2022 Wrap-Up: In Which I Break My Own Rules and Curse the Universe (A Lot)

Hello my beauties!

Welcome to my last post of the year, where I will wrap my 2022 up. This was a DISASTROUS year, on all counts. Life was a mess; blogging was (consequently) slow and highly irregular. I had to sit it out for a while, and I ended up writing only a VERY small number of full reviews (though I did post ten Review Morsels installments). I need a break, OK? Is anybody in charge listening? 🤬 😭 Anyhow, here's the breakdown (haha, double meaning appropriate 😉 😫) - brace yourselves for some whining...

Pt. 1: This Year in Blogging

As of today, I've been blogging for 10 (!!!!!) years and a couple of months 😃.

This is what happened on Offbeat YA during the year, broken down by number of posts, events I took part in, books I reviewed, authors I interacted with and discussion posts I wrote...plus an off-blog, real-life section!

Seanan McGuire: "Skeleton Song"

Title: Skeleton Song [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Wayward Children (Note: This is a prequel short story about Christopher, and you can read it for free here. Since it's the first WC origin story the author has released, I marked it as book 0.1 in the series, though on Goodreads it's listed as 7.7...)
Author: Seanan McGuire [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural (technically it would be Portal Fantasy, but since I don't have a Fantasy Room in my blog, I decided to shelf this one as Supernatural - that's the closest I could get)
Year: 2022
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: An imaginative look-in-reverse at one of the most common fantasy tropes. Fills us in about Christopher's encounter with the Skeleton Girl and the reason why he didn't get to stay with her.     
Cons: Requires more suspension of disbelief than some of the other worlds.
WARNING! Death, skeletons (duh), flesh-stripping (off page).
Will appeal to: Fans of the Wayward Children series...past and future 😉.

Blurb: Children have always disappeared under the right conditions - slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere...else. Adventures are always interesting, but they’re not always happy. From the worlds of Wayward Children comes a story of love, of devotion, of bones wrapped in flesh.(Goodreads)

Review: You may ask - what's the point in reviewing a short story that also happens to be a free read? It's not like one has to decide if it's worth one's money or not (unless you do want to buy the ebook for your collection). But since I'm reviewing the whole series, it just didn't seem right to leave this one out...

Taste the Books: Review Morsels #37 Sim Kern, Susan Vaught, Seanan McGuire

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Offbeat Offline: November 2022 (I'm Back-ish)

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? I've still been playing nurse (and maid, and drudge), because my husband finally had surgery, but his recovery is a lengthy affair. Other than that, there was yet another hair incident (details below) and two more ARCs that ended up in the DNF pile (after the one I had in October). I guess I've become sloppy with my request choices lately...Anyhow, rejoice! I have posts scheduled for this month! Not a proper comeback, since the home situation is still a work-in-progress, but I won't be M.I.A., so yay?