Books I Loved Reading in 2024

I set a goal of reading 50 books this year — and I have finished reading 39 books at the time of writing this. I have four more books that I’ve started but haven’t finished (some I’ve been working on for a while) — including Blackouts by Justin Torres, Even Greater Mistakes: Stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Wandering Games by Melissa Kagen, and The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel.

I have either been extremely lucky or more selective in my reading this year (or both), because the vast majority of the books I read this year were excellent, making it rather difficult to put together a list of a manageable size. Anyway, here are some of the books I loved and recommend. Enjoy.

Fiction

In Linghun by Ai Jiang, there exists a haunted neighborhood — not a place to be feared or avoided, but a place the living desperately desire live in, because it grants them the chance to draw forth and reconnect with the ghosts of their lost loved ones. When Wenqi moves to this house with her parents, the appearance of her dead brother dredges up mixed feelings. Meanwhile, the house is surrounded by people who sleep on the lawns and sidewalks outside these homes, having given up everything for just one chance to bid on a house and maybe welcome their own dead. Liam is among these lingerers is desperate to escape this place and attempts to befriend Wenqi in an attempt to achieve his goal. The book shifts between these characters, revealing how true horror exists among the living.

V. Castro’s The Haunting of Alejandra is a gorgeous book, presenting a compassionate exploration of family trauma and hauntings. Alejandra has lost herself in the wife and mother roles assigned to her. As much as she loves her children, she can’t help but be beset by depression and despair at the constriction of her life — and in the midst of this personal darkness enters a demon determined to drive her to a brutal end. There is horror in this book, but what makes it beautiful is the way Alejandra strives to heal herself so as to not inflict her own trauma on her children. She reaches out to family, allies, and ancestors to gather the support she needs to stand against the dark. A horror novel infused with hope.

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher reimagines the “Sleeping Beauty” fairy tale, telling it from the point of view of a small inconsequential fairy determined to make sure that the curse is never lifted. As the centuries pass, the fairy watches the human world change over time — until she eventually meets a wayward knight who is equally determined to discover the truth, forcing her small world to change. At its heart, this is a sweet novella, full of tenderness and duty.

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a thrilling love letter to Mexican filmmaking and horror movies. Set in Mexico City in the 1990s, the book focuses on Montserrat and Tristán, friends since childhood, who are both stuck in the limbo of their filmmaking careers. When they meet Abel Urueta, a cult horror director and legendary auteur, he tells them about his mysterious unfinished film — and then he begs them to help complete the audio for small fragment of the film that remains, which sets into motion a series of mystical and terrifying events. I love the way this novel explores old horror movies and mysticism, and I love the portrayal of Montserrat’s competence and tenacity to Tristán’s lost and haunted melancholy. This is among my favorite books that Moreno-Garcia has written.

Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations is a fantastic debut short story collection by Carina Bissett. This stunning collection blends horror and the fantastical to address issues of abuse, domestic violence, and self-harm. This collection delves down dark corridors to find the light, presenting stories in which women reclaim their own power and strive to carve a space for themselves in an unkind world. For example, in the titular “Dead Girl, Driving,” a girl is murdered by a local boy — only to resurrected by Godmother Death, who wishes to give her a second chance a life. But as she grows older, the girl becomes increasingly frustrated with her own seeming immortality and so continues to place herself in danger, with unexpected consequences. Earlier this year, I interviewed Bissett about her collection and writing process.

The Angel of Indian Lake concludes Stephen Graham Jones’ phenomenal Indian Lake Trilogy. Jade Daniels returns to Proofrock, Idaho, following another stint in prison, now working as a history teacher thanks to her friend Letha. When the killings begin again and there are signs of another massacre on the way, Jade is adamant that she is out of it, that someone else can be the hero — but she quickly finds herself drawn back into the mess, with a deep desire to save the people of Proofrock, especially those she loves.

Jade has grown so much over these three books, and in this final novel, she is finally strong, capable, and fully herself. She is able to embrace her knowledge and love of horror, while also being apart of the community in which she was raised.

The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste is about the block of homes within the Velkwood Vicinity, which suddenly transforms into a ghostly apparition with all of the families trapped inside. Only three young women survive, but they remain haunted by the loss of their loved ones. Talitha Velkwood finds the situation especially difficult, living a sort of half life rather than facing the past or moving on. So, when she’s approached by Jack, an occult researcher, to return to the site and help with a project to investigate the haunted neighborhood, she reluctantly agrees in the hopes of learning what exactly happened to her sister and other people there — and the truth is more frightening than she’s prepared for.

