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8 Must-Read Books That Went Under the Radar Last Year

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One of my favorite Read Harder Challenge tasks this year is #21: Read a book that went under the radar in 2023. Between the access I now have to early review copies of books and co-hosting the All the Books podcast, it’s easy for me to become fixated on new releases. The truth is, there are hundreds of thousands of books published every year, and most of them go under the radar. It’s worth taking the time to turn away from the buzzy books of the moment and pick up a recent release that didn’t get the marketing budget to break out.

Of course, “under the radar” is a nebulous term. It can be hard to gauge the popularity of a title, especially in an era of social media bubbles. The book all your friends are talking about might only be popular in your echo chamber, and the biggest bestselling books are often titles getting very little attention from bookish social media. (Think: business books and the latest John Grisham mystery.)

That’s why I use the inexact but useful tool of total Goodreads ratings. The books I’m recommending here are all 2023 releases that currently have under 5,000 ratings. For comparison, Happy Place by Emily Henry has over a million ratings, and The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese has 200,000 ratings. Feel free to use your own standard for an under-the-radar 2023 release, but make sure you’re not accidentally selecting a big bestseller.

Now, here are my recommendations for task #21! Six are my favourite under the radar 2023 releases, and the last two are ones that are on my TBR.

Tauhou cover

Tauhou by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall

I love this novel that makes literal the author’s experience of being of Māori and W̱SÁNEĆ descent: it imagines Vancouver Island and Aotearoa, New Zealand, as side-by-side islands, with the kind of cultural exchange you’d expect from that proximity. It’s told in a series of vignettes with repeating characters. It also has several queer characters. My favourite vignette was of an Indigenous woman trying to introduce her white girlfriend to her aunty in the graveyard. This is a beautifully written book published in 2023 that deserves far more attention.

What Stalks Among Us cover

What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell

As I put together my October TBR, I started reminiscing about this book and how much I enjoyed reading it last October. It’s about two queer teens who get lost in a corn maze and then stumble on their own bodies and have to figure out what’s happening. This delivers exactly on that premise: they’re in the maze within the first few pages, and they find their bodies in the first chapter. I especially loved Sadie as a narrator: her anxious, ADHD mind was extremely relatable. Pick up this 2023 release for your 2024 Halloween TBR!

Danika Ellis

Associate Editor

Danika spends most of her time talking about queer women books at the Lesbrary. Blog: The Lesbrary Twitter: @DanikaEllis

cover of Falling Back in Love with Being Human

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom

Despite this 2023 release being a Book Riot favourite — and one of my personal faves — it’s still mostly gone mostly under the radar. It’s a collection of love letters, addressed to people ranging from celebrating other trans women to trying to reach out to intensely transphobic and racist people. It comes from, as she describes it, her attempt to “embrace the revolutionary belief that every human being — no matter how hateful or horrible — is intrinsically sacred.” Between each letter are instructions, ranging from simple to more elaborate ways to embody the letter that came before. For example, write a list of ways you can support the transfem people in your life. Or, go into the woods, lie down, and cover yourself in leaves. Reading this 2023 release will improve your 2024.

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera Book Cover

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera

This steamy novel shattered any misconceptions I had of historical romance being stuffy. Manuela has vowed to spend the summer before she gets married — to a wealthy man she has no feelings for — having a debaucherous adventure in Paris. Cora wants to buy her land, so she agrees with the condition that Cora shows her the sapphic side of 1889 Paris. They can’t seem to keep this business arrangement purely professional, though. This 2023 romance is such a fun read, and it should have so many more readers.

Cover of Boys Weekend

Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky

Here’s another 2023 release that is a perfect pick for October! Boys Weekend is a satirical horror graphic novel about Sammie, a trans feminine person who is invited to the bachelor party of an old friend as the “best man.” While there, Mattie seems to be the only one concerned about the cult sacrificing people. It’s a quick, fun read that you can definitely squeeze in before October ends.

Into the Light cover

Into the Light by Mark Oshiro

Honestly, this one is so good that it makes me a little mad that more people haven’t read it. It’s a 2023 YA novel with a supernatural twist, told non-linearly. This is a heartbreaking story, but with hopeful notes, that is drawn from Oshiro’s own experiences and the experiences of so many others, especially queer kids of colour. Check out the trigger warnings before picking this up, because it is very focused on racism, queerphobia, child abuse, and religious abuse. I went into this with high expectations and it definitely lived up to them.

At Night He Lifts Weights by Kang Young-sook cover

At Night He Lifts Weights by Kang Young-sook, translated by Janet Hong

Books in translation often don’t get the same marketing budgets, which means they can go under the radar. This collection, translated into English in 2023, focuses on women’s perspectives and is told in a range of genres. Book Rioter Pierce Alquist says, “Perceptive and subversive, the stories in At Night He Lifts Weights vary in tone and genre, but each is singularly captivating, swirling around themes of loss — ecological destruction, loneliness, and death. Each has a subtle illusion of calm that conceals what lies below in the unnerving depths.”

cover of The Free People's Village by Sim Kern

The Free People’s Village by Sim Kern

Here’s another 2023 release that I was surprised didn’t have more Goodreads ratings. Maybe it’s the TikTok bubble I’m in, or hopefully the people reading this title are just on StoryGraph instead. When Maddie finds out her queer punk band’s venue is being demolished for an electromagnetic hyperway through Houston’s Eighth Ward, she joins the anti-capitalist fight to Defend the Eighth — and learns how she’s contributed to racism in the area as a white gentrifier. I’ve heard multiple people say this book kept them up until three in the morning and left them in tears.

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