Over the past year, I’ve developed a small ritual. Every Sunday I wake up early and creep quietly to the living room. I make myself a cup of coffee and wrap myself in a blanket, curling up in my favourite reading chair in the corner of the room to lose myself in a book.
This weekly moment of solitude before the world wakes up has been crucial for me throughout the pandemic for restoring some calm to the ever-present anxiety of life in Covid-Britain. Escaping to fictional worlds has been hugely beneficial for my mental health—not to mention creating a welcome dent in my TBR pile, which gives an added jolt of serotonin.
The pandemic has posed an interesting problem. Many people have felt too anxious to even think about picking up a book, never mind reading one. Bingeing new Netflix series or returning to Central Perk to catch up with old friends has proven a far easier, and often more comforting, option. However, Global English Editing published the results of their World Reading Habits study in November 2020 with some surprisingly optimistic results.
It turns out the world has read even more than usual due to the pandemic, seeing a 35% increase in reading. Millennials seem to be the most voracious readers of all age groups, and while romance has reigned supreme as the most popular genre, apocalyptic fiction has dramatically risen in popularity.
Despite these positive figures, stress levels are still concerningly (though understandably) high in the UK. There are countless benefits to reading, with it being the best way to reduce stress—even beating listening to music or going for a walk. By reading for just 6 minutes every day, stress levels can reduce by up to 68%.
Having felt these benefits myself this past year as I cosy into my little book nook, I thought I’d share some of my favourite reads which have helped me escape from reality for just a few hours during the pandemic.
Some of my favourite books I read during lockdown.
Revenge by Yōko Ogawa
Upon reaching the final full stop and closing the rear cover of Revenge, I knew I’d just finished something special. It was one of those books which requires a moment of considered silence to let your brain catch up with what had happened.
Reflecting the chaotic twists of life through eleven interwoven stories, Revenge isn’t for the faint of heart. Ogawa uses such deceptively simple language, keeping sentences short and precise, yet conjures astonishingly vivid imagery. The book is so immersive, I felt as if I was peering over the characters’ shoulders, no matter how peculiar a turn the events took. From the sticky-sweet strawberry tarts from the bakery to the unsettling wet beat of the exposed heart, Ogawa engaged all my senses in a truly unsettling way.
Conviction by Denise Mina
As an avid Murderino who listens to an obscene amount of true crime podcasts in any given week, I struggle with thrillers as I often see the big twist coming early in the book, which can suck a lot of the fun out of reading it (most recently: Lisa Jewell’s highly-acclaimed The Family Upstairs). However, it also planted Conviction high up on my TBR pile. A woman who finds her life intertwined with the central case in a new true crime podcast?! Sign me up!
Filled with fast-paced action and a slow-burn mystery topped with Glasgow’s trademark dark humour, I devoured Conviction. It took unexpected turns while prodding thoughtfully—and deliberately—at our relationship with true crime media, as well as fame, fortune, power, and greed.
Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R Anderson
Women have penned some of the most spine-tingling and thought-provoking literature over the centuries, digging into the horrors of society to create fiction that knows how to crawl under our skin.
Written by the hosts of the podcast by the same name (also of the fantastic Know Fear Cast), this introductory exploration into some of the most prominent women in horror is a fun, informative read. Providing brief biographies of each featured author and an overview of some of their most influential works, it’s a must-read for anyone interested in discovering more about the pioneering minds behind the genre. Most terrifying of all is my TBR list after reading this book—so many excellent recommendations to broaden my horror library!
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
From the cover design to the creeping prose, everything about this gothic horror is stunning. Set in the 1950s at High Palace, a remote house in the Mexican countryside, Mexican Gothic is deeply atmospheric and wonderfully poignant.
While the growing dread as the story progressed was both entertaining and chilling, the protagonist, Naomí Taboada, was a fiercely likeable heroine who asked sensible questions and put plans into motion, all while maintaining an enviable level of style and grace. I couldn’t help but root for her to succeed in stealing her cousin away from the toxic household she found herself in. I’d recommend curling up with this one on a cold, rainy day—the gloomy, quiet kind when ghosts might like to visit.
The Cat and The City by Nick Bradley
In a year where we have been confined to our homes and travel has felt like a long-lost dream, Nick Bradley’s vivid exploration of Tokyo was a welcome escape from the familiar walls of my flat.
A series of overlapping short stories linked together by a mysterious calico cat, it explores the varied lives of those living in the city. While I had some gripes with the writing style in a few of the chapters, with some observations feeling clichéd or inauthentic, the overarching magical elements as characters’ fates entwined and tangled kept me hooked. Bradley plays with genre and format as the book progresses, including haikus, manga, and photographs which adds to the larger tapestry. During strange times, Bradley’s debut novel was a welcome escape.
The Institute by Stephen King
While the rest of the world revisited the post-apocalyptic epic The Stand, I decided to catch up on some of King’s latest offerings. A huge fan of his work, I know I’m guaranteed a good time when reading one of his books and have really enjoyed his recent foray into crime and thriller fiction. The Institute, however, is the first King book I’ve read in quite some time where I felt like he was really having fun.
The premise is pretty familiar: a group of extraordinary kids attract some terrible people and are subjected to a series of horrible experiments. Meanwhile, a small-town cop has no idea he’s about to encounter the most bizarre case of his career. Nevertheless, the entire book crackled with excitement from start to finish. King’s strength lies in his ability to create believable worlds and characters which feel so real that it’s impossible to look away. Captivating and entertaining from start to finish, The Institute proves he’s still the King of horror.
The Familiars by Stacey Halls
Witches were the gateway myth into my fascination with horror and the supernatural. From the horrifying villains of Roald Dahl’s The Witches—and the magic of Matilda—to Mildred Hubble’s adventures at Cackle’s Academy, my interest in witches only grew when I realised they had been real figures in history during a school trip to a local Cathedral, where the tour guide revealed (to a group of very young children) that a number of women had been tortured and tried in my very-average town.
The Familiars is a beautiful piece of historical fiction, blended with elements of the gothic, which uses the witch hunt era as a platform to explore prejudices against women and the different forms this may take depending on her social standing. Perhaps most impressive is that this is Halls’ debut novel. Laced with perfect pacing, layers of suspense, and well-rounded characters, it was a poignant reimagining of a dark time in our history that shines a light on injustices that continue to feel all too familiar.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
I’ve become a little insufferable when it comes to Grady Hendrix, launching into rambling monologues about his back catalogue whenever I can wrangle it into conversations. Tearing through it in just two days, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires was hands down my favourite book of 2020 (closely followed by Hendrix’s My Best Friend’s Exorcism, read just before lockdown hit our shores).
To me, it felt like the perfect blend of a nail-biting Anne Rule true crime classic and a skin-crawling campy horror Stephen King would be proud of. Hendrix has proven time and again that he has masterful control over horror-comedy, flipping from side-splitting to squeamish in a matter of sentences. But the real heart of this book lies in its central characters. The dynamic of the book club kept all the action and scares grounded, no matter how bizarre the twists became. It was one book club I was desperate to be a part of.
While I’ve read more than ever before this past year and became more adventurous with different genres, it’s clear that horror has remained a firm favourite. Have your reading habits changed during the lockdown? I’d love to hear your thoughts—and receive any reading recommendations!