The Deep Dive

Some Made-Up 2023 Book Awards

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Vanessa Diaz

Managing Editor

Book Riot Managing Editor Vanessa Diaz is a writer and former bookseller from San Diego, CA whose Spanish is even faster than her English. When not reading or writing, she enjoys dreaming up travel itineraries and drinking entirely too much tea. She is a regular co-host on the All the Books podcast who especially loves mysteries, gothic lit, mythology/folklore, and all things witchy. Vanessa can be found on Instagram at @BuenosDiazSD or taking pictures of pretty trees in Portland, OR, where she now resides.

My reading this year has been all over the place, plowing through books in double digits some months and reading two books for work in others. This means I will “only” have read about 50 books in 2023 compared to my usual 85+ titles, and there was a time in my life when this statistic would’ve sent me into a “read a bunch of short books to get my numbers up” tailspin. No mas. As Rebecca reminded us earlier this year, we don’t actually need to read more, and reading isn’t the only thing that fills my cup.

Because it’s the end of the year though, I do find myself looking back on what I’ve read to look for trends and the loud, screaming pattern I found was escapism. Shocking! In keeping with that theme and due to a deep need for levity, I’ve put together a list of the made-up book awards I’ve bestowed on some of the frontlist titles I read in 2023. 

The Entitlement is a Helluva Drug Award

cover of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

YellowFace by R.F. Kuang

R.F. Kuang went straight for the jugular with this masterpiece of literary satire, examining racism and diversity within the publishing industry with zero regard for anyone’s feelings. The sort of meta thing that made my brain explode about the book is that some clocked the behavior of the white main character for what it was (entitlement), whereas other folks seemed to, shall we say, miss the point entirely. Both for the plot of the book and some IRL oblivion, I bestow this award and heaps of side eye.

The When Your Friends Tell You Not To Read This At Night, Listen Award

cover of The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard

As a single woman who lives alone, I was cautioned not to start this one at night, especially since I went the audiobook route. Did I listen? No, but I should have, because this thriller opens with a monologue from a serial killer addressing the woman he has trapped in his trunk. The chilling story is inspired by the Vanishing Triangle killings, a series of unsolved murders in and around Dublin, Ireland in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I had to throw on an episode of The Golden Girls after to feel better about life when I finished it (THAT ENDING), but I couldn’t put it down.

The This is What True Crime Could Be Award

Book cover of Liliana's Invincible Summer by Christina Rivera Garza

Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza

I recently shared that I’ve been reaching for true crime a ton lately, which is not usually my thing, mostly because I feel deeply conflicted about the ethics of a lot of true crime. This difficult but beautiful book is a shining example, even if it’s not technically classified as such, of what true crime could be. It’s the heartbreaking story about a woman looking for justice 30 years after her sister, the titular Liliana, died in what was almost certainly an act of femicide in Mexico City. It’s a moving, infuriating, and gorgeously written love letter to Liliana that I will be thinking about for a long time, the kind of true crime book I can get behind.

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