Most Anticipated Books, Vol. 1: Winter/Spring 2025
Honestly, the dystopian-sounding 2025 is the perfect year to retreat into the wilderness with a stack of books, which is what we plan on doing. Just kidding. But we are planning to read and read and read until we are lost in worlds more gorgeous and luminous than our own.
…but doesn’t 2025 sound like a made-up science-fiction year? At least we have books!
Playworld, Adam Ross (January 7)
I love a hang-out novel. The world is built and stacked with some warm, interesting characters, and you just get to hang out with them. That’s what Playworld is. A big, epic, NYC novel set in the 1980s about the Hurt family and the eldest son’s coming of age in a time of turmoil and uncertainty. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, while being filled with the pain and awkwardness of growing up.
— Mike
Vantage Point, Sara Sligar (January 14)
This fabulous, pulse-pounding thriller about an affluent family in Maine being haunted by their past and the struggles they face against the political campaign of the eldest brother and a mysterious force leaking deepfake videos and terrorizing an already fractured family. This novel was impossible to put down and reached an explosive, powerful conclusion. I loved it.
– Mike
The Favorites, Layne Fargo (January 14)
Some of my most trusted bookfluencers have been raving about this one, and it’s been pitched to me as ice dancing meets Daisy Jones & The Six. As a former figure skater who loves drama… I’m in.
— Bel
The Lamb, Lucy Rose (January 30)
A gothic, sinister folktale that explores how women swallow their anger and desire. Not to mention, cannibalism, all the while a fierce exploration of a mother and daughter relationship until blood is dripping, count me in!
— Tiffany
The Rose Bargain, Sasha Peyton Smith (February 4)
Bridgerton x fae? Those are two of my very favorite things!
— Bel
Deep Cuts, Holly Brickley (February 25)
An exhilarating debut novel that is a love letter to indie rock and the relationships we build around music. The nostalgia and warmth radiates on every single page. It’s like watching a John Carney (Once, Begin Again, Sing Street) movie where you feel a deep connection with all of the characters and don’t want it to end.
— Mike
No Fault, Haley Mlotek (February 18)
I have long been a fan of Mlotek, and this, her first book, sounds like it will splash elegantly into the pool of recent books about divorce. Mlotek is an elegant writer, and I can’t wait to read it.
— Emma
Crush, Ada Calhoun (February 25)
Speaking of books about divorce! This is too, sort of, although it’s more about the giddy aftermath. Crushes are fun to have and fun to read about, and Ada Calhoun is a goddamn delight.
— Emma
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, Omar El Akkad (February 25)
After yeas of investigating the many lies the west tells itself (from Gitmo to the UN), El Akkad writes through the grief of witnessing mass slaughter while your country turns away – or worse, supports it. One part breakup letter, one part call to action, and one part witness, I cannot overemphasize the cataclysm of this book
— Bex
I Leave It Up To You, Jinwoo Chong (March 3)
Jinwoo Chong’s debut, Flux, was my favorite read of 2023, a tale of a career-focused commitment-phobe who falls down an elevator shaft and is rehabilitated by a mysterious corporation at a terrible price. My expectations for this follow up are quite high. In I Leave It Up to You, a man wakes up from a two-year coma to find that life as he knew it is over. He starts over by returning to his family and their failing sushi restaurant. Second chances! Self-discovery!
— Aatia
The Antidote, Karen Russell (March 11)
Karen Russell’s writing is truly otherworldly, and this magical novel is sure to sweep you away in the storm! The Antidote is certain to be the next Great American Novel, with an incredible cast of characters that will burrow themselves deep into your heart and reside there long after the last scene has ended.
— Amali
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones (March 18)
Indigenous Horror?! Is this what dreams are made of? It's 1912 and a Lutheran priest transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice, need I say more?
— Tiffany
Pathemata, Or, the Story of My Mouth, Maggie Nelson (April 1)
Nelson’s companion to Bluets is going to be incredible, like everything else she writes. Pathemata is about her experience with jaw pain, and all the thoughts, memories, feelings that come up with it. She’s a genius and she never misses.
— Isabella
Sour Cherry, Natalia Theodoridou (April 1)
With lush, captivating prose, Theodoridou creates a world at once familiar and fantastic. What makes a man a monster, and what do we do with the monsters we love?
— Bex
Flirting Lessons, Jasmine Guillory (April 8)
Jasmine was my introduction to romance novels, and for my money, the best in the business! This is her first sapphic love story, and I cannot wait to read it.
— Emma
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man), Jesse Q Sutanto (April 1)
The delightful Vera Wong–nosy, slightly bored teashop owner slash newly minted amateur detective–is back in a sequel that is just as heartwarming and hilarious as her first adventure. In this book, she wades into the befuddling world of social media influencers.
— Sarah Jane
Audition, Katie Kitamura (April 8)
This little book had my heart racing! The Audition is dazzling and dizzying and devastating! There are very few writers who can write as sharply as Kitamura, stretching every passing moment and examining every glance, sigh, and murmur under a microscope. This is a novel that will follow me for ages.
— Amali
Authority, Andrea Long Chu (April 8)
Andrea Long Chu’s essays are always mind-blowing, and this, her first full book, is sure to be a major smash for us.
— Emma
Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry (April 22)
Inspired by Taylor Swift’s “The Last Great American Dynasty,” Emily Henry adds another book to her long list of successes with something she has described to be a bit different from her usual narratives. I cannot wait for this to be out in the world!
— Josie
Food Person, Adam Roberts (May 20)
A starry-eyed food writer dedicated to the culinary world teams up with celebrity to write a cookbook. They are total opposites, their working relationship could never work or could it?
— Aatia
Sleep, Honor Jones (May 13)
A debut novel with a sexy cover about family secrets with a blurb from Ann Patchett? Yes please!
— Emma
Mark Twain, Ron Chernow (May 13)
This year I started listening to thousand page non-fiction books on audio and it changed my reading life. Believe me when I tell you I am going to listen to the hell out of this book…
— Emma
Only Smoke, Juan José Millás, Translated by Thomas Bunstead and Daniel Hahn (May 23)
I can’t wait to get my hands on this 176-page, “wildly unpredictable, darkly entertaining, and surprisingly tender,” book! Let No One Sleep was one of my top books of 2022.
— Nick
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, V.E. Schwab (June 10)
The master of her craft is back with another delectable delight! Following three generations of women whose bodies were all buried in the same soil, they will all come back with sharpened teeth in this queer vampiric tale.
— Josie
More Anticipated 2025 Releases
