Just an honest list of the 11 best novels I read in 2024.

Because no one has time for bad books.

I keep a spreadsheet of the books I’ve read. It is perhaps the only consistent thing I’ve stuck at in my entire life.

The spreadsheet started because when I decided I wanted to write a novel, I told myself I had to read 100 great works of fiction first. This was silly, and in reality I started writing after reading about ten. Now that my book is (almost) finished though, there are about 120 titles in my spreadsheet. Probably a good lesson in not being afraid to just start, knowing that you don’t stop learning and growing throughout the creative process, bla bla bla.

What this means, though, is that I’ve got a lovely record of the best novels I’ve read in the last few years, and a clear list of the ones I was obsessed with in 2024.

Not every book I’m about to recommend was released in 2024, they’re just the ones I personally discovered in 2024. And hey, it’s weird that we’re always hungry for ‘new’ books when there’s hundreds of years worth of brilliance sitting on the shelves of our local library. Like, you know who had interesting ideas? Marcus Aurelius. But I digress.

Here are my favourite novels of 2024.*

*I should mention I self-identify as a basic bitch. There is nothing wanker-y about my taste in literature. I’m just a busy gal who likes a book that keeps my attention but also makes me think, is well-written, and stays with me once I’ve finished. I’m also not going to give a plot summary of these books (that’s what Google’s for), but simply imbue you with vibes.

Margo's Got Money Troubles - Rufi Thorpe

Didn’t expect to love it, could not put it down. Cleverer than it sounds when you explain the premise, and is the best kind of book in that it opens your mind via a sympathetic main character who you don’t expect to identify with so strongly. Challenged a lot of my own (shameful) unconscious bias towards sex work. Obsessed with the author. Stalked her ferociously.

No One Is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood

One of my all-time most-loved books. Short. Experimental. Profound. Made me laugh and made me sob. Such a powerful statement on what actually matters, and how life has a way of shaking you out of your silly, distracted bubble and hitting you over the head with the full weight of what it means to be human.

All The Broken Places - John Boyne

The sequel to Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, which always surprises people when I yell at them about it. It wasn’t outwardly positioned as a sequel, perhaps because Boy In The Striped Pyjamas was categorised as historical fiction/young adult, whereas All The Broken Places isn’t young adult. I also didn’t realise (until I went deep on John Boyne) that there remains some controversy over Boy In The Striped Pyjamas for its historical inaccuracies, which seems odd given that it’s fiction, and clearly serves its purpose of making a powerful point about empathy. All The Broken Places is such a mesmerising, intricate story that I fell inside and adored. Love John Boyne’s writing.

All Fours - Miranda July

The observation. In this. The vivid interior life of the main character - stunning. There’s a metaphor about ageing that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. This is one of those novels that’s definitely semi-autobiographical and helps you understand parts of life and parts of the human experience that you thought were beyond understanding. You do not have to be in your 40s or 50s to ‘get’ this, even though the main character is older.

The Bee Sting - Paul Murray

A masterclass in writing from different perspectives. Parts of The Bee Sting are set at Trinity College in Dublin and the description is so vivid that when I travelled to Dublin, I was like… ahh yes. Here I am. There’s the arch he refers to. I stayed up very late to finish this, and once you finish I advise you Google ferociously for different analyses of what it all means. You realise it’s even cleverer than you thought.

Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart

Oh, Shug. This story pulls at something deep within you, with the weight of life’s tragedies illustrated so gently, in a way only a Scottish person can. The characters crawl off the page and appear in front of you, and you know them. Douglas Stuart doesn’t rush - he paints his world and the people within it carefully and intentionally with enormous skill. If you want to read writing that will make you a better writer, read this.

Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano

Sobbed. I’ve never seen the emotional experience of being an aunty described so perfectly, and that is only a miniscule part of the book. It’s about sisters and family and birth and love and ambition - a loose modern adaptation of Little Women, although I didn’t realise that until I Googled it afterwards. I wanted to slow down to savour all my time with these characters, would probably read a multi-generational series about the Padavano family.

Here One Moment - Liane Moriaty

Excellent premise, energetic page-turner. The thing about Liane Moriaty is that almost every time, I don’t think she can possibly pull it off. She sets up a story so complex, with so many moving parts, that surely it has to fall down somewhere. But Here One Moment maintains its emotional truth right up until the very end. Moriaty embodies these characters like she knows their souls, whether they’re young men or older women. She’s a genius.

None Of This Is True - Lisa Jewell

Thank God Lisa Jewell has written one million books because I never, ever want to stop reading them. She literally writes a banger, every single time. None Of This Is True feels current, with references to a true-crime Netflix series and podcasting, without compromising the sophistication of Jewell’s storytelling. She leaves you guessing until the very end, with various threads expertly coming together at exactly the right time. Her characters are fascinating.

Good Material - Dolly Alderton

Spoiler, but: the perspective switch. It’s everything. Like Taffy Brodesser-Akner in Fleishman is in Trouble, Alderton invites us into one half of a relationship breakdown for a vast majority of the book, before telling it from the other side. So clever. Stories like these are the definition of: two things can be true at once.

I Have Some Questions For You - Rebecca Makkai

I read this while away on holiday in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, and I was like okay yes this is fine but I need to get back to my book. Expert-level literary mystery. It engages with our true crime obsession in a way that isn’t at all didactic - instead Makkai’s intricate plotting and stunning writing leaves us with some uncomfortable truths and some challenging questions.

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Bonus: A no from me

This one was actually non-fiction, but recommended to me by so many people over a very long time. While I usually wouldn’t publicly criticise a book (lol I’m going to cry every time someone says something mean about mine haha but actually), I feel like I can be honest about this one because it’s an international bestseller and I’m sure the writers are doing just fine:

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles.

Ikigai means ‘reason for living,’ and in Okinawa in Japan, apparently home to the longest-living people on earth, it’s understood to be the key to a longer, happier life.

Perhaps my expectations were too high, and I went in thinking the book would help me find my ikigai? But it didn’t because I had to stop reading.

It’s not very well-written, and there was a lot that was common sense and entirely unsurprising. I was also viscerally annoyed by the lack of critical thought that went into any of the ideas. There are pages and pages about logotherapy - a type of therapy developed by Viktor Frankl, which focuses on finding meaning as a motivation for wellbeing. Love it. Highly important. Particularly fascinating in the case of Frankl, who wrote the timeless masterpiece Man’s Search for Meaning after surviving Nazi concentration camps. But as a form of therapy, logotherapy has shortcomings. If it didn’t, every clinical psychologist would be practicing it and we wouldn’t have endemic rates of depression. It doesn’t work for everyone. But the clinical efficacy of logotherapy wasn’t critically examined - it was presented as though it solves all of life’s problems.

Perhaps having studied psychology, I was also just broadly aware of the ideas in Ikigai, so it didn’t feel particularly novel or exciting. I think I’m also at the point where I’m cynical about any book/movie/podcast/person that claims to have all the answers in a simple, ‘radical’ soundbite. There’s a tendency to paint particular communities/cultures as wholly good or wholly bad, and I refuse to believe that any place where humans live is a utopia.

But then again, friends, perhaps that’s why my disposition leans towards misery.

Please leave book recommendations in the comments - my spreadsheet has a column for reccos! xxxx