The Best Books of 2025 (So Far)

This Regency trans romance is everything I want out of a historical romance novel. It's a boy-meets-boy story, only neither of them realizes the other is gay — or trans — yet. Despite all they have in common, Christopher and James butt heads at first. Lord Christopher Eden doesn't want a valet, after all. He likes to dress himself. Not only that, James is far too stuffy and traditional. But the fact that they dislike each other initially only makes their eventual romance all the sweeter. It’s that Pride and Prejudice "they have to grow on each other first in order to fall in love" factor.

- Rachel Brittain

Belle Époque Paris! Sex lessons! Abortion rights! This historical romance set in 1889 has it all. Aurora used her inheritance to become a doctor and run an underground women’s clinic. But when her funding is cut off and new dangers emerge, she accepts the protection of Apollo, the new duke of Anan. A one-night-only tryst leads to sex lessons (such a good trope!). And soon, the Duke is determined to marry. But Aurora is just as determined to stay single. Their conflict and passion leap off the page, as does the prescient theme of women’s reproductive freedom. The book is the third in the Las Leonas trilogy, but also works as a standalone.

- Alison Doherty

I picked up Edgar Gomez’s 2022 memoir based solely on the title—High-Risk Homosexual—and deeply enjoyed his voice, which stayed with me long after I read it. So his follow-up, Alligator Tears, was not only a must-read, but something I was excitedly looking forward to. Gomez writes about growing up queer in Florida, the American Dream, class, family, love, community and so much more, all with a through line tied to his relationship with his mother that will break your heart and heal it. He has an insightful, fresh voice, and his books would make an excellent dark comedy sitcom adaptation. Bonus: he narrates the audiobook!

- Jamie Canaves

The long-awaited conclusion of Alexis Daria’s Primas of Power trilogy, Along Came Amor, is most definitely a romance of the “oops I’m accidentally having a fling with the best man in my cousin’s wedding” variety. Delightful, but what takes it to the next level is that it’s also the story of how Ava (maid of honor in said wedding) gradually rebuilds her independence after a divorce and a lifetime of dealing with familial judgment. The center of the story is the way Ava and Roman slowly build a healthy relationship with one another, but it’s also so satisfying to watch Ava figure out how to build a healthy, kind relationship with herself.

- Trisha Brown

A beguiling, sharp, and surprising book that will have you scratching your head in the very best way. Clean, cutting observations and slippery characters combine in this gem for literary fiction lovers. Be warned: you might have to live with a little (ok more than a little) uncertainty in this book, but let Kitamura lead you toward a little provocative discombobulation.

- Jeff O'Neal

In a not-so-distant future where chaotic weather and continuous rain have triggered devastating impacts on Earth, Chinese American artist Bo lives in a flooded San Francisco in a high-rise connected to other high rises by bridges. While many have left the city and its deteriorating conditions, Bo remains, grieving the loss of her mother in a flood and losing her passion for art and for life. But when Bo picks up work caring for an elderly woman in her building named Mia, she finds hope and purpose in her life again. Kwan's writing is beautiful, and Bo's poignant character journey set against the backdrop of such an awe-inspiring and haunting future world makes for an unforgettable read.

- Megan Mabee

When I heard that Awakened was about a coven of trans witches that fight an evil AI, it immediately rose to the top of my most-anticipated list. I'm happy to say it lived up to those expectations, from its dedication — "For everyone who feels betrayed by J.K. Rowling" — to its final page. The whimsical narrator makes for a fun contrast to the cynical main character, reluctantly adjusting to their new powers. Each of the members of this coven is complex and multifaceted, making their slow progression into a chosen family feel satisfying and realistic. Yes, this is a fantastic read for ex-Harry Potter fans, but it's so much more than that.

- Danika Ellis

Baker explores the traumas of the early COVID-19 pandemic in this horror novel that combines Chinese mythology with themes of grief and racism. After the murder of her sister, Delilah, Cora becomes a crime scene cleaner. Recent murders of Asian women with mutilated bats at the scene make Cora think there’s a serial killer targeting Asian women. Cora knows she has to do something as Delilah haunts her everywhere she goes. Battling grief, mental health struggles, and past traumas, Cora’s attempts to save Delilah from being a hungry ghost forever are messy and have dire consequences. Bat Eater is layered, funny, dark, and visceral.

