher had gone missing, and he was trying to get in touch with old school friends to find out if they could remember what happened. In amongst all this was a story about some children's books which were written by someone called Edith Twyford, which were believed to contain a hidden code referring to gold bullion that was misplaced during the second world war. 

I found the different storylines all a bit confusing, and the transcriptions, with all the misspellings and punctuations meaning someone paused, or breathed out etc, not very easy to read. 

It turned out in the end that Maxine was actually Max Ian, the professor, and Steve's son, who he'd hardly had any contact with over the years. The Twyford Code was really invented by Steve, in order to tell his son where to find gold that was stolen in the robbery that he went to prison for. I'm not really sure where the WW2 stolen gold came into it at all.

Not bad, but not great. I wonder if this is going to be Janice Hallett's style in all her books? The Appeal was emails, this one was audio transcripts, I wonder what she'll do next?

The Fisherman by John Langan

Started: 10.12.25

Finished: 14.12.25

Kindle

Been looking forwards to this for a while. It sounds amazing, I hope it doesn't turn out to be disappointing.

It's started off being narrated by someone called Abe. He tells the story of how he met and fell in love with his wife Marie, who sadly developed breast cancer which ended her life only a couple of years into their marriage. The thing that helped him was fishing, and he became almost obsessed with it.

He goes on to tell the story of a coworker of his, Dan, who very sadly loses his wife and twin sons in a terrible car accident. After a few months, Abe invites Dan to come fishing with him, and they strike up a slightly unlikely friendship.

That's roughly where I'm up to now. The writing style reminds me a bit of the few Stephen King books I've read, going into quite a lot of detail about the 'small town America' where the characters live, but I don't mind it so far. 

Abe has hinted a little bit about the 'horror' that's to come, so I'm quite excited to see what happened at Dutchman's Creek.

Later

Well, I really enjoyed this! There are three parts to the story which I was aware of mainly thanks to the guy from Paperback Journeys. Part one is about Abe and Dan, and it ends as they stop off at a diner on the way to Dutchman's Creek. The location had been suggested by Dan, who claims to have read about it in a fishing book, but he's being quite vague. Howard, the chef from the diner, takes the time to warn them both to fish somewhere else, and then begins to tell the story of what happened at Dutchman's Creek. This forms Part two - it's Abe retelling Howard's account, but it's kind of like a novella in the middle of the book. Some people have criticised this, but to be honest, I didn't mind it. I think it would've been more confusing if it had kept jumping backwards and forwards in time. I preferred to read all about the past events in one go. Part three returns to the present, with Abe and Dan leaving the diner, not quite sure what they've just heard (well, Abe, at least) but still deciding to go and find Dutchman's Creek. 

The Fisherman is classed as Cosmic Horror. I can't remember if this is my first experience with that genre. Basically, the fisherman of the title, also known as 'Der Fischer' is a Hungarian man who dabbles in some kind of magic in order to try and 'catch' the Leviathan, otherwise known as Apep or Apophis, to harness it's power to resurrect the dead. As far as I can gather, Apophis is an ancient Egyptian deity of the underworld who embodies darkness and disorder; an enormous serpent which encircles the earth. The Leviathan seems to mean different things in different religions, but generally seems to be regarded as evil and linked to the underworld. 

Howard's account of what happened years before, when they were building the dam to make the Ashokan reservoir, involves the arrival of The Fisherman, and a woman who rises from the dead. A former professor called Rainer uses his knowledge to track down Der Fischer, who has almost caught the Leviathan with ropes as thick as tree trunks embedded with thousands of fish hooks. Rainer and his fellow men cut the ropes, one of which hooks into The Fisherman and takes him down into the dark ocean. Years later, Abe and Dan both meet The Fisherman, after he has once again almost caught the beast. He is weak now, and needs their strength. They both have visions of their dead wives (and Dan's sons) - Dan succumbs to the lure of being with his family again, but Abe resists. Dan's family changes into monsters which devour him. Abe escapes and washes up further down the river. 

