Booker Prize Winner Reaction for 2023

We have our winner for the 2023 Booker Prize! Here are my thoughts on the winner, the Booker year, and the books that didn’t make it to the podium. Expand for more information. 👇

Links 💻

Further Viewing 🎥

The Winner 🥇
Prophet Song, Paul Lynch

The Shortlist 🥈
Study For Obedience, Sarah Bernstein
If I Survive You, Jonathan Escoffery
This Other Eden, Paul Harding
Western Lane, Chetna Maroo
The Bee Sting, Paul Murray

The Longlist 🥉
The House of Doors, Tan Twan Eng
In Ascension, Martin MacInnes
All the Little Bird-Hearts, Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
Pearl, Siân Hughes
How to Build a Boat, Elaine Feeney
Old God’s Time, Sebastian Barry
A Spell of Good Things, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

#BookerPrize

My husband made a cookbook! Check it out here:

But wait, there's more!

[mariag]

Yeah, this year was strange, especially once the shortlist was announced. I just wasn’t as emotionally invested or attached to any particular titles or authors as I had been in previous years.
However, with such a bunch of Irish authors present, pure blind patriotism kicked in, enthusiasm was restored for the week before the ceremony, and I was a very happy bunny when the winner was announced! Yay! 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

[TheFilmAutopsy]

George Saunders has a great chance at winning a Pulitzer, considering that Lincoln in the Bardo won the Booker and has been praised as one of the best books of the past decade, I can see the “Pulitzer I Owe U” treatment for his follow up

[TheLeniverse]

I haven't been invested this year either, and Prophet Song is probably the book I least want to read from the list 😆 I do see your reasoning for why it won. And I have to say I have so far not read a Booker winner I haven't really liked. Although to be fair there are still a lot of Booker winners I haven't read. I think I might try Prophet Song on audio, as that will sidestep one of my main issues with the book - block text with stream of consciousness and no speech marks or other indication of who is speaking (or are they thinking?)

[PaulaBlazer-nl]

First coffee with Greg! Knowing you’re Booker reaction post was up got me out of bed with enthusiasm for the day😊 (ok, I’ll read another AP book hoping her magic happens for me)

[alexsarchives]

Prophet Song is so well-written. I tore through it in no time. I'm sure it's apparent from the subject matter, but it gets extremely heavy in the back half, and it hit me much harder than I'd anticipated. One of those books that required a few days of no reading a bit before I could finally get into something else. I hope that doesn't scare anyone away because it's a remarkable book and very readable, but it did affect me in the way great books do.

[jeremyl]

I can't overstate how much i enjoyed Demon. I was VERY invested in his journey. I finished it like six months ago and I still kind of miss him. He was a part of my life for a month! I love how books can do that 🙂

[GoreVidalComicbooks]

Good day. I was unfamiliar with Lynch. I watched the award ceremony on youtube and listened to his acceptance speech. His book reminded me of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's "V for Vendetta, " a masterpiece in the comic medium from the early 80's, which dealt with totalitarianism. in Great Britain. Lynch didn't convince me to read his book, instead I'm now re-reading "V for Vendetta."

[karenmoore]

I read Prophet Song recently and was really impressed. Not my usual reading, I am more of an HF fan, but I am trying to read out of my comfort zone more. I am currently reading Exit West by Mohsin Hamid which I am enjoying.

[Phillybookfairy]

I usually am not excited by the Booker but this year I really was and I still haven’t read all of the short list but am interested in reading most of them … I’m happy so happy that Prophet Song won because it was so absolutely horrifying in a literary, fascist kind of way. I couldn’t put it down. It was intense and well written. I hope you do read it before your trip (of which I’m so jelly). Happy holidays!

[readandre-read]

I haven't read The Bee Sting yet but I did read Prophet Song and it felt very Booker Winnish. I ordered it from Blackwells earlier this fall because I was so excited about the prospect of an Irish dystopian novel. I found it interesting, particularly strong in the last quarter of the novel, but not one of my top 10 this year, nor my favorite dystopian novel this year. It was solid and compelling but it didn't blow me away. I love your shirt!

