Read This Not That GoodReads 2021 Winners Edition

2021 GoodReads winners were announced…and it was a time.

Was it frustrating? Yes

Was it baffling? Sadly not. It seems that some authors will always dominate but to see such amazing contenders just dropped, it was…as I said, frustrating. I stared at the results and couldn’t even fathom how some won, others I knew why but didn’t make it any easier to swallow.

Please know this isn’t me saying that these books aren’t worthy of awards and the like but when you see the same authors or the same kinds of books just getting picked over and over again…it’s not only frustrating to those writers who are trying to be heard (and the readers that see themselves in those books and the readers who support them) but it’s also boring as someone watching it on a yearly basis. There’s nothing new or exciting when it happens like this. And it’s not the authors faults, I’m not going to get angry at someone existing.

So, my form of retaliation is I will give you all some other choices to consider in place of GoodReads winners for the categories in which I read some of the other nominations, if you’re looking for something different. (I am not putting down these authors, I am offering up a change.) Most of the winners that I did read, I enjoyed, I just think a few nominees were really just not given enough credit.

Category: Fantasy

Winner: A Court of Silver and Flames

…..I mean…there were SO many good books for this category and it just made me super sad to see them not get recognition.

Read This: She Who Became the Sun

Category: Science Fiction

Winner: Project Hail Mary

(Another good one but I also wanted to just share Winter’s Orbit again)

Read This: Winter’s Orbit

Category: Best YA Fantasy & Science Fiction

Winner: Rule of Wolves
(don’t even get me started on why these are one category)

Read This: Lost in the Never Woods

(Fantasy and SciFi Pick, I’m giving you two, like it should be)

Read This: The Ones We’re Meant to Find

(I know this is one of those novels you either love or hate, I had the luck to just love it entirely)

Category: Best MG & Children’s

(I am excited to read this one, but I did feel like we all know Riordan’s a gift, so I’d like to suggest another book I super enjoyed from the nominees)

Read This: Amari and the Night Brothers