Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel is spectacular. Both highly literate and smartly stylish, Monica provides an intense and rewarding reading experience that tells a life story through a series of vignettes, building a rich portrait of the forces that prey on lost people. This is a true masterpiece.

Deranged, heady, and an instant body-horror classic, Chlorine unsettles with massive effect. The book hangover I had after this one plagued me for months. Inky prose and sapphic longing have never been done so well. Obsessed, obsessed, obsessed!

The Details is a short yet powerful examination of how our relationships shape our identities and the course of our lives. A conscious-altering fever collapses the narrator’s sense of time, as she’s transported back to moments in the most important relationships in her life. The characters and conflicts portrayed are so fully rendered and real that it has the quality of great autofiction. This book has been my favorite work of translated literature that I’ve read this year, and it is perfect for fans of other deeply philosophical novelists like Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti.

The Creative Act is a powerfully inspiring book for anyone seeking to pursue a more creative life. I’ve found myself returning to this book countless times throughout the year to find inspiration when I’m not feeling particularly creative, and it’s helped me immensely.

Emily Carroll combines rich language and masterful art and comic-making in a close, highly psychological, gothic ghost story, where powerful internal forces collide on the page in violent splashes of color.

This graphic novel has a great story and even more fabulous illustrations. Although it’s written for children (middle readers), its caliber is right up there with the graphic novel, Maus. The plot follows a colony of mice (and rats) as they navigate an apocalyptic world without humans. They must contend with all the usual suspects (hawks, owls, and feral cats) that make them prey and relearn how to be wild mice without the food storages they usually get from humans. If I didn’t like the book so much, I would love to tear out the illustrations and frame them — they are that good!

Gay werewolves in the forests of the Willamette Valley. Need I say more? Also, the sweetest love story I read all year. Ox and Joe and Gordo and Mark, I love you.

Something Wild & Wonderful is such a soft and lovely romance set primarily on the Pacific Crest Trail. This book is about love and acceptance, of yourself and your past as well as of others. It’s about growth and learning what your boundaries are and learning that it’s okay to communicate that with others. This book has my heart and is easily one of my favorite romances that I’ll go back to often.

I read this in May and I still can’t shut up about it. Set in the 1800s in an alternate North America colonized by Vikings, a world where dragons can be beasts of war or lifelong companions sacred to communities, it follows a young Indigenous woman as she and her dragon try to navigate a colonizer-run school for dragoneering. Alternate history, a magic system deeply informed by science and spirituality, a coming-of-age story that is also a coming-to-power, queer love, incredibly rich worldbuilding, and so much else. I’m so very glad this is the first book in a series.

I discovered Anna Burke this year with Compass Rose and immediately got my hands on every book of hers I could. In the Roses of Pieria was an absolute delight. Dark academia! Urban fantasy! Vampires! Greek (alternate) history! Mushroom fae! Shapeshifters! I know it sounds like an impossible mishmash, but it does everything with a clear purpose and a skillful execution. The characters were stunning and the sapphic dynamics were so enjoyable. I’m waiting with anticipation for the sequel.

I have been pressing In Memoriam into all of my coworkers’ hands since it first come out, and now I’ll do my best to press it into yours. More a bayonet wound than a book: In Memoriam disemboweled me, left me glassy-eyed and in shock, indelibly marked me when I was done. The story of Ellwood and Gaunt — two boys, really — trying to survive WWI while maintaining their humanity and their love for each other — is so incredibly devastating and lyrical, it won’t leave you unscathed either. I cried 5 separate times. I loved — loved — loved it.

I went into this book not really knowing what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it. I knew it had to do with women seeking revenge on their abusive husbands, but what I really loved were the strong female friendships; the dark, biting humor; themes of loneliness, trust, and forgiveness; and female empowerment. (I also loved the revenge.) Plus, I got to learn about an amazing Indian historical figure. In a year of great new releases, this one was the clear winner.

