Every year, hundreds of thousands of new books are published and added to our global stock of literature. And each time, you face the same dilemma: Which books should you read?
It can be daunting to sift through many titles to find the ones whose stories will bring you satisfaction. Fortunately, these quality books naturally rise to the top of the pile as your fellow readers devour them and leave their reviews and recommendations for your perusal.
Top Fiction Books of 2022
To create this list of bestsellers, we checked out various sites that cater to readers such as Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many more. Some of these titles also blew up in social media, consistently topping the lists of booktubers and booktokers throughout the year.
From heart-aching romance to suspenseful mysteries, check out some of the best fiction books published this 2022.
1. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
It’s the 1960s and Elizabeth Zott’s brilliance as a chemist is overshadowed by her male colleagues’ opinions about a woman scientist—except for one. Against all odds, she finds her soulmate in the form of the lonely, Nobel-nominated Calvin Evans. But life, like science, isn’t a straightforward process.
Just a few years later, she finds herself as a single mother working as a host of America’s most popular cooking show. But while the show is a success, not everyone is happy because she’s not only showing women how to cook but also teaching them how to fight the status quo.
2. The Maid by Nita Prose
Molly Gray has a hard time interacting with other people so her gran often helped her navigate the world. But gran’s been dead for months, leaving Molly alone for the first time ever.
And while she’s able to function well enough by sticking to gran’s rules, her orderly life is soon thrown into disarray. Suspected of murdering someone in her workplace, she must untangle a web of lies to find the real killer before they strike again.
3. Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
In 1985, three drunk teenagers go for a ride that soon proves fatal. Ben Wilf, the young doctor who responds to the scene, is shattered. He chooses to keep the circumstances of the accident a secret—one that will haunt him and his family forever.
Decades later, Ben is now retired and struggling to care for his declining wife. He finds friendship with his 11-year-old neighbor, a boy who could see much more than is being shown. And as relationships form and fracture, past events will threaten to come to the fore.
4. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Young Sam and Saddie meet at the hospital, brought together by a mutual love for games. It lasts a while but their various wins and losses strain and ultimately end their friendship.
That same love for games pulls them back to one another after years of being apart. But while they manage to create their own successful game, their ambitions, misunderstandings, and resentments soon threaten to break them all over again.
5. All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
Salahudin and Noor are the best of friends until a massive fight destroys their bond. Now they must face their problems alone.
Sal wants to save their motel as his mother’s health fails and his father loses himself to alcohol. Noor lives in terror of her uncle while secretly working to escape him—and their small town—forever. When things spiral out of control, both must reconsider what their friendship is worth and how to survive the trials they face.
6. Babel by R.F. Kuang
Robin Swift, a recent orphan, is taken to London by the enigmatic Professor Lowell. There, he is schooled in multiple languages in preparation for entering the prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—better known as Babel.
At Babel, scholars work with enchanted silver bars to create various effects ranging from bullet accuracy to increased crop production. But soon, Robin will understand that this utopia of knowledge may be much darker than it presents itself to be.
7. The Butcher and The Wren by Alaina Urquhart
A killer hides deep in the bayous of Louisiana—one currently busy with his best work yet. The police are desperate to catch up but are unable to make any significant progress.
With her encyclopedic memory, Dr. Wren Muller has never found a case she couldn’t solve. Not until now. As bodies pile up with increasing frequency, she finds herself at the center of a chase for a murderer with unmatched brutality.
8. The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
In America, far from the French countryside where they met and grew up, Agnès receives the news of her childhood friend, Fabienne’s demise. Now Agnès is free to tell the truth.
Raised in a war-torn backwater of a town, the two children have little to no chance of escape. Until Fabienne hatches a plan that frees Agnès from their fate and into a world of fortune and fame.
9. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Deep in the arctic circle, an ancient virus is unearthed. It quickly traverses the globe, reshaping all aspects of life on Earth.
Humanity is faced with a new age of survival and exploration. A cynic falls for a mother desperate to save her child. A scientist gets a second chance at fatherhood. And a painter, together with her granddaughter, sets out for a new home in the cosmos.
10. Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik
To Val Chesterfield, the arctic holds nothing but bitterness. It’s where her brother died in an apparent suicide that she finds suspicious.
When her brother’s colleague contacts her for her expertise in dead Nordic languages, Val is hesitant to help as it means traveling to the frozen North. But a scientific impossibility forces her out of her sheltered life—a young woman frozen in ice and thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands.
11. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
Xingyin has always lived an isolated life on the moon, hidden away from the Celestial Emperor’s wrath. But when her magic manifests, her existence is revealed and she is forced to flee without her mother.
She must make her way to the Celestial Kingdom, hider her identity, and master her newfound powers to stand a chance of rescuing her mother. But when crisis threatens the kingdom, she must choose between saving her loved ones or drowning the entire realm into darkness.
12. The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Bix Bouton, on a quest for his next big invention, stumbles upon a scholarly conversation about making the memory accessible to the outside world. Within the decade, his new technology, “Own Your Unconscious”—which allows people to save and share every memory you’ve had—is used by millions.
But externalizing your most private self is a double-edged sword. Some find it a natural advancement of technology. Others see it as a novelty. And still, a few may just find a way to weaponize it against others.
13. Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
Mungo and James were born in families of different faiths—the former a Protestant, the latter a Catholic. They should be sworn enemies, but have quickly become the best of friends.
Against all odds, they fall in love, finding sanctuary amongst James’ prized doves. But when Mungo is sent away with men he doesn’t know, he must find his way back to James and the dream they share.
14. Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet life with his father. He doesn’t know much about his mother, only that she disappeared when he was nine, that her books were banned, and that she hates her for leaving.
But the cryptic letter he receives pulls him on a quest to find her. Through half-forgotten folktales, he traces her steps all the way to New York City, where he will find the truth about his mother and their future.
15. The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
Nell Young is a passionate cartographer whose father is a legend in the field. But they haven’t spoken in a long time, after he fired her abruptly and destroyed her career over an old, worthless map.
But then her father is found dead in his office, the same map hidden in his desk. She soon discovers that the map is both valuable and rare. She might, in fact, hold the last remaining copy—something a mysterious collector would very much like to destroy, along with those who stand in their way.
Reading the Best Fiction Books in 2022
2022 has seen a lot of books get published and be lost in a sea of other works. A few have managed to snag the reading community’s attention, gaining some form of recognition through awards, raving reviews, and a prolonged stay in the spotlight.
The books in this list are, by no means, the only excellent fiction books published in 2022. With fiction having such a wide area of interest, there’s simply too many of them to create a complete list.
What’s your favorite fiction book you’ve read this 2022?
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Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
