My Favorite Books of 2025

2025 was the year I spent editing and re-editing my novel, figuring out how to write a query letter, and almost losing my entire mind in the process. I also started a new job, celebrated one of my best friends’ weddings, and did a fair amount of traveling. And I tried desperately to stay sane during this political climate where every news cycle feels worse than the next, where everything is horrifying, and where I’m completely unsure if we’ve entered into a nightmare we can’t escape from.

All the while, I read books! Lots of them! And most of them were really good.

So let’s talk about those, shall we?

My Top 12 Favorites of 2025

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

This was the first book I read in 2025, and damn, what a banger. I’m a sucker for a sentient AI bot story, and this is that and more.

Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend, and she is. She’s pliable, a good cook, wears cute outfits to bed, and does everything her boyfriend Doug asks of her. Doug loves how much of a “real woman” Annie is, but when Annie starts to learn more about her own agency and what it’s actually like to be a woman, the less perfect she becomes to Doug.

This is a story about finding your voice in a world that doesn’t want you to have one — a story that feels especially timely in today’s climate. It was fun and gripping, and I read it in one sitting.

Also, no spoilers, but fuck Doug.

My Brilliant Friend (The Entire Neopolitan Novels Quartet) by Elena Ferrante

Is it dramatic to say this series changed me? I honestly don’t feel like I’m the same person I was before I read this quartet. For the first half of this year, I was consumed by these novels and the story of two Italian girls growing up in 1950s Naples.

My review of the first book was that I was unsure if I would continue in the series, which is hilarious, because for about a week, I could not stop thinking about it and immediately ran to get the rest of the books.

I have never read a story that so perfectly encapsulates the complexities of female friendship. While Elena and Lila were incredibly frustrating, often making me huff in exasperation at their stubbornness, I wanted to live in their lives for as long as I could.

If you’re wondering whether to pick up this series, take this as a sign. Read it! There’s also an excellent HBO miniseries in which each season follows one book; it’s fantastic and left me in tears.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Susan Collins

If you’ve known me since I was 16 or 17, you’ll know the vast lore of my obsession with The Hunger Games. Working at Borders Books (RIP) and reading the last book in the trilogy under embargo before anyone else was me at my most powerful.

I have so much respect for Susan Collins, who keeps writing banger book after banger book before receding out of the spotlight until she’s ready to hurt you again. It’s so refreshing that at least one of my childhood heroes hasn’t disappointed me (Looking at you, JOANNE).

Anyway, Sunrise on the Reaping gives us the truth behind Haymitch’s games, and it’s safe to say I was in a puddle of my own tears by the end.

Oh, Haymitch, the world never deserved you.

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

Okay…hear me out. I know this is a book about a woman who wants to…have sexual relations with a plane and who thinks that if she dies in a plane crash, that means the plane has chosen her as its soulmate. BUT IT’S SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT, OKAY?  (kind of)

This was my most anticipated book of the year, and it didn’t disappoint. It’s not some weird smutty book that’s poorly written and full of bad puns. It’s genuinely endearing and had me laughing out loud. It’s a bit like Eleanor Olliphant is Completely Fine just…weirder.

This may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it absolutely was mine. Just maybe don’t read it before you’re about to board a plane, like I did.

The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong is one of the best writers of our generation, and The Emperor of Gladness is probably my favorite book of the year.

This is a quiet story about ordinary people living ordinary lives in an ordinary town, and found family, and what it means to want to live. The writing is so beautiful it’ll make you ache, and Vuong is such a genius at turning those small, ordinary moments in life into massive, emotional scenes.

A remarkable novel. Please read it.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

I love Charles Dickens and modern Dickensian retellings. Based on Dickens’ semi-autobiographical novel David Copperfield (NOT the magician), Demon Copperhead follows a boy growing up in the Appalachian mountains, in poverty and amid the opioid crisis.

Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield as a direct critique and as a survivor of institutional poverty and the damage it does to society, which, unfortunately, is not a problem that’s been solved in our time. It’s the same crisis in a different font.

This book took my breath away.

The Other Side of Now by Paige Harrison

What would you do if, after your perfect life as an actress falls apart, you book an impromptu trip to your college town in Ireland, only to find you’ve slipped into an entirely different life, where everyone in the city knows you, the hot bartender is giving you the cold sholder for some reason, and your best friend, who died ten years ago, is still alive?

That’s the premise of The Other Side of Now, and man, it was so good.

I. Love. Time. Loops.

If you give me a book that plays with time, I’m very likely to rate it 5 stars. No different here. This was such a cozy, lovely little read.

Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

This may be (in my opinion) Stephen Graham Jones’ magnum opus. Set in 1912 Montana, the novel follows a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab, who has been turned into a vampire and seeks revenge for the pain inflicted on his family and people.