If you love Rome, either because you’ve visited this stunning city or because you long to visit it, these stories will sweep you into its contemporary, throbbing heart. The characters — friends and families, some deeply rooted in the city and some marginal — are authentic in the way that all Lahiri’s characters are, and their circumstances are familiar despite their splendid setting. And then there’s something extra and intimate, perhaps because these stories were written in Italian before being translated into English? This is a terrific read.

This is the book that Hemon worked on for nearly a decade. Likely his masterpiece.

This book had a surreal quality to it that I didn’t expect. By the end of the novel, the setting, characters, and premise felt like the plot of a Doctor Who episode! This story will leave you wondering what the state of the environment will be like within the next few decades.

This memoir is shameless, honest, and iconic. Julia Fox is bringing back the messy celebrity in the best way with her book that feels like a love letter to her youth and New York City.

This book gave me a craving for apples. Then, it made me fear apples. However, the craving returned but with a distrust for apples. Black River Orchard has all the elements I need from an epic horror. An eerie setting, complex characters you’d like to yell at, and imagery that will haunt me long after the book has finished. Most importantly, Wendig was able to make a 600+ page book that felt like it was all killer, no filler.

Behind every great hero is an Aristene. Mythical female warriors who are sent by the Goddess to guide their heroes to victory and Glory. They are the Heromakers. Reed’s trials will resonate the most with the “horse-girls,” the ones that want to be immortal, that want their horses to live with them forever, and go into great battles together. This was such a fun, unputdownable fantasy read that will leave you longing for the next installment.

Since it was released in May, I’ve not been able to stop gushing about this graphic novel to anyone who will listen. The artwork is stunning, the characters are brilliant, and the story itself is so evocative and wonderfully told that I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of rereading it. “Live your truth” is the message at the heart of this story, and for Lady Camembert, that means presenting how she wants and not having to marry a man — I feel you, girl. Cue an adorable YA romance with one Princess Brie, full of laughter, tears, and cheese puns.

In these vivid drink- and drug-soaked stories of young friends on Cape Cod, Brian S. Ellis’s writing is wry, poetic, highly detailed, and subversively sage. His characters are beautifully particular, their dialogue laugh-out-loud funny. Brian has a jeweler’s eye for finding the fire and flash inside every odd, awkward, and messed-up human trying to play cool in the face of self-doubt. I may have had a way more banal youth than these guys, but I love every sparkly, punk-ass story in this collection.

This book laid me flat like Stanley, y’all. Everything from the prose to the phenomenal character work is so intentional, so vivid, and never once pulls a punch. Ouch! Ooch! goes my heart, broken and pieced carefully back together by Alice Winn’s debut(!) novel, in an act of storytelling so memorable and intricate, it rocketed to the top of my list before I even finished it. Truly superb.

Ink-stained and gear-torn, this enemies-to-unwitting-penpals-to-lovers book, set against the backdrop of a looming proxy war between gods, is sure to tear your heart to pieces, put it together, and rip it up all over again.

For me, this book came at the exact right time, but I also can’t imagine circumstances under which this book wouldn’t transform its reader. It’s written with activists and organizers in mind, but I also can’t imagine a person who identifies as neither reading this book and quietly accepting the status quo. Hopeful, imaginative, invigorating, and so full of wisdom (like, truly staggering amounts of wisdom), Let This Radicalize You was an easy pick for my favorite book of 2023, and I feel so fortunate to be able to bring its lessons with me into the coming years.

For magical middle-reader adventure lovers! Finding herself orphaned, Yara Sulimayah flees to the homeland she never knew: Zahaira, a golden city where magic is a real but threatened way of life. Alchemists are plotting against the fragile magical community led by sorceress Leyla Khatoun. Delicious — spices make healing potions, and a goat could be a jinn in disguise. Yara is an inspiration as she learns to advocate for herself and her tenuous place in her new community. Fabulous lore and surprises along the way. Can’t wait for the sequel!

