My top 5 books of 2025!
In an order that in no way denotes how much I like each book
#1 Eat Your Heart Out, Kelly DeVos
A kickass zombie book that plays with the horror of diet culture! I had SUCH a good time reading Eat Your Heart Out, I love all of the characters, and the way Kelly DeVos plays with horror tropes and self-awareness is PHENOMENAL!! I have so many feelings about how the ways the characters view themselves fundamentally alters what outcome they receive.
For those who have not read it, Ms. DeVos gives a list of horror tropes with their percent chances of dying at the beginning, and the characters intentionally move in and out of the archetypes. I spent the whole book doing analysis of how likely each character is to die at any given time, I loved how each character experienced an outcome that was predicted by the statistics, and I have SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT IT ASK ME FOR A NON SPOILER-FREE POST ABOUT IT I DARE YOU
I have a vampire book by Ms. DeVos checked out called Go Hunt Me, I'm SO excited to read it :D
Also the cover art for Eat Your Heart Out is SUPER COOL and I recently found out the artist is on tumblr! Great job @ursuladecayart!! I was so excited to read it because it sounded right up my alley (and was) and I loved your art so much <333 You truly did it justice
And I truly love to see a fat girl who feels no shame, Vivian you deserve the world
#2 Everything is Tuberculosis, John Green
People who know me may think I only rant about this book because I'm very interested in infectious diseases, but in fact this book was also a MASTERCLASS in writing good nonfiction. John Green's writing talent really shows through, I loved watching him bring all the threads together, and it was a great read from beginning to end. John actually narrates the audiobook which I listened to! The book balanced informative, funny, heartbreaking, and incredibly relevant so well. Everything truly is tuberculosis.
#3 A World Without Heroes, Brandon Mull
It's been several years since I read Brandon Mull's Fablehaven and Five Kingdoms series, and I decided it was time to read something else of his! As much as I loved Fablehaven and enjoyed Five Kingdoms, I think his Beyonder's trilogy may have surpassed them as my favorite!
I'm horribly attached to many of the characters, and having not finished the last book yet (I'm maybe a third of the way through? No spoilers past book two to be safe please!) I'm terrified some of them will die. Brandon Mull writes great fantasy that has been incredibly inspiring for me, I was delighted all the way through the first book! It's just so perfectly the kind of book I love and while I haven't been reading much recently (by my standards) this drew me in.
I can't wait to finish it, and then maybe reread Fablehaven and finish Dragon Watch!
#4 Over the Woodward Wall, A. Deborah Baker
This book was written by one of my favorite authors (Seanan McGuire) under one of her pen names! A truly delightful book with a narration style I loved, this kind of book has a special place in my heart. It was beautiful and real and not real and I really appreciated the balance between exploring the themes of abuse while still preserving the feeling of childhood and all of the delightful whimsy.
I love the Crow Girl, she has my heart, and I feel so much hope for her. I will be reading the other books in the series.
#5 Youngblood, Sasha Laurens
Me: I hate cheesy romance
Also me: I need to read this lesbian vampire boarding school romance NOW
One thing about me is that I hate romance unless it's lesbians in which case it can do no wrong (unless the characters suck). My beautiful, angsty teen lesbians are in a former-friends-forced-proximity-surprise-roommates relationship at vampire boarding school and need to do vampire social justice.
I haven't actually finished the book (I KNOW I'M SORRY) but I plan to, and it was just such a fun silly time to read this summer while I was really stressed, so fun, 10/10! Here's a photo of my favorite silly exchange between my girls:
OH ALSO I really really love Indexing (Seanan McGuire) but I think I read that at the end of last year and I haven't finished Indexing: Reflections yet so I'm not including it
Ok I'm not going to edit this I just wanted to share my book joy from this year! I'm going to tag some of my mutuals in case any of y'all want to do a top five (or however many you want) books of 2025 list, or some other kind of list, but anyone is welcome to participate even if I don't tag you!! I will not remember to tag all of my mutuals who might be interested
@coatiiii @wolfeyedwitch @jayalaw @andthentheresanne @nymph-of-books @gh0stcav3 @salithemage
