Favorite Fiction in 2024

At least the books were good!

Right off the bat, I want to make something clear. Not only did I already do a nonfiction post here, BUT, without a doubt my favorite book of 2024 (no qualifiers) was Challenger by Adam Higginbotham. You should read that. I haven’t heard a single person regret it yet. It is strikingly excellent on every level.

That said, no other 2024 nonfiction that I read would make my Top 10 books of the year, so I am making the executive choice (I’m the boss here!) to make my “favorites of 2024” post purely fiction. Of my 150 completed books in 12 months¹, 72 were 2024 releases. That’s just to give you an idea of what I was exposed to in the year.

Here is what I mean when I say “favorite”²:

• Sticks with me. A book I continue to think and talk about long after I’ve finished. Recency bias doesn’t work for me - I need a book to marinate.

• Queer. Unfortunately, I continue to date men (hypothetically), but the best books are not purely heterosexual, and often, not hetero at all. We are all so traditionally boring. I want books showing a variety of ways to exist.

• Weird. Offbeat and “strange” books speak to my sensibilities. The world is full of surprising things. I like my books to be, too.

• Dark. Hello from your friendly neighborhood nihilist?? Novels that recognize our shadow sides feel the most honest to me.

• Books that say something. It’s ok if a book is more vibe-forward, I don’t lean towards “plotty”, but if you leave me too confused or hunting too deeply for meaning, I’m turned off. Books where people just talk and talk, ad nauseam don’t do it for me³.

These books could easily change order on any given day, but here they are in this moment.

10. Stone Yard Devotional: The mice, the mice!! Also, if you’ve ever dated men (see above), you’ve probably considered joining a nunnery! Here she does it. A book that low level hummmmms the whole way through as we consider the protagonist’s midlife pivot.

9. Not a River: This slender novella by Selva Almada - translated from the Spanish- is haunting. It’s best not to say more, just sit down and devour it in one gulp.

8. A Sunny Place for Shady People: My first Mariana Enriquez! Long overdue. Translated by Megan McDowell, this short story collection is dark, for sure; scary, a little; humorous, absolutely.

7. The Safekeep: The sweaty pears!! A novel I thought was going to be slow AF and turned out to be the raciest lit fit I read this year.

6. Wild Houses: I almost quit this book in the first 25 pages, because I thought, “ugh, another Irish crime novel??” So glad I didn’t because this book is so much more. A beautifully rendered tale of characters trying to find some purpose and direction in life, but with plot, too!

5. Martyr!: I’d go anywhere with Cyrus - and Kaveh Akbar and his gorgeous prose and full-hearted characters. Uplifting and soul-affirming without being treacly. Experimental without becoming too edgy.

4. Whale Fall: Elizabeth O’Connor’s short novel about 1930s life on a remote Welsh Island was transporting. Calling it to mind makes me want to grab a wool blanket and warm hat to buttress against the wind that rubs all her characters to their rawest, most needful, points.

3. Enlightenment: I get that not everyone can stick with Sarah Perry’s quiet introspective into life and the universe in a small Essex town, but this slow burn of a novel spoke to my soul. Thomas and Grace and their unlikely, but enduring, bond squeezed my heart, in the best possible way.

2. Beautyland: It takes a lot to find a character to top Cyrus in Martyr!, but Adina - maybe an alien? maybe just an average human who never feels fully at home?- did it for me. Just recalling her brutal, beautiful and completely ordinary time on planet Earth makes me burst into tears. This novel made me feel SEEN. What more can you ask for from fiction?

1. Held: A wonderful companion to Beautyland in that each vignette crafts a miniature looking glass into the exquisite fragility and ephemerality of being alive. Anne Michael’s prose is operating at a level of pure poetry. I sobbed through 75% of the book. Aching. Lush.

LATE ENTRY!! Bird Suit - I just finished this evocative, and sometimes violent, Canadian novel this week, so I need to sit with it some, but I include it because it made a BIG impression on me, I read it in one fell swoop on Christmas Eve.

Honorable Mentions:

Book of Love- is cozy fantasy a genre?? now, it is! Kelly Link knows how to draw you into a world; Cecilia- protagonist Seven has, well, let’s say an EXTREMELY VISCERAL thing for Cecilia - an absolutely bonkers novella of obsession; Annie Bot -

Traci Thomas

said, “here, read this novel about a sex bot” and I did and I freaking loved it; Come&Get It- frankly, the funniest and most fun major novel of the year - and the best reading experience because I basically texted every single line to

Rosamond

as I read it so we could laugh twice; Bear- is there anyone writing “forlorn place” novels better than Julia Phillips? This fairy tale of a book about two sisters, set on the San Juan Islands in WA State, entranced me ; Ghostroots - I’m sorry, but when you put a little docile deer on the cover that looks like it’s wearing a red scarf, but the “red scarf” is actually blood spurting from its cut throat?? I mean…you had me from the jump with this dark short story collection; Margo’s Got Money Troubles - a low-stakes but good literary fun, sex-positive book with the pluckiest heroine of the year; The Extinction of Irena Rey - this book was so meta, written by a translator about translators, and it’s weird and maybe too complex, but I was still picking up what she was putting down; State of Paradise- hey yo! growing up in Central Florida was strange AF and the way this dystopian book surreally captures the vibes there had me turning pages.

Your turn! Did you like any of these? What were your faves in 2024?

1. I started more, but I’m not counting books I put down part way through.

2. Thank you to

Sara Hildreth

who always explains her POV in her book preferences so well. She’s helped me define what I look for with more depth, by example.

3. Yes, I am talking about Sally Rooney.