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2018 Goodreads Choice Winners Announced

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Dana Staves

Staff Writer

Going through life with an apron tied on and a pen in her hand, Dana Staves writes about books and food. She also writes a little fiction. She lives in Maryland with her wife, their son, and their cat.

The voting is done, and Goodreads has announced the winners of their 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards. If you’re not familiar (and didn’t get to vote!), Goodreads releases nominees for the best books of the year in genres like fiction, nonfiction, poetry, romance, sci-fi, YA, and several others. Readers vote, or write-in new nominees, and a second found of finalists is released. Voting continues, and a third round of finalists is released before the big announcement comes in early December. And today is that day!

The Hate U GiveI’ve included the full list of winners below, but I want to pause and talk about a new category that Goodreads included this year. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Goodreads Choice Awards, they introduced the Best of the Best category, where readers were asked to vote on the ultimate best book from the 170 past winners in the competition. The winner is Angie Thomas’s The Hate U GiveShe took the top spot at an 8K+ lead over the runner up (All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr). THUG has been a Book Riot favorite, and we’re psyched to see her book chosen from such a large pool of titles.

A couple of other noteworthy wins:  Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone won in the Debut Author category. You might remember that Adeyemi’s book was the inaugural pick for Jimmy Fallon’s book club on The Tonight Show. She claimed the top spot at a whopping 35K lead over the runner up. So, she didn’t just win, she really won.

The Kiss Quotient by Helen HoangIf no one has told you about The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang yet, do yourself a favor, call out of work, and read it today. Hoang’s book won for Romance in a category that boasted a diverse and exciting group of finalists. Lots of buzzy books from this year.

Speaking of diversity, Goodreads showed a bit of improvement in that category. Winners in the 2017 Awards showed 20% books by authors of color (with Angie Thomas’s THUG taking two of those spots). This year’s awards round out to 29% books by authors of color.

See the complete list of winners below, and then get your book shopping on!

2018 Goodreads choice award winners

fiction

Still Me by JoJo Moyes

mystery and thriller

The Outsider by Stephen King

historical fiction

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

fantasy

Circe by Madeline Miller

best of the best

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

romance

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Science fiction

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

horror

Elevation by Stephen King

humor

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

nonfiction

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark:  One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

memoir and autobiography

Educated by Tara Westover

history and biography

The Good Neighbor:  The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King

science and technology

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs:  A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte

food and cookbooks

Cravings:  Hungry for More by Chrissy Teigen

graphic novels and comics

Herding Cats by Sarah Andersen

poetry

The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace

debut author

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

young adult fiction

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

young adult fantasy

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

middle grades and children’s

The Trials of Apollo:  Book Three, The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan

picture books

I Am Enough by Grace Byers