Best Books 2025: Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

Death of the Author

Nnedi Okorafor (Morrow)

Nebula Award winner Okorafor upends expectations in this stunning metafictional novel. Nigerian American author Zelu Onyenezi-Onyedele hits it big with her bestselling debut about a war between robots and AI, the text of which appears in alternating chapters with Zelu’s life story. Both narrative threads mesmerize on the way to an expertly executed final twist. It’s Okorafor’s best yet.

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The Incandescent

Emily Tesh (Tor)

This innovative spin on dark academia offers a harried administrator’s perspective on the happenings at a magical school. Dr. Sapphire “Saffy” Walden and school security officer Laura Kenning must work together to banish a demon summoned by a precocious student. It’s an enthralling premise enhanced by an atmospheric setting, a robust magic system, and a sweet romance between the leads.

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Midnight Timetable

Bora Chung, trans. from the Korean by Anton Hur (Algonquin)

Moving from room to room of a research institute devoted to the study of cursed artifacts, this haunting novel-in-stories chronicles each object’s origins. Hur’s crisp translation captures Chung’s dry wit, dazzling imagery, and stark sense of morality as the tales accumulate into a wonderfully weird and surprisingly life-affirming whole. This proves more than the sum of its parts.

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Notes from a Regicide

Isaac Fellman (Tor)

An intimate and deeply empathetic found family saga plays out against the backdrop of a dystopian future in this elegant queer sci-fi novel. Fellman intercuts journalist Griffon Keming’s recollections of his late adoptive parents, both of whom were trans, with excerpts from the memoir his dissident mother wrote in her prison cell. The result is a powerful exploration of art and revolution.

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The Raven Scholar

Antonia Hodgson (Orbit)

Mystery writer Hodgson pivots to fantasy with this staggering epic. The tale kicks off with the murder of one of seven potential heirs to the throne of Orrun, and the ensuing investigation, conducted by prickly court scholar Neema, unfolds as a series of genuinely shocking twists. It’s more than 700 pages long, but in the hands of this master storyteller not a word is wasted.

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Saltcrop

Yume Kitasei (Flatiron)

In a disquietingly realistic near-future world, Skipper and Carmen Shimizu set out to find their lost sister, who went missing shortly after making a major scientific breakthrough. As their captivating quest unfolds, Kitasei balances sweeping vistas of the climate change–ravaged Earth with grounded character beats. The worldbuilding is impressive, but it’s the heroines’ complex relationship that makes this shine.

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You Weren’t Meant to Be Human

Andrew Joseph White (Saga)

Bestselling YA author White pulls no punches in his brutal and brilliant adult debut. Autistic trans man Crane believes he’s found acceptance among a cult that worships an alien hive mind—until the hive demands he carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. What follows is a gruesome and unrelenting take on pregnancy as body horror that feels especially urgent in the present moment.

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