2020 Debut Novels I Loved + TBR

Releasing a debut at any time is challenging and it is difficult to convince readers to pick up a debut, but I think it was even more of a challenge in 2020. That’s why I wanted to take the time to highlight some of my favourite debuts of the year and a few that are on my TBR.

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

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Nothing is more important than loyalty.
But what if you’ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?

Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself?

Raybearer has been one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. I am not a huge fantasy reader, so I don’t know that I would have prioritized Raybearer if Libro fm hadn’t sent me an ALC. The world building in this book is incredible and the characters are some of my favourites of the year. I cannot believe that this is Ifueko’s debut, and I find myself obsessively checking Goodreads to see if the sequel’s title has been announced. With how gorgeous the cover of Raybearer is, I am sure the next cover will be even more stunning!

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

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For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.

But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.

When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?

Another YA fantasy making this list, and one that I read for a buddy read on Instagram. Once again, the characters shine in this novel and the magic system is original and interesting. I am so happy that we do not have to wait too much longer for the sequel, A Psalm of Storms and Silence, as it is coming out in 2021. The cover has already been revealed and it is incredibly striking!

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

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Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

Cemetery Boys is a book that hit me right in the feels. Yadriel and Julian have hilarious banter and I think about them all the time. If you are looking for a fast-paced standalone, you must pick up Cemetery Boys right away! It thrills me that this book has been getting the attention that it deserves. Aiden Thomas’ sophomore novel, Lost in the Never Woods, is coming out in 2021!

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

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In the midst of a family crisis one late evening, white blogger Alix Chamberlain calls her African American babysitter, Emira, asking her to take toddler Briar to the local market for distraction. There, the security guard accuses Emira of kidnapping Briar, and Alix’s efforts to right the situation turn out to be good intentions selfishly mismanaged.

Such a Fun Age is a debut that has received a great deal of attention this year, and I believe that it is for good reason. I know that this book receives mixed review, but I think that probably comes from a lot of readers expecting it to be something it is not. This is a book that highlights microaggressions and I think many of us will know a real-life Alix. Such a Fun Age is a book that can lead to a lot of interesting and important discussions and self reflection.

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

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Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England’s finest novelists. Now it’s home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen’s legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen’s home and her legacy. These people—a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others—could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.

The perfect read for Jane Austen fans. There was something nostalgic about this book for me, and while there are some more emotional moments, it was comforting and what my heart needed to read. The Jane Austen Society is one of those books that I would happily and confidently gift to many people in my life.

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

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Real love…as seen on TV

Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers–and a massively broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television?

Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition–under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful anti-fat beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. That’s it.

But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated. She’s in a whirlwind of sumptuous couture, Internet culture wars, sexy suitors, and an opportunity (or two, or five) to find messy, real-life love in the midst of a made-for-TV fairy tale. In this joyful, razor-sharp debut, Bea has to decide whether it might just be worth trusting these men–and herself–for a chance to live happily ever after.

One to Watch was a book that I had to read in one sitting. It was so much fun! As someone who used to watch The Bachelor, I found this book extremely entertaining and it is shocking how accurate some of the drama actually is. I thought that Bea was an authentic main character, and I also really loved that she was a fashion blogger! You do not find many bloggers in fiction.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

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Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.

2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

No book has made me more uncomfortable than My Dark Vanessa did, as was Kate Elizabeth Russell’s intention. The story is told in two timelines, the first when Vanessa is fifteen-years old and being groomed by her teacher, and the second when she is 27 and grappling with the realization that her relationship with said teacher was actually sexual abuse. A difficult read, but so well handle. I cannot wait to see what Russell writes next because I will trust her with just about anything.

Debuts On My TBR

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

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Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.

Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost.

Real Life has been receiving a lot of attention, especially from some of my favourite Bookstagrammers. I recently read What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About, and Brandon Taylor contributed an essay, which ended up being one of my favourites in the collection. I am now even more excited to read a full-length novel from him.

The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

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Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a “louding voice”—the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni’s father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir.

