2024 Wrap-Up: In Which I Struggle, but Get the Work Done

Hello my beauties!

Welcome to my last post of the year, where I will wrap my 2024 up. I'll preface this post by saying that I made some small changes to my usual yearly-recap format: I got rid of the Events and Memes, Author Interactions and Discussion Posts sections, since for the last two years they've been a huge "I've got nothing" waste of space where I explained how I had only participated in a handful of Tell Me Something Tuesday rounds, hadn't gotten the chance to beta-read anything new, and hadn't written any discussion posts (bar the TMST ones) in ages. I introduced a new section called Extras though, so that, from now on, I can either put any non-review-related content in there or say "I've got nothing" just once 😅. I also redesigned the Numbers section (now renamed Stats), hopefully making my stats less darn confusing easier to navigate (I also added some categories, like backlist reviews or rereads...). And I customised some vectors from Iconpack and Uxwing to create new section headers! The This Year in Blogging, Stats and Goals images come from Iconpack, the Reviews, Extras, Life and Holidays Hiatus ones from Uxwing. (And yes, I know the contours aren't perfect, but they were originally PNG, and I had to convert them to GIF to make the background transparent, which created problems I wasn't in the mood to fix).

So, without further ado, here goes my 2024 recap...

Pt. 1: This Year in Blogging

As of today, I've been blogging for 12 years and a couple of months!

This year was another tough one, life-wise, and it impacted my blogging - but on the other hand, the blogging itself was my only escape from the hardships of existence...so I managed to find a balance and stay afloat keep up with my schedule. I was never not in the mood for reading, but I often found myself dragging my feet about the reviewing part...Anyhow, even with three month-long hiatuses, I was able not only to write 52 posts (virtually one post a week), which was my original goal, but to reach a total of 54...small victories, right?

I titled last year's wrap-up "In Which I Bend, but Don't Break". I titled this one "In Which I Struggle, but Get the Work Done". Can you see a pattern? 🤷‍♀️ Then again, "get the work done" has more of a determined angle, because more than ever this year I had to make a conscious effort to keep up with this blogging gig, and I succeeded, and I feel like a superheroine now (just kidding, but it's a good place to be).

This is what happened on Offbeat YA during the year, broken down by number of posts, books I reviewed, other bookish content/activities...plus an off-blog, real-life section!

a) Stats

Posts written in 2024: 54 / vs. / Posts written in 2023: 50 (+4).

Reviews (any length) posted in 2024: 46 / vs. / Reviews (any length) posted in 2023: 47 (-1).

Full reviews posted in 2024: 25 / vs. / Full reviews posted in 2023: 14 (+11).

Mini reviews posted in 2024: 21 / vs. / Mini reviews posted in 2023: 33 (-12).

ARCs reviewed in 2024: 37 / vs. / ARCs reviewed in 2023: 21 (+15).

     Note: I've also had a couple of approvals for books that had already come out in some capacity

     but were still new-ish...

MG books reviewed in 2024: 0 / vs. / MG books reviewed in 2023: 2 (-2).

     Note: I don't usually read MG, but Seanan McGuire wrote a MG series (under her A. Deborah

     Baker alias) that ended last year, so in 2023 I made an exception...

YA or NA books reviewed in 2024: 24 / vs. / YA or NA books reviewed in 2023: 17 (+7).

Adult books reviewed in 2024: 22 / vs. / Adult books reviewed in 2023: 28 (-6).

DNF in 2024: 3 / vs. / DNF in 2023: 6 (-3).

Five-star reviews in 2024: 9 / vs. / Five-star reviews in 2023: 12 (-3).

Backlist books reviewed in 2024: 5 / vs. / Backlist  books reviewed in 2023: 20 (-15).

     Note: each backlist count only includes non-ARCs (of course) published before January of the

     current year.       

Rereads in 2024: 6 / vs. / Rereads in 2023: 9 (-3).

2024 highlights:

 - I posted the same amount of reviews as last year (bar one), but I managed to almost double the number of full reviews compared to 2023;

- I more or less leveled up the amount of YA/NA and Adult reviews, with YA/NA leading the way again, if narrowly (I had far more Adult books last year);

- I got many more ARCs;

- my backlist reviews suffered, but keep in mind that last year's amount was an exception, because I decided to catch up with the whole InCryptid series by Seanan McGuire (12 books up to that point!)...

b) Reviews

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

Afterlife (2): Deadgirl: Daybreak by B.C. Johnson (ARC review) | Deadgirl: Gravedust by B.C. Johnson (ARC review)

Supernatural (6): Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire (ARC review) | The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland (ARC review) | House of Thorns by Isabel Strychacz (ARC review) | The Darkness Behind the Door by Mira Gonzalez (ARC review) | Beholder by Ryan La Sala | The Losting Fountain by Lora Senf (ARC review)

