32 Books We’re Excited About in 2024

In celebrated author Katherine Min’s last novel before her untimely death, there is a philandering violinist, a Japanese-American punk rock singer, and a Korean-American cello prodigy, the latter of which is seeking revenge. But nothing goes as planned and nothing is as meets the eye in this vicious, sensual, and poignant story.

The debut novel by poet Kaveh Akbar follows Cyrus, an orphaned, newly sober son of Iranian immigrants who seeks out a terminally ill painter living out her final days at the Brooklyn Museum, in a search of a family secret. It’s razor sharp, viciously funny, and the kind of touching that brings you closer to the heart of the world.

Two versions of one love story converge in the latest from the one and only Dolly Alderton. In her new whip-smart novel, which is cynical as it is sincere, Jes breaks up with Andy, leaving him homeless and nursing a failing standup comedy career. He desperately clings to the idea that he can solve the puzzle of what went wrong — but he has no clue what her side of the story is.

Kiley Reid’s 20121 novel Such A Fun Age still occupies space in my brain for its incisive brilliance. Reid’s highly-anticipated second novel Come and Get It tackles themes of consumption and reckless abandon, following an RA at the University of Arkansas in 2017, who gets into a messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students.

Danielle Chelosky’s full-length debut takes cues from writers like Chelsea Hodson and Melissa Broder, chronicling the impulse to self-destruct. It’s an impulse that takes Chelosky into abandoned buildings and under the bodies of strangers, as she finds herself infatuated with an older man who blurs the lines between pleasure and cruelty, and her decisions blur the line of self-sabotage and self-actualization. (Relatable!)

Sheila Heti is a master of form, constantly expanding the bounds of fiction while expertly defamiliarizing the experience of being human, ultimately drawing you closer to it. In Alphabetical Diaries, Heti kept a record of her thoughts over a ten-year period and then arranged the sentences from A to Z, creating as the title, suggests an alphabetical diary that is filled with as much despair as it is joy.

This debut novel is both a Black woman’s coming-of-age story and a music-driven twist on the friendship novel (think Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise meets Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity). Plus, it’s a love letter to punk, both past and present.

A truly original ode to 1950s lesbian social culture, Greasepaint follows an ensemble of singing, dancing butch lesbians and Yiddish anarchists who play at a New York City bar every Friday night.

E-girls, sex workers, and college dropouts with BPD are the subjects of Rafael Frumkin’s five short, hilarous and debaucherous stories about queer young people. Frumkin is also the author of Confidence, which has been described by Electric Literature as: “Theranos, but make it gay.” Sold!

I’ve been excited about Grief Is for People since Sloane Crosley first mentioned it over fries and iced teas at the Odeon in the spring of 2021. We were there to discuss her book Cult Classic, but Crosley and I got to talking instead, of grief. This memoir is about dealing with grief in the wake of the death of Crosley’s closest friend. If there’s anyone who can make you feel less alone about loss — and probably even laugh a little, it’s her.

In the follow-up to his riveting Pulitzer Prize finalist novel There, There, Tommy Orange traces the dark and luminous legacy, spanning three generations, of a family affected by the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

The debut poetry collection from the critically acclaimed author of the bestseller The Boat is an ambitious project in the form of a book-length poem that reckons, however unsettlingly, with identity. A format-busting work in the vein of Claudia Rankine and Cathy Park Hong, Le’s book chronicles the violence of assumptions, racism, oppression, and historical trauma.

Rita Bullwinkel’s striking debut sports novel upends the genre, exploring themes of desire and perfectionism in this portrait of eight teenage girl boxers who have come to Reno, Nevada to compete to be named the best boxer in the country.

Matt Starr, co-founder of Dream Baby Press and a celebrated poet whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, will soon publish his highly-anticipated debut poetry collection MOUTHFUL, a playfully perverse, live-wire look into sexuality, hunger, bodily obsession, New York City and the messiness of growing into one’s desires that’s as tender as it is candid.

Alexandra Tanner’s debut novel — described by the publisher as “Seinfeldian” — captures the unique dread of the era, from a Facebook mom who falls for deep state conspiracy theories to a rescue dog named Amy Klobuchar with rabies, in her deadpan story about two sisters living together in Brooklyn.

Marissa Higgins has an addictive and uncanny ability to write about devastating topics with a shrug. It’s a talent that’s on display in her original and stylish debut novel, which follows a young woman pursuing a relationship with a lesbian couple while navigating the recent incarceration of her parents.

