My Top 10 Books of 2025
Hello wonderful, bookish friends and welcome to the first day of 2026. As a new year starts, I think this is the perfect time to reflect on the books that have stayed with me throughout 2025. This past year was a year of discoveries and slow, thoughtful reading and I found so many reads that invited me in to linger in new worlds. This list is my top ten reads of 2025, the books I couldn’t stop thinking about long after I turned the final page, and the ones I kept recommending to friends. So please, dear reader, pour yourself a warm cup of coffee, settle into a comfy spot, and let’s chat about the books that made last year a little more magical for me.
The List:
10. Girl Dinner
Girl Dinner is the book that truly surprised me this year, and finally made me fall in love with an Olivie Blake novel. Set in an academic world brimming with tension, it explores female rage and the tricky terrain of power and agency. I found myself reflecting on the ways the characters navigate feminism, motherhood, and the expectations placed on women, while being swept away by the slow-build of dread and undercurrent of dark humour. It’s a book that stayed with me long after I finished it, and while I’ve yet to share my full thoughts on it (review is coming soon!) I definitely felt like it was worthy of being included on this list.
9. Hungerstone
I hadn’t heard too much about Hungerstone before going into the novel, but I was pleasantly surprised. Like Girl Dinner, this story centres on female rage and empowerment, but it is set against the backdrop of the start of the Industrial Revolution in the UK. The characters are flawed and haunted, and the story unfolds in a way that feels inevitable, yet rewarding. It’s deeply unsettling in places (definitely look out for the trigger warnings in this one), and I felt like it was a good reimagining of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla.
8. The Will of the Many
Unlike Hungerstone, I had heard a lot of hype around James Islington’s The Will of the Many. It intimidated me a little, as I wanted to make sure I was in the right mindset to read it, so it sat on my shelf for a while. But when I finally got to it, it was a masterclass in sprawling, intricate storytelling that seamlessly blends multiple genres. Reminiscent of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising, this high-stakes novel was layered with complex magic systems, political intrigue, and morally complex characters. It’s quite dense at times, and I think it’s absolutely a book you need to be able to focus on, but if you can put aside the time, it’s really rewarding.
7. The Incandescent
Another fairly recent read. The Incadescent managed to delve into areas of Dark Academia that felt new and innovative to me, while providing what I can only call a “slice-of-life” insight into being a teacher at a prestigious boarding school. I feel like this novel was so quick to hook me in, and it managed to keep me guessing all the way through, which is unusual for me. I loved the cast of characters- they were vivid and multifaceted, and I like that this married fantasy and dark academia so well.
6. Katabasis
And of course, we have another Dark Academia entry. I’m not at all surprised that Katabasis made it into my top 10 list (the fact that it’s only sixth speaks volumes to how many amazing books I read this year). Katabasis is a sort of modern Dante’s Inferno by way of Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It’s delightfully trippy and surreal at times (as the Escher-inspired cover might attest), deliciously gritty and edgy at others. I found its candid critique of postgraduate life to be hauntingly accurate, and I think it dealt with some darker themes with nuance. This kind of masterpiece is something I’ve come to expect from Kuang, and I’m always excited when she announces a new novel.
5. Where the Dark Stands Still
One of my earlier reads of 2025, which I picked up in January. Where the Dark Stands Still is a delicious folklore-heavy Beauty and the Beast retelling. It reminded me a lot of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, and I loved the dark forest aesthetic and tapestry of fairytale magic woven throughout the novel. The romance was well-done, a slow-burn with enough chance for the reader to also fall in love with the characters and their chemistry together.
4. The Raven Scholar
There was a strange low-level hype for this book when it came out. It started cropping up in the reviews and hauls of some of my favourite content creators, and I noticed so many of my friends gave it a fantastic review, so I wanted to try it. The Raven Scholar is a darkly atmospheric read that balances intrigue and mystery with political tension. The characters are wonderfully flawed, and while I’m a little wary of competition novels these days, this one managed to feel fresh and original with a plot that kept twisting and leaving me guessing. The prose is at turns rich and evocative and then funny and witty. I loved the characters, and especially the narrator!
3. The Tainted Cup
I’m not normally a huge fan of murder mysteries, unless they’re woven into a fantasy setting. Such is the case with The Tainted Cup. The worldbuilding in this novel is fantastic, a sort of blend of Attack on Titan meets Sherlock Holmes meets Godzilla. I think the magic-system is intriguing, and really adds to the murder-mystery elements of the plot, without making the solutions to the puzzles too convoluted or unbelievable. I didn’t expect to like this book anywhere near as much as I did, but I took a chance on it while it was in the Kindle deals, and I’m so glad that I did. Despite the creepy horror elements and the political tensions and murder going on, this novel felt strangely cosy, perhaps because of the wonderful character dynamics.
2. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
I actually expected this novel to be my number one read of 2025. V.E. Schwab is my favourite author, and her recent shift towards writing slower, character-focused novels fits perfectly with my tastes. This is another vampire novel, one which follows three different women across several centuries. As with several other entries in this list, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil considers themes of female rage and agency, what it means to be truly free in a society which expects so much from us. It’s hauntingly gothic, and so rich in atmosphere. Schwab’s prose here is similar to her writing in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and I just ate it up. A beautiful novel, and while I don’t think this slower, reflective pace will be for everyone, it’s definitely something I’ll be returning to again and again.
1. Blood Over Bright Haven
Somehow pipping Bury Our Bones… to the top spot is Blood Over Bright Haven. Initially, I was not sold on the first few chapters of this novel, they felt disjointed, the dialogue felt stilted and forced, and then… something changed and I became obsessed. I love that M.L. Wang doesn’t hold back from creating deeply flawed characters. In anyone else’s hands, they would have come across as irredeemable or unlikeable, but Wang has such an expert touch when it comes to crafting characters. The themes in the novel are very dark and heavy, but they’re handled so well. This is a book that really stayed with me, a book that had me wanting to re-read it the instant I finished, and a book that had me sobbing, jaw-dropped in wonder. And because of all of that, it has more than earned its place as my favourite read of 2025. I’ve written a more extensive review if you’re curious to find out more!
And that’s it for 2025. I am so glad that I got to read so many amazing books this past year, and that I had such a hard time making this list because there were so many that didn’t quite make it in but were fantastic. What are some of your favourite reads of 2025? Let me know in the comment section down below, or reach out to me through my socials <3 As always, and until next time, happy reading!