When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing.

But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself, but for other girls, for the ones who came before her and were lost, and for the next girls, who will inevitably follow; she finds the resolve to speak, however she can—in a whisper, in song, in broken English—until she is heard.

I know that The Girl With the Louding Voice will end up being on many readers’ “Favourite Books of the Year” lists, and I cannot believe that I haven’t read it yet. Have you ever had a book that you know you are going to love but you are saving it for whatever reason? I think that is what I am doing!

Catherine House by Elizabeth Thomas

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You are in the house and the house is in the woods.
You are in the house and the house is in you . . .

Catherine House is a school of higher learning like no other. Hidden deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, this crucible of reformist liberal arts study with its experimental curriculum, wildly selective admissions policy, and formidable endowment, has produced some of the world’s best minds: prize-winning authors, artists, inventors, Supreme Court justices, presidents. For those lucky few selected, tuition, room, and board are free. But acceptance comes with a price. Students are required to give the House three years—summers included—completely removed from the outside world. Family, friends, television, music, even their clothing must be left behind. In return, the school promises its graduates a future of sublime power and prestige, and that they can become anything or anyone they desire.

Among this year’s incoming class is Ines, who expects to trade blurry nights of parties, pills, cruel friends, and dangerous men for rigorous intellectual discipline—only to discover an environment of sanctioned revelry. The school’s enigmatic director, Viktória, encourages the students to explore, to expand their minds, to find themselves and their place within the formidable black iron gates of Catherine.

For Ines, Catherine is the closest thing to a home she’s ever had, and her serious, timid roommate, Baby, soon becomes an unlikely friend. Yet the House’s strange protocols make this refuge, with its worn velvet and weathered leather, feel increasingly like a gilded prison. And when Baby’s obsessive desire for acceptance ends in tragedy, Ines begins to suspect that the school—in all its shabby splendor, hallowed history, advanced theories, and controlled decadence—might be hiding a dangerous agenda that is connected to a secretive, tightly knit group of students selected to study its most promising and mysterious curriculum.

Catherine House received a lot of attention when it first came out, but now it seems to be getting a lot of mixed reviews; however, that is not stopping me from wanting to read it. I am drawn to Gothic literature and dark academia, so I have high hopes. I also love what you would call “weird” books, so I still think Catherine House could work for me despite the low rating on Goodreads.

The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

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When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wants—as long as she isn’t herself. Because Muslim girls aren’t lesbians. Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she also doesn’t want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.

Flávia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though Flávia is appropriating Nishat’s culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangled—but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush on Flávia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.

I have read some absolutely amazing reviews for The Henna Wars, and it is one I would love to get to before the end of the year. My heart could do with a sweet romance.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

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After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

I truly believe that Legendborn could be a new favourite book! I have heard only incredible things about it, and I really have come to appreciate fantasy this year. This will definitely be one of the books that I treat myself to for Christmas and will hopefully pick up right away.

What has been your favourite debut novel of 2020?

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35 thoughts on “2020 Debut Novels I Loved + TBR

  1. I love getting on at the ground floor of an author’s writing journey and this year has been stellar. I’ve got four of these on my shelf, two selected by my book club to read soon. Excellent post, Kristin💜 I appreciated your commentary for each as they are helpful.

  2. I have been meaning to read a song of rwraiths and ruins since forever because it sounds so good 😁
    Also, I tagged you for the this or that book tag, hope u don’t mind 😀

  3. I really need to read Raybearer, Cemetery Boys, Legendborn and Catherine House! They all sound so good!

    (www.evelynreads.com)

  4. I felt the same way about My Dark Vanessa. That book really haunted me. I hope her next book is as good, though I expect this was a really personal story for her, so her next book might be harder to write. Thanks for the recommendations (and some of these books have fantastic covers).

  5. Two debut novels I read this year are Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney (Costa First Novel award winner, 2015) and Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening (International Booker Prize Winner, 2020). Both were excellent, especially The Loney. I’ve now bought two of Hurley’s other novels and class myself as a fan.

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