I can’t believe it’s the end of 2024! It was a year of huge change for me, all of which I believe will be for the better, and I enjoyed so many fantastic books. These were books I’ve read in 2024, not that necessarily came out this year, and I’ve got a separate post here about books coming in 2025 that I’ve either read and loved, or I’m looking forward to.
I read 77 books this year, a mixture of audio and Kindle. In no particular order, here are my top reads for 2024!
by Tiffany McDaniel
Audio read by Catherine Taber
Tiffany McDaniel is one of the greatest writers of our time. Her novels are vivid and brutal, and ON THE SAVAGE SIDE is no different. Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, this story is raw and chilling and it completely consumed me.
by Agustina Bazterrica (translated by Sarah Moses)
I originally picked this book up in 2023, but it was when my anxiety was at its height and I just couldn’t get into it. In hindsight, that was probably a good thing, because this is not for the fainthearted! Bold, beastly, and utterly brilliant, TENDER IS THE FLESH is a book I won’t get over for a long time.
(P.S. check your trigger warnings)
by Nell Stevens
Audio read by Ell Potter
Frédéric Chopin, George Sand and her children travel to a monastery in Mallorca which is haunted by the ghost of a teenage girl, who died more than 300 years before? Sold. BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE is a tender tale of queer longing and eternal female rage.
by Monika Kim
Although a short read, coming in at 289 pages, THE EYES ARE THE BEST PART packs one hell of a punch. There were times when I was actually squirming as I read, while simultaneously cheering ‘good for her!’. This literary horror novel is unhinged and uncomfortable, with themes of fetishism and female rage.
THE CAUTIOUS TRAVELLER’S GUIDE TO THE WASTELANDS
by Sarah Brooks
I started reading this while on the train to Kirkcaldy, and it swept me away for the entire journey. It is the end of the nineteenth century and the world is awash with marvels. But there is nothing so marvellous as the Wastelands: a terrain of terrible miracles that lies between Beijing and Moscow. A real treasure, this book is imaginative and brilliant.
by Lorraine Wilson
I read this as it was put forward for the Society of Authors’ ADCI (Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses) prize, though I’d been meaning to get around to it for a while. MOTHER SEA is a gorgeous, haunting tale set on an island community facing extinction. It came as no surprise that it won this years’ prize!
by Jennie Godfrey
Audio read by Joanne Froggatt, Mark Noble, Asif Khan, Gemma Whelan, and Simon Harvey
I’d seen the hype around this book for a while, watching as it flew off the shelves and became a bestseller, but I knew I wanted to wait for the audiobook. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely! Heart-warming and heart wrenching in equal measure, this book and its wonderful author deserve all of the praise in the world.
And to nobody’s surprise, it just won a prize for one of Audible’s best audiobooks of the year!
by Jacqueline Harpman (translated by Ros Schwartz, with an introduction by Sophie Mackintosh)
Audio read by Sarah Lambie
Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? This book left me staring at a wall once I’d finished. It is an utterly devastating tale that will haunt me for years to come.
by Ainslie Hogarth
Sinister and sad, MOTHERTHING is a smart horror comedy about a woman who must take drastic measures to save her husband and herself from the vengeful ghost of her mother-in-law. It’s all over TikTok (and rightfully so!), and was one of the first books I read this year.
by Paulette Kennedy
Described as a genre-bending novel which mines the subtle horrors of 1950s America in a gripping novel about a woman under pressure―from the living and the dead, this is a real treat of a novel, chilling and enchanting in equal measure.
by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Audio read by Weruche Opia
I don’t know why it took me so long to read this book! A blackly comic novel about lies, love, Lagos, and how blood is thicker – and more difficult to get out of the carpet – than water, MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER is an unmissable thriller of our time.
by Asako Yuzuki (translated by Polly Barton)
Audio read by Hanako Footman
The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story. A very weird girl story, BUTTER introduced me to the world of female friendships, fatphobia, feminism, and the female appetite.
by Susan Barker et al.
A spine-chilling new collection of short horror stories from bestselling authors, my favourites were the stories by Susan Barker, Emilia Hart, Adorah Nworah, Lucy Rose, Francine Toon, James Smythe, and Louisa Young.
(It would be remiss of me not to mention that there are two stories by TERFs in this collection. I skipped them and the bigots can die mad about it.)
by Octavia E. Butler
Audio read by Lynne Thigpen
I am, of course, a couple of decades late to this party, and there’s nothing I can say to big up Octavia E. Butler enough, but reading this book in 2024 made it particularly eerie. I’m looking forward to listening to the sequel next year.
Currently reading: So Thrilled For You by Holly Bourne, out in January.
Currently listening: Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll on BookBeat.
You can find out more about some of the books I read in 2024 here. What were your favourite reads of the year?
Wishing you all a very happy festive season! 🎄
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VIKKI PATIS 
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