[KikeNavarrete]

With Barbara Kingsolver could be the case that she withdrew from the prize, other years there had been big authors that ask their publishers to no summited the book to de booker

[jacquelinemcmenamin]

Best other book I read from the long list was
All The Little Bird Hearts 💕

[doreene]

One way to do about 'The Bee Sting' is to download the audible, which I did. It is a very good one, (the performer, I mean) and I'm at the beginning. I'm with you about it, but I am curious also. When books are so long, I just listen to it. If it turns out exceptional, I'll buy a copy when it gets on sale and reread it a couple years later :))) I make exceptions about big books, only if it has good reviews from youtubers that have the same taste as me or if I get it recommended from different authors that I like, then I buy it and read it, so I am rarely disappointed about the money and time spend on it :)

[CRAIG]

This year‘s booker was a bit lacklustre. I hope next year is better 🤞

[bookofdust]

One of the weirder and last minute twists of all this Bitter Booker Year was Jack Edwards being the live-streaming Booker host. I was an early supporter and promoter of Edwards as a Booktuber, but I also was one who saw his patreon debacle at that start of the year as highly problematic and found his content becoming more and more superficial and he seemed to withdraw and recycle content in the wake of that happening and being called out. He also admitted to having fallen into a reading slump for awhile, I guess due to the backlash.

He was in limbo for quite awhile, but I did commend him in late summer over a very good in-depth video he had done that looked as if he was getting his mojo back.

I get it that he’s young, dynamic and has a huge following and I said early on that that was good for reading and getting young people involved with it and books. But interestingly, the Gays, even those with no interest in his books have speculated for years about his ambiguous sexuality and have urged him to come out.

And while I’m always respectful of that process for people, it’s interesting that Bob the Booker and EKA are the most prominent UK Booktubers who have been involved in the Booker for years and are very openly and unapologetic Gay, and yet it is the perceived closeted Booktuber who only recently jumped on the Booker bandwagon who got the gig. Even in a year that he earlier fell from grace and lost tens of thousands of viewers.

Obviously, the Booker doesn’t have a problem with the Gays as some of their most prominent recent winners have been Gay and even last year’s winning title was Gay even though done by a straight author.

And it was great to see EKA there on the live stream and hear his comments as well. And it was interesting on his video to hear that Edwards was even more captivating and dazzling in person, and he obviously didn’t have a problem with him having the hosting duties.

But it’s all been an fascinating turn of events and a final twist with this unusual year. I hope Jack got some quality time with EKA and perhaps some insight and inspiration as well.

Regardless of what it is, I do feel that Jack has some quality that keeps him from being truly authentic in his presentation and it’s very similar to other Youtubers who eventually came out and were able to finally relax into their truest personas. Whatever that is for Jack I hope he finds it, but I also perceive that at this point there are a team and handlers behind him that are promoting to not rock the boat, especially after the missteps of earlier this year.

[annegibson]

I definitely want to read Prophet Song. People keep arguing that John Steinbeck won both. It's the Nobel Prize and the Booker

[bobbykeniston]

I am a big "In Ascension" fan, so I was disappointed it didn't make the shortlist. A quick question: perhaps I am wrong, but it seems like "If I Survive You" has gone down in your estimation from your original review of it (which of course can happen the longer you sit with a book).... Again, I could be remembering wrong, but I was pretty sure originally you said you liked it, didn't love it, mentioned how some of it was uneven, but that you would still say people should read it. Again, my memory isn't perfect. I do remember you saying before that you thought it was wrong it made the longlist when "Demon Copperhead" didn't, but also said you liked it but didn't thought it had problems and didn't love it. This video, I believe, was the first time I heard you say flat out that you didn't like the book, so I was curious if you would say it is still worth reading, or if sitting with it has made you dislike it more and more?

[dqan]

I'm happy "Prophet Song" won, though I wish I'd had a chance to read it. I found "Study for Obedience" interesting, at least the first 7% that I read before picking something else up. I thought "Bee Sting" might end up being the popular third way after a tie between PS and SfO. (And, yeah, "Demon Copperhead" should have been nominated. Maybe they could release an addendum of under the radar books so they wouldn't feel the need to nominate them for a prize?). 😁

[edgarmarroquin]

May I suggest a T-shirt collection video plz lol

[mariecarroll]

Prophet Song is the best book I have this year. You should really prioritise it. I liked Demon Copperhead. But I didn’t love it like most people seem too. I agree with your friend about The Bee Sting.