- Courtney Rodgers

In the “bright” blue bedroom of her grandmother’s yellow house, Perry fell in love with the color blue. The scholar and author of South to America approached this project—once called her “blue book”—by writing “toward the mystery of blue and its alchemy in the lives of Black folk.” Ruminating on Nina Simone’s music, Toni Morrison’s words, Lorna Simpson’s art, a hint of ceiling “like the sky in August,” water, ceramics, porches, and many more blues, these lyrical essays examine history, spirituality, adornment, movement, and race. Perry gorgeously narrates the audiobook, and this epigraph-rich work reverberates like a chorus of voices.

- Connie Pan

The queen of YA mysteries and thrillers has moved effortlessly into middle grade mysteries! Tiffany D. Jackson has a different topical focus with every book, which leads to gripping stories, while her characters’ voices always shine. And those are just two of the reasons she's listed in The Best Mystery Books of the Past 10 Years. In Blood in the Water, we follow Brooklyn native Kaylani to Martha's Vineyard. While trying to find her way in a place she doesn’t want to be, she ends up investigating a suspicious death, unaware that the more she digs, the more she’ll upset the residents and their deeply-held deadly secrets…I know!

- Jamie Canaves

This slow, biracial character study is nestled in a deeply sapphic Asian-inspired fantasy novella. Famous dragon hunter, Yeva, was sent away from home to train after saving her sibling from a baby dragon attack, permanently injuring her arm in the process. She hasn’t been back since. But when the king hears word that the dragon-worshipping nation of Quiambao may be hiding a dragon, she is sent to investigate. So close to home, Yeva is finally living dangerously, showing her face, falling for the girl King Sookhee, and reorienting everything she’s ever been taught.

- R. Nassor

V. E. Schwab breathes new life (teehee) into the undead with this opulent sapphic vampire tale. Following three women from three different centuries, it's a story of hunger, feminism, and ferociousness. To say more would almost spoil its magic, so just know that it's a vampire novel unlike any other, spanning hundreds of years, with monsters who will dazzle and horrify you. These women are not satisfied being bit players in their own lives, and their thirst for more leads them down dark paths. Like many of Schwab's novels, it has lush writing and entrancing storytelling, and the results are mesmerizing. I'll continue to follow her anywhere.

- Liberty Hardy

It’s a bittersweet joy reading this book, knowing it’s the last in Skyland. Hendrix is the last of the trio to be boo’d up, and she’s perfectly fine with that. But when she meets charming Maverick, she wishes she could pursue more than friendship with him. But friends (and business partners) are what they become, and what they’re determined to stay. Kennedy Ryan is a master of her craft, and Can’t Get Enough will take you on an angsty, anxiety-filled, sexy journey as two people who deserve the best things in life deal with the complications that come with it. This book includes Alzheimer's, past familial death, and White Nonsense; read with care.

- Jessica Pryde

The wildest thing about this book is that it’s (allegedly!) nonfiction. Scenes of shark attacks, bacchanalian events lousy with real-life villains, and workplace toxicity beyond anything I’ve ever read in Ask a Manager abound in this memoir about Wynn-Williams’ time as a global policy leader at then-Facebook. It’s hard to imagine 2025 producing a memoir as page-turning and juicy that's also written with as much wry humor and fluidity. I now have a go-to book to recommend anyone who loves tell-all or whistleblower nonfiction, and if Wynn-Williams finds another subject to pen a book about, it’ll be an automatic buy for me.

- S. Zainab Williams

In the haven of “safeness” built between Grandmama’s pink shotgun home and Mama Lara’s ivory one, three Black boys—one from New York and two from Mississippi—spend their summer days together. In central Mississippi, they meet on porches. They walk in the cool forest. In an expansive garden with beans, cucumbers, and sunflowers, they play Marco Polo. Vibrant and textured, Franklin’s art includes swirls of clouds in wide skies, verdant fields, smiling faces, and dreamy magnolias blooming near a window. Laymon’s prose rings like poetry, and I keep reaching for this stunning meditation on love, vulnerability, the unspoken, joy, and possibility.

