2024 has been full of incredible books with a wide range of interesting and diverse characters and stories. Diversity is so important in storytelling, allowing people to be seen and understood, and it’s amazing to see a push for more inclusion within literature. The following four books are all 2024 releases that are great examples of exceptional writing, storytelling, and representation.
The Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis
This is a perfect book for Greek mythology fans and lovers of books like Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles. The Palace of Eros is a feminist reimagining of Psyche and Eros’ Greek myth that explores nonbinary identity through Eros and grapples with the complexity of identity, desire, and sexuality, all while depicting a powerful and sensual sapphic love story.
In the novel, all the men in town stop worshiping Aphrodite in favor of lusting after the desirable Psyche. The Oracle tells her father that his daughter is destined to marry a monster, and to please Aphrodite, he must tie Psyche to a rock and leave her for this monstrous man to find. The monster never appears, but Eros, the deity of desire, does. Aphrodite sends her to kill Psyche, but she instead takes her away to a palace the gods cannot see. There, the two spend each night together and fall in love, but they must face much more before they can be together for good.
A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
A Song to Drown Rivers takes major inspiration from the Four Beauties of Ancient China in Chinese mythology, focusing specifically on the mesmerizing Xishi. This book brings a lesser-known story (at least to Western audiences) into the public consciousness and delves into the complicated experiences of womanhood, beauty, and war within Chinese culture.
The novel follows Xishi, an unbelievably beautiful woman whose life path is altered when she’s approached by Fanli, a military advisor. Instead of marrying to support her family, she is offered the chance to use her beauty to seduce the rival king. If she succeeds, the Kingdom of Wu will fall, and she will not only help save her kingdom but also get revenge for her sister, who was killed by Wu soldiers. But if she’s discovered, she may bring even more danger to herself and her people.
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
In Anita de Monte Laughs Last, Raquel is beginning to work on her thesis as a first-generation Ivy League art history student in her third year. She struggles to find community and must bear the pressures of achieving success as a person of color. Things start to change for her when she begins dating an older, wealthy, and white student, as does her discovery of Anita de Monte’s story. Anita was gaining popularity in the art world when she was suddenly found dead in 1985, with her story now seemingly forgotten, but Raquel finds parallels in their lives that has her reexamining herself.
The novel melds Anita’s past and Raquel’s present, depicting the effects of classism, racism, power dynamics, and gender roles through the years while also showing how those intersections impact relationships, art, history, and memory. These two characters show the hardships women, especially those who are non-white, experience and the extra barriers to success that POC must face in spaces dominated by the white upper class.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Cyrus Shams is a poet and Iranian immigrant who grew up in the United States. He struggles with addiction and mental illness due to generational trauma and the loss of both of his parents, but he is newly sober and committed to unraveling the past to learn about those who came before him. In this pursuit, he meets Orkideh, a NYC-based painter dying from cancer, who makes him rethink what he knew about his mother.
Through Cyrus, the novel grapples with grief, PTSD, and racism. It depicts his experiences growing up with differing cultures and struggling to fit in with either. It also explores language, history, and ancestry, but it ultimately focuses on the never-ending pursuit of finding meaning and belonging in life.
Diverse books are worth supporting, and these 2024 releases prove such books can be interesting and engaging reads with well-crafted stories. Give these amazing novels a read, and watch for even more incredible representation in 2025’s releases.
Want to learn more about why diversity is so important? Check out this article.
Check out even more recommendations from the Bookstr team on Bookshop.org.