With a hard-nose journalist style, Casey Parks tells the story of the struggle to solve the mystery of Roy Hudgins, but the book hits on so many other important points — Southerness, queerness, family, flawed-but-loving mothers, loneliness, privacy, and gender. In fact, the most moving parts of the book are Casey’s own blunt, heartbreaking, and often hilarious personal tales. Halfway through the book, as she struggles with the idea of putting more of herself in the story, she writes, “Every book I’d ever read about journalism said the best reporters were invisible.” I’m so glad that she didn’t follow that advice. Diary of a Misfit is about Roy Hudgins, but it’s mostly about Casey Parks, and thank goodness for that, because the stories of her own life are true gold.

I cannot get enough of the world Travis Baldree has built around the coziest of scenarios. This is a much-needed world of helping out community, baked goods, and adventures with friends who will fight a necromancer with you. And how can you not love an owldog named Potroast?! I’ve been recommending this series nonstop to anyone who likes their fantasy warm and fuzzy.

This is one of the cutest stories I’ve read this year. A perfect mix of pining and hurt/comfort in a beautiful, cheese-themed world. If you love finding love in unexpected places, this book is a must!

This novel shattered me. A truly remarkable debut from Alice Winn, this literary romance set during World War I is perfectly paced. Let yourself be cradled by poetry and tenderness, and kicked in the teeth with every spread of the Preshutian.

A magnificent debut novel, Bariloche tells the story of Buenos Aires garbage collector Demetrio Rota. With melancholic beauty and trademark emotional depth, Andrés Neuman chronicles Rota’s life, alighting on moments past and present, memories bucolic and brutal, to offer a stirring portrait of a life awash in loneliness, spent hauling around so many discarded dreams (and the refuse of others). Published when he was only 22, Bariloche is a near-perfect sketch of imperfect people — tender and touching in its telling and ample proof of Neuman’s massive storytelling talents. Neuman’s exquisite prose was translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers.

This beautiful, heartbreaking novella has a heavy stillness that crackles with the anticipation of a coming storm. And when the pacing clouds break, and the patient sea releases its rage, it will devour any light that once shone. Poetic, gorgeous, and grotesque, this book is a held breath, crushing everything inside.

What a truly lovely book. This feel-good, cozy, fantasy graphic novel has subtle representation of queer and disabled main characters, but the story does not focus on trauma and focuses instead on the beauty of community and overcoming fear and self-doubt. While this book is geared towards middle readers and young adults, lines like, “At times it feels like there is a vast desert inside my head...As I walk across the sands, trying to reach something I think I need, the more I become lost” will enchant readers of all ages. And the artwork? Absolutely stunning.

Blackouts, the long-awaited second book from Justin Torres, uses words and images to attempt to recover and illuminate stories of queer people living in the 20th century. Blackouts doesn’t give its secrets away easily, or for free. Torres demands your time and focus, and earns your respect and awe. This is an experimental and moving book, sure to be read and reread in the years to come.

Well, she’s done it again! Rebecca Ross has claimed my top read for the second year in a row. Divine Rivals absolutely stole my heart. Rival journalists Iris and Roman accidentally exchange letters via their magical typewriters, and so begins a baring of souls and secrets. Ross artfully balances the heady rush and vulnerability of falling in love against the brutal backdrop of war. The prose is breathtaking to the point where I could have highlighted half the book with my favorite lines. Lucky you, the sequel is out now so you don't have to wait in agony like I did!

The latest in Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series is a deeply weird (positive attribute), mind-bending space opera that explores the diversity of human experiences and what it really means to be human (or if being “human” is even something that matters).

Epic, beautiful, heartbreaking, and profound — Not Even the Dead is all this and more! It’s a time-traveling odyssey from southern Mexico up across the border to Trump’s USA, a tale of conquest, religious conversion, heresy, revolution, and emigration in which identities mirror and shift. Bravo!

There were several books I wanted to pick as my top book, but Maria Bamford’s memoir gets the nod from me. Speaking with the same uniquely hilarious voice that fans of her stand-up will recognize, Bamford recalls her journey to finding community and addressing her mental health. As someone who is still figuring out both of these things for myself, I found Sure, I'll Join Your Cult to be the hopeful read I needed this year.

