Faerie lore meets Victorian gothic in this creative twist on classic tropes. The Witchwood Knot is the perfect, spooky atmospheric read about a Victorian governess hired in a huge mansion. But neither she – nor the house – are as they seem. I read it in October and absolutely loved it for that time, but if you like your fantasy with a side of chill, it’s great any time of year.

Now, it may be because I was in rehearsals for a production of The Polar Express when I read it, but I found this book aboard a dangerous magical train journey to be absolutely delightful. It took some of the typical conventions of train mysteries and steampunk fantasy, and expanded it into seriously creative storytelling.

I don’t necessarily always include perfect five-star reads on my year-end list, because if a book makes me think and feel, I can forgive a few bumps. Such is the case with Annie Bot, about a sex robot who gains sentience. It’s a fascinating allegory of abuse, control, and agency, with all-consuming writing. The pacing has a few awkward jumps, but the project of this novel was so compelling, I didn’t care.

This book is so weird and honestly, it could have been weirder. It’s about a man trapped in his company’s Slack chat. The whole thing is told through Slack, with a heaping helping of office drama and howling dogs. The protagonist works for a PR agency, and I was fresh off a stint at a marketing agency when I read it, so the book provided much-needed catharsis for me. I don’t recommend it on audio, but it’s a very quick read!

I read (and enjoyed) more horror this year than I ever have in the past. I’m a huge baby when it comes to scary movies, but reading helps me process the fear at my own pace. A retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s famous short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Kingfisher masterfully builds a backstory that supports and enhances the story with her own unique and engaging voice.

Discovering new-to-me folklore always brings joy to my reading life! Lloyd-Jones tells largely faerie stories through the lens of classic Welsh folklore, with fearsome monsters and impenetrable forests. This standalone fantasy follows three warriors vying to win a hunt – and earn a favor from the Faerie King. Lloyd-Jones’s talent for creating new and interesting characters really shines in this novel.

Multi-generational witches abound in this fantasy horror – but not the way you might think. .Jumping between late-90s Massachusetts and 1900s rural Mexico, it follows a graduate student named Minerva uncovering the unpublished manuscript of her favorite horror author. Moreno-Garcia masterfully laid the threads of the plot and slowly knit together with exquisite precision.

I love historical fiction fantasy, and while the history wasn’t terribly abundant, this book did introduce me to a lot of aspects of traditional Finnish culture. When a young woman’s best friend is taken to the underworld by a goddess of death, she’ll do anything to make it through hell. With the kind of bone-rattling lore you’d expect from a country with weeks of eternal night, it kept me on the edge of my seat (even if I can’t pronounce a single name).

I needed a lighthearted, silly book, and the citizens of the Internet really came through with this one! A lonely robotics engineer becomes obsessed with baking sourdough bread from her mysterious (perhaps magical?) starter. It’s a fantastic (and fantastical) book that will leave you feeling better without being saccharine.

As a history lover (and former history major) I’m always hungry to learn more WWI, as it’s rarely covered in US school curriculum. Arden has been one of my favorite authors from approximately chapter three of The Bear and the Nightingale, and while the story of a WWI nurse looking for her missing brother is very different from her more magical subject matter, her immersive writing and crisp attention to historical detail remains.

The least-known Brontë sister finally made her way to my shelf this year! I am ashamed it took me so long to read this, and I absolutely loved it. The story burns slowly, but Gilbert and Helen are two such beautifully rendered characters. There’s a slow sweetness to the passion and a vulnerable fallibility to the characters. This one is for all the highly introspective outsiders out there.

I’m not sure why this murky, desperate, maddening novel made me feel so hopeful. Maybe because sometimes the best you can hope for is to know you’re not alone.
As a parable for love and loyalty, for how our bonds are tested, Kazuo Ishiguro has presented a hurtful challenge. But in this story of an elderly couple’s travels through Dark Ages England, I saw glimmers of myself.

Books that make hay out of contemporary problems can often have a short shelf life. I can’t speak to whether Yellowface will stand the test of time – but as an exploration of the inherent racism of today’s publishing industry (and overall educated society) Kuang probes many tender areas brilliantly.

This book was my companion on my annual camping trip to Palisade, Colorado, and I can think of no better literary accomplice. A brutal imagination of Sacajewea’s story, each page rings with the precarity and horror of the famous guide. But the stream-of-consciousness writing also flows in and out in a sinuous rhythm, and each page rings with inner strength.

I know, I know, I’m behind on this one. Everyone read and loved this in 2023. Better late than never! This dual story follows a woman recounting her brief professional acting career to her rapt adult daughters at their cherry farm during the Pandemic. You can almost hear the breeze rustling through the plump tart cherries as you read, and Meryl Streep’s performance on audio is a masterclass in dreamy nostalgia.

Continuing the theme of weird little books with ambiguous endings, we have The Hounding! In a rural English village, residents suspect the Lord’s daughters are turning into hounds at night. Watching the town unravel at the seams in pursuit of that question kept me totally absorbed throughout. It also has perhaps the best cover of any book I read this year.

