10 Best Novels of the Decade
Novels are a commitment. Starting a new book is almost as exciting as finishing one, and with the advent of audiobooks and Kindle, there are that many more ways to read. There’s never a wrong way to read a book! We asked some of our favorite writers, filmmakers, podcasters, and artists to give Mirror Box some of the novels that made an impact on them this decade. Enjoy!
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
It’s hard to balance beautiful writing and engaging storytelling. Usually you get one of the two, but Gillian Flynn is the master of this kind of high-wire act. Gone Girl is a dark suspense novel told from the dual perspectives of a husband and his wife who has gone missing. For Nick’s side, we get a first-person narrative that never cheats and yet still has you wondering if he murdered his wife. For Amy’s perspective, we get her diary, which, for every question it answers, asks five more. The writing is tight and lyrical, but it never demands attention. It drags you deeper and deeper into the story—a clever, unique, and engaging tale that you won’t soon forget.
Lynne Hansen is an Atlanta-based horror artist who specializes in book covers, and you can see her work at LynneHansenArt.com.
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
So I guess this is where I admit reading isn't really my "thing". I grew up a voracious reader, but as time has gone by, reading just isn't how I consume fiction anymore. Don't get me wrong. There are books I've devoured, sure. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schrier, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein, for example. I like non-fiction with explanatory subtitles. It's to the point where most of the fiction I've read over the past decade have been books I've narrated. To that end, my favorite novel has to be To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo. Yes, I narrated it, but the world she crafted was dense and intricate, filled with characters I wanted to know more about long after my time in the studio finished. That it's such a confident work for a first novel is doubly impressive. So, yes ... this is a book I read for work, but it's the kind of book that makes my work a pleasure.
Jacob York is a writer and actor from Benton, Kentucky who has lived in Atlanta for most of his professional career. @jkobbster on Twitter.
Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey
As a writer of fiction, I don't read enough fiction. I can't explain why. Maybe Tolkien spoiled me. However, I love The Expanse. It's snappy and thoughtful and stylish and cool, all while wearing taped glasses. What I mean is that these books (and the wonderful television show it inspired) keep nestled away in their protomolecule-infested innards just enough tech and "hard" scifi, that it feels effortlessly real. That yin-yang balance is why The Expanse is so popular and so good. You get the sweet taste of believable physics with the pacing, action, readability, and character development of a perfectly crafted novel. Caliban's War is, I feel, exceptional in the way it weaves new characters into the well-established quilt of the first book. In so doing, the world (relatively small in the scope of genre books) is expanded: new wrinkles appear; the sociopolitical matrix of the solar system takes on new life in exhilarating ways; the possibility of first contact is terrifying. All the while we are still held close by the crew of the Rocinante, comfortably sharing the galley with our friends as we peer out into the horrid void.
Derek A. Kamal is a game maker and self-published author. He hides his work at ShorelessSkies.com
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
The Shining is one of Stephen King’s best works, I think we can all agree. It’s a really unique and interesting horror novel about isolation and alcohol, creativity and family. It was also published in 1977, and does not qualify for this list. The prior fact, however, does make the novel I DID choose all the more impressive. Stephen King managed not only to write an impressive and deserving sequel to one of his most beloved novels, but write said sequel a quarter of a century later. Doctor Sleep manages to be a compelling and chilling narrative, while expanding the universe of The Shining AND revealing what 25 years has taught the author about the themes he wrote in 1977. (And it was SO good it was adapted into a phenomenal film just this year!)
Alex Oakley is an aspiring actor, an amateur content creator, and all around enthusiasm enthusiast based in Atlanta. One of the co-hosts of the Shot for Shot Podcast.
The River of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks
As someone who has found myself seeking a mystery diagnosis, trapped in the gaps of my doctors' knowledge, it is admittedly a joy to read about rare and difficult-to-explain medical conditions. It's hard to find them written about with a humanity that is closer to the patient's experience than the abstracts you'd find on NCBI. Neurologist Oliver Sacks was known for this, and he was sometimes criticized for it. His posthumously published collection of essays, The River of Consciousness, is a sort of indirect defense and eulogy of this way of thinking. Sacks discusses the sentience of plants and the brain's ability to manipulate and create memories. He talks about plagiarism as a form of creativity. Included is an essay on the patients he encountered whose Parkinsonism had slowed their perception of time so much that they were frozen, at times for decades. He discusses Freud's case studies and their influence on neurology, and Willam James' theory of a "stream of consciousness" and whether frogs have one. It's all fascinating, but my favorite chapter is the last one, Scotoma: Forgetting and Neglect in Science. Scotoma is Greek for "gap." Sacks describes that when he first started researching migraines, he found no existing evidence of his patients' symptoms until he found long-forgotten accounts of the same symptoms in Victorian medical literature. He discusses other instances of these "gaps" in science, when discoveries have been misunderstood, dismissed, and forgotten. Like I said, I've been caught in those gaps. Sacks' argument is that when we don't dismiss the experience of the patient, or the seemingly outdated observations of scientists that came before, we just might be able to fill them.