This is hands down my favorite book of 2023... Thank goodness that stunning cover caught my eye! Anequs is a fantastic lead, and the supporting characters are wonderfully diverse. It is a fun and smart alt-history that leans into a very cool science system that relates to dragons and the riders that study at the academy Anequs is forced to attend. But Anequs is an Indigenous native of these colonized lands, and she begins to learn that there are much older native ways and traditions that bond rider and dragon. A wonderful and compelling read!

Max Porter’s novels are like a kind of telepathy: inner monologues in a new language you somehow understand completely, once you adjust your inner ear. Brilliant.

Naomi Klein takes us into “the mirror world,” where the outrage stoked by real-life inequalities and stalled progress is amplified by social media algorithms and bad faith actors into something different: scrambled political coalitons and destabilized discourse, with ever-worse outcomes being presented as authentic solutions to the social and political challenges of our uniquely difficult present moment. This is a crucial book to understanding how seemingly everything in the world got so turned around, and how we can (maybe) find a way out.

A dense, brilliant prism of a collection that I know I will be returning to for quite a while. These poems inhabit the distorted media between light and retina, retina and memory, memory and self, self and other, poetry and prose. They tightly spiral in on themselves while simultaneously unraveling. To paraphrase Emily Dickinson, they take the top of my head off.

Perfectly written books are few and far between — this is one. The plot: a mysteriously idealistic couple tries to make a go of it off the grid in a ramshackle house somewhere on the coast of Ireland. The true protagonists, though, are of the natural world: the wind and rain, the trees, the insects, the animals. The descriptions are captivating and lovely. I was mesmerized.

One of the things I like about this novel is the way that it demonstrates people being constructive, and cooperative, and coming together to help one another. These characters are not pure selfishness or greed. They’re doing the best they can to help themselves by helping others.

I sat down to start In Memoriam and didn’t move until four hours later, when I had turned the last page and was ugly crying for the millionth time. I have barely stopped thinking about the characters and their painful, hopeful, horrific, and beautiful journeys since. This story of queer love during World War I will similarly carve out a space for itself in your heart, grab tight, and refuse to let go.

I think we’ve all felt small and powerless at some point — looking for hope when all feels lost. Marjolijin van Heemstra is no different and looks for this connection among the stars. An astronaut’s perspective is what she finds and strives to bring down to Earth. A beautifully written journey that can lead you on a space quest of your own.

Belle’s mother has just passed away and that’s only the beginning of this surrealist journey though beauty, grief, and self-acceptance. This book is absolutely bonkers in the best way. Skin Care Cults, Tom Cruise, and Mommy Issues abound in this loose Snow White retelling. I read the entire thing in one sitting and had so much fun while reading it. Put on your red shoes and some moisturizer — it’s time to prepare for your Special Treatment.

In this new translation of the Italian feminist masterpiece, Lisa Cutrufelli explores the dangerous and thrilling reality of being affiliated with the Italian mafia, while also examining themes of cultural and queer identity. Cutrufelli’s story is told through the research of a Sicilian native — an impassioned writer and educator — as she returns to her hometown to learn, verify, and tell the story of Sicily’s first ‘a mascullida’ mafiosa. The story of ‘Tina’ is inspired by the life of Emanuela Azzarelli, the first woman to lead a mob in Sicily, and it perfectly captures her rebellion, identity and influence! I felt a near unexplainable emotional attachment to the two women in this story and found their chase around Gela for one another to be a fun presentation of how women can find solace in the identities of each other. An unconventional masterpiece of historical, crime fiction!

I picked up this book on a whim after seeing a quote from it, and I’m so glad that the universe helped it fall into my lap. Lacey’s writing is amazing, and this alternate history was super interesting and addicting. It’ll leave you with lots of questions and lots for your mind to chew on — it’s best read with a buddy so you can process together! It explores art and activism, politics and identity. It’s complex and layered — a truly stunning work.

A stunning collection of erotic sci-fi/fantasy illustrations by three of Japan’s most creative current artists. The world of “taboo” intimacy is explored under the guidance of very distinct styles. Each artist has their own way of communicating lust through their work, while always holding true to their style and maintaining creativity.

