The Booker Prize 2024

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

I though this would be a good one to start with. At about 150 pages, it should have taken me a couple of hours. But I’ll be honest and say I never finished it. I read it for days and days and never got further than halfway. I just didn’t get it. It felt too aware of its own self for me. It had no plot as such, and the character development was lacking. It was like the author had written a bunch of beautiful sentences and put them together even if they didn’t flow. I have seen lots of raving reviews, but I just didn’t get it one little bit, so not the best start to my reading challenge.

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

This was my second read and I hoped it would fare better than the first. Everything I was reading said how gorgeous it was and how it had instantly gone on people’s “best book of 2024” list, and so I had high hopes. At roughly 260 pages it’s quite quick. I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It had this lyrical quality about it that held my attention and I couldn’t part with it. This was an instant five-star read but it’s hard to explain way. The writing is natural and yet captivating, the characters well written and complicates, the plot so inviting and entertaining.

James by Percival Everett

I had really debated about buying this book for so long, even before there was talk of the Booker, but I kept resisting because it’s related to the Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn stories of Mark Twain which, whilst I own, have never read, and though that James would be too confusing. But I decided to give it a go without reading them and it works. It’s so good. It’s so poetic and a really beautiful way of telling a story. A slower read than others but worth every minute. It’s completely entrancing and I was quite sad to have finished it.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

I thought this was going to be another hard-hitting, whimsical, quite difficult book, the type that often gets nominated for the big prizes (not a criticism btw). And it is hard at times, but it’s also a thriller, a spy novel, which was refreshing. It was weird, you had sort of two stories going on, one that made sense and one that felt more rambling and didn’t quite gel with me. I did enjoy reading it but it wasn’t my favourite. It’s disorganised, disorientating, ambiguous – I don’t think it’s for everyone. I think it’s neither one thing or another, but it’s an interesting read.

Held by Anne Michaels

This is short and sweet, just what I needed after a few heavy long books. I thought this was non-fiction before I started reading it, but then I wondered why it was in the Booker Prize for Fiction list. But it had this sad truth behind it, like this could be anyone’s story. It’s weird because there is quite clearly a story happening, but at the same time it appears to be random sentences and paragraphs with no flow. But it does flow. It works. It’s so soft and tender but raw and harsh. It’s not the easiest book to read but worth it; I couldn’t put it down. It’s sad but it is very beautiful.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

This one sounded so serious and I was worried it would be too heavy to enjoy. And I was right about one thing – it is very heavy. But it never feels like a slog or overly preachy and it is definitely enjoyable. It’s odd because it’s written almost as if a diary or a stream of inner commentary from the protagonist’s POV, rather than by an outsider depicting the story like most of the books I read, which took a little time to get used to. It has short chapters which is an instant win for me. I found myself liking it the further I got on, but I do think there were perhaps one too many subplots. Not my favourite of the bunch but very well written.