Our Underrated Favorites of 2023!
This is not your average best-of-the-year list! Our booksellers have read a lot this year, and we’re bringing you our favorites from 2023 that you won’t find on every other year-end roundup—the underrated, unsung, under the radar hits we think you have to pick up. Read on for the best in fiction, horror, romance, kids lit, and more!
Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova
This book reminded me why I love fiction!! A spooky, thoughtful book of grief incarnate. The little gremlin on the cover will horrify and endear himself to you completely. Also, it’s so gay! For fans of Shirley Jackson, Kelly Link, and gremlins.
– Bex
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
A moving, gorgeous love story between two soldiers during WWI. So tender, and so impressive in scope!!! Just glorious - if you want to feel all the feels, pick it up!
– Bel
This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang
This was such a delight and a sparkling gem of a book. It made me feel like I was reading YA back in high school again. At certain moments I held the book to my face and started screaming. It has a lot of the usual tropes and things you'd expect about fake dating, but it didn't feel tired at all, and I felt delighted at almost every turn. I need more books like this... immediately
– Camryn
Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee
Um yeah hi I need everyone to be talking about this. This book is fun, touching, funny, and gripping all in one. The visualizations in there go crazy. Commentary on the succubus that is student debt? Covered. Longing and yearning that creeps up on you? Covered. So so good. Also, read the acknowledgements first. I think about that final thank you very often. Molly is a gem!!
– Jules
Friday, I’m In Love by Camryn Garrett
Friday I'm In Love is the book I wish I had read when I was in high school. It's for every adolescent or adult even, who is wondering where they fit and who they belong with. It deals with sexuality, class, and race in a way that is humorous while still giving these aspects of the story the respect they deserve. A great recommendation for YA and romance lovers for sure!
– Isabella
The Art of Scandal by Regina Black
This steamy political romance should be on every romance lover’s list! It’s romantic and it’s messy and it’s perfectly paced. I loved Black’s writing and her characters have absolutely sizzling chemistry. I could not put this one down!
– Julia
The Free People’s Village by Sim Kern
The Free People's Village is chaotic yet addictive. Sim Kern created a lively bunch of memorable misfits. In an alternate timeline where climate change is the main concern of all destruction, guitarist Maddie Ryan finds herself in the middle of a Black-led anti-capitalist revolution attempting to save the predominantly Black Eighth Ward from being destroyed for the benefit of the wealthy, white suburbanites. Faced with the realization of the harm she has already caused, Maddie must decide what she's willing to put at risk and sacrifice to right her wrongs and pursue justice. Sharp, vivacious, and unflinching - get it now!
– Jacque
Wolfish by Erica Berry
Simply put, this book is so, so cool. Erica Berry narrates the migration of the legendary lone wolf OR-7 while simultaneously recounting her own journey through experiences of fear and solitude. If you like wolves, mythology, folk tales, psychology, or if you just appreciate incredibly in-depth research and captivating personal essay writing, then this book should be at the top of your TBR list!
– Amali
Schrader's Chord by Scott Leeds
YOU GOTTA READ THIS! Some of the best horror and best writing period that I've read in recent memory. It's genuinely very scary but with a surprisingly great sense of humor! A little Final Destination, a lot unsettling, it's a book about family (dads!) and legacy, ghosts and music, beautifully written with a tender heart at its center. So spooky, surprisingly funny, and just….so, so good. I want to absorb this book.
– Teo
Georgie All Along by Kate Clayborn
For anyone who needs a book equivalent of a bath and mug of tea that’s just the right temperature, this was that book for me. Georgie, Levi, and everyone in this cast of characters is so thoughtfully rendered and Clayborn breathes new life into the old returning-to-your-hometown story.
– JoAnn
Reproduction by Louisa Hall
I talk about this book way too much to still not know how to put its magic into words.
– Anna
Fireworks Every Night by Beth Raymer
I loved this sharp, touching, sometimes brutal family story that shows exactly what the empty promises of Florida did to folks flocking there in the 80s and 90s (I was one of them). Fireworks Every Night is the real deal and will stay with you long after finishing it.
– Mike
Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun by Jackie Wang
This genre-defying book collects poet and prison researcher Jackie Wang’s writings from her college years to her late twenties chronologically, in what she so accurately refers to as “an almanac of extreme girlhood.” I loved reading these candid reflections from Wang’s time living in a punk house, hitchhiking, going on long-distance bicycle trips, negotiating the dynamics of queer relationships, and listening to Bjork. Many of the pieces were originally published in handmade zines, on Tumblr, and given as presentations at feminist conferences. Although technically Wang “settles down” as she gets older, the writing remains restless and engaging.
– Gold
Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary
Juno Loves Legs is a masterpiece. It is a sharp, beautiful, intense portrait of two kids growing up poor in Dublin in the 1980s, who have only each other among political, social, and personal upheaval. Geary evokes the magic of what it’s like to have someone who knows and forgives you more than you do yourself. It is an ode to love in different forms, and to fighting tooth and nail for hope.
– Zoe
Shmutz by Felicia Berliner
This book was impossible to put down! It follows a young Hasidic Jewish woman in NYC who’s attending college and trying to get married except one thing is holding her back. Her intense, all-consuming addiction to pornography. Through brilliantly humorous prose, Berliner tells this coming of age story of shame, love, and desire. I loved every page.
– Isabella
