The Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag: 2021 Edition

It’s Book Tag time.

It’s that time of year; I’ve spotted this tag around quite often recently so yes, the Mid-Year period is here again.
I’ve enjoyed many of my recent reads, so here’s to remembering a few of them in the Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag.

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2021:

I’ve read some great books so far this year so I don’t think I can pick just one for this. I must mention…

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, and The Waste Lands – the first three volumes of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King

2. Best sequel of 2021 so far:

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King. It’s the second Dark Tower book and really starts to draw everything together after the Gunslinger, a much shorter novel that only really features Roland, the Man in Black and Jake.

3. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to:

The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell is one I definitely want to read but I’m thinking I might save it for my Autumn TBR list, if I can resist that long.

4. Most anticipated release of the second half of 2021:

Billy Summers by Stephen King

5. Biggest disappointment of 2021:

That I haven’t read a few more books so far, I’m still reading quite slowly and there are so many books I want to read.

6. Biggest surprise:

The Naturalist by Andrew Mayne was something a bit different for me and went off in surprising directions that made for exciting reading.

Later by Stephen King was another good one.

This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – I enjoyed this so much that I want to read more books like it.

7. Favourite new author (debut or new to you):

New-to-me – Alix E. Harrow with The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I can’t believe I waited so long to read it.

8. Newest fictional crush:

Still drawing a blank on this one…

9. Newest favourite character:

This is a tie between Arent Hayes and Sara Wessell in The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. I liked them both separately, and having them team up to deal with what is going on aboard the Saardam made for some great reading.

10. Book that made you cry:

There was one moment during The Waste Lands by Stephen King that made me just a tiny bit emotional. It was a reunion, and one I’d been looking forward to. I’ll say no more.

11. Book that made you happy:

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

12. Favourite book to movie adaptation of 2021 you’ve seen:

It’s not a movie but I’ve recently watched the TV series of Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King. It’s a while since I read the Bill Hodges trilogy and I enjoyed the tv versions of the characters.

13. Favourite Post/review you’ve written this year:

I’m enjoying writing about my Dark Tower reread. It was only when I started considering a series reread that I discovered I hadn’t already written about these books, possibly because I read them in my pre-blogging days.

Top Ten Tuesday has also given opportunities for some fun-to-write posts too. A few I’ve enjoyed included…

New-to-Me Authors of 2020

The Colours of Mardi Gras (covers edition)

Books That Made Me Want to Read More Like Them

14. Most beautiful book you bought or received this year:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January has a lovely cover and the story was pretty magical too.

15. Books you need to read by the end of this year:

There are many, many books I could mention here but I’ll just mention a few or I’d have a whole post filled with my tbr list…

More of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The One and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

So concludes my 2021 edition of The Mid-Year Freak Out Book Tag.

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As always, if you’ve not already done this and you fancy reminiscing over the amazing books you’ve read so far this year, feel free to consider yourself tagged.
See you next time for another Book Tag!