The Best Books of 2021
12ranked
7five-star
4.6avg rating
4genres
The standouts of 2021, in order. Before 2023 I didn't review everything I read, so this is a best-of list rather than a ranking of the whole year.
The top ten at a glance
BEST OF 2021#1We Begin at the End
Chris Whitaker
BEST OF 2021#2Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr
BEST OF 2021#3Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
BEST OF 2021#4Razorblade Tears
S.A. Cosby
BEST OF 2021#5The Last Watch + The Exiled Fleet
J.S. Dewes
BEST OF 2021#6Great Circle
Maggie Shipstead
BEST OF 2021#7The Push
Ashley Audrain
BEST OF 2021#8The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman
BEST OF 2021#9A Distant Grave
Sarah Stewart Taylor
BEST OF 2021#10The Blacktongue Thief
Christopher Buehlman
12 of 12
Updated Jul 26
Showing order — the numbers are still each book's rank, just no longer in sequence.
Rank
Book
Rating
Genre
#1
We Begin at the End
Chris WhitakerBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
A thought-provoking and heartbreaking coming of age story, mixed with a small town mystery. My clear favorite of 2021 by a wide margin
★★★★★
Literature & Fiction
#2
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony DoerrBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
An ambitious, sprawling novel that intertwines 3 storylines across different places and times, but magically comes together in the end
★★★★★
Literature & Fiction
#3
Project Hail Mary
Andy WeirBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
A scientist trapped alone in space trying to survive. What worked for The Martian does again and this time might be even better.
★★★★★
Science Fiction
#4
Razorblade Tears
S.A. CosbyBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
When two young gay men are murdered, their fathers join forces to take solving the murders into their own hands.
★★★★★
Mystery and Thriller
#5
The Last Watch + The Exiled Fleet
J.S. DewesBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
A ragtag group of soldiers (and a few criminals) are staffed at the end of the universe. Things are mostly boring...until they're not
★★★★★
Science Fiction
#6
Great Circle
Maggie ShipsteadBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
Meet protagonist Marian Graves, a woman in determined to fly planes in the early 1900s at a time when women, quite simply, didn't.
★★★★★
Literature & Fiction
#7
The Push
Ashley AudrainBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
What happens when a mom can't connect with her child, and she starts to wonder if her child isn’t just different, but maybe truly a bad kid?
★★★★★
Mystery and Thriller
#8
The Thursday Murder Club
Richard OsmanBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
What happens when 4 septuagenarians entertain a hobby of solving cold cases, only to have a body turn up at their retirement home?
★★★★★
Mystery and Thriller
#9
A Distant Grave
Sarah Stewart TaylorBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
Maggie D'Arcy is back in a solid sequel to The Mountains Wild that confirms (for me) that Sarah Stewart Taylor is for real!
★★★★★
Mystery and Thriller
#10
The Blacktongue Thief
Christopher BuehlmanBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
A thief with a wry sense of humor is reluctantly paired up with a badass female knight on a quest to save the knight's queen.
★★★★★
Fantasy
#11
Apples Never Fall
Liane MoriarityBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
When the matriarch of the famous Delaney tennis family goes missing, family dynamics and long-held grudges are on full display.
★★★★★
Literature & Fiction
#12
Lore
Alexandra BrackenBEST OF2021
★★★★★BEST OF2021
When Lore Perseous makes a deal with the goddess Athena, she is thrust into the middle of a once-every-seven-years event.
★★★★★
Fantasy
How the ranking works
One list, every book, no ties. When I finish something it goes in against everything else I've read this year, which means the order shifts constantly — a book that sat at 12 in March can be at 20 by August without having gotten any worse. Star ratings and rank are related but not the same thing: among fourteen five-star books, someone still has to be fourteenth.
The next one, in your inbox.
One email on the first of every month with a summary and rating of each book reviewed over the past 30 days, and a look at where the year's ranking stands.