Best Books Read in 2024

 

2024 was the year I finally got into a steady reading rhythm, finishing around 60 novels and short stories (audiobooks included). It feels appropriate to compile a list—not just as a reflection but also to remind myself of the ones that truly stood out.

Yes, it’s late for a 2024 list, but considering 2025 hasn’t been the strongest reading year for me, this is also my attempt at rekindling that reading momentum.

For variety, I’ve limited myself to one title per author. And a disclaimer: this is a subjective list—and yes, I clearly gravitate more towards horror books.

Honourable Mentions

The Surgeon – Tess Gerritsen

The Surgeon is the first book in the Rizzoli & Isles book series which later turned into a TV show (which I have never seen by the way).

This is your typical unknown serial killer type novel but done so expertly well that you’ll be hooked in until the end.

What I found interesting was the surprisingly accurate description of a trauma resuscitation. Then I found out the author was herself a trauma surgeon and makes a lot of the descriptions of the hospital scenes much more realistic.

Perfect read if you want mix of thriller/horror/mystery.

10. The Cabin at the End of the World — Paul Tremblay

Paul Tremblay is one of my favourite horror authors—A Head Full of Ghosts is among my all-time favourites.
This novel, adapted into M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin, is built on the home invasion trope. Tremblay’s signature style is blurring the line between reality and delusion, and while A Head Full of Ghosts remains the closest he has reached to perfection in this regard, The Cabin at the End of the World comes close.

The opening chapter is one of the most chilling things I read all year. Tremblay’s style of telling a story from the point of view of a child—slow to sense danger, while we the reader sees it coming—creates incredible tension.

The movie adaptation misses the point of the novel entirely, which only made me appreciate the book more. Tremblay was annoyed enough at Hollywood that his newer novel Horror Movie is basically a “fuck you” to the industry.

9. The Martian — Andy Weir

Andy Weir blends hard science-filled narratives with effortless humour, making what should be dense technical reading feel light and engaging.

A lesser writer would make “scientist stranded on Mars” unbearably slow. Weir turns it into a gripping, funny, clever survival story.

If you want to get into sci-fi, Andy Weir is definitely one of the writers you should give a chance to.

8. Come With Me — Ronald Malfi

Again, Ronald Malfi is one of my favourite horror writers. His work goes into much more than superficial scares. More than a horror story, Come With Me is a deeply emotional look at grief.
After the protagonist loses his wife suddenly, he discovers she may have been hiding things from him that he slowly uncovers in the weeks and months afterwards.

You can feel just how much pain the author went through while writing this book.


Malfi is one of the reasons I adore horror as a genre—the emotional journey you go through has much more depth than most thriller/mystery books.

7. The Kite Runner — Khaled Hosseini

A book cover of a young child holding a kite AI-generated content may be incorrect.

This is probably the most well-known book on this list. While I expected tragedy; I did not expect the sheer brutality of some scenes.

Spanning decades and major historical upheavals—from the Soviet invasion to the Taliban era—the novel follows two boys whose lives are shaped by loyalty, betrayal, and fate.

Heartbreaking and sometimes shocking, this is a great read for those who can stomach some heavy scenes.

6. Recursion — Blake Crouch

I think the beauty of sci-fi is how you use extraordinary and unimaginable scenarios to see how normal human beings respond to them. Black Crouch is a master at this.

Recursion might be his most brutal concept:
What if you woke up one day and discovered your entire life was a lie? Was just a dream?

The psychological strain that the protagonists go through in this novel are some of the worst I’ve ever read. In that sense, this book itself is a difficult read at times but so worth it.

5. Boys in the Valley — Philip Fracassi

This is an old-school possession story set in an isolated, underfunded orphanage.
In terms of purely creeping me out chapter after chapter, this book would be number 1.

If you’re a fan of horror and want a book to really scare you, this is the best choice.

4. The Yellow Wallpaper — Charlotte Perkins Gilman

A short story from 1892 that feels disturbingly relevant today.
It blends psychological horror with themes of women’s oppression, autonomy, and mental illness.

The imagery is haunting and the way the horror is slowly built up until the incredible conclusion is masterful. If you like reads which force to draw your own conclusions instead of spelling everything out for you, this is a perfect story to get into.

3. Let the Right One In — John Ajvide Lindqvist

A vampire story that takes a couple hundred pages to even say the word “vampire.”

While the supernatural theme is central, this novel is about people, trauma and loneliness. Being provided the point of view of several different characters, we see how the protagonist in one story turns into the antagonist in someone else’s.

Some parts are extremely hard to read—graphic and brutal from the early chapters itself and not just because of the vampires. It also features some of the most tragic passages  I read all year. The ending was also such an incredible way to end a long book.

2. Mother Night — Kurt Vonnegut

One of the books that genuinely moved me.

It follows an American spy working undercover in Nazi Germany, forced to commit atrocities for the “greater good.”
The moral questions are profound: If you do bad things for a good cause, are you good—or just as bad as the people you’re fighting?

Vonnegut’s exploration of morality is so unique and makes us the reader also question how we would feel in a similar situation. You’ll find yourself appalled by the protagonist in one chapter only to feel extreme sympathy for him in another. One of the books that would change the way you’d see life.

1. The Shards — Bret Easton Ellis

Bret Easton Ellis is polarizing—and deliberately so. You don’t write something like American Psycho without putting a few people off. His slow and methodical style of writing is also not for everyone.
But The Shards, his first novel in 13 years, shows how much he’s evolved compared to earlier books like Less Than Zero.

The book is a strange concept - the protagonist is a fictionalized version of Ellis himself, recalling his teenage years as a serial killer dubbed “The Trawler” stalks the city.

Ellis lulls you into thinking this will be calmer, more reflective and more apologetic than American Psycho. That he is just a poor, confused bisexual teen in the 80s trying to find his way in life. But nothing in this book is what it seems, as we slowly peel the layers to find the underlying truth by the end.  

A masterfully constructed blend of thriller and horror, this is again a book that does not spell everything out. You’ll have to read between the lines to get an idea about actually happened. This will be turned into a TV series and one has to wonder whether it will live up to the brilliance of the book.

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