The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,624 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

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My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of All the Colors of the Dark

M.W. Craven Why did I love this book?

Chris Whitaker blew the reading community away with his previous novel, We Begin at the End, but All the Colors of the Dark blows it out of the water.

A sprawling epic told over thirty-plus years, it’s an astonishing feat of penmanship, plotting, and characterization. The tale of the pirate (the one-eyed Patch) and the Beekeeper (the fierce and loyal Saint) will capture the hearts of generations to come—an incredible book.

By Chris Whitaker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked All the Colors of the Dark as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A missing persons mystery, a serial killer thriller, and an epic love story - with a unique twist on each...

* * * * *

Late one summer, the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of local teenager Joseph 'Patch' Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who is broken by her best friend's disappearance. Soon, she will eat, sleep, breathe, only to find him.

But when she it will break her heart.

Patch lies in a pitch-black room - all alone - for days or maybe weeks. Until he feels a hand in his. Her name…


My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Beat the Reaper

M.W. Craven Why did I love this book?

I was asked to read this book's last couple of chapters—the story of an ex-hitman working as a doctor in the witness protection scheme—as I had unwittingly written a scene similar to Josh's in the second Ben Koenig book, Nobody's Hero.

I ended up devouring the whole book in a single sitting. It had everything. It was violent, incredibly funny, and packed with the kind of medical insider knowledge that could only ever have been written by a surgeon.

It's pretty gross in places, and the scene we'd both inadvertently written was shocking (I changed mine), but it enhances the reading experience rather than detracts from it. Beat the Reaper won't be for everyone, but I absolutely loved it.

By Josh Bazell,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Beat the Reaper as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Doctor will see you now....

Meet Peter Brown, a young Manhattan ER Doctor who has a past he'd prefer to stay hidden. When a figure from the old days emerges it looks increasingly unlikely that his secret will stay intact.
Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is given three months to live, and it's clear to Peter that the clock is ticking for both of them. He must do whatever it takes to keep him - and his patient - alive.

It's time to beat the reaper....


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Holly

M.W. Craven Why did I love this book?

I fell in love with Holly Gibney from the moment she appeared on the page in Mr. Mercedes. Since then, she has appeared in three more novels, Finders KeepersEnd of Watch, The Outsider, and the novella If It Bleeds, but she hadn't had her own full-length novel before.

Holly changed that, and Stephen King did it in style. The story is a slow-burner, but when the antagonists' motivations are finally revealed, it becomes all the more shocking—a brilliant, brilliant book from arguably our greatest living author.

By Stephen King,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Holly as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.” —BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against…


Plus, check out my book…

The Mercy Chair

By M.W. Craven,

Book cover of The Mercy Chair

What is my book about?

Washington Poe has a story to tell. And he needs you to listen. You'll hear how it started with the robber birds. Crows. Dozens of them. Enough for a murder...

He'll tell you about a man who was tied to a tree and stoned to death, a man who had tattooed himself with a code so obscure, even the gifted analyst Tilly Bradshaw struggled to break it. He'll tell you how the man's murder was connected to a tragedy that happened fifteen years earlier when a young girl massacred her entire family.

And finally, he'll tell you about the mercy chair. And why people would rather kill themselves than talk about it...Poe hopes you've been paying attention. Because in this story, nothing is as it seems...