2023 Wrap-Up: In Which I Bend but Don't Break

Hello my beauties!

Welcome to my last post of the year, where I will wrap my 2023 up. Seriously...I'm copying the following part of this intro from last year's post, because...same? down to the number of Review Morsels installments I posted...

"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)."

(Please note: I only wrote my first full review of 2023 in May...).

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise, since my problems are ongoing and nothing really changed since last year, but...it's disheartening. Anyhow, I'm still here, which should probably be regarded as a success, all things considered (but since I would literally have NOTHING GOOD in my life if I didn't blog, probably not...I mean, of course I'll never leave this gig) - hence this post's title. And without further ado, here goes my 2023 recap...

Pt. 1: This Year in Blogging

As of today, I've been blogging for 11 (!!!!!) 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 50th post this year. That's 2 posts more than my 2022 count, so yay?...

Only 14 of my 2022 posts were full reviews (they were 13 last year though, so...yay again?), 9 of which were ARC ones (7 last year) - plus I reviewed 1 reissued book made available on NetGalley as "Read Now". Like in 2022, backlist books took a...backseat, which continues to pain me, but again, I couldn't do better. I also wrote 10 mini-review posts (as I said, they were 10 last year too), for a total of 33 books, 12 of which were ARCs (31 books and 8 ARCs last year), which I guess says something...practically half my ARCs for the year didn't get a full review, because I rated them under 3.5 stars or I even DNF them. The books in question are detailed (and linked) in the "Reviews" section below.

So, to sum it up, I wrote 24 review posts (including the minis), for a total of 47 reviews (again, counting both formats) and 21 ARCs. That's 1 review post, 3 reviews and 6 ARCs more than last year. So, in 2023 I did VERY MARGINALLY better than in 2022...Let's "yay" again, I suppose.

Also: I DNF 6 books this year...they were 9 in 2022, so I'll call this a small win too...

b) Events and memes

I'm still involved in Tell Me Something Tuesday (co-hosting, providing questions, participating when I can), but this year I only managed to join the meme 12 times, yikes. 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, to borrow another line from my 2022 recap, "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 (2): Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire | House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Contemporary with a Twist (1): Catfish Rolling by Clara Kumagai (ARC review)

Unwalled (genre-crossing) (1): Girls of Little Hope by Sam Beckbessinger & Dale Halvorsen (ARC review)

Adult (10), in the following genres:

     Afterlife/Urban Fantasy (2):

        The Soul Sector by Michael Karolewsi (reissue review)

        The Prophet's Debt by Michael Karolewsi (ARC review)

     Supernatural (1):

        Mister Magic by Kiersten White

     Sci-Fi (5):

        Myriad by Joshua David Bellin (ARC review)

        The Infinite Miles by Hannah Ferguson (ARC review)

        The Museum of Human History by Rebekah Bergman (ARC review)

        The Never-Ending End of the World by Ann Christy (ARC review) |

        A Second Chance for Yesterday by R.A. Sinn (ARC review)

     Contemporary with a Twist (1):

        The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy (ARC review) 

     Thriller (1):

        Burn the Negative by Josh Winning

     

Also, I posted 10 Review Morsels installments, featuring:

     Seanan McGuire (InCryptid series #1-4)

     Naomi Salman, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Courtney Gould

     Chelsea Sedoti, Vincent Tirado, M.R. Carey

     Seanan McGuire (InCryptid series #5-8)

     Jen Wilde, Laura Ruby, T. Kingfisher

     Britney S. Lewis, Marie Hoy-Kenny, Seanan McGuire

     A. Deborah Baker, Kate Alice Marshall, Kelsey Sutton

     Seanan McGuire, A. Deborah Baker, Mira Grant

     Kosoko Jackson, Jay Bonansinga, Adrian Tchaikovsky

     Seanan McGuire (InCryptid series #9-12)

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

 

Holy moly...apparently, this was the year of adult sci-fi (they turned out to be all very good/excellent books, too!).

d) Author interactions

REVIEW-WISE

Nothing this year. B.C. Johnson still hasn't released the last installment in his Deadgirl series; Josh Winning had a new book out (Burn the Negative), but his publisher only gave ARCs to selected few...The others were working on books that haven't seen the light of day yet.

