Goodreads has already announced the winners of the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards… and as far as I’m concerned, the announcement has landed with a big thud.
Honestly, I’m not even sure what the point is anymore.
Over the years, the number of categories has decreased. The write-in option for round one is gone. And now, there are only two rounds. It kind of feels like Goodreads is continuing the awards because they have to, but they don’t actually care at all about making it make sense for readers.
How do they determine what books get nominated for round one? No idea! And I can’t find the answer, other than that dates of publication are specified for eligibility.
I’m not necessarily mad at the winners — but given how limited the choices were to begin with, I’m not sure how meaningful any of this is.
For what it’s worth, here are the Goodreads Choice Award winners for 2024:
And in text format:
| House of Flame and Shadow – Sarah J. Maas | Romantasy |
| The God of the Woods – Liz Moore | Mystery & Thriller |
| Ruthless Vows – Rebecca Ross | Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction |
| The Women – Kristin Hannah | Historical Fiction |
| Heartstopper #5: A Graphic Novel – Alice Oseman | Young Adult Fiction |
| Funny Story – Emily Henry | Romance |
| Somewhere Beyond the Sea – TJ Klune | Fantasy |
| The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir – Kelly Bishop | Memoir & Autobiography |
| The Bookshop – Evan Friss | History & Biography |
| The Wedding People: A Novel – Alison Espach | Fiction |
| How to End a Love Story: A Novel – Yulin Kuang | Best Debut Novel |
| The Anxious Generation – Jonathan Haidt | Nonfiction |
| The Ministry of Time: A Novel – Kaliane Bradley | Science Fiction |
| You Like It Darker – Stephen King | Horror |
| Funny Story – Emily Henry, Julia Whelan | Audiobook |
Of the award winners, I’ve read five — and thought they were all terrific!
- The Wedding People by Alison Espach (review)
- Heartstopper, #5 by Alice Oseman
- Funny Story by Emily Henry (listed twice — once for romance, once for audiobook) (review)
- Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune (review)
- The Women by Kristin Hannah (review)
And I intend to read:
- You Like It Darker by Stephen King
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
- The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
I’ve marked as maybe/eventually:
- The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss
- How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
So as you can see, I actually think there are great books among the winners! I think it’s the process that bothers me, and the lack of explanation or opportunities for reader input. But I guess that’s what happens when what’s originally an independently-owned site gets acquired by Amazon — faceless corporations don’t need to care much, so long as they’re selling books.
Sigh.
Am I being too cynical? What do you think of the Goodreads Choice Awards — in general, and in terms of this year’s process and results?
Bookshelf Fantasies 
I am no longer excited about this. There is no longer a children’s books category so I didn’t even bother to vote this year.
I don’t understand why some of the categories from past years have disappeared. Very disappointing.
Very short sighted getting rid of the children’s categories. & I was amazed when they got rid of cookbook, because in my country they are huge sellers. Cynical me thinks its because they don’t sell well on kindles.
That’s an interesting thought. I do think it’s all about selling at this point, not actually showing the breadth of readers’ interests. What a shame.
Rarely are my top reads of the year represented. I’ve ignored it the last two years.
I was surprised to see a bunch that I’d actually read this year — that hasn’t happened in a while.
I’m glad romantasy was made it’s own category, but the same big authors win each year. It’s just not exciting anymore.
That’s true – popular authors have a huge advantage.
I agree, it‘s a bit pointless by now. I did vote for the book from the nominations that I have read and liked. But I don‘t read a lot of the commercial picks on their lists, so… 🤷
It was more fun when people could send in suggestions. The whole process now lacks transparency.
Exactly. The write-in option made it feel like reader opinions mattered… but not anymore.
Totally pointless, but then all these lists are pointless.
Well, true — I used to enjoy the Goodreads awards, because at one point (years ago) they felt very reader-driven. Not anymore, sadly.
Has Stephen King ever NOT won? Seriously, there were some amazing horror novels this year, and I can’t believe Diavola didn’t win.
It’s totally about popularity — and very true, whenever Stephen King is an option, his book wins!
I was thinking the same thing this year. What happened to the middle round? And why so few titles? And how do they even choose the nominees in the first place? It seems so random. And so meaningless. Though I did still vote. But I didn’t really care who ended up winning.
It seemed very under the radar this year, and I don’t understand why it was only two rounds. It’s like they didn’t even really want people to participate! I’m guessing that the choice of nominees has much more to do with sales figures than reader enjoyment… too bad, I used to really look forward to the Goodreads contest!
I don’t pay attention to it too much because I don’t necessarily read the newest books or the It Books for any particular year… If I’ve read a book on the list I vote for it, but I don’t know that it makes my book the best. I think they should move it to January so December books can be counted.
That would make sense. I miss some of the old categories that they used to include, and especially miss the write-in option.
It’s hard for me to take the choice awards seriously because readers will naturally vote for the ones they’ve read, even if it wasn’t necessarily the best from the selection. The romantasy pick won by a huge margin because it was one of the most anticipated releases this year, even though a lot of readers were disappointed by it. There were so many more deserving reads.
Good points. I think the Stephen King is another example of what you’re describing. People either vote for him because they’ve read the book and he’s such a bestseller, or they vote for him because they haven’t read any of the books but recognize his name. (No shade at Stephen King — I think he’s amazing, but he does seem to automatically win every time he’s nominated)
I completely forgot about them this year. I think I got an email once telling me to vote, but because I haven’t read a single book that came out this year, I just didn’t care. I find as the years go by, the same types of books and the same authors win so it’s boring to me. So to answer your question, no I don’t think you’re being too cynical, because I feel it, too.
I feel like Goodreads has been chipping away at these awards and making them less interesting for readers. They’ve eliminated so many categories (all the children’s book categories, poetry, etc). It feels like it’s only about sales at this point, unfortunately.
Yes! It’s all about what books sold the most, not what readers actually thought were good.
I used to show some interest in it back when they had more categories, but now I just don’t care. It popped up, and I didn’t bother looking. Like you, I’m frustrated that they don’t provide any explanation for how they come up with the selections.
It is really frustrating, and disappointing to see so many categories eliminated. I still vote… but since they got rid of the write-in option in round 1, I’m finding that there are categories where I have no input to give.
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I honestly don’t care anymore and haven’t for a couple years. They eliminated categories I tended to read a lot of books in, and now I rarely have heard of any of the books nominated. What’s exciting about voting in a category when I’ve only read one book in it anyway?
Very true. And I miss the days when readers could do write-in voting in the first round — that made it feel like our voices mattered.