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These are the Best Fiction Books I Read in 2023

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A couple days ago I published an article entitled The Best Non-Fiction Books of 2023. If you’d like to check that out you can do so here. But I believe reading fiction is just as important as reading non-fiction. And it’s awesome! I get just as inspired reading a good story as learning something new. Check out the list below. And if you’ve got some holiday cash burning a hole in your pocket, please consider buying a book from the links below. Amazon’s got enough business. Bookshop.org is on a mission to support the independent book store, and you can be a part of it! You can even choose for your purchase to support your favorite local bookshop. Now on to the list!

1. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

2023 was the year I (unexpectedly) decided to branch out and familiarize myself with more classics of literature. Ernest Hemingway is a literary and cultural giant and still exerts a strong influence on writers even today. I knew my Dad was a fan. I still had his old vintage paperback of A Farewell to Arms that I’ve kept for YEARS. Finally I read it this year, and that kicked off a fascination with Hemingway that I’m still working through.

This novel was a fitting introduction to his work. The prose was so enjoyable and pleasing to read. Set in Italy and other parts of Europe during World War I, Hemingway does a great job of painting the experience of war from the perspective of individuals trying to remain cheery and keep up spirits despite the traumas unfolding around them. The dialogue of the characters was endearing. The two at the heart of the story were so likeable I couldn’t help but wish the best for them. And OH MAN, that ending. One I’ll never forget.

By the way, I’ve picked up these hardback Library Editions in the store and they are suuuper nice. I definitely plan on picking up a copy of this one as well as the next book on this list.

2. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

So I went on a bit of a Hemingway kick this year, and while I loved A Farewell to Arms, I found The Old Man and the Sea to be, at the risk of sounding pretentious as hell, exquisite. And it was, oh my. This is a very short work, a novella in fact. For the majority of the book we are just with this one character, the old man, Santiago. He’s old, but he’s still trying for greatness, to catch an amazing, huge fish, a once in a lifetime catch. He succeeds. He fails. He struggles, endlessly. It’s something all of us can relate to. One night I couldn’t sleep, and I picked this one up and sat down and didn’t get up till I had read the entire thing.

3. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

In 2023, the world lost another literary great. I had just read this novel, the first of his I’d read, when he died two months later. I had just discovered another author who’s prose and thematic material just spoke to me and now he was gone. It was depressing and I guess that’s fitting. I am glad that I finally made it a priority to read his work, beginning with this sparse, bleak, and beautiful work. There’s a father and his son and they’re trying to make their way in a devastated world. That’s it. That’s what’s going on. There’s no grand overarching epic background to the apocalypse. No aliens. No clever banding together of humanity to rebuild and forge a new way of life in defiance of the desolation.

It’s a dad willing to do anything to care for his son. That’s enough. I don’t know how he does it, but McCarthy makes us care about all of the small moments. We definitely feel the exhaustion and hopelessness of trudging from one temporary location to the next, only trying to survive until the next day. It’s minimal and it’s a lot all at once. I’m looking forward to the next of his I’ll read.

4. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

In 2023, in addition to the classics I was introduced to the Dark Academia aesthetic through YouTube. I’m really into learning, knowledge, etc. and Dark Academia sort of enshrines this, but adds a twist of fun murdery, horror goodness. Think secret societies operating at elite Ivy league colleges. The grand daddy of all Dark Academia works is The Secret History, the first novel from Donna Tartt, written in 1992. I was already familiar with Tartt’s name, having seen it listed as having received the Pulitzer Prize for her later work The Goldfinch. I decided to see if this one lives up to the hype.

Verdict? I guess it depends on what you like. But I have wide-ranging taste, and this novel slays. It is so weird and twisted and fascinating. It’s interesting also that the main character, the narrator of the book Richard Papen, is not really very interesting compared to all the other characters. He’s the everyman, the normie that gives us insight into the goings on of the rest of the cast of weirdos that I just can’t get enough of. Especially Henry Winter. Man, a part of me can’t help but admire that guy, if only he weren’t just so…..well…um, you’ll have to read the book. It’s a page turner for a lot of the time and even when it’s not it’s still absorbing and atmospheric as hell. A must read.

5. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Speaking of atmosphere and weirdness. This was also the year I read my first Murakami. I have not read any of his other works yet, but I found his style to be weird, non-linear, and ethereal. This book at times was a bit challenging for me, in that the plot does not move in expected ways, especially as the book is coming to an end. That being said, I found the prose enjoyable, and the characters funny and likeable, even though there are definitely some moments of discomfort. I dunno, it’s hard to explain. But if you haven’t read any Murakami you owe it to yourself to give him a try. I’m still thinking about this one.

6. Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

If you google “dark academia books besides The Secret History” you’ll probably come across this one. It takes place at an Ivy league college (Harvard), features the supernatural (ghosts mainly, and magic) and one tough as nails, kick ass heroine (Alex Stern). This is a dark fantasy novel squarely aimed at adults. Without giving too much away, it definitely features some themes of sexual assault, so if that is a trigger for you, then definitely steer clear of this one. That being said, this is really the only other dark academia style novel I’ve read and I did enjoy the story, the characters and setting, and the whole world that Bardugo constructs. Looking forward to reading the next one in the series.

7. Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

Speaking of series, I had previously planned to read science fiction novels by a few different authors this year, but ended up deciding that “No. I love Dune. And rather than stretch out the story with like, one novel per year, I’m going to go full throttle and finish all of the original Frank Herbert penned novels this year.”

Thus I continued my journey with Children of Dune, and this is where things start to get weird, bro. I’m talking about possession. About children who have the knowledge and experience of adults. Not only that, they have the knowledge of past ancestors. This book features the return of The Lady Jessica, one of my favorite characters from the original Dune novel who was unfortunately missing from Dune Messiah. I greatly enjoyed watching Leto II and his sister Ghanima navigate their extremely precarious and unique situation. And I felt utter sorrow for their aunt and Paul Muad Dib’s sister, Alia. Man. If you were happy with the conclusion of Dune Messiah and don’t feel a need to find out what happens next then, yeah, maybe you can just stop there. But if you want to see how crazy things can get then venture on and give Children of Dune a read.

8. God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

But wait! That’s not all! God Emperor of Dune raises the weirdness factor to 11! In all seriousness, this is probably my favorite entry in the series other than the original novel. This book asks so many interesting questions about one’s own humanity and what’s worth giving up in the face of humanity’s (big picture) total annihilation. Here we join Leto II, Paul Atreides’s son, as he rules the known universe, guiding it’s survival, saving it and oppressing it at the same time. Also, now that I’ve read Heretics of Dune and am finishing up Chapterhouse Dune, it’s so interesting to see Leto II’s relationship with and interactions with the Bene Gesserit. Gonna need to reread this one before too long.

9. Bag of Bones by Stephen King

Unsurprisingly, I make time every Halloween to read at least one scary novel, usually a few. This time I was only able to fit in one of Stephen King’s lesser known novels, his excellent Bag of Bones. I’ve had this used copy since at least 2011 and have moved it, along with all of my other stuff, from North Carolina, to Georgia, to Hawaii, to Texas. So even though I have a few more unread books of King’s that are more well-known like The Stand and It, it was time I got into this one.

I’m glad I did. The characters are great. I really liked Mike Noonan, the protagonist and rooted for him almost from the very beginning. Ditto for Mattie DeVore and her daughter. The villains I loved, especially Max DeVore. What a creepy, crotchety ‘ol bastard, heh. The mystery of this particular story gets ever more complex throughout the 700+ pages. Without giving too much away, I’ll say that there was a big tease that goes unresolved, so that was a disappointment. Nevertheless, this is an intriguing, creepy haunted house story that brings in a lot of interesting elements that I really enjoyed. Maybe I’ll have to make room for more than just one Stephen King novel next year.

2023 Best Fiction Books Recommendations

This year was a really good one for me, reading wise. Although I didn’t read all of the books I wanted to (who can?) I read more this year, and more widely, than ever, and I had a good split between fiction and non-fiction reads. If any of these sound like they might be up your alley, please consider buying from bookshop.org. They have a great mission to support independent bookstores, which are not only nice places to go book shopping, but are cultural centers that are critical to towns and cities all over. Thanks for reading! If you have further book recommendations leave them in the comments below!

Click here to check out the best non-fiction books I read this year!

Click here to see why reading is so essential in the first place!