Best and Worst Reads of 2024
In 2024 I read 94 books, apparently – so obviously I’m not going to talk about them all here! But here’s some of the biggest hits and misses.
My continuing mostly-5-star obsession: ‘One Piece’ </b>:(Omnibus 17 through the most recent collected volume 110)
This long-running manga series is about so much more than goofy pirate antics: The nature of freedom and family, government corruption and the erasing of history to maintain power, overcoming trauma, healthy and unhealthy visions of masculinity, and much, much more. Admittedly, omnibus 21 did only get 3 stars due to the problematic depiction of trans or drag-queen characters (it isn’t 100% clear) in the Kamabakka Queendom section…but the way our main hero interacted with essentially the same group of people in Impel Down suggested that was an unfortunate error, and the honestly pretty stellar trans/gender-nonconforming rep we get in the later Wano arc pretty much confirmed that impression. (I can’t stop talking about this story, please help me!)
The Other Best Fantasy Adventures:
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (5 stars) – Another pirate adventure, but featuring a middle-aged woman who has to get the crew back together for one last job. Which ends up in her having to fight wizards and tentacled sea monsters and deal with her demon ex!
Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness (5 stars) – The protagonist of this story isn’t quite middle-aged, but at 30-something she is more mature than you might expect the protagonist of a YA anime-style adventure to be – and I love that. This installment has dragons (sort of), hobbit-like people, and more complex politics than the first one.
The Tropic of Serpents (5 stars) – Follows the lady naturalist protagonist of ‘A Natural History of Dragons’ as she makes her second adventure, this time to not-Africa. I really appreciate how this series blends accurate real world natural history with made-up dragon biology, as well as the perspective that comes with having the narrative be told by the protagonist’s future self (who can reflect on the foibles of her youth).
Best Magical Realism:
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina (5 stars) – A magical tale about family: the good, the bad, and the messy! Jumps back and forth in time from the funeral (sort of) of the titular character and her descendants trying to make sense of the legacy she has left them, and Orquídea’s youth, finally meeting in the middle.
Best Fantasy Horror:
Huh, everything on this list has queer protagonists, autistic protagonists, or both! Interesting...
Our Share of Night (5 stars) - This book feels like the perfect blend of Latin American magical realism and gothic horror – which are two of my favorite genres. Juan is a terrific example of a morally grey character, and the generational trauma from the magical abuses of the Order and from the real-life military dictatorship blend together surprisingly seamlessly.
The Death of Jane Lawrence (5 stars) – Jane is never said to be autistic but, between the text and author comments, she clearly is. And putting someone like her in the inherently illogical setting of a gothic spooky-house horror is a great idea!
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth (4.5 stars) – Probably even better than ‘Hell Followed With Us’. I loved our autistic trans protagonist, and found the more grounded horror of how the women (or people viewed as women) can be medicalized and abused for just being themselves very effective.
The Salt Grows Heavy (5 stars) – More of a dark fairytale than a horror novella, per se, this follows a carnivorous mermaid and a nonbinary plague doctor. Some bloody and disturbing things happen, but their relationship is rather sweet.
A Botanical Daughter (4.5 stars) – This is the one to pick if you want botanical gothic and some gay romance (with neurodivergent protagonists) and you also found ‘Annihilation’ (the book) oddly comforting.
Best “Danmei With A Questionable Premise That Actually Pull it Off (so far)”:
God, how were there two series I read/started with a teacher-student romance (a trope I normally hate with every fiber of my being) that I actually LIKED? Both are set in “cultivation” worlds, where magical powers are gained through Taoist-style mediation and training.
- The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (3-5 stars, depending on volume) – This one works because the teacher in question is the most oblivious man in the world, who has absolutely no idea his student has a crush on him until well after they are no longer in a student-teacher relationship. Partly this is because he’s so far in the closet he’s found Narnia, and partly because he is spending all his mental energy trying to ensure the student doesn’t grow up to murder him horribly…which is what happened in the original version of the book he just got isekaied into! As with other MXTX books, blends the romance effectively with humor, action, AND horror. (I do wish her earlier books hadn’t contained the implication that gay sex is SUPPOSED to hurt, though! I mean, if they’re into it and accepting of the risk of physical injury, fine, I guess – but I’d rather not read that.)
