Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of 2015

The torrent of TV tie-in novels that started to dominate the wikipedia lists in the 90's are now being beaten back by a deluge of YA.

The Buried Giant was....ok? Don't think it does a good job of tackling the themes it sets itself out to tackle, but it does have vibes.

Recent LRB review made me curious about y Viet Thanh Nguyen.

Pretty sure it's gonna be strikeouts for me every year from here on out.

I bought a copy of A Little Life, but then everyone said it was terrible.

i resent that i finished A Little Life.

but at least it was somewhat of a turning point for me in never again persisting with a book i was finding worthless and ever since i have been happy to pull the trigger more quickly with zero regrets.

I'm kind of glad I finished it so I could have an opinion on it. And that opinion is... It's utterly ludicrous.

This will be a strikeout for me. I read Eileen but found it profoundly unpleasant to get through, will probably never read it again.

I read Seveneves. It was a waste of time.

I've only read the Jemisin (it was okay, def overrated but worth reading if you like the genre) and will likely be a strikeout for the rest of the polls going forward. But I wanted to tell Daniel that these threads have been a really nice feature of ILX!

Agree with Rob! I look forward to every new poll in this series.

"The Sellout" is the only one of these I've read. It's good enough to vote for. Houellebecq's "Submission" is another solid offering from this year, but my write-in vote would be for "The First Bad Man" by Miranda July.

The Sellout is brilliant. Gets my vote.

read the Ottessa Moshfegh bcs of reviews; didn't like it, doubt I'll ever read anything else by her.

but my write-in vote would be for "The First Bad Man" by Miranda July. Was already thinking this! Should be on list! STOP THE STEAL

The First Bad Man by Miranda July. So much of it's stayed with me. So good.

first bad man is excellent made me change my mind about miranda july

the sympathizer looked good but i have yet to read it

the hyped stuff from this year is godawful lol

> I read Seveneves. It was a waste of time.

i enjoyed the first cataclysmic 1/3 and the second spacebound 1/3

only one i've read

oh, Slade House as well. first book i've read in about 20 years that i couldn't read before bed.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro - as an Ishiguro stan I thought this was really bad, unsuccessful as fantasy and as whatever allegory or metaphor he was going for. Giving his protagonists amnesia effectively reduced them to complete ciphers.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - ludicrous
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson - voting for this, my first KSR and it made me into an instant fan.
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee - disappointing
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin - ok but not really my cup of tea
Based On A True Story by Delphine de Vigan - her previous book was a celebrated and controversial memoir disguised as a novel, this is a thriller narrated by an author who has recently published a celebrated and controversial memoir disguised as a novel. it's pretty clear when it starts to diverge from reality though.
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie - a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy

Also very much enjoyed Slade House.

This was of course the year Morrissey's "List of the Lost" was published, a shocking and dare I say it deliberate omission from the poll.

Only read The Sellout but I'm skeptical anything here would beat it.

This was of course the year Morrissey's "List of the Lost" was published, a shocking and dare I say it deliberate omission from the poll.

lol, guilty as charged!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Not voting because I've read none of these yet.

loved the sellout

yeah i’d like to change my vote to The First Bad Man

read the Ottessa Moshfegh bcs of reviews; didn't like it, doubt I'll ever read anything else by her.

Ha, this was my exact experience with “my year of rest and relaxation”.

Have only read the sympathizer and the sellout (“the sympathizer and the sellout” sounds like it could be the title of a pretty good novel itself), but loved the former so bored for that.

^ Very good autocorrect

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I've heard a bot about the actual Field of the Cloth of Gold so wonder if the novel is a good narrative of it . Caught a few webinars on it last year, Tudor era revival of the kind of jousting competition from a couple of centuries earlier.

wow this i really recent and still I've only toucheda couple.
I remember the announcement and news coverage of the Harper Lee novel being rife.

lol, Mills is definitely using it as a metaphor, the thought of him writing straight historical fiction is quite funny

2016?

In the New Year, busy with covid right now

!

I didn’t know.

Feel better soon, Daniel!

Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels Of 2016

I liked A Little Life ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Sellout is a worthy successor to Invisible Man, also it's funny af.