Best Books of 2019 - Fiction
While my shelves are filled with non-fiction written by white men, my fiction reading has always been far more diverse. But I decided to be more intentional about that in 2019, as well as reading outside my perennial favourite genre of murder mysteries. So, here are my top ten novels of 2019.
Brittney Morris’ debut novel ‘SLAY’ was my standout novel this year. Kiera, an African-American high school senior, frustrated by the racism in online role-playing games, creates a game promoting black excellence in which players go head to head in duels played with cards rooted in black culture. While the game takes off globally, she keeps the fact that she is the designer secret from her family and friends. When a player is murdered, and the wider world discovers there is an online game restricted to melinated players, certain segments of the media declare it racist. An apparent white supremacist gets an access code and challenges her to a duel, driving the narrative forward to a tense finish. Excellent (even if I did see ‘the reveal’ long before it happened).
Angie Thomas’ second novel, On The Come Up, is just as explosively engaging as her debut, The Hate U Give. Bri is a HS student, living with a mom who struggles to make rent, and in the shadow of her murdered father, a local rap legend. Bri has aspirations herself, but her venal manager wants her to play the ‘hood’ role that record execs love. After two white security guards at her school throw her to the ground, her response in rap is misunderstood, and she becomes the target of trolls on social media, schoolmates as well as a local gang. Thomas hits all the right notes in this one.
In dystopian fiction, Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse was the standout, which begins her ‘Sixth World’ series. Set in ancestral Navajo land after ‘The Big Water’ - an apocalyptic event which has left much of the world submerged - protagonist Maggie Hoskie is a young woman whose clan-powers make her an effective ‘monster-hunter’, paid to protect small communities from supernatural beings. When a new kind of monster appears, an elder introduces her to another teenager with powerful Medicine, and from there the plot moves at a fair clip with all the best elements of YA fiction.
In Indian Horse, Richard Wagamese offers a harrowing account of the forced removal of indigenous children in Canada, who were sent to church boarding schools to be ‘civilized.’ Saul Indian Horse, an Ojibwe, is one of those taken from his family. He finds relief from his psychic pain on the ice playing hockey, and we follow his rise from the school leagues to the NHL. A powerful and painful story (which Clint Eastwood has made into a movie).
Of course, I still read murder mysteries, and thoroughly enjoyed The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan, in which she introduces Detective Rachel Getty and Inspector Esa Khattak of a special ‘minority affairs’ unit in the Ottawa police. When they investigate the death of a man who fell from a cliff, Khattak discovers the man is living under an assumed name, and when he finds out his true identity, it raises significant issues for the muslim community. A powerful story, centered on the Srebenica genocide.
Continuing the theme of novels with harrowing accounts, Henry Porter’s spy novel, Firefly, portrays the plight of Syrian refugees seeking a new life in Europe. The plot centers on a 13 year old boy, carrying a phone which holds details of an ISIS cell and their plans, and an ex-MI6 agent is sent to find the boy and earn his trust before the terrorists kill him. A breathtaking - and heartbreaking - thriller.
In historical fiction, Ruta Sepetys’ The Fountains of Silence takes us to the oppressive atmosphere of Franco’s Spain in the 50s. Daniel is the son of a wealthy oil scion who is visiting Madrid to secure a lucrative business deal. Daniel wanders the streets, pursuing his passion for photography, and befriends a hotel employee who helps him ‘see’ the truth of the regime, uncovering a dangerous secret. Well-drawn characters throughout, who inhabit an awful chapter in Spain’s history.
A sharp turn from painful societal issues was provided by The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, where the pain is of a personal nature. Monsieur Perdu owns a book apothecary - people come to his barge-come-bookstore and he prescribes a book for what ails them. We learn he grieves his abandonment by a married lover 30 years before, only to discover the letter she sent him after she left Paris - which he never read - was to inform him she was dying and begging him to come to her. Devastated, he begins a river journey with a young star author, fleeing fame, to try to lay his lover’s ghost to rest. A beautiful, truly romantic story.
In historical fantasy, Tom Miller’s The Philosopher’s War returns us to his alternative world where WWI rages. Protagonist Robert Weekes becomes the first man to join the elite Rescue and Evacuation unit of the all-women US Sigilry Corps, and joins them at the western front, ferrying wounded and dying soldiers to field hospitals. Trying to earn the respect of his colleagues, he is also drawn into a conspiracy intended to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of troops, but which involves mutiny. Utterly compelling characters, and battle scenes where you can practically smell the blood and fear. Wonderful.
Finally, in YA science fiction, I read the Arc of a Scythe trilogy by Neal Shusterman over the course of 2019. In earth’s future, the Thunderhead - an Artificial Intelligence - has created global peace and immortality, and thus the problem of over-population. The Scythehood is initiated to ‘glean’ ten percent of the population over time to make life sustainable. The trilogy follows the story of two teenagers apprenticed to become Scythes, who challenge accepted wisdom regarding how people are gleaned. The Thunderhead cannot interfere with scythes, and when one particular scythe begins to re-interpret the ‘Ten Commandments’ of scythehood in malevolent ways, the two teens take him on. A thrilling adventure that also asks profound moral questions. Highly recommended. They also have some of my favourite ever book covers.
Well, those were my Top Ten of 2019. What were yours? Let me know in the comments!
(I link to Amazon as a convenience and as a participant in their Associates Program. I encourage you to buy books where you want to see them sold. Or check them out of your local library, which is what I do.)
