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The Best Books of 2025

85ranked

31five-star

4.0avg rating

11genres

Every book I finished in 2025, ranked best to worst — final order, closed out at the end of 2025.

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The top ten at a glance

BEST OF 2025#1

The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest

Aubrey Hartman

BEST OF 2025#3

Dirtbag Queen

Andy Corren

85 of 85 Updated Jul 26

Rank

Book

Rating

Genre

The Correspondent

Virginia EvansBEST OF2025Audiobook

★★★★★BEST OF2025Audiobook

An innovative character study in which an aging woman's life story is revealed through the letters she writes and receives from a myriad of people.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest

Aubrey HartmanBEST OF2025Audiobook

★★★★★BEST OF2025Audiobook

A children's book about life's most difficult subject—death—told with compassion, humor and grace at a level on par (or above) any adult literature.

★★★★★

Children's Lit

Broken Country

Clare Leslie HallBEST OF2025Audiobook

★★★★★BEST OF2025Audiobook

A small town, a love triangle, a murder, and a trial form the foundation of this twisty, emotional novel set in mid-1900s England.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction Mystery and Thriller Romance

Atmosphere

Taylor Jenkins ReidBEST OF2025Audiobook

★★★★★BEST OF2025Audiobook

Filled with tragedy, perseverance, and love, the novel focuses on the fictional first women in the NASA space program in the early 1980s.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction Historical Fiction

Throwback

Maurene GooBEST OF2025

★★★★★BEST OF2025

Goo's sweet time travel tale sees a 17-year-old from 2025 transported back to 1995 to try to help her own mother win homecoming queen.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

King of Ashes

S.A. CosbyBEST OF2025

★★★★★BEST OF2025

Edgy, violent, and dark, Cosby's latest sees a successful money manager sucked into working for a sadistic gang in order to save his brother.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller Literature & Fiction

Dead Money

Jakob KerrBEST OF2025

★★★★★BEST OF2025

Kerr's mature and tightly-plotted debut follows the murder investigation of the founder of a fictitious tech company in San Francisco.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller

Wild Dark Shore

Charlotte McConaghyBEST OF2025

★★★★★BEST OF2025

When a woman washes ashore on a remote island, the lone family living there nurses her back to health. But both parties have secrets...

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

The Everlasting

Alix E. HarrowBEST OF2025

★★★★★BEST OF2025

A time-traveling tale that dissects the most famous legend in the land, Harrow once again creates a binge-worthy blend of fantasy and creativity.

Andy CorrenBEST OF2025Audiobook

★★★★★BEST OF2025Audiobook

Sparked by a viral obituary, this unlikeliest of memoirs introduces us to the crazy Corren family and their larger-than-life mother.

Florence KnappBEST OF2025Audiobook

★★★★★BEST OF2025Audiobook

A mother debates what to name her son, and her three choices create three parallel timelines in this mature and solidly composed debut.

A short read that explores the all-encompassing experience of young love and how it is put in perspective upon reflection later in life.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

#13

The Silverblood Promise

James LoganBEST OF2025

★★★★★BEST OF2025

A strong start to a new fantasy series that can also be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel, a roguish young man travels to a distant city to solve the mystery of his father's death.

James LoganBEST OF2025

★★★★★BEST OF2025

A worthy continuation of what started with The Silverblood Promise, Book 2 is filled with heists, mini quests, and more of everything you loved in Book 1.

Rebecca YarrosBEST OF2025

★★★★★BEST OF2025

The most anticipated book of 2025 mostly delivers, as author Yarros continues the Empyrean series and Violet Sorrengail's evolution.

★★★★★

Romantasy Fantasy Romance

#16

The Three Lives of Cate Kay

Kate Fagan

★★★★★

An author who has fiercely protected her anonymity—despite writing the biggest book series on the planet—finally tells all in a memoir.

Nearly twenty-five years after a home invader destroyed their lives, a couple reunites to provide victim personal statements at his trial.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

#18

Sunrise on the Reaping

Suzanne CollinsAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

Collins returns to give us the origin story of Haymitch Abernathy in a way that might make this the best Hunger Games novel to-date.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

#19

I Have Some Questions For You

Rebecca MakkaiAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

A woman returns to the elite boarding school she attended after 20+ years to search for answers about the murder of her roommate senior year.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller

#20

The Boys in the Light

Nina WillnerAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

The intersecting journeys of the author's father, who survived years in WWII concentration camps, and the American soldiers who found him.

Two teenagers are forced to compete to become a Scythe, whose job is to control overpopulation by killing a set number of people each year.

A young woman with special powers infiltrates a training program for the military while working undercover for a resistance organization.

★★★★★

Science Fiction Fantasy Romance

A photographer spends a summer at a lake house where she meets a cocksure man whose charms threaten their mutual vow of friendship.

