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!

a) Numbers

This is my 48th post this year. That's TEN posts less than my 2021 count. As I said, I was busy taking regular ass-kickings from life 😭. I didn't even get the chance to celebrate my TEN YEARS of blogging in October...

Only 13 of my 2022 posts were full reviews (they were 22 last year, but...see above), 7 of which were ARC ones (15 last year). Like in 2021, backlist books took a...backseat, which continues to pain me, but again, I couldn't do better. I also wrote 10 mini-review posts (they were 7 last year), for a total of 31 books, 8 of which were ARCs (1 last year), which I guess says something...more than half my ARCs for the year didn't get a full review (though there were 3 DNF and 2 anthologies involved, plus some books under 4 stars, which explains the amount of minis, as per my new policy...and its more recent development). The books in question are detailed (and linked) in the "Reviews" section below.

So, to sum it up, I wrote 23 review posts (including the minis), for a total of 44 reviews (again, counting both formats) and 15 ARCs. Which makes it sound less disastrous, but still - 13 full reviews are a major setback for me...

Also: I DNF 9 books this year...thrice the amount I did in my previous 9 years of blogging 😱...though I have to stress that before signing up for NG and EW accounts, I used to read a small amount of bought books a year, and only a handful or less that came directly from the authors/publishers...

b) Events and memes

I'm still involved in Tell Me Something Tuesday (co-hosting, providing questions, participating when I can), but like reviews, it suffered from my home problems. I even skipped a whole lot of questions I had provided myself LOL. I kept doing my Offbeat Offline monthly recaps though, even when I was on hiatus, because I needed to record what was going on (though it had better be swept under the rug, or maybe buried in a nuclear site...).

c) Reviews

These are the books I reviewed this year, broken down by genres/Reading Rooms (all YA except where the contrary is expressly stated):

Supernatural (3): In Mercy, Rain by Seanan McGuire (short story) | Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire | Skeleton Song by Seanan McGuire (short story)

(Please note...2 of these reviews are short in nature, of course, since they pertain to short stories; then again, I used my full-review format for them, so I grouped them with the regular ones...).

Unwalled (genre-crossing) (2): What We Buried by Kate A. Boorman | The Honeys by Ryan La Sala (ARC review)

Adult (8), in the following genres:

     Supernatural/Fantasy -> The Shadow Glass by Josh Winning (ARC review) | Seasonal Fears by

     Seanan McGuire 

     Sci-Fi -> Deep Dive by Ron Walters (ARC review) | Full Immersion by Gemma Amor (ARC

     review)

     Multiverse -> Prison of Sleep by Tim Pratt (ARC review) | End Of The World House by Adrienne

     Celt (ARC review) | Last Exit by Max Gladstone

     Unwalled (genre-crossing) -> The Elevator at the Brink of Infinity by Michael James (ARC 

     review)

     

Also, I posted 10 Review Morsels installments, featuring:

     Seanan McGuire writing as Mira Grant

     Seanan McGuire writing under different pen names

     Katherine Webber, Ilsa J. Bick, Mira Grant

     Jonathan Strahan et al., Seanan McGuire, A.S. King

     James Aquilone et al., Joshua Palmatier et al., Steven L. Peck

     Alan White, S.A. Barnes, Nova Ren Suma

     Seanan McGuire (Velveteen vs. series)

     Lamar Giles, Andrew J. Brandt, Scotto Moore

     Rin Chupeco, Kate A. Boorman, Rob Hart

     Sim Kern, Susan Vaught, Seanan McGuire

(Please note: some authors recur - *ahem* McGuire/Grant - but with different books reviewed of course...).

So...I broke my own rules this year, out of necessity, because I couldn't keep up with my review queue anymore. First I decided to only post mini reviews for short stories, novellas and anthologies (with some exceptions); then I added books up to 3.5 stars to the mix (again, I'm open to write a full review in special cases, but...); lastly, I even extended the mini-review rule to some 4-star books (e.g., the Incryptid series by Seanan McGuire, because it spans more than 10 books already, and I would never been able to keep up with it if I wrote a full review for every one of them). I don't like this, but I have no choice - and to my credit, the (definitive) minis I write for these books are longer than the (temporary) ones I post for books that I intend to reread and review in full later...

