BookPage
BookPage Best Books of the Year 2020
BookPage Best Books of the Year 2020 names 125 books across 9 categories. 55 of them also won or were shortlisted for an award.
Fiction
- 1The Vanishing Halfsource (opens in a new tab)
- 2Transcendent Kingdomsource (opens in a new tab)
- 3Piranesisource (opens in a new tab)
- 4Such a Fun Agesource (opens in a new tab)
- 5The Glass Hotelsource (opens in a new tab)
- 6Afterlifesource (opens in a new tab)
- 7Hamnetsource (opens in a new tab)
- 8Memorialsource (opens in a new tab)
- 9Deacon King Kongsource (opens in a new tab)
- 10The Mirror & the Lightsource (opens in a new tab)
- 11Leave the World Behindsource (opens in a new tab)
- 12The Death of Vivek Ojisource (opens in a new tab)
- 13How Much of These Hills Is Goldsource (opens in a new tab)
- 14Monogamysource (opens in a new tab)
- 15The Lying Life of Adultssource (opens in a new tab)
- 16Valentinesource (opens in a new tab)
- 17Sisterssource (opens in a new tab)
- 18The Lost Book of Adana Moreausource (opens in a new tab)
- 19Code Name Hélènesource (opens in a new tab)
- 20Happy and You Know Itsource (opens in a new tab)
Memoirs
- 1Notes on a Silencingsource (opens in a new tab)
- 2Memorial Drivesource (opens in a new tab)
- 3Is Rape a Crime?source (opens in a new tab)
- 4Conditional Citizenssource (opens in a new tab)
- 5Children of the Landsource (opens in a new tab)
- 6World of Wonderssource (opens in a new tab)
- 7Nobody Will Tell You This but Mesource (opens in a new tab)
- 8Infernosource (opens in a new tab)
- 9Wow, No Thank You.source (opens in a new tab)
- 10Once I Was Yousource (opens in a new tab)
- 11Minor Feelingssource (opens in a new tab)
- 12Straysource (opens in a new tab)
- 13A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openingssource (opens in a new tab)
- 14Uncanny Valleysource (opens in a new tab)
- 15The Escape Artistsource (opens in a new tab)
- 16Places I've Taken My Bodysource (opens in a new tab)
- 17The Erraticssource (opens in a new tab)
- 18When Time Stoppedsource (opens in a new tab)
- 19Sigh, Gonesource (opens in a new tab)
- 20Dancing With the Octopussource (opens in a new tab)
- 21What Is the Grasssource (opens in a new tab)
- 22Lot Sixsource (opens in a new tab)
- 23Counterpointsource (opens in a new tab)
- 24The Sediments of Timesource (opens in a new tab)
- 25The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illnesssource (opens in a new tab)
Middle Grade
- 1Everything Sad Is Untruesource (opens in a new tab)
- 2All Thirteensource (opens in a new tab)
- 3Fighting Wordssource (opens in a new tab)
- 4King and the Dragonfliessource (opens in a new tab)
- 5Our Friend Hedgehogsource (opens in a new tab)
- 6The Only Black Girls in Townsource (opens in a new tab)
- 7Land of the Cranessource (opens in a new tab)
- 8Echo Mountainsource (opens in a new tab)
- 9We Dream of Spacesource (opens in a new tab)
- 10Premeditated Myrtlesource (opens in a new tab)
Mystery & Suspense
- 1Blacktop Wastelandsource (opens in a new tab)
- 2Mexican Gothicsource (opens in a new tab)
- 3The Distant Deadsource (opens in a new tab)
- 4The Book of Lamps and Bannerssource (opens in a new tab)
- 5The Bright Landssource (opens in a new tab)
- 6Take Me Apartsource (opens in a new tab)
- 7Dear Childsource (opens in a new tab)
- 8When No One Is Watchingsource (opens in a new tab)
- 9The Devil and the Dark Watersource (opens in a new tab)
- 10Perfect Little Childrensource (opens in a new tab)
Nonfiction
- 1Notes on a Silencingsource (opens in a new tab)
- 2Castesource (opens in a new tab)
- 3Fathomssource (opens in a new tab)
- 4Memorial Drivesource (opens in a new tab)
- 5The Dead Are Arisingsource (opens in a new tab)
- 6Hidden Valley Roadsource (opens in a new tab)
- 7Is Rape a Crime?source (opens in a new tab)
- 8Conditional Citizenssource (opens in a new tab)
- 9Children of the Landsource (opens in a new tab)
- 10World of Wonderssource (opens in a new tab)
- 11Nobody Will Tell You This but Mesource (opens in a new tab)
- 12Vesper Flightssource (opens in a new tab)
