From Engrossing To Boring, Here Are The Books People Loved Or Hated In 2024

When I asked the BuzzFeed Community what books were their favorite and least favorite reads of 2024, I was surprised by the HUGE variety of genres mentioned in the responses. Kristin Hannah is very popular this year! Here are the books that BuzzFeed Community members loved this year and are likely to read again:

1."The Frozen River, The Berry Pickers, The Women (cliché, I know), Winter Garden, Jesus and John Wayne, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Glass Castle, The Third Gilmore Girl, Educated, The Four Winds."

2."Jury is still out for me on what's my favorite this year. I read Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King recently, and I really loved that, so I am leaning that way....The Last One by Will Dean was addicting at one point, too, but really fell apart towards the end. Solito by Javier Zamora was FANTASTIC. That actually might be my favorite one this year. Heartwarming and intense at times. Great narration, and it's also a biography, so it's so easy to connect with the narrator."

3."The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Long but worth the read. Also liked The Women and Four Winds by Kristen Hannah. Horse by Geraldine Brooks is worthwhile too."

4."The Book of Love by Kelly Link was like nothing I had read. Very magical, four young people come back to life and have to complete tasks in order to stay alive, but two of them will have to return to the dark place. They are being judged by supernatural beings and a god. The relationships and the world-building are incredible in this."

5."Favourites for me this year (though not released in 2024) were Bunny (S.E. Tolsen), extremely good horror that had me legitimately spooked. Also just finished The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna. Hard to get into, then I was hooked. Found the ending a bit rushed and disappointing but overall a good read (warning: SA content)."

6."I LOVE THIS QUESTION. Okay, They Both Die At The End and The First To Die At The End (the prequel). Omg, greatest books of all time. Really sad but still great."

7."Best book was The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante because the final series of the show aired this fall. It may be the rare media I re-read and re-watch every 5 years."

8."I Loved These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lapore. Explain the background of Lincoln, TR, FDR, and LBJ and how the initial challenges prepared them for the presidency."

9."I loved Amber McBride’s We Are All So Good At Smiling. She has such a beautiful way with stories."

10."Angels Before Man by Rafael Nicolás! It’s a queer retelling of the fall of Lucifer, and it’s heartbreaking and gorgeous and gay and blasphemous. It’s been a year, and I still think about it all the time. Excellent world-building and well-developed characters."

11."American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins incredible plot!"

12."LOVED: The Nightingale. Could barely get through (but the ending was worth it): The Women. Everyone needs to read Verity all the way through. The ending is 🤯🤯🤯🤯"

13."The Wedding People by Alison Espach is one of my new favorite books of all time! It's a middle-aged coming-of-age novel I didn't know I needed. Beautifully written and darkly funny at times. 12/10!"

14."Though not a recent release, I could not put down The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the backstory and the genealogy. Another is The Great Divorce and The Pilgrim's Regress by CS Lewis — I enjoyed them immensely and could not put them down until I finished reading them. 📖📖📖📖"

15."My couldn't put downs: The Women by Kristin Hannah, The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters, By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult."

16."Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. I read it in one sitting. It's sweet and sad and happy and funny and sad again and happy again. I also recommend House in the Cerulean Sea, and its sequel, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, by the same author."

17."My three favorite reads of 2024 are the following: Piranesi by Susannah Clarke, I've never read a book like this before. It's a beautifully written and original story. The Shepherd King duology by Rachel Gillig, One Dark Window, and Two Twisted Crowns, were some of the best fantasy books I've read in a long time. I wish I could experience the series again for the first time. Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid, this book is enchanting, but also disgusting at times, I could not put it down. I was engrossed by the world that Reid created. I would recommend looking up trigger warnings before reading this book."

18."Spent most of the year in the hospital so I had many hours to read daily. This also explains why a few of the books on the list weren’t actually published in 2024. I Loved: Juice (Tim Winton), Red Side Story-Shades of Grey 2 (Jasper Fforde), The Constant Rabbit (also Jasper Fforde - you really can’t do badly with any of his books, I’ve been giving them out as gifts since I first discovered them and I have not found anyone who doesn’t see them as smart, clever, and hilarious) Chain Gang All Stars (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah), Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Light From Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki)."

19."I couldn't put down All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, a really interesting and well-realized premise. The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland, atmospheric and surprisingly moving. And Starter Villain by John Scalzi, because...John Scalzi!!"

20."I’ve been into non-fiction books atm. I loved The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker. I found it fascinating and empowering. It explains the importance of awareness and listening to your instincts. I also really loved Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. It’s very eye opening, it details lots of different data bias and shows how so many things are designed for men, how women get short changed in a number of areas. I found the medicine section particularly interesting and relevant. I suffer from chronic pain and had to fight against many of the issues mentioned."

21."Best — Hillary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy. Brilliant retelling of the Henry VIII through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, his Master Secretary, one of English history's great villains. Here he is portrayed sympathetically."

Disappointments, do not recommends, and did not finish reading:

22."Hated is too strong a word, but these are books that I wouldn’t search out the authors again, because either the world/story I didn’t love or I couldn’t even finish (which is very uncommon for me): The City in Glass (Nghi Vo), The Three Body Problem (Cixin Li), Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir), Master of the Revels -A Return to Neal Stephenson’s D.O.O.O (Nicole Galland)."

23."Worst — Bellwether by Connie Willis. A strange sci-fi rom-com that tries too hard to be quirky and hip. Published in 1996, it has some interesting ideas about social trends that, unfortunately, aged like eggnog due to the rise of social media."

24."I usually enjoy most of the books I read but I could barely drudge through The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I love TJR (please read Maybe in Another Life, if you haven't yet!) But Evelyn's story was just like "now how many hot button issues can I fit into one book?""

25."The City We Became. This might be a different strokes for different folks. My friend gave me this book and I wanted to like it....I really did, but between the setup and introduction of multiple characters, each with personalities (that felt a little stereotypical), and it had this very cheesy liberal good, conservative bad, black and white nature I just could not get on board with. I finished it out of obligation, but how the boss battle played out, I could care less how the series wrapped up."

26."Worst: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay. I pretty much only read horror or thriller books, and I have never been so bored. It was anticlimactic, not an ounce of tension, and the ending was such a letdown. I'm still in that place where I can't quite DNF a book but after that, I won't waste another minute reading something I don't like."

27."My DNFs: Teddy by Emily Dunlay and God of the Woods by Liz Moore"

28."The worst was Fourth Wing. Or maybe A Court of Thorns and Roses. Just so problematic and made no sense."

29.And finally, "A book I was really disappointed in despite being HUGE on social media pages, was Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman. It had so much potential, but it just fell so flat for me. Really wasn't scary at all, despite the reviews acting like they had to check themselves into a nut house after to deal with the scariness of it. Did anyone else read that and think the child was like four, only to find out she's eight??? That really did it for me. I wish I had someone to talk about it with lmao soo let down."

My to-read list just got longer! What were your favorite books this past year? Feel free to share in the comments below!