Year-End Lists

The Atlantic: 23 Best Albums of 2018

[see also 2020 • 2019]

• Nasty
  Rico Nasty
• Room 25
  Noname
• ...And Justice for All (Remastered)
  Metallica
• Fully Loaded
  Shy Glizzy
• Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides
  Sophie
• Gangland Landlord
  Mozzy
• Dose Your Dreams
  Fucked Up
• Hive Mind
  The Internet
• Only Love
  The Armed
• Whack World
  Tierra Whack
• Elephants on Acid
  Cypress Hill
• Post-
  Jeff Rosenstock
• NOIR
  Smino
• 2012-2017
  Against All Logic
• soil
  serpentwithfeet
• Negative Capability
  Marianne Faithfull
• Aura
  Ozuna
• All Melody
  Nils Frahm
• Mudboy
  Sheck Wes
• Tina Snow
  Megan Thee Stallion
• Historian
  Lucy Dacus
• High As Hope
  Florence + The Machine
• To the Sunset
  Amanda Shires

Jeremy D. Larson: Favorite Albums of 2018, as posted to Twitter

[see also 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015]

1. Double Negative
   Low
2. Knock Knock
   DJ Koze
3. 7
   Beach House
4. Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
   Arctic Monkeys
5. Heaven and Earth
   Kamasi Washington
6. Beyondless
   Iceage
7. Room 25
   Noname
8. Lush
   Snail Mail
9. Only Love
   The Armed
10. Daytona
    Pusha T
11. I’m All Ears
    Let’s Eat Grandma
12. Constant Image
    Flasher
13. boygenius
    boygenius
14. Veteran
    JPEGMAFIA
15. Honey
    Robyn
16. Golden Hour
    Kacey Musgraves
17. Some Rap Songs
    Earl Sweatshirt
18. Freedom
    Amen Dunes
19. A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
    The 1975
20. Universal Beings
    Makaya McCraven
21. In a Poem Unlimited
    U.S. Girls
22. Your Queen Is a Reptile
    Sons of Kemet
23. Cold Devil
    Drakeo the Ruler
24. Sparkle Hard
    Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
25. No Dogs Allowed
    Sidney Gish
26. Errorzone
    Vein
27. God’s Favorite Customer
    Father John Misty

Maureen Ryan: Top TV Shows of 2018

[see also 2021 • 2017 • 2016]

Top 10 TV Shows of 2018 (in alphabetical order)

• The Americans
• Atlanta
• Better Call Saul
• BoJack Horseman
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• The Good Fight
• The Good Place
• Jane the Virgin
• Killing Eve
• One Day at a Time

Honorable mentions

• American Vandal
• Barry
• Billions
• Dear White People
• The Deuce
• Fresh Off the Boat
• Grown-ish
• Insecure
• Mosaic
• Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams
• Save Me
• Suits
• Trust
• Wild Wild Country

The Rest of the Top 40

• Altered Carbon
• Bodyguard
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine
• Castle Rock
• Counterpart
• Legends of Tomorrow
• Doctor Who
• Everything Sucks!
• The Haunting of Hill House
• Homecoming
• Howards End
• Into the Badlands
• Killjoys
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
• The Little Drummer Girl
• Mary Kills People
• Miss Sherlock
• My Brilliant Friend
• Hannah Gadsby: Nanette
• National Treasure: Kiri
• Pose
• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
• Sharp Objects
• The Staircase
• Succession
• Superstore
• A Very English Scandal
• Vida
• The Wine Show
• Wynonna Earp

RogerEbert.com: Ten Best Films of 2018, as selected by the site’s regular film critics and assistant editors

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2017 • 2016]

1. Roma
   Alfonso Cuaron
2. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
   Joel & Ethan Coen
3. Sorry to Bother You
   Boots Riley
4. First Reformed
   Paul Schrader
5. If Beale Street Could Talk
   Barry Jenkins
6. Shirkers
   Sandi Tan
7. Annihilation
   Alex Garland
8. BlacKkKlansman
   Spike Lee
9. Burning
   Lee Chang-dong
10. Cold War
    Pawel Pawlikowski

This list summarizes other lists, including these:

• RogerEbert.com: Ben Kenigsberg: Top Ten Films of 2018
• RogerEbert.com: Brian Tallerico: Top Ten Films of 2018
• RogerEbert.com: Justine Smith: Top Ten Films of 2018
• RogerEbert.com: Kristen Lopez: Top Ten Films of 2018
• RogerEbert.com: Matt Zoller Seitz: Top Ten Films of 2018
• RogerEbert.com: Odie Henderson: Top Ten Films of 2018
• RogerEbert.com: Sheila O’Malley: Top Ten Films of 2018

Autostraddle: 50 of the Best Feminist Books of 2018, with the poetry list filed separately here

Fiction

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation
  Ottessa Moshfegh
• The Mars Room
  Rachel Kushner
• Those Who Knew
  Idra Novey
• Insurrecto
  Gina Apostol
• The Mere Wife
  Maria Dahvana Headley
• Vox
  Christina Dalcher
• Before She Sleeps
  Bina Shah
• Circe
  Madeline Miller
• Red Clocks
  Leni Zumas
• She Would Be King
  Wayétu Moore

Nonfiction

• 90s Bitch

  Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality
  Allison Yarrow
• The Real Lolita

  The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World
  Sarah Weinman
• Stealing the Show

  How Women Are Revolutionizing Television
  Joy Press
• Betraying Big Brother

  The Feminist Awakening in China
  Leta Hong Fincher
• Text Me When You Get Home

  The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship
  Kayleen Schaefer
• Bad with Money

  The Imperfect Art of Getting Your Financial Sh*t Together
  Gaby Dunn

Cultural Criticism

• Against Memoir

  Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms
  Michelle Tea
• Eloquent Rage

  A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
  Brittney C. Cooper
• Revolting Prostitutes

  The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights
  Juno Mac & Molly Smith
• Good and Mad

  The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger
  Rebecca Traister
• Rage Becomes Her

  The Power of Women's Anger
  Soraya Chemaly
• So You Want to Talk About Race
  Ijeoma Oluo
• Girls Resist!

  A Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution
  KaeLyn Rich
• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism

  And Other Arguments for Economic Independence
  Kristen R. Ghodsee

Essay Collections

• Meaty
  Samantha Irby
• The Reckonings
  Lacy M. Johnson
• This Will Be My Undoing

  Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
  Morgan Jerkins
• Tonight I'm Someone Else
  Chelsea Hodson
• Dead Girls

  Essays on Surviving an American Obsession
  Alice Bolin
• The Art of Feminism

  Images that Shaped the Fight for Equality, 1857-2017
  Helena Reckitt (editor)

Anthologies

• Well-Read Black Girl

  Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
  Glory Edim (editor)
• Can We All Be Feminists?

  New Writing from Brit Bennett, Nicole Dennis-Benn, and 15 Others on Intersectionality, Identity, and the Way Forward for Feminism
  June Eric-Udorie
• Our Stories, Our Voices

  21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America
  Amy Reed (editor)
• Not That Bad

  Dispatches from Rape Culture
  Roxane Gay (editor)
• Becoming Dangerous

  Witchy femmes, queer conjurers, and magical rebels on summoning the power to resist
  Katie West & Jasmine Elliott (editors)
• Generation F

  The Girls Write Now 2018 Anthology

Memoir/Biography

• I'm Afraid of Men
  Vivek Shraya
• The Trauma Cleaner

  One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster
  Sarah Krasnostein
• The Recovering

  Intoxication and Its Aftermath
  Leslie Jamison
• Sick
  Porochista Khakpour
• How to Be Alone

  If You Want To, and Even If You Don't
  Lane Moore
• When They Call You a Terrorist

  A Black Lives Matter Memoir
  Patrisse Khan-Cullors & asha bandele
• And Now We Have Everything

  On Motherhood Before I Was Ready
  Meaghan O'Connell
• Becoming
  Michelle Obama

Troy Patterson: My Favorite TV Shows of 2018, as published by The New Yorker

• The Americans
• Atlanta
• Barry
• Corporate
• The End of the F***ing World
• Heathers
• Homecoming
• Killing Eve
• Random Acts of Flyness
• Succession