Rachel Sweeney is an actor, writer, director, and stand-up comedian based in Los Angeles, and you can view her work on her YouTube and Vimeo.
Lexicon by Max Barry
Lexicon is all about the power of words. And in the book, so-called poets are like superheroes (or super villains) who can use the full power of words like weapons. I've always been a fan of author Max Barry and his way with words. This latest novel of his is equal parts fast-paced thriller and reference-fest for literary nerds.
Robert Carnes is a writer, marketer, author of two books, and lives in Atlanta with his family.
Gun Machine by Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis’ metatextual crime thriller is something of a dark-mirrored reflection of the various anagram-laden police procedurals you find on network television—a CSI with a deliciously evil goatee, if you will. Gun Machine tells the story of Detective John Tallow, an aging, down-on-his-luck New York cop who stumbles upon a room covered wall-to-wall with various firearms, each of them linked to hundreds of unsolved homicides. Ellis uses his central mystery as an excuse to delve into the secret history of New York City, excavating everything from the origins of Wall Street before European colonization to the occult underpinnings of the city’s architecture and design to, yes, America’s seemingly-incurable obsession with guns. Ellis uses his narrative to depict a world quickly becoming more corporatized and less human, where police forensic work is outsourced to private security contractors and human interaction can only take place through the filter of digital screens. Guiding it all is Ellis’ sure hand, the novel brimming with rip-roaring displays of violence interspersed with the author’s patented brand of pessimistic optimism.
Nathan Cabaniss is based out of Lawrenceville, GA, where he lives a life consisting primarily of danger, intrigue and Netflix. His fiction has appeared in various publications, in both English and in French. 2016 saw the publication of his first collection of short stories, Mares in the Night, and his short novel The Mummy’s Hand At the Center of the Universe was released in 2018.
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
There is a sweet spot for me in storytelling where you take a sci-fi premise, you grind it through every possible genre (Action! Sci-fi! Comedy! Romance!), and finally filter it through real human emotions while somehow still making it feel grounded. Sprinkle in a little optimism and you have the recipe for my perfect book. And somehow Elan Mastai got ahold of this recipe and elevated it like only a master-chef (author) can. All Our Wrong Todays checks all the above boxes, but does them in a way that is constantly surprising. As a writer I like to think I have a knack for predicting where stories are going. Mastai does such a masterful job at keeping me guessing that not only did I not know where it was going, I stopped trying to guess and just enjoyed the story! You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned what the book is actually about yet, but a quick google search will provide you with a synopsis, and I wanted to use this space to swoon. One last endorsement: this is the only book I’ve ever read where I immediately contacted the author to thank him for writing it.
Hudson Phillips is a writer, producer and founder of MirrorBoxFilms.com
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Fantasy has always had a soft spot in my heart, going back to my childhood. The works of J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis really helped to open my imagination to the grand worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia. I loved them so much, and then of course the LOTR films are some of my all time favorites. Unfortunately, after those films all came out, I feel like I lost touch with the genre (we will not talk about the Hobbit films). It wasn't really until just recently that I found a fantasy series that engendered that same excitement that I had growing up. Ironically, my favorite novel of the decade came out in 2010, and I didn't even read it until 2019. The Way Of Kings by Brandon Sanderson opened my mind up to fantasy yet again, and in just a brisk 1k pages too! The world building, the characters, and even just the ease of the writing itself all made for a completely engrossing experience. I couldn't remember the last time I'd read a 1,000 page novel in the span of about a month. A lot of fantasy feels dense and a bit of a chore to read, but this first part of The Stormlight Archive series was one of the easiest reads of my life. I was hooked almost immediately. I've already read the second one (Words of Radiance) in the series as well, and it continues to live up to the hype. Can't wait to read the third part (Oathbringer), which might wind up being the longest book I've ever read. It's gonna be great.
Colby McHugh is a writer who loves pop culture in all of its many mediums, who also would like to write comics one day. Any artists interested in talking ideas or just shooting the shit can email him at showandtellwords@gmail.com
Motherest by Kristen Iskandrian
I’ll be honest - I read a lot but rarely anything new. I tend to read a lot of pulp I find in thrift stores. However, sometimes a book comes along that are more current. I’ve maybe only read a dozen books from the last decade and my favorite of those is Motherest. I made notes as I read it and this was my assessment at the end: “Hilariously heartbreaking. Terrifically terrifying. Brilliant.” No diggity, no doubt, y’all. This was more than reading a book — crazy as it sounds, it was like breathing a book. Cliché but this book literally made me laugh and literally made me cry. I got mad when I reached the end because I hated that it had to end. It is is thoughtfully crafted and realized… I’ve read few novels of this caliber. I don’t even want to tell you what its about other than a young woman and her relationships with the people in her life. And if you’re anything like me you’ll find yourself as one of those people.
Jordan Noel is a director/editor/artist/dad/husband/ friend best known for not keeping his website, jordan-noel.com, up to date.
