S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.
S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.
There’s been many a conversation in literary circles about how no single book has stood out as the big book of the year, how this year is lacking in really exceptional works that push the envelope, and so on and so forth. And yet, I read some really great books this year, including the work of literary fiction I’m recommending today. This National Book Award finalist was my late-breaking favorite fiction book of 2025.
This is a book I will cherish and hold onto. It’s a book I’ll recommend to all of my friends because this is a story of friendship, as it develops, evolves, and impacts the lives of a group of women from their 20s into middle age. I downright miss spending time with this book even as I know it’ll be there when I need a reminder of the importance of the relationships we choose and hold tight to. This is also a book that does push the envelope, especially when we’re talking about stories centering Black women—it’s the kind of story about Black women I hope to see more of and more of publishing’s dollars behind.
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
The friendship between Desiree, Nakia, January, and Monique isn’t written to satisfy the #squadgoals dynamic but, nonetheless, their complex relationships have made me look at my most lasting friendships through a new, more appreciative lens. We follow these Black women from their messy 20s late into their lives, bearing witness to both the experiences they share with each other and the ones they pointedly choose to keep for themselves. The story takes us many places, but mostly between Los Angeles and New York City, and it doesn’t follow a straight course in time, sometimes taking us farther into the future before bringing us back to the past. We get each of their perspectives on life, on themselves, on each other. All together, this brief but heady read manages an impressive portrayal of enduring kinship.
The revelation that friendship can be vital to our resilience is what struck me the most while reading this novel. Watching these four women go through it, and by “it” I mean the vividly relatable turmoils and expectations that await us in adulthood and middle age. I mean, I will never know what it’s like to go on a grand travel excursion with a parental figure to help them on their final journey, and to lose a sister through it, but I do know what it’s like to lean on friends when family will not or cannot help see you through the hard times. So many of us know what it’s like to grieve the living, to finally risk it all and get that divorce, to flounder in our careers and in romance. As an Angeleno and a Black woman, there were scenes that felt so close to home it was like I stood with both feet in those pages.
Above all, Flournoy’s tenderness and compassion in fashioning the lives of these flawed, talented, beautiful women gave this book its big, beating heart and gave me the story about Black women and friendship I didn’t know I needed. We can have a story that involves trauma and doesn’t try to look away from race and racism, but that is serious and funny and layered, with all the gravitas we tend to give literary fiction, in a story centering Black women. While I absolutely shed tears reading this book, it’s the love that stays with me. We need more books like The Wilderness.
What have you been reading lately? Let’s chat in the comments!
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