BETA-READING

Nothing this year. For a number of reasons (books still in embryonic stage, etc.). 

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 I wasn't able to keep up with it either, despite my contributing to the topic list with a lot of prompts...Maybe when my home life settles a bit I'll manage to make a discussion comeback, but for now...

f) Real life

I'm going to try and keep it short, since if you've been reading my monthly recaps, you already know most of what's happened in this shitty year (*adds it to the list* 😥), except for this very month. December will be covered in my next Offbeat Offline installment in a few days, but in the meantime, you get the highlights below. Anyhow, year-wise, here's a recap of the most notable things I went through...

THE BAD:

• Tending to my bedridden husband. Things are oh-so-slowly getting better for him, but he hasn't left the bed yet (though the day should be near) and I'm at the end of my rope...
• Eye trouble. I've had two laser surgeries on my left eye retina to treat a couple of small holes caused by vitreous detachment - and I've been still seeing flashes since then, which I'm told is a vitreous traction problem, so I don't even have the means to realise if a new hole is forming anymore (plus I have a developing cataract in the same eye, so my vision is blurry at the moment...).
• Hair disasters. Despite my new hairdresser's best efforts, I can't seem to make my hair curl the way it used to. After trial and error and multiple (re-perming) incidents, I have reasonably nice hair now, but not up to my old standards *not anymore...they're reverting back to barely wavy, apparently 😭*. Of course, my hair is also stressed at this point, so we'll see what happens when it's time for a new whole perm in May...
• Condo pipe damage. At least this one wasn't overly expensive, but for a moment I feared the plumbers would have to break my bathroom (along with other people's) to fix it...
• And the icing on the cake, right before Christmas: Forced loan extension. We should have paid off our twenty-year house loan this month, but for a bunch of economic juncture reasons and the fact that the installments couldn't be raised beyond a certain limit, we still have a huge debt and seven years and three months of payments ahead. Disaster much? 😭😭😭 (Especially with me not working).

THE GOOD:

• But...right on time, my husband's early retirement plea got accepted (or else we would have faced a 50% cut of his salary, after more than one year on sick leave), and both his pension and the attendance allowance he requested should start rolling in within a month. At least now he can recover in peace, without being forced to go back to work despite his still massive injury (and poor health overall, due to his preexistent disability) in order not to lose the money we NEED to survive...
• So many ARCs. Seriously, even Seanan McGuire ones this year (though not all of them), and I'm REALLY grateful for each and every book (even the DNF ones), though I've fallen behind with my reading lately - but now that I've lifted some weight from my shoulders (see above), I'll come back with a vengeance! 😅
• David Tennant bonanza. First Good Omens 2, then the three Doctor Who specials in which he returned, and finally (on our screens in a few days) the mini series Around the World in 80 Days - which should have aired two Christmases ago, and then in Summer 2022, and then last Christmas...I was furious for the delay, but at least the year will go out with a bang now. Darnedest 2023 kicked my ass with a passion, so David has been a balm for my tortured soul...🧡

Pt. 2: Goals for 2024

Every year, my only goal is to post at least once a week and survive...which regularly proves to be trickier than one might think (both parts). Yet, despite almost four months of hiatus and a whole lot of drama, in 2023 I've managed to write 50 posts, so I guess it's a win? I can do it (sort of)? That's why I'm keeping to my usual tentative plan and setting the same goals for 2024: post weekly, reprise full reviews, and maybe finally reincorporate backlist books into review schedule. It should be feasible, life permitting...(...yeah, I said so last year, too, and look at me now 😬).

Pt. 3: Holidays Hiatus

As usual, I'll be away during the countdown to 2024, though I plan on visiting your blogs/interacting with you on Twitter (are you still on Twitter?) and/or BlueSky (hey! I have invites! just let me know if you need one!). Blog-wise, I'll be back on January 1st with my December recap!

In the end...

...Merry Christmas from the Tenth Doctor 💚

...Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 😃

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

See you next year! Take care 😘.