The Most Memorable Books I Read in 2022
They say if you want to be a good writer, first you must be a prolific reader. This has been true of my writing journey. The more books and articles I dive into, the more I learn about the craft. So, in the spirit of all things reading, here is a review of all of the books I’ve read this year:
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Historical Fiction/Domestic Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
This book follows the lives of the four Riva siblings. It jumps between the present day when they are set to throw their annual end-of-summer party at the eldest sibling Nina’s mansion in Malibu and their childhoods growing up with an absent, famous father and a mother suffering from a broken heart. At the start of the book, we are informed that Nina’s mansion will eventually go up in flames (in the present day). But, how? That is yet to be revealed.
I usually am not drawn to a historical fiction/domestic fiction book. Here’s why: I find them a little sleepy. I tend to be drawn to complicated thrillers that took the authors a lifetime to map out. (I mean, isn’t there something so impressive about an author’s ability to be both a good writer and a murder mystery plotter?) Nevertheless, Malibu Rising blew me away. It wasn’t dull for a second. I read it in no more than 5 days. I found the myriad of colourful characters that arrived at Nina’s soiree fascinating and the story of the Riva children’s upbringing sad but also profoundly honest. Jenkins Reid could have easily leaned on character tropes to hold up the story since the setting and Hollywood backdrop were so mesmerizing, but she did a great job of unravelling those tropes. If you like the Netflix show Outer Banks or the James Patterson novel Now You See Her, then you will love Malibu Rising.
2 A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson
Genre: Murder Mystery/Legal Drama
Rating: 3 Stars
What if your child was accused of murder? To what lengths would you go to protect them? These are the central questions that A Nearly Normal Family grapples with. Originally written in Swedish, this book was translated for its enormous popularity, and as far as I can tell nothing was lost in translation in this searing tale. The book is divided into three parts: the father’s perspective (a pastor in their small Swedish town), the daughter’s perspective (an 18-year-old who has just finished high school), and the mother’s perspective (a practicing lawyer). Throughout the book, we watch as the mother and father try and come to terms with the possibility that their daughter may have committed this horrific act in their own ways (influenced by their differing careers and world views). But, did she do it? Is she innocent? Stay tuned…
The reason I was drawn to this book is that it’s an unusual type of murder mystery. Usually, the focus is on the victim(s) and the murderer is shrouded in darkness until the final pages. What’s more, this book could have easily been heavily set in the courtroom which has the potential to become quite dry. The author did a good job of balancing the courtroom scenes and actually having us follow the characters as they mill about town trying to solve the mystery for themselves. My one criticism is that Stella—the 18-year-old accused–and her best friend’s actions didn’t seem to have a lot of reasoning all of the time other than ‘they’re just moody teenage girls.’ That felt like a bit of a cop-out. And, as someone who has been a teenage girl myself, I can attest to the fact that we are still very much human beings who tend to have motivations behind our actions.
3. The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 5 Stars
If you want to know what book is IT, this is it. Megan Abbott consistently blows me away with her work. I read Dare Me many years ago and am still haunted and in awe of the sentence, “There is something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls.” I mean, come on! Does that sentence not give you chills? Seriously, even feminist icon and writer Roxanne Gay once said, “Nobody writes teenage girls like Megan Abbott.”
The story goes like this: thirteen-year-old Lizzie is best friends with her next-door neighbour Evie, and she secretly wishes that Evie’s perfect family was her own. One day, that perfect image of the family next door shatters when Evie disappears. Through Lizzie’s eyes, we watch the family’s breakdown over the disappearance of their beloved Evie. And, in relentless pursuit of their approval, Lizzie goes to great lengths to solve the missing person case, going to great lengths even when it means putting herself in danger.
If you like dark mysteries and psychological thrillers like Gone Girl or Sharp Objects, you will love The End of Everything.
4. Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
Genre: Humorous Fiction/Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
*Content warning: eating disorders, body image, fatphobia, homophobia
In this coming-of-age story, Rachel—a non-practicing Jewish 24-year-old—is in the throws of a vicious eating disorder. As part of her strict eating habits, she regularly visits a frozen yogurt shop during her lunch breaks where she can measure her caloric intake with the precise yogurt sizing charts. That is, until, one day the person who normally serves the frozen yogurt is replaced by a gorgeous Jewish girl named Miriam. Miriam is the opposite of all that Rachel is: she is friendly, boisterous, and—most frightening to Rachel—not afraid to eat. Rachel quickly turns from being alarmed to fascinated and before long feelings take flight…
If you are seeking out more LGBTQ+ books, this is a phenomenal choice. I would, however, caution anyone struggling with disordered eating or in recovery from an eating disorder about reading this book. It is okay to say no to books that are triggering to prioritize your mental health. You come first. That being said, this book’s central messages were so great: beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, you are perfect exactly as you are, and you are more than deserving of love. Highly recommend! Give it a go!
5. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
Another book by Jenkins Reid? Heck yeah! Oh, and I gave both five stars, so clearly she’s uber-talented. This story is written in a script format like a rock n’ roll documentary. It follows a young wild child songstress, Daisy Jones, and a rock band, The Six, as they rise to fame in LA and eventually make their way to each other.
What I enjoyed so much about this story is that Jenkins writes complicated characters, and yet, no matter how many mistakes they make we still route for them. They also possess a certain vibrance, thanks to Jenkins’ writing style. Daisy, in particular, felt so real like someone at once profoundly familiar and entirely unique.
What’s more: Reese Witherspoon’s company is developing the book into a TV series starring Riley Keough—none other than Elvis Presley’s granddaughter. So, dive into this phenomenal book as we all eagerly await Hello Sunshine’s vision for Daisy and The Six.
6. Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering
Genre: Romance/Coming-of-Age
Rating: 4 Stars
This book came to my attention when I saw the trailer for the upcoming series executive produced by Emma Roberts of the same name. My first thought when watching the trailer was, “what story could have moved Emma Roberts so much to incite her to leave acting for producing?” This was the story. Although it is unclear whether Roberts’s production debut signals a temporary or permanent exit from acting, it is nonetheless a significant career step.
The story seesaws between the two protagonists’ perspectives, that of Lucy and Stephen. The two meet at Baird College in California and strike up a toxic romantic entanglement. From Lucy’s perspective, Stephen is a not-so-classically good-looking smooth-talker who “gets her,” whereas to Stephen, Lucy is the long-legged freshman that is his next source of entertainment. As the story progresses and years pass, we watch as Lucy loses track of her career goals, boundaries and mental and physical health as she falls more and more for Stephen. Meanwhile, Stephen’s inability to feel empathy becomes more and more alarming as he continues his destructive behaviour and continues to suppress a haunting secret.
What I enjoyed about this book is that while it would likely fall under the “Romance” category, it is not a romance. It is a story about a young woman realizing that the fantasy she has been fed is nowhere in sight and how she manages to rescue herself. And, although I spent much of the book yelling at Lucy to “Leave him!” there was a certain feminist beat to the book that really impressed me and felt like a divergence from most boy-meets-girl stories these days.
7. I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Genre: YA
Rating: 5 Stars
*Content warning: homophobia and mentions of conversion therapy
It’s rare to find an LGBTQ+ Young Adult book stationed at the front of chain bookstores, but McQuiston’s novel did just that. I was skeptical about how much this book would appeal to me because (1) I’m an adult who tends to favour adult books over YA and (2) I was not a fan of Paper Towns by John Green which this book has been frequently compared to. Let me tell you, this book was phenomenal. McQuiston absolutely understood the assignment of a YA book centring queer stories. Regardless of how you personally identify, this is a positive, heartwarming novel that everyone will enjoy! (Don’t let the pink cover fool you!)
The story follows Chloe Green, an out bisexual-identifying student, attending Willowgrove Christian Academy. One day, her rival, debutante-like Shara Wheeler, disappears, but not before leaving Chloe, her boyfriend Smith and outcast Rory a note hinting at her whereabouts. Oh, and Shara also kissed all three of them individually before her exit too. These three unlikely compatriots work together to solve the mystery of Shara’s disappearance, and, in the process, learn about themselves and the consequences societal expectations have had on each other.
