Indie Reviews 2024
Indie Reviews & Stats for 2024
#Indie Books Read 2024 - 32
#DNF Books - 11
#Self-published Authors Read - 9
#Small Presses Read - 21
#Highest Pages Read - 439
#Lowest Pages Read - 32
#Mainstream Publishers Accidentally Read - 1
#5 Stars - 5
#3 Stars - 10
#Dollars Spent
= 116.57
Ho ho ho and Mehhhrry Christmas my little presents! Happy December, happy New Year’s Eve. Happy winter and Happy Birthday to me. ❄️
I’m back on track with a yearly indie book wrap-up, though, admittedly, I was never on track. Because I wasn’t into this whole wrap-up thing at the time, I put all the books I’d read from 2019-2023 together. You can see those (Indie) Reviews here. And here’s the breakdown here:
#Indie Books Read 2023 - 17
#Indie Books Read 2022 - 49
#Indie Books Read 2021 - 76
#Indie Books Read 2020 - 27
#Indie Books Read 2019 - 10
#Indie Books Read unknown year - 3
My levels are all off, right? I’m not sure why, but it’s worth mentioning that I got married in Dec 2022 and started my writing business—including beta reading—in January 2021 (marriage is quite the adjustment, and reading here and there for others can slow things down). I also read a lot of indies that averaged 300+ pp. Plus, I had quite a few DNFs.
Going into the new year, I’d like to increase the # of self-published authors I read, as well as diversify the source of my books. I’m an affiliate for Amazon and Bookshop(.org) at Buy (Me) An Indie! here, but not a hypocrite (or at least I try not to be). I’d like to start purchasing more hardcopy books from places like Asterism and Bookshop and small press websites, and leave eBooks (mainly) for Amazon, where I purchased all my indie books this year. You know, spread the funds around. I used to purchase from Smashwords, too, before I got rid of my account, and I didn’t like the requirement of an account to purchase a book (because I didn’t utilize SW that often).
So without further ado, these are all my indie presents for the 2024 Xmas year. 🎁🎁 I spent $116.57 on all these presents, spending more than I made. Last year, I made more than I spent. So let’s see what this year holds. Basing a business on indie books is quite the little unexpected adventure. Another present. And happy new year!
A Thin Slice of Anxiety
145 pages
Miracle Boy by Jack Moody
12/2024
I’m not sure what this is about. I started, thinking that I did—and I was intrigued; but then it became too ethereal and abstract, and lost me completely. I think this is about a delusional/recovering alcoholic; and I think the alcoholic part is handled with fairly straightforward prose while the delusional/recovery part is handled more creatively, but in a way that became too abstract. For this reason, I recommend reading Miracle Boy in 1-2 sittings.
3 bubblegums
Self-published
166 pages
Unfortunate by Ayrton Silva
11/2024
A very well-thought-out, unique and original tale of chance and probability. Where Chance is God, and your luck—your life—is a literal roll of the dice. I’d venture to say that Unfortunate is also sci-fi (along with fantasy); this is a sort of alternate reality, a predicted outcome, a dystopia…that could happen, if people really thought like this…en masse (because some people actually do believe in “ordered randomness”). Lots of action, superbly suitable and great ending, and good segue into Chaos Theory. It's really all backwards: the concept of going against (the) God (of Chance) with human morality is even more bonkers because it’s reality, but a great concept and interesting vehicle for discussion nonetheless.
Looking forward to Coward.
4 1/2 bubblegums
Weirdpunk Books
151 pages
To Offer Her Pleasure by Ali Seay
11/2024
“The fact that he was feeding a book was unnerving. He tried not to think about it.”
To Offer Her Pleasure is very disturbing, but it’s an important read. The premise is incredibly original, which includes (both realistic and fantastical) horror that has something to say: about the loss of fathers, and its angry, sad and altogether devastating impact on a family (the closing scene with the mother was disturbing but soooo good).
5 bubblegums