By Kathryn Alley, Rose Cook, and Cameron Philips
We are so thrilled to welcome in another season of stories that inspire and help us grow. We listened to some fantastic books in 2023, and so as a new year dawns, we are sharing our picks for the authors and their 2024 releases that we are most excited for.
Rose’s Pick – Funny Story by Emily Henry
These cold, wet January days have me dreaming of the warmth of summer. And Emily Henry immediately comes to mind when I think of a summer listen. With previous bestsellers including You and Me on Vacation, Beach Read and Happy Place, Henry is the queen of flirty holiday romance, so there is no doubt that her latest audiobook will create the same sunny, romantic mood.
In her latest novel Funny Story, we meet Daphne, who is beginning her life with her fiancé Peter in his lakeside hometown. Except Peter has just told her he’s in love with his childhood best friend, Petra, leaving Daphne stranded alone in an unfamiliar town with no choice but to find a roommate. That roommate ends up being Petra’s ex, Miles, and together they hatch a plan to make their exes jealous by posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together. What could go wrong?
I can’t wait to get my hands on Funny Story just in time for summer and follow along with Daphne on her adventure to see whether she finds another chance at romance. Listening to Henry’s books brings the characters to life and offers real laugh out loud moments. Funny Story will be published on 25 April in audiobook, with a narrator still to be confirmed.
Kathryn’s Pick – End of Story, written by A.J. Finn, narrated by Helen Laser
End of Story is gearing up to be one of the most gripping, mesmerising listens of 2024. Blending the best of classic mystery stories like that of Agatha Christie with modern day hits such as Knives Out, Finn’s tale is sure to be a thrilling adventure for his listeners.
I am really looking forward to Laser’s narration with this mystery as audiences try to unravel the clues of a novelist’s life. Steven Trapp, a renowned mystery author, needs assistance writing the final chapters of his story. A detective and close friend is asked to write the end of Trapp’s story before his impending death. Trapp’s past is far from ordinary as the twenty-year-old cold case murder of his wife and son surrounds his accolades and success. Will the author’s final story admit to the killings, or reveal any critical evidence to lay his loved ones to rest? Listeners are left to uncover if the novelist’s stories are simply fiction, or a chilling memoir into the mind of a murderer.
Finn’s listen truly seems like a mystery-lover's delight, with twists and turns that take your breath away. I am hoping that this listen will keep me on the edge of my seat with the emotional pull between right and wrong and good and evil that captivates the best morally grey protagonists. For fans of a surprise ending, End of Story is gearing up to be a masterful audiobook to kick off 2024.
Cameron’s Pick – Your Utopia: Stories, written by Bora Chung, narrated by Greta Jung
I have really been getting into Eastern inspired and written fiction, and that was no different when it came to listening to Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny, originally released in 2017 but translated by Anton Hur in 2022.
As a result, I am eagerly awaiting the release of her next collection of stories, Your Utopia: Stories, in 2024. I am simply hoping for more of the same, with Chung’s amalgamation of science-fiction, horror, mythological tales and speculative fiction all strangely coming together in her short stories that are at times absurdist, but very difficult to put down.
Thought-provoking yet simultaneously stomach-clenching, these are tales that are to be listened to late into the night, and I’ll be recommending them to anyone who enjoys the melding of horror and science-fiction in particular.
Korean and Japanese horror are rather unique in the way their stories are crafted, with many of them being based on their own folklore (like The Wailing) and the socio-political climate of the period in which they are composed (vengeance based Korean horror films). These stories are no different. Chung has a relatively light body of work when it comes to literature, primarily being an academic, but if Cursed Bunny is anything to go off, I’m hoping there is plenty more to come from her strange but eclectic sense of prose and imagination.
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