8. Hunger by Roxanne Gay
Genre: Memoir/Feminist Lit.
Rating: 4 Stars
*Content warning: sexual assault, eating disorders, fatphobia, depression
Last year, I finally read Bad Feminist (also by Roxanne Gay) and knew I had to read more of her work. She is astoundingly honest, almost as if you are reading a diary entry, and yet has an ability to write critically and analytically about her experience through a feminist lens. Her writing style certainly has an academic tone, harkening to her many years of experience as a university professor. That being said, I think a lot of folks are averse to the memoir genre because it can feel slow or uninteresting. That is not the case with this book. Roxanne Gay has a remarkable ability to draw out the thread of narrative from the most mundane of day-to-day life and make us re-examine everything we knew to be true.
To give you a sense of the book, in Hunger Gay examines her relationship with food, her body and her sexuality. She does so by writing about when she was a child surviving a horrific act of violence and how that event shaped her relationship with food, body, family and sex as she grew up.
If you want to expand your contemporary feminist literature bookshelf, this is a great choice.
9. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Genre: Psychological Fiction
Rating: 2 Stars
*Content warning: grooming, predation, sexual assault, depression
I first nabbed this book because I saw it everywhere: at coffee shops, on the bus and on #booktok (TikTok hashtag for avid book readers). And, it was for good reason because the story is one so haunting that you simply can’t look away once you start.
To be transparent, as well-written as this book was structurally and in terms of pacing it was way too dark for me. The degree of darkness instantly caused me to knock it down a couple of stars on my ratings. It felt like an overwhelming amount of dark subject matter. As a reader, I couldn’t catch a break from the sadness and heartbreak. That being said, if you can handle extremely dark subject matter in books, this is still worth a read.
So, what’s this super dark book about? The protagonist, Vanessa, is a young adult processing the trauma of a teacher preying upon her while she was a student at a boarding school when a young woman (and a fellow survivor) contacts Vanessa to ask about her experience. The book jumps back and forth between the present day and the past to retell what exactly happened to Vanessa in her youth with this teacher.
If you enjoyed the podcast “Betrayal,” you will likely find this book compelling.
10. The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 5 Stars
This is hands down one of my favourite books that I read this year for so many reasons: (1) it grabbed my attention from the first page, (2) all of the characters, even the background characters we were not intended to care about as much, were fascinating, (3) all of the characters had a realistic blend of good and bad traits that added to their intrigue, and (4) the pacing was spot on!
Moreover, this is a true thriller. Most of the time murder mysteries are slotted into that category because there are a lot of overlapping qualities between the genres, but this was a true thriller which was a nice change of pace.
The story is about a couple—Marissa and Mathew–who seek out couples therapy with an unconventional therapist named Avery (who just so happens to have lost her therapy licence). What begins as a struggle with infidelity between a seemingly perfect couple quickly reveals itself to be much more, mesmerizing Avery who is willing to break just about any therapy rule for her clients.
11. Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow
Genre: Creative Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
*Content warning: grooming, predation, sexual assault, stalking
In 2017, The New Yorker story on Harvey Weinstein captured the zeitgeist, sparking the #MeToo movement and summoning a reckoning for men and women alike who had abused their power for years. The reporter at the helm of this movement who brought the story to The New Yorker from NBC was Ronan Farrow. In this jarring and revealing book, Farrow recounts the genesis of this reporting—a pitch to tell the story of the much whispered about “Hollywood casting couch”—and the onerous and increasingly dangerous route to get the story out. The journey involved Israeli spies from a group called Black Cube following him and the survivors who he was interviewing, resistance from NBC to have the story published at all, and professionals from all different fields and positions participating in what is referred to in journalism as the process of “catching and killing” a story.
While you may feel you know this story from the many interviews and headlines dedicated to it at this cultural moment, I assure you that there is so much more to learn. It is no wonder Ronan Farrow won a Pulitzer Prize for his work on The New Yorker piece. His pursuit of the truth at all costs is inspiring.
And that concludes my 2022 list of the most memorable books I read this year! I hope you found a book from this list that caught your eye for your next read!
Happy Holidays!
Carly