Oof, so 2024 was not my best year in book reading. With a lot going on in my work life, I ended up reading fanfic and not as much engaging with novels. But I still want to reflect on some of what I read, especially as I didn’t get around to writing as many reviews as I would have liked this year.

Books

Best Book: The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison by Hugh Ryan

An accessible but still incisive look into a specific prison and the US carceral system as a whole, The Women’s House of Detention is a must-read headed into 2025.

Honorable Mention: Deaf Utopia: A Memoir- and a Love Letter by Nyle DiMarco with Robert Siebert

Worst Book: All About Yvie: Into the Oddity by Yvie Oddly with Michael Bach

I’m sorry, Yvie, you are a great drag queen, but you are not yet a good memoir writer, and Michael Bach’s style and tone are doing you no favors.

Most Frustrating Book: In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life by Amy Schneider

A mild example, as there is not much truly wrong with Amy Schneider’s memoir, except that she almost entirely skips over the main thing I know her from: a podcast she made with her ex-wife. This will not be an issue for most people, who presumably know her from her spin on Jeopardy and not her episode reviews of Downton Abbey.

Biggest Surprise: Odder by Katherine Applegate

I primarily knew Katherine Applegate from the series Animorphs, which I grew up on, but I was surprised with how much grit and drama she was able to maintain in a book for a much younger audience than that series.

Movies

In contrast, I did watch many movies this year, some good, many bad.

Best Movie: Society of the Snow (2023)

I have watched this two and a half hour movie three times in the last year, and loved it every single time. A gruelling survival story told beautifully, I would highly, highly recommend it.

Honorable Mentions: Hundreds of Beavers, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Love Lies Bleeding, Godzilla Minus One, The Thing (1982)

Worst Movie: Cuckoo (2024)

While Trap and Immaculate were also incompetent horror movies from this year, at least it was clear what they were trying to accomplish. Cuckoo seemingly exists because the filmmakers had a couple images in mind and Dan Stevens likes to do silly accents.

Dishonorable Mentions: Trap, Immaculate, Abigail

Most Frustrating Movie: Maxxxine (2024)

Just a fairly lackluster conclusion to what had been a very fun trilogy.

Dishonorable Mention: Dave Made a Maze, Sissy

Biggest Surprise: Night Swim (2024)

“Haunted pool” is a pitch that elicited a lot of snark when this horror movie came out, but it was far better than it had any right to be and told a very effective story about parents as people and family favoritism.

Also, a special shout out to the 2024 remake of Speak No Evil. It is a very different movie with different priorities than the 2022 Danish original, and suffers from the comparison as the original is far more ambitious, but it stands on its own quite well.

Honorable Mentions: I Came By, The Shed