The Stories That Stayed With Us
Our authors and editors on the books, scenes, and relationships they couldn’t shake this year.
As year-end roundups fill our feeds, we paused to reflect on the TV, films, books, and moments that lingered long after the final page or closing credits. These are the poignant moments our authors—and those of us working behind the scenes—are still thinking about.
Alexandra Oliva, author of The Radiant Dark
Favorite fictional couple you were introduced to this year. It’s not a romantic thing, but Sam and Joel from the show Somebody Somewhere. Their relationship might be the most beautiful depiction of adult friendship I’ve ever seen. I find their dynamic especially touching because some of their sillier antics remind me of when my college friends and I get together, put aside all our adult responsibilities for a bit, and just laugh.
A scene (from a movie/book/TV show) that emotionally destroyed you this year (and why you’d still recommend it). I won’t get into spoilers, but the ending of Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy had me ugly crying. McConaghy is just so good at melding action with beautiful, emotion-rich prose, and this book is not to be missed.
One piece of media you wish you could experience again for the first time. The show Parks and Recreation! It’s one of my top comfort watches, and at this point, I have every episode all but memorized. It would be such a joy to experience those characters’ delightful antics for the first time all over again.
Alina Grabowski, author of Women and Children First
Favorite fictional couple you were introduced to this year. I actually rarely read books with a major romance component, but I read Atonement by Ian McEwan this year based on a recommendation from my friend Jenny (who wrote the wonderful Four Treasures of the Sky). I hadn’t seen the movie, either, so I went in fairly blind. The romance between Cecilia and Robbie is beautifully—and devastatingly—rendered.
What content have you been saving to binge during holiday break? Slow Horses season five—I love anything spy-related. Right now, I’m living in Wisconsin temporarily on a teaching fellowship, which means my husband and I are doing long-distance. I’ve been waiting until I go home for winter break so we can binge together.
A scene (from a movie/book/TV show) that emotionally destroyed you this year (and why you’d still recommend it). Oh, so many scenes from Sorry, Baby, an incredible film written and directed by Eva Victor, who also stars (don’t be deterred by the poster—nothing bad happens to the cat). That’s tied with multiple scenes from God’s Own Country, which I saw this summer and found incredibly moving.
One piece of media you wish you could experience again for the first time. I just finished teaching an undergrad fiction and poetry workshop, and we read Amy Hempel’s “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” for our class on endings. I think about this story all the time, and cry every time I read the closing paragraphs. Each time I return to this story, I find something new to admire—so it does feel as though I experience it for the first time, in a way.
Caolinn Douglas, Senior Editor
Favorite fictional couple you were introduced to this year. Conrad and Belly!!!! They are so chaotic and young and make quite bad decisions, but they do try to love each other, and are representative of a sort of summer romance that absolutely no one has ever experienced but nonetheless dreamed about. 10/10, no notes.
What content have you been saving to binge during holiday break? The TV adaptation of Louise Kennedy’s highly acclaimed novel, Trespasses. It’s not yet available to watch in the US, but I will be binging it immediately upon my return home to London. Any Irish storytelling is catnip to me.
A scene (from a movie/book/TV show) that emotionally destroyed you this year (and why you’d still recommend it). The final scene of Dying for Sex, when Jenny Slate sees the two older women gabbing and realizes she will never again experience this with Michelle Williams’s character. This series is a beautiful, truthful, funny portrait of female friendship, and the ways in which gratitude, nostalgia, love, and grief often live side by side.
Ellie Levenson, author of Room 706
Favorite fictional couple you were introduced to this year. Phoebe and Gary in Alison Espach’s The Wedding People. They are so clearly meant for each other.
What content have you been saving to binge during holiday break? I keep a running list of Christmas films and romcoms to watch and rewatch over the break. Nothing is too cheesy. I’m also working my way through Hattie Crisell’s podcasts In Writing.
A scene (from a movie/book/TV show) that emotionally destroyed you this year (and why you’d still recommend it). I cried at Kit de Waal’s The Best of Everything think about it all the time, though if I describe the scene, which is at the end, then it’s too much of a spoiler.
One piece of media you wish you could experience again for the first time. When I was sent clips from the audiobook reading of my own novel, Room 706, it was absolutely amazing. I was just astounded by what the actor Hattie Morahan did with it. I thought the audiobook actors just read the book. But they act the book! I knew the words were what I had written, but they just sounded so alive. That was a thrill it would be nice to relive.
