Ronit J

Fantasy Bingo is r/Fantasy‘s annual event, where you get a card with 25 squares with conditions, and have 1 year to read books that fulfil all those conditions.

2023 was my first year doing Fantasy Bingo, and I ended up reading almost twice as many books as usual!

This is part 3 of my Fantasy Bingo 2023 Posts. If you want to read the earlier parts, you can over here:

• Part 1: https://ronitjauthor.com/2023/11/21/fantasy-bingo-helped-me-read-more/
• Part 2: https://ronitjauthor.com/2023/11/22/fantasy-bingo-helped-me-read-more-part-2/

Well, this is gonna be my last post for Fantasy Bingo 2023, and I can’t believe I actually did it! Was it worth it? Hell yeah! Was it all good? No. Not really. I had a few disappointments on the list, but that’s to be expected I guess.

I split my bingo journey into 3 stretches.

Stretch 1 was the first 3 months of bingo. It was a great one, but I did feel a little burnt out by the end.

Stretch 2 was relatively okay, but I did read a lot of non-bingo books in between the stretches, and some during this one, which helped me pace myself better.

Stretch 3 was the most difficult because I was always conflicted between reading something for bingo and reading something non-bingo. I only read 2 books last year before reading a bunch of non-bingo books as palette cleansers.

Here are my thoughts on the last set of books I read for bingo:

I was super excited for this one. I even loved the beginning of the novel. But over the course of the book, I started losing interest. The biggest problem for me was the plot convenience and low tension. The protagonists got away with a lot without much consequences. Great premise, but the execution left a lot to be desired.  

Note: I might switch this out with something else if I read a better book to fit here before the deadline. If not, meh.  

I read this book in a single day. And that’s rare. This book was the third coziest book I read last year, and reading it was like drinking a nice hot cup of coffee on a cold winter morning. 

I discovered this book in the Bingo recommendations thread. The premise is the reason I picked it up, and I absolutely adored every single story that came up. I did find some of the prose a little tedious, and I don’t know if it’s the writing or the translation. Either way, that did hamper my experience a little, which is why I gave it 4 stars. 

2024 couldn’t have started on a higher note. Everything about this book was just… WOW. The writing did take some time to get used to, but once I was there, it was a magical ride. This is already on my potential top 10 list of 2024, and it’s going to be very difficult to knock it off. 5/5 cannot recommend it enough! 

I really enjoyed this one. It was a little rough around the edges, but overall it was a fantastic read. I especially loved the Protagonist, Rohan, and he’s the main reason for my positive review. I didn’t really like the action scenes so much, but the character interactions was what kept me going. The plot, narrative, and world-building also were just okay, but when your protagonist is so likeable, you can’t help but keep on reading. At least that’s what happened with me. 

Unpopular opinion: This book didn’t work for me. I love the epic story, and I recognise 100% why this book is held in such high regard. But the writing just wasn’t for me. 

This book has been on my TBR for a very long time now. I can’t believe it took me this long to get to it. This was such a magical read! I love Pratchett, and I loved Sandman by Gaiman. To read something they co-wrote was an absolute delight! I know I have a bias here, but that’s irrelevant because I had a great time reading this book. 

This was one of the most confusing, love-hate dilemma I’ve felt when writing a review. On the one hand, I wholeheartedly hated about 40-50% of the book. On the other, I was in awe of the rest. The good in here is probably one of the best in the series, but the bad was bad enough to make me want to quit. Frankly speaking, the ending was very satisfying, and the entire climax is part of the reason I’m giving it a 3.5

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Looking back, I realise that half of my books were 5-star reads! Here’s a pie chart that breaks down my ratings:

I was lucky that a majority of my TBR books, or books that I just felt like reading were eligible for Bingo, but I can’t say it’s going to be the same for next year. 

r/Fantasy will announce 2024’s fantasy bingo card in a little over a month. Let’s see how it goes!. 

Happy Reading everyone!