- Connie Pan

I'd hoped for a similar explosion in cozy science fiction as we've seen in fantasy over the past few years. Cosmic Love is just what I'd been looking for, with a sweet queer love story that ties the multiverse fun together. Annie Mare is one half of a writing duo with their wife Ruthie Knox (couple goals!), but this is their first standalone novel. It stars Tressa Faye Robinson, a hairdresser who discovers that Meryl, the woman she has been flirting with by text, is living five months apart from her — and that Meryl recently went missing.

- CJ Connor

Is America a cult? Borden explores this question by diving into the morals and beliefs that shaped Puritanical colonization. The book surveys a cult's characteristics, tracing how groups, laws, and policies throughout American history have led to conspiratorial thinking among its people. This includes why Americans are so susceptible to pyramid schemes; why most American cults have been white and politically right-leaning; and when such thinking has surged in this country's timeline. Engaging and enraging, this is the history and contemporary exploration of America we need right now.

- Kelly Jensen

The protagonist, Zelu, is a disabled, Nigerian American professor and novelist. The novel shows how her disability, ethnicity, and family shape her personality. After her sci-fi novel, Rusted Robots, makes her famous, strangers judge her personal choices, including walking with bionic legs. She’s disappointed with Rusted Robots’ film adaptation, which Americanizes the robot characters’ Nigerian names. Okorafor’s novel is metafictional. Zelu's narrative is intertwined with Rusted Robots in surprising ways. Death of the Author explores its themes in depth, from creativity to bodily autonomy.

- Grace Lapointe

Every new Ali Hazelwood book is my new favorite book by her; each one just gets better. Deep End is a different kind of story for her, both in the age of the characters and their social, athletic, and sexual interests. It still features a badass woman in STEM (and includes some delightful cameos), but focuses significantly more on Scarlett’s recovery from an injury and how that affects her. That and of course, her exploration of her kinky interests with Lukas, who feels off limits not because he’s a teammate, but because he’s a much closer teammate’s ex. It’s angsty and melodramatic and lovely in the best way—while also somehow being hilarious?

- Jessica Pryde

Nicola Dinan’s books are nearly impossible to describe in a tidy little hook. But that’s also what I love about them. They explore the true messiness of moving through today’s world as a queer person, searching for your place through joy and pain and confusion. Disappoint Me stars Max, a British trans woman turning thirty and grappling with what it means to grow older without heteronormative standards of success and happiness. When she starts an unusually traditional relationship with Vincent, Max starts to understand the appeal. But Vincent is hiding some heavy secrets about his past relationships that continue to impact his love life. It’s a poignant, wonderfully complicated, and layered novel that I’m still thinking about weeks after reading.

- Susie Dumond

Bertino returns to the short story after the valedictory release of Beautyland last year. And as terrific as that novel was, Exit Zero shows that short stories might be her truest literary home. These stories are somehow both calm and bizarre, comforting and disquieting, revelatory and withholding. The addition of a little magic in each story belies that these are stories about absences, separations, loneliness, and uncertainty. Readers of all kinds will find something to cherish among these gems.

- Jeff O'Neal

Josephine Baker is a bisexual icon, a performer who scandalized the western world in a banana skirt, spied on the Nazis for France in WWII, and advocated fiercely for civil rights. It's wild that it took us decades to get her memoir (put together by a man who interviewed her extensively) translated into English. The conversational style allows her to fully come to life. Her sparkling, charismatic voice shines through. From growing up in St. Louis to finding her home in Paris, Baker shares her story, dismisses her critics, laughs about her own eccentricities (like her pet cheetah), and discusses her art and life's work with fervent love.