Resident Advisor: 2018's Best Albums, compiled by staff and contributors

[see also 2023 • 2015 • 2014 • 2012 • 2011]

• NTS Sessions 1-4
  Autechre
• Aviary
  Julia Holter
• And Yet It's All Love
  Fatima
• Nothing Is Still
  Leon Vynehall
• Anticlines
  Lucrecia Dalt
• 15 Years of the Bunker
  various artists
• Nordic Flora Series Pt.5: Crush
  Varg
• Gave In Rest
  Sarah Davachi
• Don’t You Mess with Cupid, 'cause Cupid Ain’t Stupid.
  Nina Kraviz
• Honey
  Robyn
• soil
  serpentwithfeet
• If You're Into It I'm Out of It
  Christoph De Babalon
• Passion
  Demdike Stare
• Take Me With You
  Anthony Naples
• Autobiography
  Jlin
• Air Lows
  Silvia Kastel
• Voids
  Martyn
• Make Me Know You Sweet
  Pendant
• Safe in the Hands of Love
  Yves Tumor
• Luminosity Device
  Surgeon
• Grid of Points
  Grouper
• Nothing 2 Loose
  DJ Healer
• Mudshadow Propaganda
  Prime Minister of Doom
• Working Class Woman
  Marie Davidson
• De Leon
  De Leon
• Wet Will Always Dry
  Blawan
• Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides
  Sophie
• Hunchin' All Night
  Hunee
• Knock Knock
  DJ Koze
• Devotion
  Tirzah
• Heat
  Shinichi Atobe
• Built to Last
  Specter
• Cocoon Crush
  Objekt
• A Body
  Borusiade
• New Horizon
  JK Flesh
• Konoyo
  Tim Hecker
• Kulør 001
  various artists
• Khonnar
  Deena Abdelwahed
• Ostati
  HVL
• Compro
  Skee Mask

Amanda Petrusich: Ten Best Albums of 2018, as published by The New Yorker

[see also 2023 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2017]

• 7
  Beach House
• Plainly Mistaken
  Nathan Bowles
• boygenius
  boygenius
• Wanderer
  Cat Power
• MITH
  Lonnie Holley
• Ghost Forests
  Meg Baird & Mary Lattimore
• Magic Ship
  Mountain Man
• Room 25
  Noname
• Starter Home
  Doug Paisley
• El Mal Querer
  Rosalía

Uproxx: Best Movies of 2018

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2017 • 2016]

1. Sorry to Bother You
   Boots Riley
2. Roma
   Alfonso Cuaron
3. Eighth Grade
   Bo Burnham
4. A Star Is Born
   Bradley Cooper
5. Private Life
   Tamara Jenkins
6. Black Panther
   Ryan Coogler
7. Mission: Impossible – Fallout
   Christopher McQuarrie
8. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
   Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman
9. Paddington 2
   Paul King
10. First Man
    Damien Chazelle
11. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
    Marielle Heller
12. Blindspotting
    Carlos López Estrada
13. Game Night
    John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein
14. If Beale Street Could Talk
    Barry Jenkins
15. Border
    Ali Abbasi

Boston.com: 20 Best Books of 2018, selected by staff members from four Boston book shops

[see also 2019]

Fiction

• The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
  Denis Johnson
• Speak No Evil
  Uzodinma Iweala
• The Overstory
  Richard Powers
• Florida
  Lauren Groff
• The Great Believers
  Rebecca Makkai
• There There
  Tommy Orange
• The Incendiaries
  R.O. Kwon
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation
  Ottessa Moshfegh
• Gone So Long
  Andre Dubus III
• Friday Black
  Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Poetry

• The Final Voicemails
  Max Ritvo

Nonfiction

• So You Want to Talk About Race
  Ijeoma Oluo
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark

  One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
  Michelle McNamara
• Educated
  Tara Westover
• How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
  Alexander Chee
• The Traveling Feast

  On the Road and at the Table with My Heroes
  Rick Bass
• Call Me American
  Abdi Nor Iftin
• Heartland

  A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
  Sarah Smarsh
• The Library Book
  Susan Orlean
• Becoming
  Michelle Obama