2021 Library Journal Best Books (Awarded by Library Journal)

Awards List

Crime Fiction

Tricky
(*)
Josh Stallings

Dream Girl
(*)
Laura Lippman

The Killing Hills
(*)
Chris Offutt

Razorblade Tears
(*)
S.A. Cosby

Clark and Division
(*)
Naomi Hirahara

Lightning Strike
(*)
William Kent Krueger

The Turnout
(*)
Megan Abbott

Velvet Was the Night
(*)
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Harlem Shuffle
(*)
Colson Whitehead

Mango, Mambo, and Murder
(*)
Raquel V. Reyes

Graphic Novels

Asadora!, Vol. 1
(*)
Naoki Urasawa

Solo Leveling, Vol. 1
(*)
Chugong

I Will Not Reach You., Vol. 1
(*)
Mika

Monsters
(*)
Barry Windsor-Smith

Stone Fruit
(*)
Lee Lai

Everyone is Tulip
(*)
Dave Baker

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness
(*)
Kristen Radtke

Bliss
(*)
Sean Lewis

Sensor
(*)
Junji Ito

Horror

My Heart Is a Chainsaw
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

Children of Chicago
(*)
Cynthia Pelayo

Goddess of Filth
(*)
V. Castro

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
(*)
Eric LaRocca

The Book of Accidents
(*)
Chuck Wendig

The Final Girl Support Group
(*)
Grady Hendrix

Queen of Teeth
(*)
Hailey Piper

Body Shocks
(*)
Ellen Datlow

The Last House on Needless Street
(*)
Catriona Ward

Reprieve
(*)
James Han Mattson

Literary Fiction

The Prophets
(*)
Robert Jones Jr.

The Removed
(*)
Brandon Hobson

The Five Wounds
(*)
Kirstin Valdez Quade

Open Water
(*)
Caleb Azumah Nelson

Once There Were Wolves
(*)
Charlotte McConaghy

Bewilderment
(*)
Richard Powers

Matrix
(*)
Lauren Groff

Chronicles from the Happiest People on Earth
(*)
Wole Soyinka

Cloud Cuckoo Land
(*)
Anthony Doerr

What Storm, What Thunder
(*)
Myriam J.A. Chancy

Pop Fiction

A Splendid Ruin
(*)
Megan Chance

Annie and the Wolves
(*)
Andromeda Romano-Lax

Girls with Bright Futures
(*)
Tracy Dobmeier

Libertie
(*)
Kaitlyn Greenidge

The Great Mistake
(*)
Jonathan Lee

Nightbitch
(*)
Rachel Yoder

The Personal Librarian
(*)
Marie Benedict; Murray Victoria Christopher

The Reading List
(*)
Sara Nisha Adams

L.A. Weather
(*)
Maria Amparo Escandon

Smile and Look Pretty
(*)
Amanda Pellegrino

Romance

The Devil Comes Courting
(*)
Courtney Milan

Act Your Age, Eve Brown
(*)
Talia Hibbert

Hana Khan Carries On
(*)
Uzma Jalaluddin

Subtle Blood
(*)
K.J. Charles

A Lot Like Adios
(*)
Alexis Daria

Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words
(*)
Annika Sharma

Sailorproof
(*)
Annabeth Albert

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower
(*)
Erica Ridley

A Thorn in the Saddle
(*)
Rebekah Weatherspoon

The Love Con
(*)
Seressia Glass

SF/Fantasy

Domesticating Dragons
(*)
Dan Koboldt

Winter's Orbit
(*)
Everina Maxwell

The Unbroken
(*)
C.L. Clark

Project Hail Mary
(*)
Andy Weir

The Jasmine Throne
(*)
Tasha Suri

She Who Became the Sun
(*)
Shelley Parker-Chan

No Gods, No Monsters
(*)
Cadwell Turnbull

A Spindle Splintered
(*)
Alix E. Harrow

Short Stories

Prayer for the Living
(*)
Ben Okri

Songs for the Flames
(*)
Juan Gabriel Vasquez

That Old Country Music
(*)
Kevin Barry

Milk Blood Heat
(*)
Dantiel W. Moniz

First Person Singular
(*)
Haruki Murakami

The Souvenir Museum
(*)
Elizabeth McCracken

Filthy Animals: Stories
(*)
Brandon Taylor

Afterparties: Stories
(*)
Anthony Veasna So

Five Tuesdays in Winter
(*)
Lily King

Look For Me and I'll Be Gone: Stories
(*)
John Edgar Wideman

World Literature

The Death of Murat Idrissi
(*)
Tommy Wieringa

The Art of Losing
(*)
Alice Zeniter

The Twilight Zone
(*)
Nona Fernandez

Zabor, or The Psalms
(*)
Kamel Daoud

Catch the Rabbit
(*)
Lana Bastasic

Bolla
(*)
Pajtim Statovci

Brotherhood
(*)
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

After the Sun
(*)
Jonas Eika

The Book of Mother
(*)
Violaine Huisman

The Italian
(*)
Shukri Mabkhout

Award Categories

Crime Fiction

Graphic Novels

Horror

Literary Fiction

Pop Fiction

Romance

SF/Fantasy

Short Stories

World Literature

Award Years

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018