- Leah Rachel von Essen

This picture book by Indigenous creators is magnificent, from Joy Harjo’s luminous poem celebrating a girl’s life, to Adriana Garcia’s gorgeous illustrations awash in swirls of warmth, joy, and love. It’s told from the perspective of a family welcoming the birth of a girl, passing on their wisdom as she grows, and letting her know that her family has always been there with her, welcoming and supportive. Horses form a common theme. Harjo’s poem sings, as always, and while I have always loved Garcia’s illustrations, these are possibly her best yet. It’s a stunning book that will be loved by children and adults alike.

- Margaret Kingsbury

This book brings together two of my favorite nonfiction trends: autofiction about a brilliant woman unacknowledged in her time and the lives of modernist artists. Gabriële is the brilliant grandmother of Clare and Anne Berest (The Postcard), who gave up her promising music composition career to support her husband, Dadaist Francis Picabia. A window into the art world in the first decades of the 20th century, the book is also about the Berests trying to understand their enigmatic grandmother, who never wanted to marry and have children, yet dedicated a significant part of her life to her husband. It's a strange and important story that should not be missed.

- Elisa Shoenberger

I love to kick off a year of reading with a book that recharges my reading battery, and Wilkerson's follow-up to Black Cake was it. Good Dirt lives within that book club/beach read sweet spot. Historical fiction, incendiary gossip, and commentary on race and class are woven into a multilayered story about an affluent Black family grieving and wrestling with the fallout of a highly publicized death in the family. I don't get to read a lot of books about wealthy Black people, and the way Wilkerson deftly balances levity and depth in this engrossing tale of generational trauma and perseverance makes it an absolute standout.

- S. Zainab Williams

A woman's estranged grandmother calls her out of the blue, requesting she pay her a visit in the hills of western North Carolina. She goes hoping to find answers about the root of their estrangement and instead learns of an American kingdom that once existed in those very hills, one where her great-great-great-grandmother was queen. Here's the thing: The Kingdom of the Happy Land was a very real place, a secret self-governed community founded by formerly enslaved people in Reconstruction-era Appalachia. If you like historical fiction that dives into the kinds of history we're rarely taught in schools, you will devour this book like I did.

- Vanessa Diaz

A little while back, I dubbed this one of the best book club books of the year. Part of the reason is that it tells the story of an almost totally forgotten historical literary figure who helped shape the literal Harlem Renaissance. Jessie Redmon became known as the "Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance" because of her publishing iconic writers like Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen through the groundbreaking literary magazine The Crisis. But she was as messy as she was influential — her affair with her married mentor and boss, W.E.B. DuBois, threatened to undo everything. The tea!

- Erica Ezeifedi

In this multiple-POV mystery, a flip-flop hiker on the Appalachian Trail goes missing, and people come out in droves to help. But then the search extends for longer than a week, and it starts to seem unlikely that she’ll ever be found alive. The story is told through the eyes of the game warden tasked with finding her, an armchair detective living in a retirement community miles away, via interviews with other hikers, and in letters written by the hiker herself. As their stories slowly converge, the book delves into the experience of feeling lost and how we might be found, both literally and metaphorically.

- Steph Auteri

No two people know the same place the same way. Freya Arnalds fled her small New York hometown years ago, leaving with no regrets except for one: abandoning her beloved niece, Aubrey. With a burst appendix and mounting debts, Freya reluctantly returns to Somers, NY, to the family home willed to her. Reconnecting with a teenage Aubrey fleeing her own parents by hiding in the old house, Freya learns that you can actually go home again by having faith: faith in herself and in karmic justice. Home of the American Circus is another masterful portrait of found family from Allison Larkin, who always lets the good hearts of her characters shine through.

- Jeffrey Davies

Sara Kehaulani Goo’s Hawaiian ancestors were gifted 60 acres of sacred land on Maui by King Kamehameha III in 1848. Generations later, her family is scattered across the continental U.S., at odds about whether to fight for their land despite wildly rising taxes or give up and sell it to wealthy gentrifiers. For Goo, the land is a crucial part of her family’s past and her own responsibility to carry on their cultural heritage. In Kuleana, Goo shares the decades-long battle to protect their acreage as a window into Hawai’i’s history of colonization, displacement, and present efforts to preserve Indigenous Hawaiian culture and the right to ancestral land. It’s a thoughtfully layered journalistic memoir that goes far beyond the plight of one family.

