2024 was the year I got REALLY into unlikable female protagonists, and this short book exemplifies the trope with an uncanny blend of the mundane and unreal. Millie is thirty and can’t quite get a foothold on her life. Days working temp jobs and nights watching Forensic Files over and over are punctuated by her mild fixation on improving herself. So she decides to become a new, better version of herself. But Millie is…not doing as well at self-improvement as she thinks.

This book has all the pacing and paranoia of a spy thriller, but with an unusual protagonist: a sixty-something female assassin. When the young guns start to whisper about her age, Hornclaw realizes there’s a target on her back. At the same time, she makes the first mistake of her professional career: learning too much about a target. It’s amazing how much action, twists, and turns are packed into this relatively short book.

I was lucky enough to be gifted an ARC of this book, and it is one of my most treasured reads of the year. A magical fox transforms into a beautiful woman and travels across historical Manchuria for one purpose: to track down her daughter’s murderer. Filled with Chinese folklore and historical detail, I couldn’t get enough of the rich tapestry created by this story. You know it’s a great historical fiction book when I immediately want to know more about the history.

After fleeing upstate in the wake of a failed relationship, Annie is depressed and pathetic. At least she now lives in a quaint, pastoral new town. But her beautiful new friend Sophie seems almost to good to be true. In fact, other townspeople seem almost…afraid of her? Harrison is a master at asking readers questions about social expectations, like, “What is it about a woman in full control of herself that is so utterly frightening?”

To niche down my earlier statement: 2024 was the year I got really into unusual female protagonists written by East Asian authors. At 36 years old, Keiko has worked at a convenience store for 18 years. She likes the order, the predictability, the continuity. But other people aren’t so enamored of her job. Keiko decides to leave with wacky, yet cringe-worthy, consequences. It’s a fun character study that pokes holes in the common definition of happiness.

I’ve had a mild fascination with Deaf culture since I took ASL in high school, and I whole-heartedly recommend this novel anyone who wants to know how to advocate for the deaf (or disabled in general) better. Following three people at a boarding school for the deaf (the headmistress, the popular kid, and the new girl) True Biz is an examination of the intersection between disability and unsettling life events (in particular, simply being a teenager).

It’s hard to imagine how a book that traces the legacy of trauma from the Sand Creek massacre through generations via substance addiction can be beautiful, but here we are. Told through the stories of 8 different people, Orange creates unique personal narratives that link together in the surprising or mundane ways of all human connection, with writing that flows seamlessly from one voice to the next. The writing is sinuous and beautiful, lingering in your brain like a good wine.

I recommended this as a mystery to read in winter, but honestly I kept forgetting it was a mystery because I was so wrapped up in the protagonist, Janina. An odd woman who lives by herself in rural Poland, Janina is very good at putting on the “crazy old lady” act when she needs to, except for the times she can’t help herself. I was often struck with total incomprehension one moment, then thrust into deep agreement the next. This book will keep you on your toes, in more ways than one.

There’s a certain type of humor in Texas that’s difficult to describe to an outsider; a sort of mishmash of the erudite and colloquial that I have yet to encounter elsewhere, even in the rest of the south. It is both self-deprecating and pulling your leg. Mr. Texas nails that blend in the quasi-satirical story of a well-meaning rancher yanked all the way to the state congress by shadowy lobbyists. Most of all, I couldn’t stop thinking that my grandfather would’ve loved it.

Genre: Romance, Fantasy

Zombies meet You’ve Got Mail in this fun, macabre read. Hart is trying to escape a checkered past by spending all his time hunting possessed spirits. Mercy is trying to keep her family’s funeral home afloat. They hate each other, but become secret pen pals anyway. For me, good characters in romance are paramount, and every small side character feels totally real. Come for the spooks, stay for the grounded enemies-to-lovers romance. Also, we love a tall FMC!!

Genre: Fantasy

Amina al-Sirafi used to be a pirate. Well, she used to be a former pirate. Now that a wealthy benefactor has showed up on her doorstep, she’s once more drawn to the high seas in a quest to find the woman’s granddaughter and rescue her from a bloodthirsty Frank. It’s everything you want from a magical pirate adventure with an added emotional element of Amina’s dedication to her family. In short, it’s extremely fun with real substance in Amina’s characterization as a loving mother.

Genre: Science Fiction

Science fiction and found family usually aren’t draws for me, but wowee wowee wow – what a book. Essentially, it follows a ragtag crew of space dwellers on a spaceship on an assignment to drill a hole through a dangerous part of the universe. The Sapien (aka intellligent) races Chambers came up with are wildly imaginative. Most of all, by including humans as a Sapien race, Chambers shows a new lens through which to view humanity.