What Feasts at Night is another fantastic novella from T. Kingfisher. In this sequel to What Moves the Dead, Alex Easton is still recovering from the terrifying events that occurred at Usher manor. All they want is to rest and idle away their days in the routine of noise and delights of Paris, but instead they agree to accompany Angus and Miss Potter to a family hunting lodge. Located in the cold, damp forests Gallacia, the lodge should provide some respite, but something haunts the grounds, with whispers of a creature that steals villager’s breath at night.

Sarah Pinsker’s Haunt Sweet Home was a surprising and charming read. Without any clear goals for her future, twenty-something Mara agrees to take a job as a PA on a reality TV show about couples renovating haunted houses. As part of the night crew, she works to manufacture scares using fog machines, recorded screams, and other techniques. However, as her work continues, she is faced with her own strange occurrences that force her to confront dark truths about herself and discover what she really wants out of life. This little novella gave me immense amounts of anxiety, which was eventually soothed the kindness of the ending.

Poetry

Rose Quartz is a gorgeous poetry collection by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe, a Coast Salish author from the Nooksack and Upper Skagit tribes. The poems in this magical collection explore the sense of sacredness in the everyday world, from man made cities to nature, from relationships and sexual intimacy to the narrator’s own identity. Blended in with witchy imagery is folklore and pop culture, revealing a full spectrum of poetic resonance.

Cloud Missives is the debut poetry collection from Kenzie Allen, a Haudenosaunee poet. Her poetry is intimacy, intellect, spirit, and compassion. Drawing on her culture and experiences, her words weave through love and loss, history and present moment. Her stunningly beautiful collection “asks what one can reimagine of Indigenous personhood in the wake of colonialism, what healing might look like when loving the world around you.”

Can You Sign My Tentacle? by Brandon O’Brien imagined the incomprehensible gods from the Cthulhu mythos coming down to Earth to get autographs from their favorite rappers. Other poems explore the intersection of fiction horrors with the horrors of every day life (racism, sexism, and violence). Each of these poems drips with rhythm, visual flair, and depth. O’Brien is a phenomenal poet, and I can’t wait to see what he writes next.

You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited and introduced by Ada Limón, is a lovely anthology of nature poetry. The poems in this collection explore the natural world and examine humanity’s connect to and place within it. These poems offer a lovely variety of perspectives, and I would highly recommend this book to all poetry and nature lovers looking for a vision of hope in the world.

The Heartbeat of the Universe is a poetry anthology edited Emily Hockaday, gathering together in a single volume extraordinary poems by poets from around the world—published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and Analog Science Fiction and Fact over the past decade. The anthology provides the perfect convergence of poetry and science fiction, exploring what it means to be human when faced with advanced technologies, extraterrestrial intelligence, alternative social structures, and other scientific examinations through a deeply personal lens. A deeply moving volume of poetry. Earlier this year, I interviewed Hockaday about her process editing the anthology.

Graphic Novels

The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night and Here Little Reapers, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, represent the first two books in a horror trilogy. These gorgeous graphic novels tell story of a Chinese American family. At first, there are parents Ipo and Keon are concerned about their children, wondering if they’ve been too soft by continually supporting them. Meanwhile, the Milly and Billy, are frustrated that they can’t seem to earn their parents respect no matter how hard they work to keep their restaurant afloat. However, the conflict turns to the supernatural, when Ipo becomes obsessed with the overgrown house across the street. When she enlists her two children to help her clear it, they awaken old family secrets and reveal a dangerous world of old gods and ancient beings. I wrote more about both of these books in a review for The Ugly Monster.

Unflattening by Nick Sousanis is a philosophical exploration of the self, looking at the ways we perceive the world around us, how we can be flattened out by holding on to our routines and limited understanding, and how expanding or reconsidering our perspective opens new doors to the way we view and think about the universe around us. Using the comic book format, Unflattening explores the nature of the comics and graphic novels as medium, which allows us to both take in the full page at once, while also translating philosophical insights in a visually and linguistically dynamic way. An interesting read, and one I will return to again to see how I might perceive it differently in the future.

I Recommend