 

d) Author interactions

REVIEW-WISE

The authors I usually have the privilege to review ARCs from were in writing/subbing/pitching/revising mode this year, with the notable exception of Josh Winning, who published his adult (but teen-friendly) portal/puppet fantasy The Shadow Glass (see above), which I beta-read with my friend Carrie in 2021.

BETA-READING

Nothing this year. But I've been told that my beta services might be required in the near future 😉 😃. 

e) Discussion posts

I've got nothing 🤷‍♀️. As usual, I've been saving my best ideas for TMST (though I would love to revamp my A Reader's Quirks series), except that in the last months of the year I have, for all purposes, temporarily stopped participating, what with my home life getting out of control (which resulted in a couple of hiatuses and a blog schedule simplification)...I hope to be able to take part in TMST again starting in February though!

f) Real life

I'm going to try and keep it short, but since this was yet another shitty year for me, I'm not sure I'll succeed. Anyhow, here's a recap of the most notable things I went through...

😟 I got laid off at the end of April, when the radio station I had been working for since 2001 closed due to the Covid-generated economic juncture. I'll receive unemployment benefits until the end of August, after which...it will get rough. Since I lost my job, I've taken to looking for a new position online (to no avail), but I haven't gotten the chance to do that in person, because...

💉 ...I've had my hands full with a family emergency. My husband developed a foot ulcer that he stubbornly refused to seek help for, until he finally realised that it wasn't going to heal using home-administered medications (actually, it was getting worse by the day). Since then, he's been getting home care, and after learning that the reason for his ulcer was a clogged artery, he got a femoral balloon angioplasty. Now we have to wait for the tissue to grow back, which is going to take a while though...In theory, he could already start walking again, but it's debatable - plus I don't know what kind of shoe he could use, especially since he's heavily bandaged and his other leg is a prosthetic...

😖 In other news, my Twitter got hacked again (but without consequences this time), and I'm still having perm issues, even with the new hairdresser who actually LISTENS and TRIES stuff. Oh, and I added left wrist pain to my endless list of health issues (I booked an X-Ray for January 11th). And of course I'm so tired (see: family emergency above...all that running around on foot and tending to my bedridden husband and waking up early to get us ready for the nurse's/surgeon's visits)...and angry...and worried about, well, lots of things. That's my default mode right now...

(Oh, look...I managed to sum everything up quite concisely...round of applause, please 😂).

Pt. 2: Goals for 2023

Every year, my only goal is to post at least once a week and survive...which proved to be trickier than usual this year (both parts of it...), as my 48 posts demonstrate. I mean, not bad for someone who spent 3 whole months on hiatus (only one of which covered for by scheduled posts), but still. I've also fallen out of the habit of writing full reviews lately, and I'm afraid I won't be able to get into it again...it feels like a lot of work right now...but I WANT to. So, goals for 2023: post weekly, reprise full reviews, reincorporate backlist books into review schedule. It should be feasible, life permitting...

Pt. 3: Holidays Hiatus

As usual, I'll be away during the countdown to 2023, though I plan on visiting your blogs/interacting with you on Twitter (are you still on Twitter? are you exploring other possibilities? have you made accounts on other SMs already?). Blog-wise, I'll be back on January 1st with my December recap! (After which I'm planning a new hiatus, but fear not, it will be the last one for a while. In February I'll be back for good, unless the universe has more ordeals in store for me...and I intend to make up for those missed posts).

In the end...

(...it's David Tennant again this year, complete with long-ish hair, beard and mustache, wearing a mistletoe-patterned sweater and blowing a kiss in front of a Christmas tree)

...Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 😃

(or Happy Holidays if you don't celebrate)!

See you next year! Take care 😘.