2024 End of the Year Freak Out Book Tag

The Mid Year Freak Out Book Tag is one of my favorite tags of the year, but I always feel bad for the books I read in the second half of the year, which don’t get as much love. So I’m basically doing the Mid Year tag but only featuring the books I read from July to December. This gives me a chance to highlight books that might not make it into my Best of the Year post next week. Here we go!

Best Books I’ve Read Since July:

Three stand-outs since the middle of the year: Ghost Mother by Kelly Dwyer, I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones, and The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. All very different, but each left a lasting impression on me.

Best Sequels I’ve Read Since July:

I haven’t read a lot of sequels at all this year, but I was determined to catch up with Cat Rambo’s fun series. I read books 2 and 3 almost back to back: Devil’s Gun and Rumor Has It.

New Releases I Haven’t Read but Want To:

I have way more than three books I wasn’t able to get to, but these three hurt the most, and I am determined to catch up with them next year: Ninth Life by Stark Holborn, The Relentless Legion by J.S. Dewes, and Ardent Violet and the Infinite Eye by Alex White.

Biggest Disappointments:

I’m lucky that there weren’t too many disappointing books for me this year, but here are a few I had high hopes for that just didn’t work: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman, Dark Space by Rob Hart and Alex Segura, and An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson.

Biggest Surprises:

I love being surprised by a book! And these three books fit this category perfectly. The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sarah Raasch, because it is so well written and has delightful characters; The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel, because it was a gimmicky idea that turned out to be wildly entertaining; and Filthy Rich Fae by Geneva Lee because I was surprised by how much I enjoyed a sexy, romance focused fae story.

Favorite New Authors:

I love discovering new authors, so I can anticipate their next book! These past six months, I read and loved The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong, The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson, and We Love the Nightlife by Rachel Koller Croft.

Books that Made Me Cry:

Usually books that make me cry end up being some of my favorites of the year, so expect to see these two books on my “best of 2024” list;-) American Rapture by C.J. Leede and I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones.

Books that made me happy:

All kinds of genres can put a smile on my face, and these three books did just that: Grimm Curiosities by Sharon Lynn Fisher, A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, and Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning.

Most Anticipated Books for the 1st Half of 2025:

I’m limiting myself to six books for this category, although I could easily list more. But these six are absolute must reads: The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart, My Ex, The Antichrist by Craig DiLouie, The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi, The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig, When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy, and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. These are all powerhouse authors who rarely disappoint!

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Feel free to do the tag yourself! And stay tuned for more “best of” lists:-D