Debut Novels I Enjoyed
I skipped last week's Top Ten Tuesday because the topic (set at That Artsy Reader Girl) didn't really appeal to me, but this one I could talk about all day long. This is ten debut novels that I enjoyed.
Stephen King - Carrie
What do you even say about Carrie? It contains everything that makes King King. Even some of his later works don't feel quite as assured or fully formed as this. A lot of debut novels feel very urgent, like the writer just absolutely had to get the words down onto the page and push it out into the world, and this is one of them. There's a frenetic energy to it that keeps it rattling along, until everything is on fire and everyone is covered in blood.
Joe Hill - Heart Shaped Box
I remember reading some of Hill's short fiction in Subterranean Magazine and Crimewave and thinking that he felt like a contender for King's crown. I don't think it came as much surprise to anybody when it was revealed that he was, in fact, King's son. and Heart-Shaped Box confirmed that he's not just a nepo baby. I've said for a long time that Hills' writing feels like a more restrained version of his dad's while also dealing with much more outlandish ideas at times. Heart-Shaped Box is so ridiculous that it shouldn't work (and that's even more true for Horns), and yet it's absolutely fantastic.
Zadie Smith - White Teeth
I was assigned White Teeth in college when I was 16 or 17, and I'd never read anything like it. It's one of those books that I've only read once but that I can still remember vividly even 20+ years later. I think this was my first exposure to "literary fiction", and it's shaped the sorts of books I seek out in that genre in a big way.
C Pam Zhang - How Much Of These Hills Is Gold
One of the best books I've read this year, and possibly ever, C Pam Zhang's debut is a western unlike any western I've ever read. The prose is absolutely stunning, super sparse to the point of almost being fragmentary, and it leaves as many questions as it provides answers. I'm going to be raving about this book every chance I get for a long time.
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Look, I know this isn't a cool choice, I know that it's a cliché for people to say that this is one of their favourite books and that it's often a sign of someone who hasn't read anything since high school, but To Kill A Mockingbird remains my favourite books. I read it at a time when I was perfectly situated for the sort of coming-of-age story that's at the heart of this novel, and it really opened my eyes to what fiction can be at a time when I was mostly reading fantasy and horror. I still adore this book and it's a crime that Lee never wrote anything else (we'll ignore the existence of Go Set A Watchman, which should never have been published).
Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife
For some reason I've never seen the film that was made of this book, despite really liking Rachel McAdams, and I think that's because I loved the book so much that I know any adaptation is simply going to disappoint me. It's a shame that Niffenegger's later novels never quite landed as well as this one.
Richard Adams - Watership Down
Is this the most unexpectedly violent book ever written? Despite the size of this thing I expected it to be aimed more at children than adults, and I was dead wrong about that. It's a dark, twisted, super violent novel about trying to survive in an incredibly hostile world. This is what I wanted from Redwall.
Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
How does a debut author convince a publisher to put out a 310,000 word novel packed full of footnotes? I have no idea. Only Susanna Clarke and Mark Danielewski know the answer to that question. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is one of the best fantasy debuts of all time, and possibly one of the best fantasy novels ever written. The fact that she followed it with Piranesi, which is its opposite in so many ways yet still incredible, is really a testament to how fantastic a writer Clarke is.
John Grisham - A Time To Kill
This wasn't my first Grisham - that was The Client, which will always be my favourite - and in fact I didn't get around to reading A Time To Kill until early 2023, despite Grisham being my go-to author when I want something new but familiar that I know I'm going to enjoy. Because he's so prolific and his later work has really dipped in quality I think people often forget that when Grisham is good he's one of the best in the game, and A Time To Kill is one of the best thrillers ever written. I think the influence of To Kill A Mockingbird on it is evident, but as noted above I love that book, so I was primed to love this, too.
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory
I haven't read a huge amount of Bank's SF work (written as Iain M. Banks), but I've read a ton of his mainstream fiction and The Wasp Factory remains one of the most powerful debuts I've ever seen. There's something really urgent about it that isn't quite as present in his later writing, even when those books are objectively better than this. The twist at the end is bizarre and gross and has stuck with me for years.