My top ten are split into five pairs, one blurb per pair:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton.

These stories had me on the edge of my seat because I am pretty sure I have known these characters in real life. I kept really really hoping they wouldn’t wreak too much havoc or *gasp* get kicked out of school and have to move back home.

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle and a manga adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness by Gou Tanabe, which is two volumes.

I appreciate how one mean, maladapted author produced such a mind-melting oeuvre that, ever since, it has been continually reinterpreted by a hugely diverse fan base. HP Lovecraft was a bigot, yet the terrifying Abyss he told us so much about calls to us all just as we are.

100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell and King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes

I do not know how to call these books wise in a way that doesn’t sound like a standard publishing blurb. I want Brontez to be my big brother and I want Virginie to be my adoptive mom.

Eurotrash by Christian Kracht and The Cleveland Nazis: 1933-1945 by Michael Cikraji

The horrible past becomes so much more horribler whenever you’re reminded that it is not fully past.

Guilty by Georges Bataille and Les Fleurs du Mal / The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire

When I first read Bataille I thought, “I like this but it makes no sense, maybe I’m too young”. Older now, it is still unclassifiable and I still love it. When I first read Baudelaire, I said, “I want to reread this in the original language”. Twenty years of study later, I did. Never stop learning. Your local public library can help.

Before the New Year,
We share what we liked the best;
Mine are in haiku:

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede --
Haven't finished yet,
But the writing is so good.
Hope I don't get scared. 

All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky --
Family addictions,
Trauma from the old country,
Trip to Moldova. 

Covenant with the Vampire by Jeanne Kalogridis -- 
Dracula's nephew
Learns uncle is a monster,
Very cool castle.

Netsuke by Rikki Ducornet -- 
Therapist sleeps with
Quite a few of his patients.
Has his own problems.

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd --
Anachronistic
Layers of reality
Murder in time-loop.

Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf by David Madsen -- 
Ribald renaissance
Adventure of epic scale
Plus potty humor.

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- 
"When Christ calls a man,
He bids him come and die" was 
quoted from this book.

The Red-Headed Pilgrim by Kevin Maloney -- 
He tries really hard 
To be so cool and so free,
But he just isn't.

The Seventh Mansion by Maryse Meijer --
Ecosensitive
Loner teen has an affair
With a skeleton. 

The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio by Hubert Wolf -- 
Once there were some nuns
Who committed loads of crimes,
Truly a scandal.