I love a good revenge story, and I also love a story that teaches you something. I knew nothing about the Blackfeet massacre (thanks for NOTHING, US education system) and was horrified to learn about it through the eyes of Good Stab. It’s a chilling novel that also made me cry.

Also, the novel uses many indigenous words throughout, which was amazing. For those curious about what each word means, I found a great online lexicon that will make your reading experience even richer.

This was just an A+ reading experience. I’ll be thinking about it for a long, long time.

The Compound by Aisling Rawle

I love Love Island. I also love weird, freaky little books. This book combines the two and becomes a weird, freaky book about a reality TV show that’s only a few steps removed from reality.

20-something Lily wakes up on a remote desert compound alongside nineteen other contestants, where she must compete for luxury prizes (like a fancy hairbrush and designer clothes) and compound necessities (like food, water, and a front door).

The world outside is falling apart, but in this compound, where survival and being pretty are all that matter, why would you ever leave?

I ate this book UP. I read it in one sitting and was chilled by how closely it mirrored the actual Love Island. Like, sure, the real Love Island contestants don’t have to fight for survival, but they do have to fight for fame, and that feels almost dystopian, too.

Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

What would you do if a demon already occupied the house you inherited? A demon your mom always said existed, but no one believed her, including you?

When Clio’s estranged mother dies, Clio must face the demons of her past and an actual, living, breathing demon, as well as her memory and the lies that stripped her mother of custody when she was a child.

This book is one of the most surprising on this list because I read it expecting a cute, three-star read to get me through the Halloween season, and it became one of my favorite books of the year.

It’s about complicated mother-daughter relationships, memory, and is actually, genuinely very scary. Like, there’s one scene in this book that made me turn on the lights and double-check there was nothing in the house.

Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang

I support women’s rights and wrongs. And Julie Chan commits many, MANY wrongs in this book.

When her twin sister, Chloe, a famous influencer, dies in front of her, Julie, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, decides to assume her identity, take her place, and pretend to be her. They are twins, after all. Julie takes on Chloe’s fabulous life but soon finds out that the shiny, perfect life she portrays online is far from the truth. And I don’t want to spoil anything, but after that, shit gets really, really weird.

This was a dark, ridiculous read. I loved it SO MUCH.

Woodworking by Emily St. James

Unfortunately, a lot of popular books about trans people tend to be incredibly depressing and full of violence. So color me surprised when this book was uplifting and laugh-out-loud funny.

Following 35-year-old Erica, who is a closeted trans woman and teacher at her local high school in rural South Dakota, and her student, 17-year-old Abigail, known as “The Only Trans Girl” in town, this story is about found family, and the fact that sometimes, there’s nothing more radical than letting the world see you for who you really are.

Loved it. Wanted to hug it to my chest, it was truly lovely.

Honorable Mentions:

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

This is the 7th year in a row I’ve read this book. It’s my favorite book. Sue me.

Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

I honestly don’t remember much about this book other than that it’s a modern Little Women retelling, that it was beautifully written, and that it made me cry on the Elizabeth line in London. Perfect, five stars.

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

The reason this book isn’t on my absolute favorites list is that it was often ridiculous. And not in a weird, silly way, but in a “oh, come on, you cannot be SERIOUS?!” way. It felt like the author was spinning a wheel, picking random tragedies to befall the main characters throughout their lives. He may have played too much of The Sims before finishing the book, idk.

But it had me hooked, and I read it in two days, so it deserves a place in my honorable mentions anyway.

The Possession of Alba Diaz by Isabel Cañas

This was my first Isabel Cañas novel, and it absolutely won’t be my last. It’s a book about possession (both by demons and men) and bodily autonomy and romance; it was impeccable. The only reason it didn’t get five stars was because it dragged a bit in the middle but I cannot wait to read more from this author.

Also hi, that cover:

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book had me ugly sobbing in bed for about 20 minutes. It’s got space travel! Lesbian relationships! Friendship! Tragedy! TJR never disappoints.

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

A book about robots in a dystopian society running a noodle shop? And it’s less than 250 pages? Sign me the F up!!!

Finding out the noodle shop was based on my favorite noodle place in NYC, Xi’an Famous Foods, made this an even richer reading experience.

Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson

When I was little, my brother and I religiously watched Indiana Jones over and over again. This book scratched that itch because it’s about a Victorian woman who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the fact that it’s a man’s world and who goes on an adventure to find a lost civilization. It also does a great job discussing the negative impacts of archeology and colonization, and there’s also a really hot male sidekick, too.

I just wanted more hijinks, but I will definitely be continuing in the series.

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