My Favorite Books of 2023
Love letters to the stories I read in 2023
This post is mostly for me to consolidate my top reads of 2023 into one place, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt. I read everything from fluffy romcoms to intense fantasy to heartwrenching stories of love & loss in 2023, so here are the ones I loved most.
Number 1: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Sir Terry Pratchett
I read this book because I knew that season 2 of the show had come out and I wanted to watch it with my dad. And good lord, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I read the book in just a couple weeks (quick for me), I watched season 1 in just a couple days, and then I watched season 2 with my dad in less than a week. And I know that the book and the show are separate, they each have their own canon etc. etc., but the stories are inextricably linked in my mind. I can’t separate them, so just keep that in mind as you read the rest of this.
Good Omens has become one of the most important stories in my life. It gives me hope for the world, it makes me believe in the power of humanity and in the human story, it makes me fall in love with love over and over and over again. Good Omens impacted me so deeply that I joined tumblr because I needed people to talk to about it, and I’ve enjoyed my time on that particular hellsite.
Good Omens has become so many things to me. It’s become a comfort show/book and a favorite. It’s actually been really important in my religious deconstruction. Maybe I’ll talk more about that particular point on a different day, but for now I'll say this, the approach Neil and Sir Terry took to morality when writing Good Omens has been really healing for me. The idea that viewing everything as either Good or Bad is unproductive and harmful. The idea that existing in the shades of grey is what makes us people. The idea that you are not Good or Bad, you are A Human. You are, as Aziraphale put it, “human incarnate.” That has all been so healing for me, so important to me.
Good Omens is special to me as someone who grew up in the church, the Catholic Church to be specific. There’s something about reading a satire on Christianity about the unlikely love story between the Serpent of Eden and the Angel of the Eastern Gate. There’s something about how I can see myself in both Crowley and Aziraphale. There’s something about how I think I’m a bit of both of them, and how I think that might be informed by the way I seem to occupy the liminal space between atheist and catholic. I don’t know, there’s something there. And I’m sure I’ll figure out exactly what it is eventually.
Good Omens is a love story at its core. What kind of love? Well that, my friend, is for you to decide. But to me it's the kind of love that bores deep into your soul, the kind of love that no label can quite quantify because it’s so vast and intrinsic. It’s the kind of love that gives me hope for the world. Hope that things will work themselves out. Because if this love is this strong it can survive anything and that if I can embody that love I can survive anything.
Good Omens is a story I have fallen irrevocably in love with. It is a story I will share with my future children if I ever have any. It is a story I will never let fall to the wayside. It is a story I will revisit endlessly. It is a story I cannot wait to see completed. It is a story I can only wish to share with the world. It is a story I am so, so grateful exists.
“To the world.”
Number 2: Okay, Cupid by Mason Deaver
To the shock of absolutely nobody, Mason Deaver’s newest novel has made its way onto my top 10 list, and into my top 3 no less! I was lucky enough to read Okay, Cupid early and gosh did I fall in love with this story.
This book was both reminiscent of Mason’s previous novels (particularly The Feeling of Falling in Love) but it also differed in a few crucial and amazing ways. I really enjoyed the (very) low fantasy element of the Cupids in an otherwise standard, real world setting. And I, of course, loved the romance of it all.
I don’t really have any profound thoughts on this book, but it’s my second favorite of the year because it made me /happy/. It’s a romcom and it’s silly at times and it’s emotional at other times, but at the end of the day it made me smile. It gave me a little jolt of joy that I’m finding harder and harder to hold onto. I read about Jude and their makeup and I was losing my shit because omg I wear excessive amounts of blush too!!! And I was laughing at the fact that Huy just casually collects tapes and owns a Walkman because that is peak “gen z rediscovering the tech of the past” behavior (and I say that as a gen z). I was in love with Neve and Alice’s banter and their friendship. I appreciated that maybe Leah and Cal and Richard weren’t always the most understanding of Jude, but you could tell that they loved Jude nonetheless. You could feel their love and care through the pages.
Okay, Cupid made me happy. It brought me joy. It’s another t4t romance to add to the list of favorites. It’s a Mason Deaver book, how could I not fall in love with it?
Number 3: Babel by RF Kuang
I’ve been told by multiple friends, but one friend in particular (you know who you are /pos), that talking about colonialism is “part of my schtick.” It somehow weaves itself into nearly every essay I’ve written for a history and/or english class I’ve taken in the past few years, when I randomly decided to take a sociology class I ended up doing a research project on the impact of colonialism on gender as my final, and it never fails to crop up in everyday conversations about society. So it really isn’t much of a shock that Babel became one of my favorite books, ever.
Part of what fascinates me so much about colonialism is the ways in which it appears in /every/ facet of the world. Kuang did a phenomenal job of showing the audience that colonial ideologies do not exist within a vacuum, they seep out into all parts of the world and the social order. Those ideologies are fundamentally inescapable. But she doesn’t just lay it all at once, instead we watch as the characters slowly but surely realize just how ingrained colonialism is. We watch as they uncover that the very basis of their work is to serve Britain’s colonial project. We watch as they realize just how much colonialism is baked into their institution, into their world.
And then we watch revolution unfold. We watch bloody, violent, painful revolution. We watch revolution that was never meant to be palatable, revolution that was never meant to make the reader comfortable. THAT is a testament to how well written this novel is. Colonization isn’t comfortable or palatable, so why should a novel about its horrors be those things? I, for one, couldn’t be more grateful that Kuang chose to lean into that uncomfortability because I believe it is part of what makes this novel so powerful.
