Another a year, another almost impossible task trying to each choose our Top 10 Reads of the year! Like past years I won’t be including re-reads, sometimes my opinion of a book could change and evolve after I had read it, so some surprises may be up near the top, as well as perhaps a book or two that didn’t make my reviews on here initially due to genre limitations. But here they are, ready for a countdown! And since it’s the end of the reading year, don’t forget to enter our “Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaway”! Today I’m going to countdown my favorite reads, five to one.
5. “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” by Kylie Lee Baker
“Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” Review
I had read some of Kylie Lee Baker’s YA fiction before I picked up “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng”, so she wasn’t an unfamiliar author to me. But I was completely blown away by this book, in part because it was so incredibly creepy. But also because I felt like it captured so much of the reality of the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic in its early days, as well as the horrors of racism perpetrated against Asian Americans during that time, especially the violence against Asian American women. Cora is a great protagonist, and the mystery of the hungry ghost following her (who may also be the ghost of her murdered sister) was unsettling and eerie, and sometimes downright nightmare fuel. I am very excited to see what Baker does next (and luckily for me she has a new horror novel coming out in 2026, so stay tuned for that!).
4. “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Well it was bound to happen! Sometimes a Top Read of the year for me comes outside of my usual genres, and this time it was Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new historical fiction novel “Atmosphere”! I love Jenkins Reid’s books in general, but I think that this one is my favorite (CRAZY that it could dethrone “Malibu Rising”, but here we are!). This one follows NASA’s Space Program in the 80s when they were just starting to let women into the fold, and we follow two lady astronauts who have big dreams of going to space, not only dealing with the boys club that is NASA, but also dealing with their feelings for each other. It left me sobbing, like so many of Jenkins Reid’s books do.
3. “The Mean Ones” by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
I am always so excited to discover a new must read author, and that totally happened with Tatiana Schlote-Bonne due to her folk horror/feminine rage horror novel “The Mean Ones”! I had been dying to get this book at ALA and it was one of my greatest finds there, and when I read it I was completely enthralled. There’s backwoods horror! There are unreliable narrator beats! There are complicated/straight up toxic female friendships! All of these things are sure to get my attention, and “The Mean Ones” went pedal to the metal and didn’t let up until it was good and ready to.
2. “Not Quite Dead Yet” by Holly Jackson
I loved Holly Jackson’s “Good Girls Guide to Murder” books, and when I found out that she was going to take on an adult novel I was very interested to see what that was going to look like. I got “Not Quite Dead Yet” from NetGalley and planned to read it on and off during our trip to Philadelphia, but then ended up just tearing through it, totally invested and also crying on and off. The idea of a woman named Jet having to solve her inevitable murder due to a head wound caused by a mystery person was so interesting, but then I fell in love with Jet and it became all the more devastating. The mystery is sound, the characters are great, and it was just so damn good I knew at the time that it was making my top three of the year. If you were wondering if Jackson could make the jump from YA to adult fiction, “Not Quite Dead Yet” proves that not only could she do it, she excelled at it.
and 1. “King Sorrow” by Joe Hill
It had been so long since Joe Hill had written a full length novel, and not only was I looking forward to his return to form, I was looking forward to a horror novel about a dragon!!! And my God, this book completely and fully blew me away. It’s almost one thousand pages but I still managed to read it in a few days because I just couldn’t put it down. Hill has not only created an amazing dragon, but also some fantastic lore, unforgettable characters, INCREDIBLE tension, and a story about friendship, greed, power, and sacrifice. I so loved this book. Joe Hill continues to leave me amazed and in awe of his vision and his storytelling. It was well worth the wait.
That’s it for my favorite reads of 2025! What were some of yours this year?
The Library Ladies 