- Susie Dumond

What makes a good life? It's been a philosophical question for as long as philosophical questions have existed, and now, it's an empirical question as well. Building on a body of research that has historically emphasized happiness and meaning as the two primary components of a good life, Dr. Shigehiro Oishi proposes a third vector: psychological richness. A psychologically rich life is one filled with interesting, challenging, surprising experiences — moments that may not be fun or easy but that change your perspective. While everyone's ideal balance of happiness, meaning, and psychological richness is different, Oishi makes a powerful case that we need some measure of all three in order to be truly satisfied with how we spend our lives. This book articulated something I've felt for a long time. As a reader, is there anything better than that? If you're looking for a way to think more expansively about personal growth and making the most of your days, don't miss it.

- Rebecca Joines Schinsky

Though Shon Faye frames her memoir around her desire and quest for romantic love, she understands and clearly lays out the stakes of love. For all of us, it’s not just emotional safety. She also argues that a profoundly loveless society (one with no safety net, an insistence on the nuclear family) makes us feel worse. All of that societal sickness, as well as her queerness, made her seek love wherever she could. We’ve all probably made similar compromises to feel more loved. Her openness about love rebukes a society that demands we fix ourselves. It made me heartsick — but in a good way. The hope is that we can expand our definition of love.

- Julia Rittenberg

Malinalli, or La Malinche, is the woman who served as Hernán Cortés' translator in his conquest of what we now know as Mexico. Though enslaved and almost certainly a victim herself, she’s one of the most controversial women in history: the term "malinchista" is used to this day to refer to a sellout or traitor. Her story is reimagined here with a lot of nuance and a little bit of magic, the tale of a woman crushed by loss and robbed of all agency who then dares to seek vengeance and reclaim her power. As a lover of stories that flesh out the narratives of history's most maligned women, I devoured every page of this book.

- Vanessa Diaz

An adorable, exciting, and heartfelt story that turns the "chosen one" trope on its big floppy ear, Mr. Muffins follows a homework-averse boy named Reuben and the titular corgi on an epic space adventure! The concept — a corgi with superpowers — grabs your attention immediately, and I am delighted to report that the rest of the book more than follows through.

What I especially love is how the book pairs sci-fi action and clever, snarky comedy with deeper lessons about how war affects ordinary people, and how no group of people — even the "bad guys" — is a monolith. 10/10, no notes.

- Eileen Gonzalez

Bree Matthews must decide whom she can trust as the threats against her life mount. Selwyn is losing his battle with Demonia, and Nick is eight steps into his deadly 50-step plan to save Bree and Sel. Separated from the Legendborn Order and cut off from her ancestors, Bree finds herself alone with the enemy, learning to balance King Arthur’s powers and Rootcraft. She knew gaining control over her powers and making a bargain with a dangerous being would cost her, but she was not sure she could pay the price. One thing’s for sure: Deonn’s third novel in The Legendborn Cycle is electric, heartbreaking, and absolutely stunning.

- R. Nassor

Geek out with this younger YA book, which follows two high school freshmen learning how to navigate school, friendship, family drama, and falling in love for the very first time. Pacy and Cecil meet on their first day of school, but neither has it together enough to fess up to their feelings. Both are forced into helping plan the freshman dance, and no matter how much they try to deny what's going on, the sparks only get brighter. The dynamic writing duo behind this book has created two memorable characters who will have you weighing in on their ongoing battle: Star Wars or Star Trek?

- Kelly Jensen

There is no book more urgent than El Akkad's nonfiction debut, and the gravity, intensity, and horror of the atrocities being hurled against Palestinians deserve an entire book written by someone with his breadth of journalistic and personal experience. This is the first text to articulate what it means to witness the mass slaughtering of innocents in Gaza and to feel complicit and powerless as it happens in a way that resonated with me and so many people. "One day, everyone will have always been against this" is an ominous phrase I've encountered again and again since El Akkad tweeted it and then published a book deepening that thought. It's a phrase that, I fear, will echo across time.