- The Husky and His White Cat Shizun (4 stars for volumes 1 & 2) – Overall more morally ambiguous, but so far walking the line well. The “husky” in this case is an evil emperor who killed himself after realizing he ruined his life, who wakes up as his teenage self and is attempting to have a do-over. This involves dealing with his very complicated feelings for his only-somewhat-older cultivation master who he thinks is really hot and always believed scorned him and who he, uh…well, he at least believes he did some real bad things to in revenge! We quickly find that the “white cat” in question is not so much deliberately aloof as A) a very principled man who cares about his students and who would never seduce one even if he does feel some attraction, B) probably neurodivergent as fuck, and C) someone with terrible self-worth issues (because people think he’s weird and unemotive) who doesn’t think ANYONE would love him! Also, it appears that someone is probably magically fucking with them in more than one timeline.
Best “Romantasy I actually liked”:
- The Brilliant Death (4.5 stars) OK, technically the danmei listed above are romances set in a fantasy world…but that’s not what people think of first when they say ‘romantasy’, right? This one is closer to that image, featuring gender-fluid witches in an Italian-inspired fantasy world…and zero much older alpha males claiming mates!
Best Science Fiction:
- Children of Memory (5 stars) – If you like ideas-based sci-fi that leans more on biology than robotics/computer science, this Adrian Tchaikovsky series is for you! If you really want to bond with specific characters, it probably isn’t…though personally I REALLY liked blob-monster-in-the-shape-of-a-woman Miranda and the Corvids in this.
- The Luminous Dead (4 stars) – Technically more of a psychological horror with a sprinkle of Sapphic romance, as the science aspect isn’t really dwelt on that much. But it does take place in an alien cave with some weird biology.
- Undertow (4 stars) – A sci-fi thriller set on a planet that resembles the Louisiana bayous, where a human colony has been doing some mining and exploiting the local agender amphibious species in the process. But a revolution is brewing…
Best classics:
- Persuasion (5 stars) – Jane Austen did the top romance tropes first and best, in part because they always come with a savory helping of social satire. In this case a second chance romance!
- The Color Purple (5 stars) – Not gonna lie, this one started out a pretty tough read (there’s a sexual assault on page 1!). But seeing Celie find herself over the course of the book, and fall in love with bisexual icon Shug Avery? Amazing.
Best Non-Fiction:
- Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why we Need to Save Them (5 stars) – A misleading title (these foods are endangered because they are NOT being eaten enough) but an excellent world tour of rare foods, the cultures they come from, and the dedicated people working to keep them around.
- Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity (5 stars) and Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalized Self-care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Well-Being (4.5 stars) – Picked these up because of my recent bouts of what turned out to be autistic burnout. The first is good if you want a broader view of autism in the context of disability rights, the second if you are mostly looking for practical tips.
- What Fresh Hell is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You (4.5 stars) – Not just educational, but also darkly funny and inclusive of trans and nonbinary folk.
Some Honorable Mentions:
Triad Magic (4.5 stars), Three Parts Dead (4.5 stars), The Water Outlaws (4.25), Falling in Love with Hominids (4.35), The Night Watch(4 stars), A Country of Ghosts (4 stars), The Space Between Worlds(4 stars), Our Shadows Have Claws: 15 Latin American Monster Stories (4 stars), The Bruising of Qilwa (4 stars), Journey to the West, Vol 4 (4 stars), Seraph of the End Vols 30 & 31 (4 stars).
Biggest Disappointments (2 stars):
- Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery. Impeccable spooky vibes and cool artwork, but a rather problematic handling of issues relating to real historical injustices (witch hunts and colonialism/Native American genocide).
- Maroons. Sequel to ‘Grievers’, which I mostly likeld. Rubbed me the wrong way with the handling of its queer characters, the way it didn’t show us the development of the anarchist community, and some of the implications of how the plague works.
- Servant of the Underworld. DNF @ ~80%. I like the concept of this magical mystery set in a pre-conquest Aztec world. But this was one of Aliette de Bodard’s earlier works, and her unfamiliarity with the culture shows, and the characters were not as engaging as in her later works.
- An Education in Malice. DNF @ 29%. Did not relate to the appeal of the poetry teacher/class (and I LOVE a dangerous gothic lady! That should have been easy!) and found Carmilla insufferable.
