Best of 2024
A list of my favourite books of the year
As always, this list is an opinion list and not even a definitive one as my feelings on what I read changes constantly. I rated these books between 4.5 to 5 stars, but these have made it on my top reads, not because of a rating I gave, but because of how they've stuck with me.
01
The Will of the Many by James Islington
This is one of those books that starts out strong, carries on strong, and just keeps going until you've devoured 600 pages and want/need/frantically search for more. I loved the characters and the world. Every moment felt epic or heart-breaking or had me smiling. This was so compelling and never lost its momentum.
02
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
Coco Mellors writing is just a dream to read. I loved being in the heads of all three of the sisters and even felt like Nicky was there in each of the POVs, her presence never leaves the page. Dark as the story gets, I look forward to experiencing it all again as the writing was just Too Damn Good.
03
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
Everything about this story is fun to read. We're isolated on an island. It's the end of the world. There's a deadly fog. People wake up with no memory of the night before. A murder has to be solved before the clock runs out... I'm perhaps misusing the word fun, but honestly that's what it was to me. Beginning, middle and end, every page of this had me hooked.
04
Vicious by V. E. Schwab
It's dark, it's delicious, and I became completely obsessed with it. I do own the physical copy but I read this via audiobook and cannot rate the narrator highly enough. Ashley Zhangazha's voice alongside V. E. Schwab's writing creates this utterly compulsive, super charged read that I'm so glad has a sequel. Because I need more.
05
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
This is original, fun, action packed and with world building that gets better and better the further into the story you go. The twists give it fantastic re-read appeal, and the romance will stay in my heart. If you like fantasy, and you like murder mysteries, you have to read this book.
06
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
This book was like a Carrie Soto match - pretty damn near faultless, graceful in its precision and full of love for the game. It really has an excellent message about women's sports and women's achievements in general. To the very last percentage point it was absolute perfection.
07
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
This has charm, humour, romance and cunning. Emily's journal is, thankfully, more entertaining than it is academic and her topic of study has endless possibilities. There's a whole patchwork of tales in here and I found the lore of the fae utterly fascinating.
08
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier
A pirate book that's fun and feminist; fast-paced but with so much depth. Daphne du Maurier was the master of creating a mood and setting, and this one hooked me straight away. The romance is fatalistic and yet has this vivacious energy that feels like waking up. As Dona sinks into the fantasy of pirate life, she seems to be more vivid than ever.
09
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
This is a truly impressive and ambitious debut. It portrays England pre-world war so authentically and carries through the shifts and changes that such turmoil caused a falling empire. The details are so impressive and give this novel its surreal time capsule feel.
10
The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang
This was so complex and I loved it. Wang delivers a traditional epic fantasy with elemental magic, chosen ones, battles between good and evil... and does so by constantly inverting our expectations of those tropes. It'd be complete spoiler territory to go over how those tropes were upturned but it made this such an astonishing read, full of emotion and subtle complexities.
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