- S. Zainab Williams

I have long appreciated the breadth of Eve L. Ewing's work, which includes poetry, comic books, excellent tweets (sadly no longer available), and scholarly nonfiction. While Original Sins is very deeply researched, it is far from dry reading. Ewing's poetic turns of phrase shine through the text. The book does paint a grim portrait of how intertwined schooling and racism are (and always have been), but it also aims to fire up educators to remake a broken system. A book as stark and stirring as this one is essential reading in days when the U.S. government is denying its own racist history.

- Isabelle Popp

This is the book about AI and creativity I've been waiting for. Vauhini Vara went viral in 2021 when she used a pre-ChatGPT technology to write about her sister's death. In Searches, she collaborates with AI (I know that sounds weird, but it works, I promise) to explore how the technologies we've created are now shaping us. From the depths of her Google search history to a decade's worth of Amazon purchases to an AI-generated pitch deck for an imaginary start-up, Vara uses her personal relationship to technology to ask what it means to be a person in a moment when technology is increasingly good at performing humanity. If you're looking for a treatise about why AI is evil, you won't find it here. Vara resists easy judgments and works from a place of radical acceptance that AI is here to stay to consider the various futures we might create and what art might look like as we evolve alongside this technology. It's the kind of book that leaves you with more questions than answers and the very best kind of productive discomfort.

- Rebecca Joines Schinsky

In this essential oral history, queer elders of color share stories of self-discovery, activism, resistance, and survival. Their testimonies are a necessary record of lived experience and hard-won progress, a love letter to queer history, and gorgeous reminder to treasure the wisdom of those who’ve witnessed history, helped shape it, and allowed us to imagine brighter futures. There is so much beautiful humanity in these pages, so much laughter and joy even in periods of profound struggle and loss. That joy is resistance, that joy is protest, that joy is unshakable. I need everyone to read this book.

- Vanessa Diaz

This dreamy graphic novel is a planetary sci-fi story with a superpowered twist. Most of the children of the spacefarers who first landed on Meridian develop strange mutations, like telekinesis and charismatic influence. In fact, it’s far stranger not to have powers, which is only part of why Oberon feels like such an outcast. Recovering from depression and dropping out of school certainly don’t help. But when Oberon’s dreams start seeping into the real world, he realizes having superpowers isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Romantic and lushly illustrated, and filled with complicated feelings and relationships that will pull you right in.

- Rachel Brittain

Essayist and cultural critic Scaachi Koul knocks it out of the park with her new essay collection. Much of Sucker Punch follows Koul through her divorce, including all the ups and down of the relationship before and after its end. Koul presents readers with a complex portrait of her marriage, both the highs and the lows. Her prose is sharp, funny, and endearing all at once. She makes sincerity a supreme virtue, one we should aspire to with its blunt truths about the realities of messy relationships. Sucker Punch is a beautifully crafted collection that shines as one of the standout nonfiction titles of the year.

- Kendra Winchester

The latest installment in Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games dystopian series covers the Games of Haymitch Abernathy. Teenage Haymitch is warm, bright, and deeply in love with Lenore Dove Baird, a far cry from the mentor we meet with Katniss in the original trilogy. From Haymitch’s July 4^th birthday and Reaping Day with double the number of tributes, this book refuses to slow down. Just as readers and tributes think they’ve learned the Capitol’s rules, something new and terrible arrives. Collins masterfully sets up for later events in the series while maintaining an overwhelming sense of dread. Brutal and truthful, this novel could not be more timely.

- Courtney Rodgers

This collection of stories about queer Black women is going to live in my head for a long time. If you love Carmen Maria Machado's work, you need to pick up Sympathy for Wild Girls. They both excel at writing feminist, fabulist/magical realist stories that get under your skin. These stories explore intense, undefined relationships between women; the horror at having a body (especially a racialized, sexualized body); and the strange paths grief can lead you down. Visceral, evocative, and thought-provoking, these are stories that benefit from discussion and deep reading. This collection deserves to be recognized as a new classic.

