The Library Journal Best Books of 2023 portal is LIVE! From the landing page:
There are many ways to measure a year—in calendar days, school semesters, anniversaries, or birthdays; at LJ we measure the year in books. Our bibliometric datebook is marked by titles we look forward to for months, books we read in one big, delightful spree, and those we savor, re-read, and share. Every year we convene to ponder our top picks. We talk about what we’re reading, suggest titles to one another, and discuss, with growing excitement and anticipation, selections that we just know will be among our best books. Here are our choices: 149 titles across 15 categories; each a work we have treasured. We are excited that these books exist in the world, waiting to be found or read anew.
I am very happy to have been part of the team who looked at the year that was and prioritized the reading experience of these titles as we weighed their status as best. It is a refreshing way to look at the "best" tag.
As I went through the Horror selection experience over a couple of meetings with my editor and list mate, Melissa DeWild, the conversations we had about all of the titles we considered was enlightening.
Please note, this is the LJ Best Horror list. It it is similar to, but not exactly my personal Horror Best List for 2023. As we look at the genre, only titles that got a star in the Horror category in LJ can be considered. So there are titles I gave a star to in Booklist that did not get a star in LJ or, as is the case with Whalefall, it was a star but in SF.
The experience of working on this list is very fulfilling even when my absolute favorites are excluded. I also had the pleasure of writing all the annotations for the Horror list.
Below, I have reposted the list which lives here permanently. The links go to my reviews of each title.
Also for ease of use, here is access to past lists, all of which I was involved with: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018.
Due, Tananarive. The Reformatory. Gallery/Saga. ISBN 9781982188344.
Hendrix, Grady. How To Sell a Haunted House. Berkley. ISBN 9780593201268.
Jones, Stephen Graham. Don’t Fear the Reaper. Gallery/Saga. ISBN 9781982186593.
Khaw, Cassandra. The Salt Grows Heavy. Tor Nightfire. ISBN 9781250830913.
LaValle, Victor. Lone Women. One World. ISBN 9780525512080.Set in Jim Crow Florida in 1950 and following Gloria and Robbie during the two weeks Robbie is (wrongly) sent to the Gracetown School for Boys, the horror in this story has a long tail, and the ghosts who live on the school’s grounds are unwilling to wait for justice any longer. A masterpiece of fiction, this novel speaks to all situations where injustice occurs, and compels its readers to act.
After the sudden death of her parents, Louise must clear her family home, which is filled with creepy dolls and a terrifying clown puppet. Are the toys moving on their own? Why is the attic door clumsily barricaded? The only way for her to get out alive may require Lousie do the scariest thing of all—reckon with the secrets that have haunted her family for generations. Inserting fresh horrors into the haunted-house pantheon, Hendrix also crafts an emotional and thought-provoking story about trauma and loss.
Final girl Jade Daniels is back, but this time it is December, an epic blizzard is blowing, and serial killer Dark Mills South is on the loose in Proofrock, ID. Over the next 36 hours, Jade, armed with her horror-movie knowledge, indefatigable spirit, strong moral center, and trusted group of friends, will fight to save it all. Jones effortlessly blends bloody slasher action with contemplation of the genre itself; his novel honors its past while also plowing its own trail.
What if the Little Mermaid laid eggs, and her hatched children’s hunger laid waste to her prince’s land? Khaw poses this sinister question with a brutally visceral but seductive opening sequence. When the mermaid connects with a plague doctor, the unlikely pair go on an imaginative and thought-provoking journey told through lush language, innovative uses of the body-horror trope, and a captivating direct narration that will make readers contemplate what it means to be “saved.”
It’s 1915, and Adelaide leaves her California home as it burns down to head for a Montana homestead that accepts unmarried Black women. She carries an overnight bag and an extremely heavy, securely locked trunk containing the family curse that she is now responsible for controlling. Told with a pulp sensibility, LaValle’s story is a women-centered Weird Western that is at turns both utterly terrifying and heart-breakingly beautiful
Malerman, Josh. Spin a Black Yarn: Novellas. Del Rey. ISBN 9780593237861.
In this intensely unsettling, utterly original collection of five novellas, Malerman takes well-known horror tropes and twists them, pushing both readers and characters to the edge—and he’s not afraid to push everything over. Whether it’s a house that is only half haunted, a deathbed confession from a would-be serial killer, or a dark satire featuring an awful couple, his stories will be relished by readers new and returning.
Pelayo, Cynthia. The Shoemaker’s Magician. Agora. ISBN 9781957957104.
Polly, an expert in horror history, has always found comfort in horror movies and passed that love on to her autistic son, Bela. But after her Chicago detective husband starts investigating a brutal murder with ties to a famous occult film, it appears someone else is sharing ominous fables with Bela that connect the murder to their family, the history of horror films, and Chicago’s deteriorating movie palaces. Both a gripping narrative and a love letter to the genre.
Piper, Hailey. A Light Most Hateful. Titan. ISBN 9781803364209.
Olivia, 18, who came to the small, insular town of Chapel Hill, PA, as a runaway three years ago, has found a home living in best friend Sunflower’s orbit. As the novel opens, a fierce storm brings torrential, infecting rain that turns most residents into zombies. And where is Sunflower? If Neil Gaiman, Mary Shelley, and Shirley Jackson could collaborate, this stunning novel would be the result.
Song, Jade. Chlorine. Morrow. ISBN 9780063257603.
Ren, speaking from adulthood, recounts her final year of high school, the year she exchanged her life as an elite swimmer and perfect Chinese daughter for her current life as a mermaid. Told with a confidence rarely seen in a debut, this remarkable novel expertly balances the contradictions of wonder and dread, magical realism and harsh reality, beauty and discomfort, inundating readers in emotion and a tale in which they’ll willingly drown.
Tingle, Chuck. Camp Damascus. Tor Nightfire. ISBN 9781250874627.
Engaging, curious, and proudly neurodivergent, Rose belongs to a church that runs a popular LGBTQIA+ conversion camp with a 100 percent success rate. While out with friends, she spies the decaying body of a woman at the edge of the woods, wearing a red polo and nametag and staring straight at her. Confusion and disorientation build until it all bursts open with full-blown terror. This novel is chilling and thought- provoking, but what makes it remarkable is the immense love at its center.
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