The best fiction of 2024, in one place!
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This year, I beat my previous record by reading 145 books! As usual, that was mostly fiction: 119 this year.
If you’ve been here for a while, you know my fiction reading spans a huge range of styles. Thriller, rom-com, sci-fi, and historical fiction all make appearances in my favorites list every year!
Unintentionally, this was the year of the reread for me. There are so many great series that came out with book five or six or seven that I realized I barely remembered the middle books, so I decided to reread the whole series before diving into the newest release.
That included series like Red Rising, Hawthorn & Horowitz, Cormoran Strike, and ACOTAR. I love a good series I can sink my teeth into, and these are no exceptions! Highly recommend all of those if you haven’t tried them.
But on to the important stuff: my favorite books of 2024!
Best Fiction of 2024
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture, Tom Hanks
I’m always a bit skeptical when actors or musicians write books, especially when they veer out of the memoir category. I shouldn’t be: the best artists are storytellers at their core, after all, and who am I to doubt Tom Hanks?!
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture put all my doubts to shame! It was a great story. It creates a window into the movie production world that so many of us crave or wonder about. While reading I kept having to remind myself that this wasn’t actually a real movie being made; this is a fictional story! From the story conception to final product, we get to look inside at the nuts and bolts, relationships, and power that goes into a great film.
The Measure, Nikki Erlick
The Measure was one of those books that you keep thinking about for weeks after finishing. Even now, I think about what I’d do if faced with the situation in the book.
The premise is this: one morning, every adult in the world wakes up to a box at their front door. Inside is a string indicating the length of their life. Do you open yours?
The book follows a handful of people and their choices about opening and how they live their lives in light of the strings. It’s one of those stories that’s beautiful and heartwrenching at the same time. The best part is that the author doesn’t ultimately dictate what is the better choice, and whether people lived their lives better or worse in light of the knowledge they got from the string.
The Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn
Kate Quinn is one of my favorite authors – she’s written so many gems. The Diamond Eye follows the story of a Russian female sharpshooter. There’s so much I loved about it: the storytelling style (Quinn is always great with this), the different perspective on WWII than my American self typically gets, the fact that it’s based on a real person. To say nothing of the story itself. The Diamond Eye is a great option for the historical fiction lover.
The Thursday Murder Club Series, Richard Osmond
Part of me hates to repeat a book or series because The Thursday Murder Club made my best of 2022 list as well. But the entire series is so dang good that it deserves a repeat appearance!
This year I re-read the first three, which all stood up to my first impressions: fun, funny, smart stories with three-dimensional characters. They solve murders that you can’t possibly predict the ending (or the killers) until the very end. There’s nuance, red herrings, and just enough breadcrumbs to keep you guessing.
The most recent, The Last Devil to Die, was just as good and on its own would make my best fiction of 2024 list. I hope Osmond keeps writing these stories forever.
Zero Days, Ruth Ware
It’s easy to love Ruth Ware: she writes great books. Zero Days follows a special type of security consultant who finds herself in a job gone wrong. Forced to go on the run to catch her husband’s murderer, she uses her burgling and security skills to stay one step ahead of people trying to kill her or frame her for his death.
It’s a different flavor than her typical; still very much a thriller but less psychological and more action. I loved it for a slightly more intense beach read!
Daisy Darker, Alice Feeney
If Zero Days is an action thriller, Daisy Darker is the psychological thriller you’re craving. A family is summoned to their aunt’s seaside home for a frank discussion of her will before she dies. After arriving a storm hits, isolating them on the island. Then people start dying.
A sort of modern play on And Then There Were None, you’ll never see the ending coming. It kept me guessing right up to the big reveal, and you’ll never predict it either!!
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Jesse Q Sutanto
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers is a breath of fresh air. In the sense of being a silly book about a murder that’s still somehow heartfelt. I love murder mysteries, but this one hits a different note than most.
Vera Wong wakes up one morning to a dead body in the middle of her quiet tea shop. As she goes through her life in San Francisco’s Chinatown, she’s drawn into solving the murder. Much to her son’s dismay, she decides she needs to help solve it, and mayhem ensues.
Despite my lighthearted description, the book hits some deep heartstrings around family ties, caring for neighbors, and gentrification. It’s done thoughtfully and poignantly and I highly recommend adding this one to your reading list.
Maybe in Another Life, Taylor Jenkins Reid
Maybe in Another Life is a Sliding Doors-style story. Hannah moves back to Los Angeles after a bad breakup. She goes out with her friend one night and reconnects with an old crush. Does she stay at the party with him or go home with her friend?
The story splits there, following the next few years of her life if she takes either path. They contain drastically different events when it comes to relationships, jobs, family, and more. Both trails ultimately help her develop into the person she’s meant to be.
The audiobook version included a short interview with the author, who said one of her aims with this story was to show that there’s no one right choice in life. She shows this beautifully: the stories don’t end up in the same place, but they both shape into the same woman in the end. Merits a spot in the best fiction of 2024 for me.
The Husbands, Holly Gramazio
The Husbands made all the top ten lists this year, so making mine isn’t a surprise. It’s worth including because it really is that good.
What if you came home to find your husband, Michael. Except you’re not married and you don’t know this man. But you do, according to your decor, friends, and even photos on your phone.
This book hits the perfect note of the questions so many young adults ask: what should my life look like? What does my life look like with this or that partner? It approaches them in a fun way, but opens readers up to asking them in a new way. Even if you’ve found your forever partner, it’s a great read.
The School of Essential Ingredients, Erica Bauermeister
If most of the books on this list are thrillers, The School of Essential Ingredients swings to the cozy end of the spectrum. I wouldn’t put it in the “cozy” genre at all though, that’s not its flavor. It’s the kind of book that looks at humanity in all its individuality and paints a beautiful story of that humanity.
The story follows a cooking class and the students who find themselves there: a new mom finding her way, a teenager deciding who she wants to be, a man trying not to drown after a loss, and more. The characters are complex and endearing, each in their own way. And foodie fans rejoice: each class talks through an actual recipe that’ll teach you something about that dish or cuisine! I can attest to her tip about authentic bolognese’s secret weird ingredient.
That’s a wrap on the best fiction of 2024! Curious about what else I read this year? Check my best nonfiction of 2024, or grab my best-of lists from previous years for more inspiration! You can also see my full 2024 read list on Goodreads.
