Wow there were so many good things to read and watch and play and listen to in 2018 – I’ve had to expand my lists from previous years! The thing I’m probably most happy about is the amazing number of books with LGBT characters in them. My top 10 books were definitely the hardest to pick – despite a massive reading slump in the middle of year, I nonetheless managed to fit in so many amazing stories, but in the end I had to cut out a few fantastic novellas and short story collections, including The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, The Merry Spinster, and Apple Knife (heck I’m thinking of more and more as I write this!) This is not to mention all the nonfiction I read – mostly about race relations and horror, are the two related? You decide!

In previous years I’ve added a little bit about what I’ve been doing each year and what my hopes are for the next year, but so much has happened that I’m going to just make a whole other post about it. This is pure top 10, so, with the reminder that this is in no particular order, and that asterisks denote lesbians, lets go:

Books

1. The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke
2. We Are Okay* by Nina LaCour
3. The Cruel Prince* by Holly Black
4. The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley
5. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
6. Anger is A Gift* by Mark Oshiro
7. Girls of Paper and Fire* by Natasha Ngan
8. The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy* by Mackenzi Lee
9. We Sold Our Souls* by Grady Hendrix
10. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

Special mention: Furiously Happy and A Song for Quiet – you had to be cut from the list but you also made a massive impact

Movies/TV Shows

1. Love, Simon*
2. Black Panther
3. Sorry to Bother You
4. Heathers
5. Good Manners*
6. The Shape of Water
7. Crazy Rich Asians
8. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
9. The Women in Black
10. Annihilation*

Comics/Manga

1. Claudine*
2. Mushroom Girls in Love*
3. i love this part*
4. Wotakoi: Love is hard for an Otaku
5. The Prince and the Dressmaker
6. AMERICA: The Life and Times of America Chavez*
7. The Adventure Zone*
8. Check Please!
9. Versailles of the Dead
10. F*ck Off Squad*

Anime/Cartoons

1. She-Ra
2. Devilman Crybaby*
3. Castlevania
4. Honda-san
5. Boku no Hero Academia
6. Bojack Horseman*
7. New Game!
8. Aggretsuko
9. Big Mouth
10. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid*

Video Games

1. Gris
2. Sundered
3. Assassins Creed: Odyssey*
4. Monster Hunter: World
5. Stardew Valley
6. Bloodborne
7. Florence
8. INSIDE
9. one night, hot springs*
10. The World Ends With You: Final Remix

Special mention: all the amazing indie demos I got to play at PAX – this will be a much harder list to fill out next year!!

Songs that Changed my Life

1. Make Me Feel – Janelle Monae
2. I Hope You’re Happy – Blue October
3. Under Again – Bullet for My Valentine
4. Barbie Dreams – Nicki Minaj
5. Shrike – Hozier
6. When We’re High – LP
7. I Don’t Know Why I like You But I Do – The Wombats
8. Sky Full of Song – Florence and the Machine
9. Lady Evil – Black Sabbath
10. All I Wanted – Daughter

There was so much good music out this year, and so much more that I discovered, I almost wanted to put entire albums in this list