- Danika Ellis

If you keep a journal or you’ve ever wanted to, this book is a must-read. The author describes how journaling has been essential to both her creativity and survival. She collected short essays of advice and inspiration from figures ranging from Gloria Steinem to Salman Rushdie to John Green. Each writer also gives the reader a journal prompt. The result is a 100-day challenge, with a short essay to read and a writing exercise to do each day. I’ve kept a diary on and off since I was eight. But I’m currently on day 31 of the challenge and am writing more, going deeper, and feeling freer in my journal than ever before. What a gift!

- Alison Doherty

This Indigenous horror story literally gave me a nightmare, but it might not be why you think. Yes, it has vampires, but the true monsters in it are those who slaughtered around 200 Blackfeet in the early 1900s. The story of the Blackfeet gets told to a Lutheran pastor in 1912 through a series of confessions by a man named Good Stab, who seems to have had a supernaturally long life. He also has a curious appetite and strange reflexes...and revenge on his mind.

- Erica Ezeifedi

In this little book, Amar El-Mohtar weaves a new fairy tale of two sisters living at the liminal space between our world and one filled with magic. This tale is complete with love, heartbreak, and horror. What makes it the best so far is El-Mohtar's brilliant, lyrical prose, elevating the entire piece.

- Chris M. Arnone

Once again, Annie Hartnett shows why she's the queen of heartbreaking and hilarious family novels. The Halliday family is a hot mess, weighed down by loss and surrounded by absurdity. PJ Halliday, unlucky in life but lucky in the lottery, decides to take an impromptu cross-country road trip to court a recently widowed high school sweetheart. Joining him are his deceased brother's orphaned grandchildren, his semi-estranged daughter, and Pancakes, a cat who can predict death. The result is a delightful punch in the feels, a novel that lays bare just how beautiful and horrible it is to be alive, and how lucky we are to be along for the ride.

- Liberty Hardy

Organized crime boss Burl Spoon rules over Jackson County, Kentucky, with a firm hand. But when his daughter disappears, seeming to have relapsed in her drug addiction, Burl’s life begins to unravel before his eyes. In this gritty Appalachian thriller, Wes Browne establishes himself as a new voice in crime fiction. Spoon stands out as a complex villain we love to hate and cheer on, despite his misdeeds. Browne’s portrait of Eastern Kentucky is a complex one, teasing out the small cultural details that make this region unique. With its multifaceted take on its characters and setting, They All Fall the Same is a must-read thriller of 2025.

- Kendra Winchester

Exploring food, change, grief, healing, and memory, this poignant debut follows Sohini’s journey from India to New York City, a place she had long-traveled to through books, TV, and films. In Calcutta, she, her boyfriend, and a friend shared an apartment with turquoise walls. After a hard breakup, the author chases the “impossible dream” of New York. Comforted by big city life’s anonymity and countless possibilities, Sohini forges a home of her making. I lingered in these pages, perusing book spines. Grab this intimate graphic memoir with its luminous bookshelves and buildings stretching up, up, up, especially if you enjoyed Kristen Radtke’s Seek You.

- Connie Pan

This is an excellent introduction to trans history in comic format, from ancient history to interviews with trans people today. It's a broad yet thorough glimpse into the myriad ways gender has been expressed throughout time, and the ways trans people have been oppressed and erased from history. The beautiful illustrations enhanced and made the details more accessible. While listed as young adult, I would recommend it for anyone who wants to better understand the history of gender expression and transness, no matter their age. My only complaint is that I wanted an entire book for each chapter! I didn’t want it to end!

- Margaret Kingsbury

Wild Dark Shore is a genre-blending, emotional, mysterious, tense, yet nuturing tale of family, survival, climate change, and mystery, with a dash of eerie speculative elements. McConaghy masterfully weaves together a story that is both intimate and epic, opening the novel with a woman washing ashore on a remote island near Antarctica. Dominic Salt and his three children are the caretakers of the island and its seed vault, but the island is quickly becoming consumed by rising tides. The Salt family is clearly hiding something, but so is the woman who washed ashore. A page-turner of remarkable ambition, you'll never want to put this book down.

- Lyndsie Manusos