{"id":268288,"date":"2025-06-02T08:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T08:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/my-favourite-books-so-far-this-year-dystopic\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T08:00:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T08:00:52","slug":"my-favourite-books-so-far-this-year-dystopic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268288","title":{"rendered":"My favourite books so far this year \u2013 DYSTOPIC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>2025 has been a deliciously varied time for me reading-wise. This may have something to do with my new selection process \u2013 rather than choosing a book to read based on mood or some kind of structured list, I\u2019ve just been grabbing stuff randomly from the pile of books that don\u2019t fit on my shelves to prevent it from collapsing. A whatever\u2019s-closest-and-doesn\u2019t-upset-the-delicate-equilibrium-of-my-book-tower style tactic.<\/p>\n<p>So without further ado and in no particular order, here are my top five books of the year so far.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Haar by David Sodergren<\/h2>\n<p>I have read a couple of Sodergren books before, but I believe The Haar is his most popular. It\u2019s about a tiny, rural village in Scotland inhabited by a handful of people who are being paid to move away by a billionaire planning to build a golf course. Muriel, one of the few remaining elderly inhabitants, refuses to give up her cottage to this soulless man. Her husband died some time ago and she doesn\u2019t want to move away from her memories of him, but she is frightened and lonely \u2013 that is until someone (or something) turns up to not only keep her company, but also help protect her home from being taken. This book is absolutely disgusting in the best way possible. Sodergren really knows how to build tension, create lovable and hateable characters alike, and describe the most depraved body horror I\u2019ve ever read. I had the best time with this and it\u2019s a must for horror fans, but not so much if you\u2019re a bit sensitive to gore.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Drowners by David A. Anderson<\/h2>\n<p>I reviewed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dystopic.co.uk\/the-drowners-by-david-a-anderson-novel-review\/\">this wonderful YA book<\/a> a few months back and it has had a big impact on me. I think about it a lot and find myself comparing it to other YA fiction, romance and coming of age stories I\u2019ve read in the past (but haven\u2019t enjoyed so much). Rather than the two-dimensional characters and cringey, unsatisfying plot I\u2019ve come across often with modern YA, The Drowners is grounded, funny and heart-warming. That being said, it\u2019s also a gut punch, which is how young love tends to feel. I often think about, Aaron, the main character, and hope he\u2019s doing okay.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to be Enough: Seven life-changing steps for self-critics, overthinkers and perfectionists by Dr Ellen Hendriksen<\/h2>\n<p>I never used to believe I was a perfectionist because I often procrastinate and find it difficult to start or finish projects, but apparently these are classic signs of perfectionism. Dr Ellen Hendriksen is an incredible clinical psychologist and anxiety specialist who wrote <em>How to Be Yourself<\/em>, a book about social anxiety that I have read god knows how many times. Dr Hendriksen discusses anxiety with self-compassion, humour and most importantly (for me) using her own experiences as examples. If you are very critical of yourself, get irritable or feel defeated when things aren\u2019t \u2018right\u2019, and are generally a \u2018type A\u2019 person, you will get a lot out of <em>How to Be Enough<\/em>. I ordered it online at 3am after yet another panic attack fretting about my \u2018enoughness\u2019, and I have genuinely slept so much better since reading it. Am I cured? Nope, anxiety is a life-long ailment for me, but Dr Eriksen doesn\u2019t claim to be able to cure you of it, she just wants to make life easier by helping you learn to love that little overthinking goblin inside of you.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Feeding the Monster by Anna Bogutskaya<\/h2>\n<p>My new horror bible. In Feeding the Monster, Bogutskaya explores the horror genre and why we love it so much. She lists some incredible films, TV shows and books, and discusses how they reflect society, what exactly is scary about them and the varying trends in horror \u2013 predominantly over the last fifteen years or so. She also delves into her own experiences with mental health and how horror can be oddly comforting at times. Bogutskaya has impeccable taste in horror, and I particularly loved her connection between Hannibal (my comfort TV show), cannibalism and queerness. This is a fascinating book that has genuinely tripled my reading and watchlist. A must for both horror afficionados and those new to the genre.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Devil to Pay by Katie Daysh<\/h2>\n<p>This is the second in the Nightingale and Courtney series, which follows a naval ship in the 1800s and the (light) gay romance held between two of the crew. I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever be writing about romance books on Dystopic, but to me The Devil to Pay is more of a navy adventure story with intrigue, secrets, battles\u2026and just a teensy bit of lurve. Two of the characters may be secret lovers, but they are very busy with their swashbuckling, so it\u2019s not too cheesy. Daysh knows her stuff when it comes to boats and ships and pirate type things, something I have no clue about, so it was a wonderful experience to be immersed in a world I know so little about. Sometimes things got a little corny, and the beliefs held by some of the main characters were way too modern to be believable, but it was a very fun time.<\/p>\n<p>And there you have it, five great books that I have read in 2025. If you\u2019ve read any great novels so far this year that you\u2019d like to recommend, let me know in the comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2025 has been a deliciously varied time for me reading-wise. This may have something to do with my new selection process \u2013 rather than choosing a book to read based on mood or some kind of structured list, I\u2019ve just been grabbing stuff randomly from the pile of books that don\u2019t fit on my shelves [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[1752,4576,1983,629],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-268288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-books","tag-dystopic","tag-favourite","tag-year"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>My favourite books so far this year \u2013 DYSTOPIC - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268288\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My favourite books so far this year \u2013 DYSTOPIC - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"2025 has been a deliciously varied time for me reading-wise. This may have something to do with my new selection process \u2013 rather than choosing a book to read based on mood or some kind of structured list, I\u2019ve just been grabbing stuff randomly from the pile of books that don\u2019t fit on my shelves [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268288\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-02T08:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268288#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268288\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"My favourite books so far this year \u2013 DYSTOPIC\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-02T08:00:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268288\"},\"wordCount\":918,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Books\",\"DYSTOPIC\",\"Favourite\",\"Year\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Books\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268288#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268288\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=268288\",\"name\":\"My favourite books so far this year \u2013 DYSTOPIC - 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