My favorite fiction of 2022

This may be a little unorthodox for LinkedIn, but most professionals I know are avid readers. Creative people, in particular, often build their own little worlds, whether it’s through art or writing, capturing truth or swinging wildly into speculative realms. So screw it. Let’s do this.

Last week, I suggested making some end-of-year best-of lists for yourself, focusing on the type of creative endeavors that interest you. The idea is to collect your favorite work in a single place and then analyze it to see what patterns emerge. These patterns may reveal clues to your own personal aesthetic, and inspire you to make new choices in your work. At the very least, lists like these serve as a menu of influences that are working on you subconsciously.

I decided to take my own advice, and made a list of my favorite fiction that I read in 2022. I started writing fiction last year, and am hoping to increase my output in 2023. Whether or not I can find specific patterns here, I know these books are working their magic inside of me, mixing with everything else I’ve shoved in my brain over the years, which will yield its own unique stew of ideas for me to spill onto the page in the future.

To clarify, these are books I read last year. They weren't necessarily published last year. In fact, only two of them were. This list includes seven novels, one novella, a book of short stories, and a collection of comics. Only half of them are in the horror genre, believe it or not. If any of these interest you, consider picking one up from your local, independent bookstore. Or the library!

Without further ado, and listed in the order I read them:

1. Pickard County Atlas - Chris Harding Thornton

The first great novel I read last year. Dusty Nebraska noir with broken characters on a crash course with tragedy. The ending forced an involuntary vocalization from me, can’t quite remember, it might’ve been “OH MY GOD.” I can’t wait to see what’s next from Thornton.

2. The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty

In a year that saw the horror genre absolutely explode both in fiction and in movies, it was fun to go back to one of its early breakout hits. Crackerjack dialogue, chilling setpieces, and a harrowing setting made me wish I had read this before seeing the movie. They just wrote differently in the seventies, didn’t they?

3. Through the Woods - Emily Carroll

Eerie and lyrical, I LOVED this beautiful tome of lilting, foreboding comics. The stories are nestled deep in the woods, far away from any sense of normalcy or safety. The page compositions are gorgeous and haunting. I’ll revisit this one.

4. This Thing Between Us - Gus Moreno

The creepiest book I read in 2022. And almost, ALMOST my favorite book of the year. There’s an otherworldly horror that follows the main character from Chicago to Colorado after the love of his life dies in a freak accident. But it’s his inescapable grief that elevates this into a beautifully haunting treatise on love, loss, and isolation. I would be first in line to adapt this for the screen, but Moreno already called dibs. :)

5. False Bingo - Jac Jemc

I picked up this short story collection based solely on the cover, and soon found myself buffeted back and forth by a rapid succession of rabbit punches that kept me off balance for the entirety of the read. Taut, sharp, and not easily described. Jemc’s The Grip of It from 2017 is high up on my TBR list for 2023.

6. My Heart is a Chainsaw - Stephen Graham Jones

I have slowly amassed a decent chunk of Jones’s library and realize that he’s my favorite author writing today. This book is a big, beautiful love note to the slasher movies I grew up on. But setting nostalgia aside, this book is pure fun, with equal parts glorious horror setpieces and surprising emotional turns. The protagonist, Jade, is my favorite character in anything I’ve read all year.

7. Ohio - Stephen Markley

My favorite book of the year. I don’t pretend to know what the Great American Novel is supposed to look like, but that phrase was ringing in my ears as I made my way through the maximalist small town opening. This book is broad and sweeping with a beautifully woven tapestry of characters who obsess over each other in a love dodecahedron of intimate histories and exquisite agony.

8. Sundial - Catriona Ward

I have never read Ward before, and now I will read all of the Ward. This book had me hooked from the outset. Yes, it has some deeply twisted mysteries to keep you guessing, but it’s the constantly shifting, dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship that provides its beating heart. The main character’s husband, Irving, is a real piece of shit.

9. The Appeal - Janice Hallett

I picked this one up as a total lark and found it to be a total hoot. I don’t read a lot of pure mystery, but this epistolary novel had me in a state of near constant cringe as the huge cast of characters lobbed torrents of passive-aggressive emails at one another. Hallett does a beautiful job of turning reams of information (clues) into a hugely entertaining page turner.

10. Lucky Girl - M. Rickert

This one just squeaked in at the end of the year. It’s a super tight Christmas-set novella with a handful of horror threads that easily could have become their own standalone stories. Everything came together beautifully at the very end. Seriously, that last paragraph, wow. And because it’s so short, I may make reading it a new December tradition.

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The first pattern I noticed was when I created that little collage above. Look at the color palette of those covers! Maybe that's why False Bingo stood out to me.

As for the stories themselves, a cursory glance shows me that I’m drawn to strong characters and the emotional narratives that simultaneously draw them to, and repel them from, each other. There’s unfulfilled obsession, dangerous love, and mountains of hurt they must crawl through?in order to make an intimate connection. If only doing so paid off.

I also find in many of these books a staunch refusal to spoon-feed the reader, putting some of the most powerful narrative moments in the periphery, leaving clarity just out of reach. This makes me work harder as a reader and at times leaves me wondering and unsettled. What a beautiful use of fiction, to stir one from their stasis and set the mind free.

All right, have I pontificated enough to start the year? Listen, I hope you read. I hope you read a lot. Reading makes you a bigger person inside, and gives you glimpses of perspectives you otherwise might not get to see. So whether or not you read one of the above books, just read.

Speaking of, what are you reading right NOW? Let me know in a comment. My TBR pile is huge, but it can always use a few more books thrown on top.