I almost forgot, but back in December I tried to predict ten 2024 book releases that would be five star reads for me. And now that we’re at the halfway point of the year, it’s time to see how it went! Below are the ten books I chose and the actual ratings I gave them:
An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson. Verdict: 
This book was so disappointing! Definitely my least favorite of the author’s books that I’ve read.
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones. Verdict: 
This was my favorite book of the series, but wasn’t quite a 5-star read for me. Still, four-and-a half is very good:-)
Echo of Worlds by M.R. Carey. Verdict: I haven’t read it yet. I never received the review copy I requested (although perhaps I’ll get it eventually?) so I haven’t read this yet.
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett. Verdict: 
Yay, finally a prediction that came true.
Evocation by S.T. Gibson. Verdict: 
Clearly I had high hopes for S.T. Gibson’s books this year. Evocation was really good, but it didn’t have that special something that makes a book 5 stars for me.
Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes. Verdict: This was soo good, but I enjoyed Barnes’s last book more.
How To Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie. Verdict: This wasn’t my favorite DiLouie book, but I still had a blast reading it!
The Redemption of Morgan Bright by Chris Panatier. Verdict: Yay, another prediction that came true:-) Chris is an amazing writer, and his latest was extremely weird and disturbing and completely worthy of my five star rating.
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei. Verdict: Kitasei is a very solid, dependable writer. This is her sophomore book, and I also gave her debut five stars.
What Feasts At Night by T. Kingfisher. Verdict: 
Oof. This was a tough rating for me, as I usually love anything Kingfisher writes. But this sequel was boring and frankly unnecessary.
I really like this idea, might have to give it a try.
I’m still really looking forward to the second Emily Wilde book so glad that made the full 5 stars but I might leave What Feasts at Night for a while based on mixed reviews.
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I hope you enjoy the second Emily Wilde book too, I was surprised that I loved a sequel so much.
You just need to start rating on a ten-star scale. Gives you more leeway and makes those perfect scores all the more meaningful! Granted, posts like this would be a little more difficult but, well—tempted?
I did rate on a ten scale for a while, but then switched back to stars. It’s basically the same if you use half stars: 5 stars = 10, 4.5 stars = 9, etc.
Please explain 7.5 and 8.5 lol
You got me there, Will
I completely agree with you regarding An Education in Malice – it’s received the lowest rating of any book I’ve completed this year so far. And ditto the Emily Wilde book at the other end of the scale. I think you’ve done fairly well – other than AEIM, your scores have been reasonably high. I hope you have as much luck with the second half of the year, Tammy:)).
I’m still debating whether to do another prediction post, but if so I need to hurry up and figure it out, since July is almost over!
Although only three of these ended up being five stars I still feel like you’re pretty good with your guesses as most of the others got 4 to 4 and a half stars. It’s just a shame about the two disappointments. And I hope you get hold of a copy of Echo Of Worlds soon.
I consider anything 4 stars and up a winner:-)
Doesn’t sound too bad to me!
I’m pretty happy with the results:-)
I was looking forward to this and am fascinated by your results. You did have 2 books which were 4.5 so it’s almost like 5/10 .
Yes, 4.5 is so close to 5 it should count!
Awesome! I agree about Emily Wilde, and I look forward to reading the Morgan Bright book. Sadly, I also agree with the T Kingfisher book rating — I expected to love it, since I love all of her books (usually), but this one really did not work.
Sometimes a book just doesn’t need a sequel, and I think that’s what happened with What Feasts at Night.
I’m going has to give How To Make a Horror Movie and Survive a read.
It was so much fun, enjoy!
It’s too bad about An Education in Malice. I still haven’t read it myself but I want to try to get around to it soon. I’m curious to see what I’ll think of it.
I’d love to know what you think of it as well. I just feel like her other books are better.
Really great predictions!
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Thanks Emma!
Trying to guess how much we’ll enjoy something is a real challenge, but I like the idea of err’ing on the side of five star optimism. So considering that, I think 3 out of 10 is pretty darn good, especially considering 4 more of them were 4 or more stars. 🙂
It’s just a fun game, I guess! Obviously I can’t predict all my ratings, but I enjoy hoping they will be 5 stars:-)
Most of them ended up 4 to 5-star reads, so I think that’s great predicting!
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I agree, even if they weren’t quite 5 stars, I enjoyed most of them.
At least you were right about some!! I wasn’t interested in Kingfisher’s sequel despite more or less enjoying the first book. The first one didn’t grip me so I said, ok, on to the next, lol.
Isn’t it fascinating to compare expectations with reality? I give 5 stars so rarely, otherwise I’d love to try this!
Not as many 5 stars as you liked but mostly still good ratings. I’d like to try Yume Kitasei at some point
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I’d also love to try this.
Lynn 😀
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