‘Tis the season for reflecting on a well-read year.
In 2025, we celebrated new romantasy novels at midnight release parties and traveled to see our favorite authors talk about breathing life into the page. We read the nail-biting new installments of beloved series and gasped over dishy celebrity memoirs. We revisited books when the adaptations hit screens. We named our dogs and cats after our favorite characters. We found friends and community through reading.
So, after all that reading, which books are we still thinking about now? The truth is, the best book of the year is deeply personal to every reader. Still, some titles transcended genre to unite us in spectacular storytelling.
Best books of 2025: USA TODAY’s Top 15 books of the year
We’ve narrowed down our favorite reads of 2025 to a list that has a little something for everyone, from sweeping family sagas to touching memoirs, gory horror novels to romances that guarantee a happily ever after.
15. ‘Cursed Daughters’ by Oyinkan Braithwaite
What it’s about: A young woman grows up in the shadow of a generational family curse of lovelessness and the belief that she’s the reincarnation of her aunt.
Why USA TODAY loved it: “Cursed Daughters” is a page turner, a family drama with a speculative flair and silky smooth prose. Braithwaite has a way of making the Falodun family’s superstition seem both wickedly funny and haunting.
14. ‘Things in Nature Merely Grow’ by Yiyun Li
What it’s about: National Book Award finalist Li pens a memoir of radical acceptance as she reflects on the losses of her sons James and Vincent to suicide.
Why USA TODAY loved it: In “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” Li holds up a magnifying glass to some of life’s biggest questions – Why do we suffer? How do we grieve? How can we live on? – without promising any answers. In less than 200 pages, Li pens a thoughtfully crafted gut-punch.
13. ‘Finding My Way’ by Malala Yousafzai
What it’s about: Yousafzai reintroduces herself to the world in “Finding My Way.” She chronicles her college years, molding her identity as a young adult amid intense public pressure and trauma from the Taliban attack that changed her life.
Why USA TODAY loved it: Yousafzai’s latest is warm and vulnerable, letting readers into her psyche with surprising candidness. Reading it feels like a conversation with a dear friend. This memoir is brimming with heart, humor and wisdom.
12. ‘Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil’ by V.E. Schwab
What it’s about: This sweeping vampire story follows three young women – one from Spain in the 1500s, one from 19th-century London and one living in Boston in 2019 – as they weave through each other’s lives with a deep hunger for love, revenge and freedom.
Why USA TODAY loved it: Schwab masterfully spins a cautionary tale of vengeful exes and a thrilling, genre-defying ode to queer want. “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil” is a historical saga that takes its time building character backstory, but the payoff is oh-so satisfying.
11. ‘A Language of Limbs’ by Dylin Hardcastle
What it’s about: One summer night in 1972 unspools two very different alternating narratives. In one, a teenage girl caught kissing her female neighbor is shunned and takes refuge in a queer community home. In the other, a teenage girl suppresses feelings for her female best friend.
Why USA TODAY loved it: This reminded me of Sylvia Plath’s “fig tree” analogy, laying out how one consequential moment can branch into a wholly distinct life. “A Language of Limbs” makes a similarly compelling duology, heartbreaking and not to be forgotten.
10. ‘Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng’ by Kylie Lee Baker
What it’s about: A young woman in New York witnesses the murder of her sister during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Months later, she’s working a gruesome crime scene cleaning job, haunted by hungry ghosts.
Why USA TODAY loved it: This isn’t one for the faint of heart, but an absolute must-read for horror fans. “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” puts an even more horrifying spin on the real violence East Asians experienced during the pandemic. It’s punchy and gory, and Baker’s mouth-watering prose puts you into Cora’s claustrophobic subconscious like it’s your own.
9. ‘Atmosphere’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid
What it’s about: “Atmosphere” is a love story set against the backdrop of NASA’s 1980s space shuttle program, where protagonist Joan Goodwin becomes one of the first women admitted to the competitive trainee class.
Why USA TODAY loved it: Reid successfully juxtaposes anxiety-inducing space action and quiet meditations on love, curiosity and identity in “Atmosphere.” Though Joan’s turned to the stars, Reid has a way of making you appreciate this little life here on land, sometimes breaking the fourth wall entirely to call the reader in for a moment of gratitude.
