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All in Fiction
Black Light is a really solid short story collection. Each story is compelling, well-written, and connected to something deeply human.
The Nickel Boys is not an easy read. But it is worth all the hype, and it absolutely deserved the Pulitzer it won.
The Mirror and the Light is a feat of a conclusion to the Thomas Cromwell trilogy. It feels more like Wolf Hall than Bring Up the Bodies, but the ending was really excellent.
The Lacuna is an incredible feat of a novel that weaves real people and events together with expert fictional character-building. I can see why it is so acclaimed!
The Road Home is a beautifully written about immigration and building a better life. I liked it.
Everywhere You Don’t Belong was a moving, fast-paced, poignant coming-of-age story about a young Black man from Chicago.
Ordinary Hazards was a beautiful, heartbreaking novel about community and tragedy and hope and love and found family.
Bring Up the Bodies is a truly great sequel to Wolf Hall. It takes the best of that book and builds dizzyingly on the world Hilary Mantel built.
What Happens at Night is a dream-like and weird but very atmospheric and moving novel. I really liked it, but it won’t be for everyone.
This is a raw, gutting, absolutely beautiful book about a young Nigerian person navigating gender dysphoria. It’s incredible.
Luster is a searing, unflinching novel about art and sex and racism and womanhood that looks its characters right in the face. It was so good.
An Orchestra of Minorities is a stunningly beautiful, terribly sad novel written from the most unique narration I’ve ever read.
Half of a Yellow Sun is a heartbreaking novel about the Biafran war, which took place in Nigeria in the 1960s. It’s not an easy read, but it is affecting and an incredible feat of writing.
Gilead is an epistolary novel about a minister nearing the end of his life. I found it a tad slow in the middle, but very beautifully written,.
On Beauty is a literary family drama that feels simultaneously like comfort food and watching a train wreck in slow motion.
The Stone Sky is an incredible conclusion to The Broken Earth trilogy. I truly couldn’t put it down, and it solidified this trilogy as an all-time favorite.
Wolf Hall is a pretty dense historical fiction about Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII. But it’s an incredible accomplishment of a book, and I’m really glad I read it.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is a deeply unsettling but ultimately brilliant book about the mother of a psychopathic kid who commits a school shooting.