Unwalled (genre-crossing) (4): You're Breaking My Heart by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovic (ARC review) | The Book of Love by Kelly Link (ARC review) | Lockjaw by Matteo L. Cerilli (ARC review) | What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell

Adult (13), in the following genres:

     Afterlife (2):

        The Afterlife of Mal Caldera by Nadi Reed Perez (ARC review)

        Whirly World by Brandon Jones (review of a 2023 book that was only put on NetGalley this

        year)

     Supernatural (7):

        The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste (ARC review)

        We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson (ARC review)

        Tidal Creatures by Seanan McGuire (ARC review)

        The Drowning House by Cherie Priest (ARC review)

        Through the Midnight Door by Katrina Monroe (ARC review)

        The Ravening by Daniel Church (ARC review)

        The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso (ARC review)

    Contemporary with a Twist (2):

        The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard (ARC review)

        The Pecan Children by Quinn Connor (ARC review)

     Multiverse (1):

        The Building That Wasn't by Abigail Miles (ARC review)

     Unwalled (genre-crossing) (1):

        Colossus by Ryan Leslie (ARC review) 

     

Also, I posted 7 Review Morsels installments, featuring:

     Seanan McGuire, Aliya Whiteley, Paul De Filippo

     Grace Curtis, Rebecca Rook, Ai Jiang

     Quinn Diacon Furtado, Henry Herz et al, Carlie St. George

     Steven Dos Santos, Leon Kemp, Holly Rae Garcia

     Emet North, Cheryl Isaacs, Sofia Arjam

     Charlene Thomas, Marisha Pessl, Jennifer Brozek et al.

     Joshua David Bellin et al., Codie Crowley, Dawn Kurtagich

Most read genre in 2024: Supernatural and the likes (Urban Fantasy, Portal Fantasy). It was Sci-Fi last year, at least for new books (but Supernatural for backlist - after all, as I said, I read 12 books in the InCryptid series, which is UF, thus Supernatural...). Funny how this year I barely found books in the Sci-Fi genre that called to me, and the most notable one (Colossus, also the only one to get a full review) was in equal parts Sci-Fi and Multiverse...

c) Extras

I've got nothing 🤷‍♀️. No beta-reads, no author interviews, no discussion posts. Speaking of the latter, 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) 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:

• Eye trouble...again. After the whole left eye debacle in 2023 (retinal hole), I started to see flashes in my right eye too, so I went back to the ER...thankfully, it was just a matter of vitreous traction this time (no hole). Still, now I can't tell if  EITHER of my retinas are deteriorating, since both my eyes are flashing because of the vitreous traction...
• Hair disasters...again. Difficult perm in May, then new problems in November, when I went to redo the top and bangs and my hairdresser proceeded to revert part of the still-existing curls to semi-straightness in the process...Then she redid those strands AGAIN, and they took, but what the hell. I mean, she does her best, but that's modern perm for you... 
• Everything else? I'm not going to tell you my life's story, so let's put it this way...tending to my bedridden husband (who still can't take more than a few steps at home) for almost two years and a half has only been the icing on the cake, and there are reasons why the most I can hope for at this stage is one iota of peace, because there are things in my life (most of them) that I can't change for the better anymore...it would take a do-over.

THE GOOD:

• Money for the hubs. His pension, assistance allowance and severance pay all arrived in the first months of the year (you might remember that, due to his current condition, he got a reevaluation of his disability, and on the grounds of that, he was let go early).
• ARCs galore. Even with all the ones I requested to no avail, this year I was approved for almost twice as many ARCs as in 2023 (37 vs. 21)! Super grateful 💚.
• The book community. You're still with me despite all my hiatuses and general inability to blog-hop consistently, and I don't know what I'd do without you all - fellow bloggers and authors I've developed a relationship with. My life is a super-hot mess, and I don't have anything but my blog, my books and my virtual friends, which is why I appreciate you even more and you never fail to make my day 🥰.

Pt. 2: Goals for 2025

Every year, my only goal is to post at least once a week and survive...It looks like striving for 52 posts is a working strategy, since these last years I've been either slightly below or above that number. That's why I'm keeping to my usual tentative plan and setting my usual goals for 2025: post weekly (or better, produce one post per week, which isn't the same) and incorporate more backlist books into review schedule (which I spectacularly failed at this year...then again, I had too many ARCs). Also, now that all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky, I plan on posting and interacting more on the platform! Come find me with the @offbeatya.bsky.social handle.

Pt. 3: Holidays Hiatus

As usual, I'll be away during the countdown to 2025, though I plan on visiting your blogs/interacting with you on social media. I mean...it's not like I'm celebrating anything, but I don't need the added stress of posting, plus everyone is so busy with Christmas, I don't want to waste your time with my ramblings 😂. Blog-wise, I'll be back on January 1st with my December recap!

In the end...

Merry Christmas from the Eleventh Doctor! 😊

...Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Happy Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year 😃

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

See you next year! Take care 😘.