8. ‘My Friends’ by Fredrik Backman
What it’s about: Four childhood friends share a transformative summer, their bond inspiring a painting that becomes one of the most famous in the world. Decades later, a teenager who cherishes the painting embarks on a journey to learn its origin.
Why USA TODAY loved it: “My Friends” is quintessential Backman, with found-family friends and bighearted humans. Even in the shadow of the story’s darker moments, “My Friends” has the sheen of a dewy summer morning, full of possibility. This is a book that makes you feel like everything is going to be OK.
7. ‘The Girls Who Grew Big’ by Leila Mottley
What it’s about: A group of outcast teen mothers in the Florida panhandle straddle girlhood and motherhood, fiercely protect one another and their children despite a system designed to fail them.
Why USA TODAY loved it: Mottley lets her three protagonists blossom with such care that you’ll feel as though you know them in real life by the time you hit the last page. “The Girls Who Grew Big” can be heartbreaking at times, but it’s ultimately a powerfully hopeful story.
6. ‘These Summer Storms’ by Sarah MacLean
What it’s about: Alice, the estranged daughter of a tech billionaire, returns to her family’s private island after her father’s unexpected death. Per the patriarch’s final wishes, the family must embark on a wild inheritance game and spend one chaotic week together.
Why USA TODAY loved it: “These Summer Storms” has a swoony romance and atmospheric coastal setting, but this novel is so much more than a breezy beach read. MacLean, known primarily for historical romance, flexes some impressive contemporary writing chops to bring us on a nuanced journey of grief, forgiveness and belonging.
5. ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ by Suzanne Collins
What it’s about: Step back in time to the 50th Hunger Games and second Quarter Quell as Haymitch Abernathy becomes a tribute for District 12.
Why USA TODAY loved it: Revisiting Panem from Haymitch’s sardonic perspective is a treat for “Hunger Games” fans, albeit a sobering one now that many of us have grown up. Collins truly does write when she has something to say, and “Sunrise on the Reaping” brought both new series lore and poignant commentary on authoritarianism, class and propaganda.
4. ‘Heart the Lover’ by Lily King
What it’s about: A college student is swept up in a friendship and love triangle with two star students in her literature class. Decades later, she’ll have to confront the consequences of their collision.
Why USA TODAY loved it: King’s latest is a weeper, full of card games and witty banter and sure to tug at your heartstrings. It’s remarkable how she manages to pack so much character fullness into so few pages. For me, this was a total cry-on-the-subway read.
3. ‘A Marriage at Sea’ by Sophie Elmhirst
What it’s about: Journalist Elmhirst chronicles the real-life survival journey of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, a married couple who spent 118 days shipwrecked on a tiny rubber raft in the early ‘70s.
Why USA TODAY loved it: “A Marriage at Sea” is nonfiction that reads like fiction – the best kind. Elmhirst’s retelling is a triumph, second only to the seemingly impossible feat of Maurice and Maralyn themselves. You won’t be able to put it down.
2. ‘The Emperor of Gladness’ by Ocean Vuong
What it’s about: A 19-year-old finds unexpected community in small-town New England suburbia after an old woman saves him from attempting suicide.
Why USA TODAY loved it: Vuong’s second novel has all the poetic meditations and lyricism of “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,” but with a lovable cast of found family characters that practically leap off the page. Read “The Emperor of Gladness,” and you’ll come away with a deep appreciation for humanity and the ways we care for each other.
1. ‘Wild Dark Shore’ by Charlotte McConaghy
What it’s about: A family on a remote island off Antarctica is tasked with protecting the world’s largest seed bank. When a mysterious woman washes ashore, her presence threatens to disrupt the family’s delicate ecosystem.
Why USA TODAY loved it: I’ve hardly read a book this year that kept me on the edge of my seat as much as “Wild Dark Shore.” This novel has it all – haunting imagery that reminds us what’s at risk for our planet, a precocious and loveable kiddo, a touch of romance, a blood-pressure-raising mystery and a survival story with heart.
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at [email protected].
