BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
1. Manhunt, by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Anger simmers underneath every word in this story of trans people fighting for survival after a plague begins to transform anyone with a certain amount of testosterone into a feral monstrosity.
The protagonists take off on an odyssey across New England—The Road with a sense of humor and 110 percent more queer sex.
2. Easy Beauty, by Chloé Cooper Jones
In this series of essays, Jones travels in pursuit of meaning. She was born with a rare congenital condition known as sacral agenesis, and the underlying pain it has caused propels the book while providing detours that explore her coming of age, family history, tennis, motherhood, and theories about beauty.
3. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On, by Franny Choi
The writing in Choi’s latest poetry collection eludes cynicism, casting generational trauma as a paean to survival: “Every day, an extinction misfires, and I put it to work.”
4. Strangers to Ourselves, by Rachel Aviv
For her much-anticipated debut, journalist Aviv plaits her personal narrative with stories of other people’s encounters with psychiatry, and the result is a work of fierce moral intelligence.
5. Siren Queen, by Nghi Vo
In this fantasy set in an alternate version of preCode Hollywood, Luli
Wei is determined to be a star. The odds are stacked against her as a gay Chinese American woman, but she still finds her breakout role—not as a heroine but as a monster.
6. The Furrows, by Namwali Serpell
Serpell’s second novel follows a young girl in Baltimore who witnesses the death of her younger brother; every few chapters, the book resets and she is forced to watch him die yet again. A powerful meditation on the waves of grief.
7. 2 A.M. in Little America, by Ken Kalfus
This speculative novel follows an American after his nation’s downfall, as he moves from country to country searching for asylum. Bewildering and alarming and often darkly funny.
8. All This Could Be Different, by Sarah Thankam Mathews
Set in the wake of the
Great Recession, this novel follows Sneha, a woman who moves to Milwaukee after college for a job she despises and decides to, in her words, “be a slut.” Sneha is a perfectly imperfect narrator, offering an honest portrait of how alluring it is to hide in the process of finding yourself.
9. Seduced by Story, by Peter Brooks
In this terrific literary survey, scholar and critic Brooks parses the difference between how stories appear and the ways they’re constructed.
10. X, by Davey Davis
This sexy neo-noir reads like an exhilarating cross between Raymond Chandler and Jean Genet: Lee, a sadist, journeys through a near-future queer underground as they go on the lookout for X, a woman they met at a warehouse party and can’t stop thinking about.