★★★★★

Romance

#24

Great Big Beautiful Life

Emily HenryAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

Two writers compete for the opportunity to author the memoir of a reclusive heiress while coming to realize they might just be soulmates.

★★★★★

Romance Literature & Fiction

#25

No More Tears

Gardiner HarrisAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

Decades of missteps and immorality by J & J are laid bare as they repeat a pattern of placing profits over people's health and lives.

★★★★★

Nonfiction

#26

Haven't Killed in Years

Amy K. Green

★★★★★

The daughter of a convicted serial killer has kept her identity a secret for 20 years, but someone has found out and is determined to expose her.

A teacher's aide who dreams of adopting a young boy from her school competes in a contest for the sole copy of a reclusive author's new book.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

#28

The Girls Who Grew Big

Leila Mottley

★★★★★

Another gritty offering from Mottley, who this time explores teen pregnancy and a small group of teen moms who help each other through it.

David NichollsAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

A sweet and heartfelt story about finding love when you least expect it, told with a distinctly British cheekiness and sense of humor.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

#30

The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidt

★★★★★

A thoroughly researched exploration of the rise in mental illness among Gen Z, paired with several suggestions for how we can fix it.

A quick 50-page read, the story of a young girl who is delivered by her father to stay with a family in a neighboring town in Ireland.

A woman returns home to ghostwrite her estranged father's memoir while trying to unravel if he was responsible for the 50-year-old murder of his siblings.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller

#33

What Kind of Paradise

Janelle Brown

★★★★★

A girl grows up in a remote cabin with just her father, whose distrust of technology and government snowballs with each passing year.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller Literature & Fiction

A novel premise gives way to a well-structured mystery in which a young woman must solve her own murder before an aneurysm kills her.

A generational character study centered on the intertwined lives of two families in a small Ohio town, focused mostly on identity and the impact of war.

★★★★★

Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction

#36

Death at the White Hart

Chris Chibnall

★★★★★

A local publican is found dead with a crown of antlers on his head in this multi-layered mystery taking place in a small English town.

Freida McFaddenAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

As a major storm approaches, a woman living alone in the woods finds a girl hiding in her toolshed, covered in blood and clutching a knife.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller

#38

Kills Well With Others

Deanna Raybourn

★★★★★

Author Raybourn runs it back with everyone's favorite female assassins in their 60s in a sequel that's just as good as the original.

Sarah Wynn-WilliamsAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

A no-holds-barred account by a former high-ranking employee that lays bare secrets about Facebook and its executives that are shocking to see in print.

★★★★★

Memoir

#40

Lloyd McNeil's Last Ride

Will LeitchAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

An Atlanta cop with a secret terminal brain tumor attempts to orchestrate his death in the line of duty to help his family financially.

Fredrik BackmanAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

Told mostly via flashbacks about four childhood friends, the novel focuses on resiliency and found family in the face of domestic violence and neglect.

A continuation of the Arc of a Scythe series, the novel picks up where book one ended as the scythedom becomes increasingly divided.

Max MarshallAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

An exposé on a fraternity-led Xanax trafficking ring, focused on Greek life and the pervasiveness of benzodiazepine use at colleges.

Jeremy RennerAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

Actor Jeremy Renner recounts the harrowing events of an accident that left him with 38 broken bones and clinging to life by a thread.

Annabel MonaghanAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

A 38-year-old nearly-divorced mother of three starts a summer fling with a dashing, slightly younger man. Can it last?

A mysterious and private man appears one day in a small Georgia town and begins to have a profoundly positive impact on several residents.

When a lawyer starts to dig into the murder of his best friend, all signs seem to point to conspiracies involving his own law firm.

Nate BargatzeAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

One of the biggest comedic acts touring today shares random tales from his life, from early days in Tennessee to his rise in comedy.

Author Mary Roach is back with her signature blend of wit as she examines the human body and all of the potential ways we attempt to modify it.

A woman who was part of a secret society while at Princeton investigates her sister's death, who was also part of the same society.

Geraldine BrooksAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

Brooks recounts the ongoing impact of the unexpected death of her husband of 35 years and her process years later to properly grieve.

A woman must set aside losing her job the day before her daughter's wedding as she navigates the intricacies of the wedding weekend.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

#53

The Beast in the Clouds

Nathalia HoltAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

Teddy Roosevelt's sons embark on a quest in 1929 to obtain a specimen of a giant panda, an animal rarely seen and wholly unknown at the time.

A nun leaves her convent to investigate the disappearance of her friend, only to encounter multiple murders at her boarding house.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller

#55

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

Anna Johnston

★★★★★

A chance set of events leads to a down-on-his-luck elderly man assuming the identity of another in this sweetly sappy feel-good story.

