Best Books
The Best Speculative Crime Fiction of 2023
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Molly OdintzThis year’s offering of scifi and fantasy crime fiction leans heavily towards alternative history and near-future imaginings, but with plenty of bizarre and magical detours into the just plain weird. Speculative fiction can be a catch-all phrase in literary circles for anything that’s genre but that literary people like, but here, we’re using it unite…
The Best Horror Fiction of 2023
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Molly OdintzThis year’s top horror novels distinguished themselves not only through quality but with their use of metaphor to approach societal ills obliquely. Through the lens of horror, and the examination of monstrosity, we see the many ways that hatred, prejudice, and and the enforcement of conformity warp our communities and our own minds. These novels…
The Best International Crime Novels of 2023
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Molly OdintzWell, it’s a horrible year in world history, but it’s a great year in international fiction! Specifically, international thrillers and noir. France and the Scandinavians are, as usual, well-represented on this list, and there’s also a great showing from South American writers and a shocking number of Italians. Sorry not sorry to those who think…
The 15 Best Psychological Thrillers of 2023
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Molly OdintzWow, this was a hard list to compile–I don’t know that I’ve ever seen as many great new psychological thrillers come out in a single year. I had to physically restrain myself from adding at least ten more titles, or getting bogged down in crafting a notable list, because I wanted to put so many…