He avoids fishing for many years after that, until a young neighbour reignites his spark. During a flood, Dan returns for Abe, angry at him for not joining him to help Der Fischer. Abe chases him away by setting fire to him; Dan jumps back into the flood waters around the house, which Abe sees are full of bodies, including Marie. He leaves his house on a rescue boat.

I really enjoyed the writing in this book, and Abe was a very likeable character. Obviously the cosmic horror element is hard to get your head around, but that's kind of the point. I think I probably struggle to suspend my disbelief with things like this, which is what stops me from fully enjoying them, but I did enjoy this book and I'm glad that it lived up to the hype.

The Deep by Alma Katsu

Started: 22.11.25

Finished: 10.12.25

Hardback - library book - switched to Kindle

I was really looking forwards to reading this, but I wasn't very happy to receive a huge hardback copy from the library; I think the size was putting me off reading it so I bought it on Kindle and switched to that from Chapter 12 onwards.

It is telling the story of Annie Hebbley, a maid on Titanic who, along with several other passengers, believes that something sinister is aboard. Then, disaster strikes.

Four years later, the world is at war, and having survived the events of 1912, Annie now finds herself employed as a nurse on the Britannic, the Titanic's sister ship, which is being used as a hospital ship. One of the wounded soldiers brought aboard is Mark, a man she knew on Titanic, and whom she believed had drowned.

The timeline shifts between 1912 and 1916 and although it clearly states it each time, I still sometimes get a bit confused about which ship I'm on!

Finished, and enjoyed it. A slow start, but like I said, that might've been me being put off by the size of the library book. Once I got going, I was interested to see how it was all going to come together.

If I understood it correctly, it seems that Annie had actually died back in her home village in Ireland. She'd got pregnant by the local priest, who then chose the church over her, and she miscarried. I think she walked into the sea and drowned.

Meanwhile, Mark was in a relationship with someone called Lillian. He was a gambler who'd taken all her savings. She worked in a dressmaking factory, but then was noticed by the owner who 'promoted' her to work in the shop ('salon'), delivering dresses to high society women. One of those women was a wealthy young widow called Caroline. There was a hint of a slightly-more-than-platonic love between them. Caroline invited Mark and Lillian to live with her. When Lillian became pregnant, Caroline offered to pay them to allow her to raise the baby as her own. She had a ticket booked for Titanic as she was returning to her family in America. 

In the meantime, Mark and Caroline were falling for each other too. Lillian realised what was happening, which was confirmed when she found another Titanic ticket amongst Marks things. Her mental health in decline, she committed suicide by jumping into the Thames.

I think there was an Irish folklore element running through the book, where a 'goddess of the sea' offered Lillian the 'body' of Annie, in return for her delivering an innocent (her child, Ondine, who was travelling on Titanic with the newly-married Mark and Caroline). And this is how Annie came to be a stewardess on Titanic. 

On the fateful night, she saw Caroline and Ondine fall out of a lifeboat, and tried to rescue them both, but eventually had to let Caroline go. She tried to take Ondine back to Mark who was still on the sinking ship - Annie didn't know that she was Lillian at this point, but she knew that there was something drawing her to Mark all the time.

Four years later, she's a nurse on the Britannic, which picks Mark up as an injured soldier. I don't remember it saying how he'd survived Titanic. At this point it all gets a bit confusing to me, because this was the part where Annie seemed to realise that she was in fact Lillian, or at least, her spirit, who had come back for Mark. But then Mark realised that the only way to end it all was to steer the ship into a channel full of German mines and blow it up, which he did. Annie's friend Violet Jessop survived; she'd also survived Titanic, and is actually a real person. Annie snapped out of the 'Lillian enchantment' that she was in long enough to sound the alarm bells just before they struck the mine, saving some lives on the ship. 

So yeah, not bad.