A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing is devastatingly incredible, but also technically challenging and possibly the most emotionally difficult book I’ve read. But incredible.

The New Wilderness is an immersive, quietly excellent book about survival, motherhood, growing up, and the beauty of the world around us. I really liked it.

May We Be Forgiven is about a man who finds a sense of family after his brother suffers a violent mental break. It was well-written, but not quite my favorite.

Hamnet — a historical imagining about the death of William Shakespeare’s son — is so incredibly good. So beautiful, so sad, so impressive.

The Tiger’s Wife is so, so beautiful and compelling. This is storytelling at its best, and I’ll be recommending it for probably the rest of my life.

I totally loved A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. It has a fantastic tangly plot, intensely lovable characters, and a top-notch ending.

The stories in Daddy is certainly well crafted. But I think I’m in the minority in that these stories just didn’t really compel me through them.

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!

Home is a beautiful, unique sequel to Gilead, and I really enjoyed it.

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.