The Book Zone Book of the Year 2011

This time last year I announced the Book Zone Book of the Year 2010. To help me I had been naming a Book of the Month throughout the year. For various reasons I did not do that during 2011 and so I have left myself in a little bit of a hole. I have decided to do it in a similar way to last year, and decide which was my favourite book released in each month (notice I say released, not necessarily read in that month). And so here are my favourite books of 2011:


January - Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

With honourable mentions for Long Reach by Peter Cocks and Witchfinder: Gallows At Twilight by William Hussey.

February - Dancing Jax by Robin Jarvis

March - Department 19 by Will Hill

April - The Damned by David Gatward

With an honourable mention for Casper Candlewacks in Death By Pigeon by Ivan Brett

May - Changeling: Zombie Dawn by Steve Feasey

June - Mirabilis: Year of Wonders Winter Vol 1 by Dave Morris and Leo Hartas (not sure exactly when this was released officially but this is close enough)

July - Wereworld: Rage of Lions by Curtis Jobling

With an honourable mention for Money Run by Jack Heath and TimeRiders: The Eternal War by Alex Scarrow

August - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

With an honourable mention for Doc Mortis by Barry Hutchison and S.T.I.N.K.B.O.M.B. by Rob Stevens (Confession time - Doc Mortis was the winner when I wrote and scheduled this post last week. However, since then I have read Ready Player One and it completely blew my mind. Sorry Barry.)

September - Kill All Enemies by Melvin Burgess

With an honourable mention for Witchfinder: The Last Nightfall by William Hussey

October - Mister Creecher by Chris Priestley

November - The Haunting of Charity Delafield by Ian Beck

December - I'll be honest, I don't have one for December. Due to the fact that I had to put my blog on hold for most of November I am still playing catch up.

And so, time to announce my Book Zone Book of the Year 2011 and it is:






Department 19 by Will Hill


Part of me feels a little bad in naming this book my Book of the Year 2011 as I first read it back in October 2010. Somehow me and Department 19 just clicked, and I knew once I had finished it that it might be a very strong contender for 2011's Book of the Year, and that any book that came along to challenge Department 19 for the top spot would have to be totally amazing. To hell with feeling bad though, no book came close in my opinion (edit: although, Ready Player One, read only a few days ago, has now come very close indeed). Department 19 has everything I, and many 13+ boys (and girls) want in a book: great characters; an imaginative and compelling premise set in a world that is close enough to ours to be real; awesome action scenes; loads of blood splatter; vampires that aren't sparkly and would rip your throat at faster than you could blink; the list goes on and on and on. When I reviewed it back in February I stated that it was 'possibly the best action horror I had ever read'; with hindsight (and several more readings) I think I could have lost the 'possibly' from that statement. In addition to this, the sequel, Department 19: The Rising is also my most anticipated book of 2012 - I really cannot wait to sink my teeth into it.