I’ve written a review of this novel already, so I want to leave you with this excerpt from that review: This book is an incredible exploration of the power that language holds. At its core, Babel is about the ways in which language and translation can be used to harm others in the pursuit of power. I found the use of translation as the sort of iron fist with which Britain rules the world so fascinating. It felt reminiscent of how translations of the Bible have routinely been used to antagonize minority groups throughout history. But it was mostly about how the British empire will always reap the benefits of the countries they colonize without ever giving back. Because that's what colonization is all about, really. Babel is a testament to the power of language. It demonstrates so clearly how things can not only be lost, but found through translation. And how language can cause irreparable damage.
This book will always stay with me and will always hold space in my mind. I think it’s one that I will come back to time and time again as I grow in this world. I’m glad a book like this exists, and I’m glad I had the privilege of reading it.
Number 4: Dear Mothman by Robin Gow
Dear Mothman was a no brainer when it came to making this list. This story bore my heart open and enveloped me in love and comfort and an odd sense of catharsis. This is the kind of story I wish existed when I was a little kid. It’s a story about grief, a story about being a trans child, a story about being an autistic child. It’s the kind of story that would’ve made being a kid just a little bit easier.
This story is short, it’s told in verse, and yet it holds within it so much power. So much love. I see so much of my younger self in Noah. I remember being a little girl who didn’t know how to handle her big feelings, I remember being a kid and just not knowing how to explain to people how I was feeling. I watched Noah go through just that, and all I wanted to do was give him a hug. Give my younger self a hug.
Number 5: The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker
This book is filled with twisted gore. This book is filled with wild and tumultuous love. This book is filled with sibling love and care. This book is filled with everything I grew up yearning for but never thought was possible.
This book has become one of my favorite fantasy books, I loved the story and the characters and I loved being able to see myself in a genre that I’ve so often felt like an outsider in.
Ren is so so special to me. Ren with her British father and Japanese mother. Ren never being British enough for the Reapers but not Japanese enough for the Shinigami. Ren being mixed just like me. Ren being the most iconic knife gal. This story is about her killing the yokai. It’s about how she breaks bone not cartilage because it heals faster. It’s about how she is full of unbridled rage and she is ready for the world to hear her scream. It’s about how she thought she was in love only to be betrayed. It’s about how all she wants is to be accepted and protect her little brother. Ren is a terrible person and I love her so deeply.
Number 6: Stars in Your Eyes Kacen Callender
This book reminded me a lot of The Feeling of Falling in Love (my beloved) but if you made it a bit heavier and more adult.
I couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters of this story. I couldn’t help but root for them the whole way through because I just wanted to see them happy. I wanted to see them heal and work through their traumas and I wanted to see them win.
I read this book in the span of 48 hours, which almost NEVER happens to me. And I think that is a testament to how much I adored this book. I’m so glad that I read it.
Number 7: The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
This book did so much for me. It helped me work through religious trauma, it healed my inner child, it made me smile and laugh and cry and /feel/.
This book is special to me as someone who grew up going to catholic school, it's special to me as a queer person who doesn't quite know how they feel about religion any more, it's special to me because I know how many hurting queer kids and people there are in the church. And it's so. damn. important. that books like this exist for those people. For people like me, to read when we're ready.
This book is a story of healing. And good lord, did it heal me endlessly.
Number 8: The Luis Ortega Survival Club by Sonora Reyes
Reyes made my list twice this year! Both of their novels hold special places in my heart but for very different reasons.
This book is about healing, but not the kind of healing I personally have had to go through. So I won't talk much on it, seeing as I don't believe it's my place to speak.
But what this book does have that I couldn't be more grateful to see in a book is the neurodivergent representation. Ari is autistic and she is queer and she is amazing. Ari's autism felt so genuine and honest, and I saw so many pieces of myself in her. But what I loved even more was the kinship between her and Angel (who has ADHD). It reminded me of a couple of my friendships, the way they just stim without thinking when they're around each other.
This book has some of the best friendships, the best displays of love and care even through hardships. I don't have enough words to properly convey how much I enjoyed this story.
Number 9: Dawn by Octavia E Butler
Weird as fuck science fiction featuring non-binary aliens that don't piss me off? Sign me up! Is anyone shocked that I enjoyed an Octavia Butler book? (No. the answer is no.)
This book ties together everything I love about Butler's writing. The way she world builds so seamlessly, the way you get inside the minds of every character and you cannot help but be enamored by their story. And most importantly, the way that she weaves in phenomenal social commentary throughout. This book explores what it means to be human and what the human race is capable of. It explores the joys of humanity, of the human condition while also delving into what makes us tick. Exploring what things at once make us extraordinary and vitriolic. God it's just so good.
Number 10: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
Continuing my tradition of reading one (1) Mistborn book a year, I got around to book 2 back in Janurary! (now let's see if I manage to read book 3 in 2024)
This book expanded upon the world we got to know in book 1, it gave us so much more time with some phenomenal characters, and was overall a joy to read. Sanderson's world building is some of my favorite world building, I love his complex magic systems. I quite like the way he writes magic, if that makes any sense. I dunno, there's just something about his worlds that feel so captivating.
I'd say more but considering this is a sequel I don't want to spoil anything!
this is such a well rounded list. your ruminations on good omens resonate so deeply with me, especially now that i’m reading it. i can’t wait to talk more about it with you after i finish.