Genre: Fantasy, Mystery

In a steampunk version of 1910s Cairo, humans and djinn live side-by-side. Wunderkind Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for her government ministry – and its most no-nonsense detective. She gets the case of a lifetime when someone claiming to be al-Jahiz (the one who brought djinn across the veil 40 years earlier) murders dozens of men in a locked room. The writing, plot, and characters are every bit as whimsical and interesting as the setting.

Genre: Cozy Fantasy, Mystery

Bev (short for beverage wench) remembers nothing before she stumbled into the village of Pigsend 7 years ago. Since then, she’s become the proprietor of the Weary Dragon Inn, where strange magical occurrences tend to follow her around. I burned through this whole series in like, a week. It’s the perfect easy, lighthearted cozy read for when you want a simple adventure story.

Genre: Romance

Talia Hibbert is the absolute master of adding diversity to a story without making it as clunky as an after school special. In this case, we meet Eve, a young woman who, in the midst of trying to prove her professional competence to her parents, hits a prospective employer with her car. Feeling guilty, Eve volunteers to help him run his inn while his arm heals. Both Eve and Jacob are autistic, and Hibbert does a great job showing how neurodivergence can show up differently.

Genre: Romance, Fantasy

As a witch, Mika Moon has grown used to loneliness. Not only are all witches orphans, but also, they cannot gather, and they cannot let others know they’re witches. But when a mysterious DM from an octogenarian turns into a job offer to teach three little girls how to harness their magic, Mika can’t resist. This book is utterly charming and totally irresistible. It’s chock-full of lovable characters, and is a perfect soul-healing read.

Genre: Fantasy

I love few things like a good spooky tale between Halloween and spring break, and this book delivers. Following the death of her father, Joanna assumes she’s the last guardian in the world of rare books, books that, when properly harnessed, work magic. Namely, by giving them blood. Meanwhile, her sister Esther is totally immune to the magic. Or is she? Surprisingly dark and gothic, it’s the perfect spooky season reads for scaredy cats who can’t handle true horror like me.

I have always wanted to read Stephen King, but there’s one big problem: I’m an absolute wuss. I got his memoir through mysterious means a few years ago (seriously, who gave this to me) and I’m so glad I cracked it open. Not only is it highly engaging and laugh-out-loud funny, but as a treatise on writing it has some of the most concretely actionable advice I’ve ever read. Even, if you don’t plan to write, it’ll give you a whole new lens through which to critically analyze literature.

For her entire adult career, Naomi Klein has been plagued by a professional doppelganger: Naomi Wolf. As two Jewish women named Naomi with reputations for social commentary, Klein is frequently confused with the slightly older Wolf. But as Wolf’s beliefs spiraled down an alt-right rabbit hole, Klein found an opportunity to examine the ways the alt-right can mirror progressive ideology, albeit occasionally in a funhouse way. Part memoir, part examination of alt-right culture, it’s a very thought-provoking read.

Like many clueless white women, I had a strong true crime phase for a number of years, in which I came across this book many times. I knew it had a reputation for being good, but holy cow, I had no idea just how good. Using the murder of a young woman and her baby as a framing device, Krakauer examines the modern fundamentalist mormon (FLDS) church through the lens of the church’s history as a whole. Though it pulls no punches in recounting Mormon history, the book is, as a whole, respectful to modern LDS Mormons.

As one of the most challenged books of 2022 and 2023, I knew I had to read this for the BookRiot reading challenge prompt: “read a comic that has been banned.” In this graphic novel memoir, Kobabe shows remarkable openness and vulnerability with eir recounting of a still taboo topic: discovering eir gender identity. It’s likely been banned partially because it’s occasionally explicit, but for an adolescent old enough to handle the more frank sexual scenes, it’s a great introduction to gender identity.

As a former history major let me tell you – most history books are shockingly dull. McMahon has proven a previously impossible truth: people are actually interested in history and civics if you know how to talk to them. Through 12 largely unknown people, she chronicles how history’s change-makers are often the ordinary among us. Backed by meticulous research and citations, McMahon digs into the messy parts as much as the inspirational parts, and we’re all better for it.

When her mother was diagnosed with cancer, Michelle Zauner woke up to an unfortunate truth: she didn’t have much time to repair their complicated relationship. An immigrant from Korea, Zauner’s mother often butted heads with her strong-willed America daughter. Desperate to connect, Zauner became dedicated to trying to recreate her mother’s favorite Korean foods. It’s a brutally honest portrait of grief and all the ways it brings up our deepest regrets, but it’s also compulsively readable and simply, lovely.