Top 3 Best and Worst Books* of 2024

Hi Everybody!!

Today is the last Monday of the year! You know what that means? It’s the 5th annual year-end countdown of books* I reviewed in 2024!

I can’t believe that I’ve been doing these countdowns for 5 years now. Each year, I find new batches of books* to include on both lists.

*This also includes movies.

Like before, I’ll pick 6 titles for this list – 3 for the best and 3 for the worst! Now, I have only one question for you!

I sure am! Let’s get started with the Best Books of 2024!

This year I read a lot of 5-star books. There were plenty of great titles, and it was easy to choose my top 3 this year because they stood out in very specific ways. Let me show you.

3. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

I’ve read plenty of books that have opening lines that sum up everything that I need to know about them, but they don’t do like the way Celeste Ng does in her 2014 debut novel Everything I Never Told You. “Lydia is dead. But the family doesn’t know it yet” should be considered among the greats because it sets up the tone and the omnipresent third-person narration, which is wonderfully utilized in this story. What also works is the characters. Each person has their own backstory and view on what happened to Lydia, yet they will never know the whole truth. It’s a wonderful exploration on a mixed-race family dealing with tragedy in the 1970s. I hope it gets an adaptation soon.

2. Almost Family by Ann Brancroft

When I found out that Almost Family by Ann Brancroft was about a snarky woman attending a cancer support group, I knew I would like it. After reading it, I immediately wanted to put it on my best list, and I devoured it on my Wisconsin trip back in May. I loved the main character Liz, her sense of humor, and how she uses it as defense mechanism. In addition, Brancroft does a great job with balancing the comedy with sincerity, and not just with the protagonist. Liz’s friends in the support group have their moments to shine. I also enjoyed how vulnerable it got. Since this is a story about coming to terms about life before dying, it makes sense for Brancroft to go to certain places without readers feeling manipulated. It’s all earned through the characters and their journeys. This novel is anybody who loves snarky characters and more.

1. Big Love by Bari Beckett

Another book that wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable was Big Love by Bari Beckett. It explores love, sex, and romance in 40 short stories to help people (single or in relationships) to express their big love. All of them felt genuine, and I appreciate that Beckett included the empty pages, so people could write their own love stories, thus giving the readers agency. I knew each of these titles would be in the top 3 best list for the reasons I mentioned earlier, but it was a bit tricky to get them in what order. What ultimately put Big Love at number one was that it made me cry. I knew that I was going to be emotional since reading certain books makes me do that to some degree, but I didn’t expect it to make me sob. I recognized some of the things that Beckett described as big love, and it hit me hard, for I do some of them with my husband. We have been finding more ways to express big love as a result. I also had the opportunity to interview Bari Beckett this past summer, which you can check out here. Thank you so much for this book, Bari!

Before, we get the worst list, I want to mention that this is similar situation that I encountered in 2021, in which the titles were not bad. They happened to be the weakest of the ones that I looked at this year.

Now that we got that out of the way, it’s now time to get to the Top 3 Worst Books* of 2024!

3. Nightbitch Movie

The film adaption of Nightbitch is not bad. However, when the premise involves something bizarre like a woman turning into a dog, it doesn’t deserve Bob Barker coming in to spade and neuter it for a mainstream audience. It needed to embrace the scenario 100 percent. The movie contains some good elements like the expansion of the core relationships and the acting, especially that of Amy Adams, yet it wasn’t enough. It also didn’t help that it repeatedly beat its message about motherhood over the audience’s heads. Most importantly, it fails to capture the dark, satirical, and horrific spirit of the book of the same name by Rachel Yoder. With all of that being said, I would still recommend it for parents of all kinds and Amy Adams fans. Other than those groups, stick to the novel since that one has a lot more bite.

2. LOY and Beyond by Todd David Gross

LOY and Beyond by Todd David Gross is one that I wanted to like. There were some good things like the environment and the possibly autistic-coded Tremlo and his relationship with his mentor Jormah. However, I couldn’t get into it. I felt like I was dropped into the middle of the world Gross created without warning. Granted, this is the second book in the series with the first being Loy: In the Forest of the Mind. I hope that one day I can give it another chance by reading the first novel and then this one again. For now, LOY and Beyond stays on my worst list for this year.

1. The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers by Sarah Tomlinson

While I’m willing to give LOY and Beyond another chance, I can’t say the same thing for The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers by Sarah Tomlinson. Although I enjoyed the emphasis on the ghostwriter aspect, that ended up being its downfall. It spends too much time in the present with the main character Mari and not enough in the past with the Midnight Ramblers (who are essentially the Rolling Stones). As a result, readers don’t get a sense of what made that band famous and thus, they will question why should they care as much as Mari does. Similar books like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six (both by Taylor Jenkins Reid) understand the appeal of their fictional famous characters and hone in on that. I get what Tomlinson, who is a ghostwriter herself, was going for, but the ghostwriting and the band parts should have been more balanced. Oh well, I can’t always get what I want from the books I read and the shows I watch.

And that was the Top 3 Best and Worst Books* of 2024! I hope all of you enjoyed it. I look forward to having plenty of new reviews for 2025! See you next year!

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