It’s difficult to explain the undercurrent of humor and warmth in this novel by the plot alone. A reclusive middle-aged man is dragged back into society when his grandchildren are dropped on his front step – their mother nowhere to be found. With the pacing of a thriller, the book revolves around deeply flawed characters and their struggle to understand the world.

Kevin Wilson is the master of taking a weird premise, and using it to tell a deeply human story. In the sleepy town of Coalfield, Tennessee, two loner teenagers meet one summer and accidentally set off what could be characterized as a miniature Satanic Panic. The book wrestles with how much responsibility we have over the reaction to our art – even at the extreme ends.

I’ve read lots of Agatha Christie, and thought I’d sniffed out my favorite in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. However, I greatly enjoyed this story of a crime that comes to a head on a glamorous blue train. Dripping with diamonds, gangsters, mistaken identity, and plenty of drama, it’s the best of a golden-age mystery stereotype (besides Murder on the Orient Express, of course).

With a measly 2.78 stars on Goodreads, Fair Play was not popular with many mystery readers. But as a victim of horrific grief far too early in life myself, I loved this book. Hegarty layered two stories together – a sister deep in grief for her dead brother, and a fantasy of solving his murder via a ridiculous detective á la Hercule Poirot. If you’re fine with poking fun at the genre, give this one a try.

I’d never read any Lisa Jewell before this, and now I’m convinced she can do no wrong. This labyrinthine thriller has the perfect unsettling undercurrent, with twist after twist unfolding up until the last few pages. But the real treasure of this thriller was discovering the characters’ motivations – no one is reliable in this story, and nothing is as it seems.

I fell deeply in love with Muriel Blossom. Upon completion I assumed this book would fade in my memory, but now, months later, I still think with fondness of this book. Recent lottery winner (and former assistant to a PI) Muriel Blossom is ready to take the trip of a lifetime – until she encounters a murder. It follows a more circuitous course than your typical cozy mystery, but I enjoyed the whole ride.

I really liked this snarky-yet-earnest portrait of a Gen Z young woman trying to find her way through the lens of a mystery! Charlotte Iles is a former Nancy-Drew-type who, in a moment of quarter-life malaise, agrees to come out of retirement to help her brother. I wasn’t a huge fan of the audio narrator, so I’ll probably continue the story in print, but the characters had me hooked.

While the title of this book is totally off (the society has one inconsequential meeting) the premise of this book had me kicking my feet and giggling. Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle has become the town’s go-to sleuth for any murder that happens in her small town. But when her boyfriend is murdered, Sherry begins to think there are more sinister forces at play in her sleepy town.

Though this book has been out for over 30 years, and its portrait of Savannah no longer exists, this classic true crime book had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. A rich portrait of the fascinating pastiche of characters that made up Savannah’s high society in the late 80s, Berendt’s work is shockingly progressive for the time of its writing. It’s a must-read for true crime lovers.

A perfect example of a book that shocked and terrified me on every page. When ethereum cryptocurrency took off in 2021, journalist Zeke Faux wondered: what’s the deal here? While largely focusing on the crash of crypto trading firm FTX, Faux also covers skeevy crypto conventions, black market manipulation, and the many weird niches that have emerged in the crypto community.

As a 30 Rock maniac, Jeff Hiller (AKA Stuart the flight attendant) has been one of my favorite character actors for over 15 years. But Hiller’s acting career didn’t really take off until his Emmy-winning turn as Joel in Somebody, Somewhere. Hiller hilariously narrates his memoir, and his inflection and comedic timing are unparalleled. But make no mistake, Hiller’s memoir doesn’t skate over the tough stuff. I’d recommend it to, well, anyone.

In the national discussion of boys and men, the types of toxic anger imparted by Andrew Tate and his ilk are only recently on the public’s mind. But Elle Reeve has been covering male rage in the Trump era for years. In her coverage of some of the darkest corners of the web, Reeve shows a measure of compassion that is unreal against the darkness she faced head-on.

I’ve had this book in my collection for years, but I wasn’t sure I was going to read it. After all, it was written pre-Me Too (and pre-Tucker Carlson’s meltdown about the green M&M). But I was shocked by the prescient lessons about shame and mob mentality Ronson uncovered; lessons that are still relevant 10 years after its publication. Best of all, Ronson’s self-deprecating humor injects much needed levity into the subject.

I try to read 3-4 poetry collections per year to stay sharp, and this one will stay with me for a long time. Each poem was originally written in Zoque, the language of the Mexican Indigenous people of the same name, then translated side-by-side into Spanish and English. Some sentiments cannot be translated however, and it feels deeply intimate to witness Mikeas’s exploration of identity.

Before he was a grandfatherly figure excitedly teaching us about European Christmas traditions on PBS, Rick Steves was a young man fresh from college. He did what many young man in his position did – he backpacked. Taken directly from his travel journals written at the time, it’s fascinating to see the adventurous, curious, and fearless young man who would be come one of the greatest travel writers of our age.

One genre I will continuously eat up is anything that in any way disparages or strips the glamour from a high-powered, wealthy corporate lifestyle. As the assistant to an anonymized powerful finance bro, Carrie Sun recounts how her desire to please brought her to the brink of destruction. Sun’s experience is deeply personal, but it’s also clear it’s not unusual.