- 13To Start a Warsource (opens in a new tab)
- 14Infernosource (opens in a new tab)
- 15Wow, No Thank You.source (opens in a new tab)
- 16Just Ussource (opens in a new tab)
- 17Once I Was Yousource (opens in a new tab)
- 18Wilmington’s Liesource (opens in a new tab)
- 19Minor Feelingssource (opens in a new tab)
- 20The Splendid and the Vilesource (opens in a new tab)
Picture Books
- 1The Old Trucksource (opens in a new tab)
- 2Rain Before Rainbowssource (opens in a new tab)
- 313 Stories About Harrissource (opens in a new tab)
- 4Me & Mamasource (opens in a new tab)
- 5In a Jarsource (opens in a new tab)
- 6Sugar in Milksource (opens in a new tab)
- 7The Little Mermaidsource (opens in a new tab)
- 8I Talk Like a Riversource (opens in a new tab)
- 9The Paper Kingdomsource (opens in a new tab)
- 10Prairie Dayssource (opens in a new tab)
Romance
- 1Take a Hint, Dani Brownsource (opens in a new tab)
- 2Love Letteringsource (opens in a new tab)
- 3Boyfriend Materialsource (opens in a new tab)
- 4Spoiler Alertsource (opens in a new tab)
- 5Headlinerssource (opens in a new tab)
- 6Season of the Wolfsource (opens in a new tab)
- 7Ties That Tethersource (opens in a new tab)
- 8If I Never Met Yousource (opens in a new tab)
- 9Whiteoutsource (opens in a new tab)
- 10The Rakesssource (opens in a new tab)
Science Fiction & Fantasy
- 1Or What You Willsource (opens in a new tab)
- 2Unconquerable Sunsource (opens in a new tab)
- 3The Doors of Edensource (opens in a new tab)
- 4The Obsidian Towersource (opens in a new tab)
- 5The Once and Future Witchessource (opens in a new tab)
- 6The House in the Cerulean Seasource (opens in a new tab)
- 7The Vanished Birdssource (opens in a new tab)
- 8The Unspoken Namesource (opens in a new tab)
- 9A Deadly Educationsource (opens in a new tab)
- 10The Wolf of Oren-Yarosource (opens in a new tab)
Young Adult
- 1Dragon Hoopssource (opens in a new tab)
- 2Legendbornsource (opens in a new tab)
- 3Foreshadow, editedsource (opens in a new tab)
- 4We Are Not From Heresource (opens in a new tab)
- 5Elatsoesource (opens in a new tab)
- 6The Gravity of Ussource (opens in a new tab)
- 7Not So Pure and Simplesource (opens in a new tab)
- 8Kent Statesource (opens in a new tab)
- 9Girl, Unframedsource (opens in a new tab)
- 10The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Seasource (opens in a new tab)
About the BookPage Best Books of the Year
BookPage's year-end best books lists, chosen by BookPage's editors. Read from bookpage.com's own list pages; 2011-2016 lists come from Wayback Machine snapshots of the old bookpage.com/content pages (each sourceUrl is the snapshot). Starts in 2011: no year-end editors' list was found in BookPage's archived December issues for 2006-2008, and none was found online for 2009-2010. 2011-2017 have one ranked overall list (category Best Books: top 50, top 25 in 2017); 2011-2016 also have BookPage's children's list in three sections (Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult; BookPage's Teen heading is filed as Young Adult). From 2018 BookPage split the list by genre, and category is BookPage's own list name for that year (e.g. Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy, later SFF & Horror). 2018 has only the Fiction, Nonfiction and Mystery & Suspense lists; no other 2018 or 2017 genre or children's lists were found. Top 10 is the overall list BookPage ran from 2022. Audiobook lists and BookPage's 2011 Readers' Choice poll are left out. Rank is kept where BookPage numbered the list (2011-2021). Year is the year in the list's name. Author is the first name in BookPage's byline (the writer; illustrators and narrators are dropped). Two 2025 cards print no byline; their authors are taken from the book (Xolo: Donna Barba Higuera; The Black Wolf: Louise Penny). The 2025 genre lists sit at BookPage's undated /best-books/<genre>/ URLs, which BookPage reuses each year; a Wayback snapshot will be needed once the 2026 lists replace them. Expected counts are the entries printed on each list page.
Organization: BookPage. Official site (opens in a new tab)