The Best Books of 2024: Another big year for thrillers... and romantasy!
I'm no literary critic, but I liked reading these and I want to talk about them!
I feel like my years are always determined by a particular form of media. Was it a movie year? A TV year? Well, 2024 was most definitely a book year.
Not to flex, but my personal goal was to read nine books for pleasure this year (huge numbies, I know). In reality, I finished the year reading 20 books. Go me!
While I’m no literary critic, I can definitely still tell you the books I enjoyed the most this year. Unlike my other lists focusing on 2024 releases, this list spans release dates.
Honorable Mentions: “A Flicker in the Dark," “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” “Home Before Dark”
“Welcome to The O.C.: The Oral History” – For someone who became obsessed with “The O.C.” about 20 years too late, this retrospective was glorious. I missed out on all the juicy drama that unfolded in the early-2000s when the show was first airing, so better catch up now! Cast interviews, imaginary casting what-ifs, a detailed look at how the show went off the rails – this book was the perfect resource to a perfect show (pretending Season 4 doesn’t exist, obvi).
“Wellness” – A sprawling and often poignant look at love, life and everything in between. “Wellness” successfully covers a lot of topics, like the previously mentioned, as well as childhood trauma, grief, parenthood, guilt, and more, but it also stumbles when it goes too in depth on other topics, like algorithms or psychological studies. Overall, a compelling read that really makes you ponder it rather than just blaze through – especially considering this one took me upwards of two months to finish.
“First Lie Wins” – I’m a sucker for a mystery/thriller and this one delivered. Twists and turns, an unreliable(ish) narrator (but not because of drugs or alcohol!!!!!), weaving together multiple storylines. We love to see it. It’s a fun puzzle to see all this isolated events throughout Evie’s life come together to create a web that just might have her trapped.
Tie: “The Only One Left” + “Middle of the Night” – Not me squeezing four books into my top two spots. Oh well. I read four Riley Sager books this year, and his two most recent made the list. Every time I think I have a Sager book figured out, here comes another twist. “Middle of the Night” may be the spookiest Sager book I’ve read yet, and reminded me closely of another favorite, Alex North’s, writing. Both books are a fun blend of crime-thriller and supernatural, that will keep you guessing until the end whether or not ghosties are involved, or if there’s a logical explanation for everything. Who’s to say?
“Fourth Wing” + “Iron Flame” – Lumping together my top two reads, because if I’m being honest, I read the first two books of the Empyrean Series so quickly that it all felt like one steamy, dragony blur. I’m not usually a romantasy girlie myself, but this series scratched such a specific itch of that transported me back to my middle school bookworm phase. Essentially, it’s an adult version of all the best parts of “The Hunger Games,” “Harry Potter,” and “Game of Thrones” blended together, and with a fandom to match. When I finished “Iron Flame,” boy did I go down the rabbit hole of theories and predictions. T-minus three weeks until Book 3, “Onyx Storm.”