I made it*!
My original goal was to finish all 25 books on the Book Bingo card, every one of them on hardmode. With two exceptions, I made it (see below). You can click any book to read my review:
2021 Book Bingo
 (Hard Mode) 5 SFF Short Stories (Hard: An entire anthology or collection) |  (Hard Mode) Set in Asia (Hard: by an Asian author) |  (Hard Mode) r/Fantasy A to Z Genre Guide (Hard: by a BIPOC author) |  (Hard Mode) Found Family (Hard: featuring an LGBTQ+ character) |  (Hard Mode) First person POV (Hard: Multiple) |
|  (Hard Mode) New to you author (Hard: haven’t heard much about) |  (Hard Mode) Gothic Fantasy (Hard: not in the Book Riot article) |  (Hard Mode) Backlist book (Hard: published before 2000) |  (Hard Mode) Revenge-seeking character (Hard: revenge as the major book plot) |
 (Hard Mode) Mystery plot (Hard: not primary world urban fantasy) |  (Hard Mode) Comfort read (Hard: that isn’t a reread) |  (Hard Mode) Debut novel (Hard: published in 2021) |  (Hard Mode) Cat squasher (500+ pages; Hard: 800+ pages) |  (Hard Mode) SFF-related nonfiction (Hard: published in the last 5 years) |
 (Hard Mode) Latinx or Latin American author (Hard: with fewer than 1000 Goodreads ratings) |  (Hard Mode) Self published (Hard: with fewer than 50 Goodreads ratings) |  (Hard Mode) Forest setting (Hard: for the entire book) |  (Hard Mode) Genre mashup (Hard: of three or more genres) |  (Hard Mode) Has chapter titles of more than one word (Hard: for every chapter) |
 (Hard Mode) ___ of ___ (Hard: and ___) |  (Hard Mode) First contact (Hard: that doesn’t lead to war) |  Trans or Nonbinary (Hard: protagonist) |  (Hard Mode) Debut author (Hard: with an AMA) |  (Hard Mode) Witches (Hard: as the main protagonist) |
The two exceptions:
- Per the rules, you can replace one square. I never quite did the book club thing, so I replaced ‘r/Fantasy Book Club (Hard: with participation)’ with a previous square: ‘Sequel: Not the First Book in the Series (2017)’.
- Black Sun meets ‘Trans or Nonbinary’, but I misread the recommendation thread before I started: xe is not a protagonist. It’s still a wonderful book and I’m glad to have read it, but I didn’t have time to read another book for this square. I’ll try to catch one next time around.
Also:
- I used graphic novels for three squares. Normally, they’d count as novellas, but in each case I read the entire (or almost entire in Hellblazer’s case) series, which was 10+ books in each case. I think that certainly brings it up and over the page / time requirements for a novel.
- I ended up reading four books in two days to finish off. Maybe I’ll make sure to finish a bit earlier next year… (maybe)
I don’t think there was a single book on the list that I hated; instead, here are some that I particularly loved and can wholeheartedly recommend you read!
- The House in the Cerulean Sea - A delightful found family / coming of age story that really tugs on your emotions
- Mexican Gothic - Slow burn collision of worlds between Mexican young woman and English gentleman turns super creepy
- Six Wakes - Closed room murder mystery IN SPACE–and the best part: with cloning, they all very well COULD HAVE DONE IT
- Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls - A quick read with Coyote myths, Latin American beasties, and a young girl that’s very well going to save the day
- Annihilation - Slice of life meets cosmic horror; exploring a weird tear without* going mad–much better than the sequels
- Gideon the Ninth - ‘Lesbian Necromancers in Space’–but really, it’s an excellent blending of necromancy and spaceships with some excellent super snarky humor
- An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors - a wonderfully weird steampunk world full of airships, crazy magic, and delightful characters
- Project Hail Mary - scientific/engineering problem solving mixed with humor as Andy Weird does best
- Black Sun - dark and beautiful pre-colonial Middle America based worldbuilding with a lot of interesting dichotomies
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - a slice of life deep in space chock full of fascinating alien feeling aliens and relationships