Before inking a book deal, Ashleah Gonzales was known as a famous reader. Gonzales, who is best known as Kendall Jenner’s modeling agent, was responsible for the stream of excellent works of literary fiction Jenner was photographed reading a couple years ago. Now, she’s set to publish her debut collection of poetry on fellow literary It Girl Chelsea Hodson’s small press Rose Books.

At only 28 years old, Tayi Tibble has already been deemed “one of the most startling and original poets of her generation” by the US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo — and counts Lorde as one of her superfans. Her incendiary second collection of poetry, which moves between Maori mythology and the club, is as stylish and fearless as she is.

Described as Patricia Highsmith meets The White Lotus, which is enough for me, The Sleepwalkers is a modern gothic story following Richard and Evelyn, a couple honeymooning on a Greek island who are greeted by a salty hotel owner hellbent on making life hell for Evelyn. When the couple is separated in a storm, all the secrets threatening to undo their relationship spill out in this suspenseful, funny novel.

Last year, on Dream Boy Book Club, filmmaker and poet Lily Lady published quickie, a multimedia art project about voyeurism, desire, and neuroses. Now, cult favorite publisher Far West is releasing NDA, her latest intimate and opaque collection that takes us from the safe words of New York to the alleys of Los Angeles.

Legacy Russell, author of Glitch Feminism, maps out the idea of the meme as it pertains to Black visual culture from 1900 to present day. From historical to modern images of Blackness — including everything from the Anita Hill hearings to the Facebook Live video of Lavish “Diamond” Reynolds after police murdered her partner Philando Castile, Russell argues that the contributions of Black people have had a profound impact on digital culture.

Miranda July — actor, filmmaker and literary it girl of the 2010s — is releasing her first novel in eight years. All Fours is an irreverent, erotic novel about a semi-famous, middle-aged artist who upends her life. (Is there any better genre?)

In the memoir all Riot Grrrls have been waiting for, legendary Bikini Kill and Le Tigre frontwoman Kathleen Hanna takes us through her tumultuous childhood and rebellious youth in Olympia, Washington to starting the Riot Grrrl movement in the 1990s to her friendship with Kurt Cobain to falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys to her debilitating battle with Lyme disease.

Honor Levy has been hailed as a riveting voice of Gen Z for her surreal, electric flash fiction stories that find her characters increasingly enmeshed in a digital age on the edge of collapse. Now, she releases her much-anticipated debut short story collection.

Emma Rosenblum brought us Bad Summer People, a salacious, impossible-to-put-down book about the murderous intrigue of a gossiping group of wealthy people vacationing on Fire Island. Now, she brings us Very Bad Company, which follows 10 dysfunctional colleagues brokering a billion-dollar deal over a weekend in paradise that turns murderous. Think White Lotus meets Succession.

If Anna Dorn’s last book Exalted was for the astrology girls, Perfume & Pain is for the fragrance heads. In her latest sultry romp of a novel, a controversial LA author attempts to revive her career and finally find true love in this hilarious nod to 1950s lesbian pulp fiction.

In Frankie Barnet’s sly debut novel, humans have nixed the animals, believing mankind is safer without them. People are selling house plants like mad to replace pets, and finding work cosplaying as dogs. From this strange world comes a uniquely modern love story between an Instagram poet and a tech billionaire who is working on a time machine to go back to when things were normal, whatever that means.

Described as “barely factual,” Sex Goblin trafficks more in emotional truths. Combining sex writing, popular culture, and autofiction, Lauren Cook presents a surrealist book of aphorisms and vignettes about sex and the internet.

Porochista Khakpour’s biting, clever tragicomic follows Iranian-American multimillionaires with four spirited daughters who are on the verge of landing their own reality TV show when they realize their deepest secrets are about to be dragged out into the open before the cameras even roll. Think: Reality TV, Los Angeles McMansions, and a fast food empire.

Rachel Cusk has been praised for her gut renovation of the form of the novel in her Outline trilogy. Now, she’s back with a new work following an artist who begins painting upside down, that further demolishes traditional storytelling conventions.

Girlhood, family, and longing are the focus of Juliet Escoria’s short story collection, which follows everyone from community college students to abusive grandmothers to gardeners, in her sharp stories that resist moralizing and leave room for the beautiful, foggy grey areas.

Vogue writer Emma Specter takes a deeply reported and personal look at the realities of binge-eating disorder, covering everything from restrictive diets, intermittent fasting, IV therapies, and Ozempic abuse in this part report, part memoir.