Katie Burdett, Editorial Assistant
Favorite fictional couple you were introduced to this year. My favorite fictional couple I was introduced to this year was Tiffy and Leon from The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary (a little late to the party, I know). I just finished it up and was so smitten with how their relationship looked at habitual life as a form of attraction. Getting to know the little intricacies of someone’s day is a love language!!
What content have you been saving to binge during holiday break? I just started catching up/doing all the recaps for Stranger Things season five, and I’m just about ready to binge once again. I forgot how cozy this otherwise horror-y TV show felt to me? I supposed it’s because season one aired when I was a freshman in high school. . .and I’m now 23.
A scene (from a movie/book/TV show) that emotionally destroyed you this year (and why you’d still recommend it). This year I had the privilege of early reading The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva! The climactic scene in that book (I can’t say because spoilers!!) made me release the biggest sigh of anger, sadness, and absolute relief of this year by far. You’ve got to read it—out April 28th, 2026!
Mai Sennaar, author of They Dream in Gold
Favorite fictional couple you were introduced to this year. Cora & Caesar in Barry Jenkins’s powerful adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. *Sigh* so heartbreaking, but I won’t spoil it. Nicholas Britell’s score makes every scene, every gaze, every moment hit even deeper.
What content have you been saving to binge during holiday break? Every single upload from Lauren, aka A Bright Moment’s YouTube channel is full of innovative recipes, girl power, and good vibes. And everyone should be watching Sarah Ahn’s gorgeous YouTube channel on food, family, and identity. It features her mother’s scrumptious recipes, life lessons, and their joint culinary ventures. Bethann Hardison, Katt Williams and Jane Fonda are just a few of the fantastic guests dropping by Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson’s wonderful podcast. I’ll be tuning in.
A scene (from a movie/book/TV show) that emotionally destroyed you this year (and why you’d still recommend it). The climax of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (not giving spoilers). I mean, how? Just how does something so fantastic get made?
One piece of media you wish you could experience again for the first time. Rachelle Ferrell’s Gaia. And every other song she’s ever made.
Nathalie Ramirez, Executive Director of Marketing
Favorite fictional couple you were introduced to this year. Jordan and Yash from Heart the Lover, a completely devastating story of what could have been. Also, Jordan was not technically new to me since I loved her as Casey in Writers & Lovers. Lily King knows love.
What content have you been saving to binge during holiday break? Pluribus and RHOSLC; I contain multitudes.
A scene (from a movie/book/TV show) that emotionally destroyed you this year (and why you’d still recommend it). The final scene of Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier. I cannot believe I didn’t predict it, and I got full-body chills. The film is a beautiful and gut-wrenching portrayal of a father-daughter relationship.
Sarah Ried, Deputy Director of Editorial
Favorite fictional couple you were introduced to this year. I watched Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy for the first time this year. Jesse and Celine, played by the perfectly cast Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, are so authentically rendered, and to witness their relationship evolve over decades felt especially poignant in my first year of marriage.
What content have you been saving to binge during holiday break? Pluribus! I’m saving all my viewing time and brain space for this one. No spoilers, please!
A scene (from a movie/book/TV show) that emotionally destroyed you this year (and why you’d still recommend it). In the season 2 finale of Severance, when Mark doesn’t leave Lumon with Gemma. I wanted to rip my heart out of my chest, but I will also scream from the rooftops about how incredible this show is.
One piece of media you wish you could experience again for the first time. I would give almost anything to watch Everything Everywhere All at Once for the first time again. As a daughter with a close, but intrinsically complicated, relationship with her mother, the bond between Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Hsu hits me at my core.
Victoria Redel, author of I Am You
A scene (from a movie/book/TV show) that emotionally destroyed you this year (and why you’d still recommend it). I had my heart upended by the Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s film Sentimental Value. My favorite fictional couple is the two sisters, Agnes (actress) and Nora (historian), who navigate together and apart the death of their mother and the reappearance of their selfish and emotional clod of a father.
One piece of media you wish you could experience again for the first time. The Guggenheim Museum show of Hilma af Klint in 2019 blew my mind, so it was pure joy walking through MOMA’s exhibition of af Klint’s “What Stands Behind the Flowers.” Leave it to Hilda af Klint to juxtapose traditional botanical renderings with her spiritual lexicon and deeply personal abstraction. The careful observation and record of nature around her was so moving to me, especially because I recently wrote a novel about two 17th-century Dutch painters devoted to still-life flower painting. I went to the show three times and would have happily wandered through another three times