The kind of book you’d read late at night when you should be sleeping, but are instead lying in a slowly cooling bath, so fixated by the unfolding narrative that you haven’t even noticed the discomfort of the steadily dropping degrees. In a way, this kind of discomfort might actually enhance the reading of this novel, making you feel more like the musician protagonist of this immersive, semi-autobiographical fever dream. Taking inspiration from Dante’s Inferno, this journey through experimental drug rehabilitation becomes almost too vivid, but skirts that fine line perfectly, ultimately delivering catharsis in just the right dose.

When Anisa, the main character of this novel, gets the chance to attend a mysterious language learning school called The Centre, where whole languages are miraculously acquired in just ten days, she jumps at the chance. However, even after learning both German and Russian at this breakneck pace, she still doesn’t understand exactly how this transformation took place. The mystery at the center of this book kept me turning its pages, and I was left with thought-provoking questions such as: who is language learning accessible to? What is gained, who gains, and what is lost when works are translated?

The Museum of Human History follows a small cast of characters as they grapple with the opportunities, decisions, and consequences when aging becomes optional. It’s a literary, heartbreaking, speculative page-turner about the tragedy of memory, and the desire to hold onto the best moments in your life, and the ways life stories are written and rewritten as we move through time and loss. I can’t believe this is Rebekah Bergman’s debut (there are so many sentences that made me gasp, and so many that made me cry), and I’m so excited to read everything she writes.

This book is such a fun adventure filled with some of my very favorite tropes: an older protagonist, a swashbuckling journey, found family, and getting the band back together for one last mission. You’ll be rooting for Amina and her crew from page one!

Gone Girl for the literary fiction girlies, the inner dialogue and narration of My Husband is exquisite. Love and loathing intertwine in a delicious character study of an unnamed woman deeply obsessed with her husband. Overly detailed and repetitive? Yes! It’s called obsession and if your brain doesn’t work like that, mine does and I had a great time. Emotionally suspenseful but balanced with dark humor, I very much enjoyed this novel.

This spiraling lyrical journey into the mind of someone who no longer recognizes themselves chronicles Geoff’s journey to sobriety via an experimental drug treatment. The writing is very reflective of the journey as it becomes more lyrical and poetic the deeper we delve into the liminal spaces of Geoff’s psyche. Though this book is specifically about his drug use and sobriety, it is still wildly relatable to those who haven’t struggled with addiction. Overall, a beautiful story you won’t want to put down.

Terrace Story starts with a couple, the couple’s baby, the couple’s small apartment, and the couple’s sort-of friend who somehow opens a portal to a terrace outside their apartment whenever she visits — and only when she visits. Where it goes from there is unexpected and absolutely heart-rending. The magic in this story is incidental to the heartache and the ways that the small choices people make glance off of each other in devastating, unexpected ways. Consistently surprising, filled with wonderful and aching emotional depth, and with an ending that is truly an all-timer.

I loved everything about this brilliant book. It was experimental, thought provoking, and disorienting. The poetry, collage, and other imagery lend an almost eerie and unsettling hand to this story. Torres is a remarkable writer and this book about queerness, erasure, and memory will be on my bedside table for quite some time.

This debut novel follows Geeta, a woman who’s been blessed to have her abusive husband just up and disappear. Sure, the village rumor mill thinks she’s murderess, but for the first time she’s been able to build a life for herself and find some peace. Peace that is until other women in the village start asking for her help in trying to rid themselves of their husbands. This book had me laughing one moment and crying the next. It explores serious themes of gender roles, the caste system, religion, and the importance of friendship. These characters have truly stayed with me all year. Come for the sisterhood, stay for the comeuppance.

I think about this book once a week because of how much it has impacted me. A Living Remedy is such a beautifully written book about such hard to talk about topics, such as the American healthcare system and having to parent your parents as they grow older and sicker. Chung made me weep during one special scene with her mom, but as a whole, this book made me feel whole in a way that I didn’t know that I needed. It calls out systems that need to be repaired and it allows you to see your parents as human before it’s too late.