Here at Word Horde, we think we put out some of the best books of the year. Every year. And we’re not alone in thinking this. Here’s a round-up of some of the praise Word Horde books received as we moved into 2020.

Max Booth III said the following of Carrie Laben’s A Hawk in the Woods, “Consider this book the Geek Love of witchcraft. […] This is the best debut novel you’ll read all year.” And Max also names Carrie Laben’s A Hawk in the Woods one of the best weird and dark books of 2019 for the San Antonio Current, saying, “Laben’s novel is a gloomy celebration of black magic and everything that comes with it.”

NPR and Vernacular Books both picked Craig Laurance Gidney’s A Spectral Hue as one of the best books of 2019, as did Rosanne Rabinowitz and Bogi Takács.

LitReactor called Nicole Cushing’s A Sick Gray Laugh and John Langan’s The Fisherman two of the best books of the decade!

Signal Horizon‘s Carson Winter picked Nicole Cushing’s A Sick Gray Laugh and Brian Hauser’s Memento Mori: The Fathomless Shadows as two of the best books of 2019

TBN Weekly recommended Jeffrey Thomas’ The Unnamed Country, as did Paul StJohn Mackintosh of Grey Dog Tales, who writes, ““This is a modern classic of writing about another country or culture on the level of Lafcadio Hearn or ltalo Calvino.”

And we had a nice write-up in the Petaluma Argus-Courier, too!