Fave fiction reads of 2024

witches and tech CEOs and prophesying cattle, oh my!

Y’all may know that I read. A lot. More nonfiction than fiction, but I have plenty of opinions about it all, lol.

So, as per personal tradition (at least in the last few years),* I’d love to share with you a few favorite fiction books that I read this year. (Nonfiction faves coming soon.)

In reverse alphabetical order of authors’ last names (because why not), this year I especially enjoyed:

The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters

Because one (white) family’s “adoption” of a child is another (indigenous) family’s traumatic loss… Apologies if that gives anything away, but I feel like it’s pretty clear from early on where this story is going; the beauty is in the journey there, the different characters’ perspectives, the exploration of complex grief and complex guilt and everything in between. With both Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry, Amanda Peters feels like the right person to tell a story like this.

Pride and Joy, by Louisa Onomé

I found this glimpse into one eventful weekend in the life of a Nigerian/Canadian/American family thoroughly delightful. What a cast of characters, and yet so real. Always here for funny, heartwarming, exasperating, complicated family relationships…and for surprise prophesying cattle, of course.

Yellowface, by R. F. Kuang

Recommended by a friend from my writing group, this one is all about the current world of (fiction) writing and book publishing—a universe that strikes me as probably about as gnarly and strange and arbitrary and brutal as R. F. Kuang makes it out to be. I enjoyed how Kuang managed to be funny and witty and dark at the same time. And what’s not to like about an Asian American author narrating a novel from the perspective of a white author who’s lowkey pretending to be an Asian American author? *brain implodes, but in a good way*

Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver

Pretty much said what I wanted to say about this one over here—what a book.

Weyward, by Emilia Hart

A lovely modern (and also old) witch story. Like many feminists, I find myself fascinated by the history of “witches.” And I find myself quite aware that certain qualities I embody—from an active and sometimes eccentric mind, to life ambitions beyond family caretaking, to a deep desire to connect with the natural world, to a lack of interest in many culturally-constructed “feminine” things, to my wuv for my sweet gorgeous black cat—may have been construed in a certain way had I lived in a different era. (Some of these things can still make life difficult today, of course, just differently). I loved how this book weaves together stories of three different women in different eras exploring these sorts of themes.

The Future, by Naomi Alderman

Billionaire tech CEOs, survivalists posting on a Reddit-like forum, high tech emergency bunkers and the end of the world…oh my, indeed. I was totally engrossed in this story and still think about it often, especially when I think about what might surface over the next four years, how the tech / social media world intersects with politics, and generally how our world got to where it is and how we might choose a different path.

Read any of these and have thoughts about them? Have other personal recent fiction faves you’d like to add? I’d love to hear!

*If you’re curious about previous years’ favorites, I’ve got 2023 here, 2022 here, and 2021 here. So many good reads.