My 22 Favourites
(Presented in a vague but not set in stone order — I truly loved all of these!)
Tear - Erica Mckeen
Our Wives Under The Sea - Julia Armfield
The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff
Paladin’s Strength - T. Kingfisher
Paladin’s Grace - T. Kingfisher
Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
Between Two Fires - Christopher Buehlman
Sisters - Daisy Johnson
How High We Go In The Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu
Moon Of The Turning Leaves - Waubgeshig Rice
The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
The Night Ship - Jess Kidd
The Conjoined - Jen Sookfong Lee
The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter - Hazel Gaynor
If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English - Noor Naga
The Annual Migration Of Clouds - Premee Mohamed
Wandering Souls - Cecile Pin
The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones
Lone Women - Victor Lavalle
Ring Shout - P. Djèlí Clark
Lucy - Jamaica Kincaid
The Bookshop Of Yesterdays - Amy Meyerson
Honourable Mentions
(I read, uhhh, 120 books this year so keeping my list to 22 was never happening!)
The Marigold - Andrew F. Sullivan
Five Little Indians - Michelle Good
Swordheart - T. Kingfisher…and all the other books of hers (9 of them in total) I read this year!
Even Though I Knew The End - C.L. Polk
Everything Under - Daisy Johnson
Fen - Daisy Johnson
The Animals In That Country - Laura Jean Mckay
A Prayer For The Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers
The Sea Captain’s Wife - Beth Powning
Hester - Laurie Lico Albanese
Tauhou - Kotuku Titihuia Nuttall
Ducks - Kate Beaton
You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty - Akwaeke Emezi
The Hatbox Letters - Beth Powning
And Then She Fell - Alicia Elliot
The Adult - Bronwyn Fischer
Everyone Knows Your Mother Is A Witch - Rivka Galchen
Lute - Jennifer Thorne
Monster - Mariel Ashlinn Kelly
Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway Series (I read 8 books from this series this yr & loved all of them!)
All The Books I Read in 2023
In case anyone wants to look at the whole list...enjoy?!
Everyone Knows Your Mother Is A Witch - Rivka Galchen
Lute - Jennifer Thorne
Shutter - Ramona Emerson
The Sojourn - Andrew Krivak
How High We Go In The Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu
Dead Silence - S.A Barnes
The Night Ship - Jess Kidd
The River Of Silver - S.A Chakraborty
The Lewis Man - Peter May
Unmask Alice - Rick Emerson
White Horse - Erika T. Wurth
Serpent’s Point - Kate Ellis
Sundial - Catriona Ward
The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones
In The Woods - Tana French
The Wild Hunt - Emma Seckel
Five Little Indians - Michelle Good
The Half Life Of Valery K - Natasha Pulley
Finna - Nino Cipri
The Terror - D Simmons *Reread
What Moves The Dead - T. Kingfisher
The Conjoined - Jen Sookfong Lee
The Rising Tide - Ann Cleeves
Into The Wild - John Krakauer
Sir John Franklin’s Erebus & Terror Expedition - Gillian Hutchinson
Embassytown - China Miéville
Lucy - Jamaica Kincaid
Venomous Lumpsucker - Ned Beauman
Ice Ghosts - Paul Watson *Reread
Paladin’s Grace - T. Kingfisher
Semiosis - Sue Burke *Reread
If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English - Noor Naga
Cartographers - Peng Shepherd
The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
Swordheart - T. Kingfisher
Bad Cree - Jessica Johns
Our Wives Under The Sea - Julia Armfield
Paladin’s Strength - T. Kingfisher
A House With Good Bones - T. Kingfisher
Weasels In The Attic - Hiroko Oyamada
Thin Air - Michelle Paver
Paladin’s Hope - T. Kingfisher
The Devil & The Dark Water - Stuart Turton
The Ukranian & Russian Notebooks - Igort
Hell Bent - Leigh Bardugo
Bone Black - Carol Rose Goldeneagle
Ann Cleeves - The Sleeping & The Dead
The Annual Migration Of Clouds - Premee Mohamed
The Marigold - Andrew F. Sullivan
The Ancient Dead - Barbara Fradkin
Wreck Bay - Barbara Fradkin
Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
Dead Dead Girls - Nekesa Afia
The Lantern Men - Elly Griffiths
How To Pronounce Knife - Souvankham Thammavongsa
The Magic Flute - P. Craig Russell
The Adventures Of Amina Al-Sirafi
Lone Women - Victor Lavalle
Death Of An Expert Witness - P.D. James
Shroud For A Nightingale - “”
North Sea Requiem - A.D. Scott
A Double Death On The Black Isle - “”
The Daughter Of Dr. Moreau - Silvia Moreno Garcia
Even Though I Knew The End - C.L. Polk
Fish, Blood & Bone - Leslie Forbes
The Bookshop Of Yesterdays - Amy Meyerson
Everything Under - Daisy Johnson
The Animals In That Country - Laura Jean Mckay
A Prayer For The Crown-Shy - Becky Chambers
A Perfect Death - Kate Ellis
Extraordinary People - Peter May
The Sea Captain’s Wife - Beth Powning
The Shroud Maker - Kate Ellis
Burr - Brooke Lockyer
The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter - Hazel Gaynor
Hester - Laurie Lico Albanese
Wandering Souls - Cecile Pin
Tauhou - Kotuku Titihuia Nuttall
Dual Memory - Sue Burke
Ducks - Kate Beaton
You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty - Akwaeke Emezi
Small Island - Andrea Levy
Ring Shout - P. Djèlí Clark
The Night Hawks - Elly Griffiths
Dead In The Water - Ann Granger
Tear - Erica Mckeen
Foe - Iain Reid
A Dying Fall - Elly Griffiths
Juliette - Camille Jourdy
Entry Island - Peter May
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
The Less Dead - Denise Mina
The Woman In Black - Susan Hill
Skim - Mariko & Jillian Tamaki
Not That Kind Of Place - Michael Melgaard
This One Summer - Mariko & Jillian Tamaki
Hotel Iris - Yoko Ogawa
Clockwork Boys - T. Kingfisher
The Last Life Boat - Hazel Gaynor
The Last Remains - Elly Griffiths
Between Two Fires - Christopher Buehlman
Moon Of The Turning Leaves - Waubgeshig Rice
Thorn Hedge - T. Kingfisher
The Wonder Engine - T. Kingfisher
Sisters - Daisy Johnson
Fen - Daisy Johnson
The Hatbox Letters - Beth Powning
The Crossing Places - Elly Griffiths
The Janus Stone - Elly Griffiths
The House At Sea’s End - Elly Griffiths
A Room Full Of Bones - Elly Griffiths
The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff
You Have A Friend In 10a - Maggie Shipstead
Hidden Salem - Kay Hooper
And Then She Fell - Alicia Elliot
The Adult - Bronwyn Fischer
A World Of Curiosities - Louise Penny
Monster - Mariel Ashlinn Kelly
Panther - Brecht Evens
Galatea - Madeline Miller