Our assassins hell-bent on *not* killing return in a sequel to Assassins Anonymous that is satisfying but falls short of the original.

A speculative historical novel that imagines what might have happened if Japan gained possession of an atomic bomb near the end of World War II.

★★★★★

Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction

Two lives unexpectedly intertwine as a Senator's daughter connects with an elderly woman who might be secretly connected to the young woman's family.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction Historical Fiction

A portrait of Gen Y from the perspective of a couple who "came of age with the internet" and spend their days seeking happiness, mostly without success.

Jordan ThomasAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

Part memoir, part history of fire, author Thomas recounts his time with the Los Padres Hotshots while positing ways to deal with megafires.

When her husband goes off the rails, taking three people hostage, his wife tries to save him while unraveling the why behind his act.

Exploring addiction, incarceration, and the impact of tragedy on a family, the story follows a father serving a 3-year sentence.

A difficult novel to review without spoiling the story, it focuses on a family trying to have another child before a shocking event disrupts everything.

A modern take on Lord of the Flies, centered around a reality TV show, where winning depends on who can be the most self-absorbed and materialistic.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction Science Fiction

A woman tries to break a curse which causes the women in her family to transform into a tree forever if they stay in a place too long.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller Literature & Fiction Fantasy

Set in 1981, a 14-year-old girl—whose hobbies happen to include studying roadkill—helps police investigate several murders in England.

A serial killer returns to Portland after almost twenty years to terrorize a local radio host, targeting the one person who saw him and lived.

Stacy WillinghamAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

A woman returns to her hometown in South Carolina, only to be confronted with clues that help her unravel her sister's disappearance twenty years prior.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller

#69

The Secret of Secrets

Dan Brown

★★★★★

Robert Langdon is back for another romp through an international city—this time, Prague—and a secret about human consciousness that could rock the world.

Jen HatmakerAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

Focused mostly on the abrupt dissolution of a twenty-six-year marriage, too many random detours leave it feeling scattered and incohesive.

Sophie ElmhirstAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

A British couple decide to sail from England to New Zealand in the 1970s, only to be stranded in the middle of the Pacific after a whale destroys their boat.

A B-52 bomber that has been missing for over 60 years suddenly returns to U.S. airspace in 2025...and it's carrying a nuclear bomb.

★★★★★

Science Fiction Mystery and Thriller

#73

Black Woods, Blue Sky

Eowyn Ivey

★★★★★

A young mother falls for a strange, disfigured man and chooses to live with him and her 6-year-old daughter in a remote Alaskan cabin.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction

#74

This Book Will Bury Me

Ashley Winstead

★★★★★

A novel about true-crime aficionados that uses the recent University of Idaho murders as its source material, an ill-conceived choice.

The search for a missing hiker in Maine serves as the backdrop for this novel more focused on the complexities of human relationships.

A woman's life is upended when a half-brother she didn't know she had convinces her to join him on a road trip to find their father.

A colonizer from Earth is stuck on an alien planet and must unravel the internal politics of the local species while trying to survive

Graham NortonAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

A recounting of the fictional life of Frankie Howe, from Ireland to London to America and back, spanning the 1950s to today.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction Historical Fiction

Mostly character study plus social commentary, it follows a fictional female journalist in Japan as she interviews a convicted serial killer.

★★★★★

Literature & Fiction Mystery and Thriller

#80

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

Kylie Lee BakerAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

A serial killer targeting Asian women during the pandemic combines with a ghost story to form one of the more racist books I've read.

★★★★★

Horror Mystery and Thriller

#81

The Oligarch's Daughter

Joseph Finder

★★★★★

Part international espionage, part man on the run, a novel that suffers from plot holes big enough to drive a Russian tank through.

A strange and polarizing story, focused mostly on a New Hampshire family and their youngest grandson as he searches for identity and belonging.

Catherine NewmanAudiobook

★★★★★Audiobook

A menopausal mother narrates her family's week at the beach on Cape Cod—their 20th in a row—while musing on the changes life brings.

A cyber thief is forced to flee from Homeland Security when her crimes finally come to light in this poorly-plotted mess of a book.

★★★★★

Mystery and Thriller

#85

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Becky Chambers

★★★★★

A non-binary monk leaves on a journey to find themself and in the process encounters a robot who is seeking to learn what humans need.

★★★★★

Science Fiction Literature & Fiction

How the ranking works

One list, every book, no ties. When I finish something it goes in against everything else I've read this year, which means the order shifts constantly — a book that sat at 12 in March can be at 20 by August without having gotten any worse. Star ratings and rank are related but not the same thing: among fourteen five-star books, someone still has to be fourteenth.

The next one, in your inbox.

One email on the first of every month with a summary and rating of each book reviewed over the past 30 days, and a look at where the year's ranking stands.