Many Pages Turned in 2024 ~ LA PENSINE MUTINE (EN)

In keeping with taking stock of last year's achievements, I'm sharing my top reads of 2024.

Since most items in my original list are only available in French (some 40 books), you'll get a Top 5 instead. Not included either are comics and non-fiction books (I Think Too Much by Christel Petitcollin and The Reveal by David Icke, a hefty tome I haven't finished reading yet).

1. The Running Grave

To me, this latest instalment in the Cormoran Strike series is the best yet. And despite being over 900 pages long, I spent days and nights reading it, unable to put it down! An extremely well-crafted plot, fluid writing, breathless suspense, and a topical subject explored with spine-chilling realism (sensitive souls be warned), supported by engaging protagonists whose relationship captivates the reader, book after book, making this series so addictive. Some great art by J.K. Rowling under the pen name of Robert Galbraith.

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside.
The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths.
In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her. . .

Robert Galbraith, 2023 - Sphere Books - 960 pages

2. The Ink Black Heart

Another captivating page-turner and the second best in the series, in my opinion. A recipient of online harassment herself, Rowling addresses this rampant issue with intelligence, lucidity and panache. As usual, her plot is extremely well-conceived with many unexpected twists and turns. And the central relationship between Strike and Robin always so compelling.

When frantic, disheveled Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The co-creator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity.
Robin decides that the agency can’t help with this—and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart.
Robin and her business partner, Cormoran Strike, become drawn into the quest to uncover Anomie’s true identity. But with a complex web of online aliases, business interests and family conflicts to navigate, Strike and Robin find themselves embroiled in a case that stretches their powers of deduction to the limits – and which threatens them in new and horrifying ways . . .

Robert Galbraith, 2022 - Sphere Books - 1024 pages

3. NOUS

The long-awaited novel Christelle mentioned she was inspired to write while still working on the Mirror Visitor, acting as a bridge with Here and Only Here. Not yet available in English as it was released in France only a couple of months ago, but it definitely will be. US is all about the hive mind, an exacerbated collective consciousness denying any individual right — and about the archontic saviour implant rebranded Instinct. It is also a harsh criticism of self-righteousness and abusive religion in all its hypocrisy — a recurring theme also found in the Mirror Visitor with the character of God (can't say any more without spoiling) standing in as the main antagonist and source of chaos.

US is a vintage dystopian fantasy. A return to my first love, drawing you into a world with its own set of rules, its own possibilities, its own restrictions, and good old-fashioned battery-operated walkmans.
The humans in US are not very far apart from us with one considerable difference: everyone has an Instinct serving the community.
US is also, and above all, the story of Claire, an over-secretive confidante and Goliath, a reckless daredevil protector, including many other destinies interlacing with theirs.
And in US, everything's perfect.
Is everything perfect?

Christelle Dabos, 2024 - Gallimard Jeunesse - 576 pages

4. Midnight Sun

Stephenie Meyer appears to have a problem: she can't seem to bounce back from the phenomenal success of her Twilight saga and keeps coming back to it. First with Life and Death on the 10th anniversary of Twilight, in 2015, where Bella becomes Beau and Edward becomes Edith. Then in 2020, with Midnight Sun, where the story is told from the point of view of Edward, the vampire. For the record, she began writing this version in 2008 and stopped after the first twelve chapters were leaked on the Internet. It took a petition signed by hundreds of thousands of people for her to finally decide, a decade later, to resume her work on the manuscript. I have to admit that I was particularly curious about the exercise in style. Although similar in all points, the story is much longer since Edward analyses everything. Having chosen the audio version to test my new e-reader, it was a quite different experience for me anyway.

This unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting beautiful, mysterious Bella is both the most intriguing and unnerving event he has experienced in his long life as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward’s past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he let himself fall in love with Bella when he knows that he is endangering her life?

Stephenie Meyer, 2012 - Little Brown Books - 756 pages

5. Sputnik Sweetheart

A rather strange and disconcerting novel, chosen at random on Rudy's recommendation of this author. Murakami likes to draw his readers into a world where the boundary between what's real and what's supernatural is so tenuous they lose all their bearings. The title, that largely influenced my choice, refers to the first artificial satellite launched by the USSR in 1957, meaning ‘fellow traveller’ in Russian. For the characters in this impossible love triangle are like satellites gravitating around the object of their desire, moving towards then away but never actually making the connection.

Sumire is in love with a woman seventeen years her senior. But whereas Miu is glamorous and successful, Sumire is an aspiring writer who dresses in an oversized second-hand coat and heavy boots like a character in a Kerouac novel.
Sumire spends hours on the phone talking to her best friend K about the big questions in life: what is sexual desire, and should she ever tell Miu how she feels for her? Meanwhile K wonders whether he should confess his own unrequited love for Sumire.
Then, a desperate Miu calls from a small Greek island: Sumire has mysteriously vanished...

Haruki Murakami, 2002 - Vintage - 229 pages