The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,705 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of All the Dead Lie Down

Erica Waters Why did I love this book?

All the Dead Lie Down is queer gothic perfection. It is just the right amount of scary, with luscious writing and a completely immersive atmosphere. I savored every word from start to finish.

It’s the kind of book that wraps you up in a spell and leaves you a little bit changed afterwards. As a reader, I loved it— and as a writer, I was deeply jealous that I’m not the one who wrote it. 

By Kyrie McCauley,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked All the Dead Lie Down as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

The Haunting of Bly Manor meets House of Salt and Sorrows in award-winning author Kyrie McCauley’s contemporary YA gothic romance about a dark family lineage, the ghosts of grief, and the lines we’ll cross for love.

The Sleeping House was very much awake . . .

Days after a tragedy leaves Marin Blythe alone in the world, she receives a surprising invitation from Alice Lovelace—an acclaimed horror writer and childhood friend of Marin’s mother. Alice offers her a nanny position at Lovelace House, the family’s coastal Maine estate.

Marin accepts and soon finds herself minding Alice’s peculiar girls. Thea buries…


Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Our Wives Under the Sea

Erica Waters Why did I love this book?

Sometimes you want to read something that’s just a little bit weird, and this book certainly delivers.

Deep sea strangeness, a creeping sense of unreality, and an achingly beautiful sapphic romance made this book a star of my reading year. If you’re interested in the mysteries of the deep sea or just want to read some truly beautiful writing, I highly recommend it.

By Julia Armfield,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Our Wives Under the Sea as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Named as book to look out for in 2022 by Guardian, i-D, Autostraddle, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, Stylist and DAZED.

Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.

To have the woman she loves back should mean a return…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

Erica Waters Why did I love this book?

I read only a handful of nonfiction titles every year, and I’m so glad I made space in my reading schedule for this quite awe-inspiring one.

Sheldrake’s writing is so inviting and compelling, and what he has to share about the world of fungi is absolutely fascinating. I already knew more about fungi than the average person, yet I still gasped in surprise several times while reading, and I constantly regaled my partner with newly learned fungi facts.

Even if you’re not particularly interested in fungi, I think you’ll find plenty here to wonder at. 

By Merlin Sheldrake,

Why should I read it?

21 authors picked Entangled Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “brilliant [and] entrancing” (The Guardian) journey into the hidden lives of fungi—the great connectors of the living world—and their astonishing and intimate roles in human life, with the power to heal our bodies, expand our minds, and help us address our most urgent environmental problems.

“Grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world.”—Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—Time, BBC Science Focus, The Daily Mail, Geographical, The Times, The Telegraph, New Statesman, London Evening Standard, Science Friday

When we think…


Plus, check out my book…

All That Consumes Us

By Erica Waters,

Book cover of All That Consumes Us

What is my book about?

The students in Corbin College’s elite academic society, Magni Viri, have it all—free tuition, inspirational professors, and dream jobs once they graduate. When first-gen college student Tara is offered a chance to enroll, she doesn’t hesitate. Except once she’s settled into the gorgeous Victorian dormitory, something strange starts to happen. She’s finally writing, but her stories are dark and twisted. Her dreams feel as if they could bury her alive. An unseen presence seems to stalk her through the halls.

And a chilling secret awaits Tara at the heart of Magni Viri—one that just might turn her nightmares into reality; one that might destroy her before she has a chance to escape. 

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.