We’ve finally reached December, and with 2026 approaching fast, one of the best things about the new year is looking back at all of the books I’ve read in the past 12 months. This list isn’t comprehensive of every single book released in 2025, but these are the favorites that I’ve read throughout the year!
- Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
-
I’ve read all of V.E. Schwab’s novels, and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil is one of my favorites. Schwab crafts a seamless, intertwined narrative between the three characters of the novel, stringing the reader along to see how the story comes together.
The book starts by following the lives of three separate characters, María/Sabine, Charlotte, and Alice, but by the end of the novel, their separate plotlines intersect as the story intensifies. All three characters were different, yet Schwab artfully blends their stories together.
When Schwab first teased the book, she described it in three words: “toxic lesbian vampires.” This hook sold me immediately, and Schwab’s delivery didn’t disappoint. Queerness is at the root of this book, and Schwab uses vampirism as a way for all three of these women to take back their lives as women in a male-dominated society.
- Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
-
Sunrise on the Reaping was another obvious pick for this list. It was one of my most anticipated releases of 2025, and Suzanne Collins didn’t disappoint. The book is about Haymitch’s games, and if you’re a fan of the series, you may think you already know how his games end; however, Collins does a great job of fleshing out Haymitch’s story, and you’re not getting the full picture just from the original trilogy.
This book is devastating, and even though I expected that when I started reading it, the ending was still an emotional gut-punch. If you haven’t read Sunrise on the Reaping, or if you want to re-read it, I’d recommend reading all of the Hunger Games books in chronological order.
Start by reading A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, then read Sunrise on the Reaping, and finish with the original Hunger Games trilogy. Reading the whole series in this order allows you to pick up all the hints Collins dropped in the original trilogy.
- Next Time Will Be Our Turn by Jesse Q. Sutanto
-
Next Time Will Be Our Turn is a heartwarming story following Izzy Chen and her grandmother, Magnolia Chen. The novel opens with Izzy’s family’s annual Chinese New Year celebration, where she feels outcast and alone from her family. Then, in walks Magnolia Chen, who brings her new partner, a woman, to the celebration. Later that evening, Magnolia meets Izzy, and the older woman tells her about her own journey grappling with her sexuality and cultural identity.
This book blew me away. The story is heart-wrenching, and the tale spans over years, continents, and generations. One of my favorite parts of the story is Jesse Q. Sutanto’s experimentation with the narration.
The story is told through Magnolia’s voice, but what’s interesting is that as she tells the story, she’ll interrupt and jump back to the present tense to talk to Izzy. Magnolia’s story isn’t just about her queer identity or her experience as an immigrant; her relationship with her big sister, Iris, is also essential to the plot and drives the story forward up until the final page, with an ending you won’t expect.
- Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
-
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang was another obvious pick for this list. Katabasis was one of my most anticipated reads for 2025, and I definitely wasn’t alone. I love all of Kuang’s novels, but this novel is among my favorites with The Poppy War trilogy and Babel. A lot of people online were comparing this book to Babel, and though I love both, I prefer Katabasis.
Katabasis sparked a lot of debate on the internet because of the “required reading” lists of books you should read before starting Kuang’s novel. However, if this intimidates you, don’t let it. You don’t need to read any of these books before starting Katabasis. Understanding these references does enrich the experience of the novel, but I didn’t read any of these other books before starting Katabasis, and I still loved it.
This book is lengthy, but Kuang makes the story fun without shying away from more serious themes. Similar to her novel Babel, Kuang takes a jab at the world of Academia — in this novel, the landscape of Hell is literally the campus of a university.
There wasn’t any point in this book when I was bored or wanted to put it down; Kuang does a masterful job of stringing the reader along as Peter and Alice travel through all seven courts of Hell to get their professor back.
- Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
-
Last, but certainly not least, is Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This book was literally out of this world. The novel follows Joan Goodwin, who, one day, applies to be one of the first female astronauts in NASA’s space shuttle program.
However, the book doesn’t start with Joan. Readers are thrown right into the action with a space mission gone wrong, and Joan’s not one of the astronauts in the ship; instead, we meet Vanessa, Joan’s friend and lover.
The main plotline of this story is Joan’s and the other characters’ journeys to become astronaut candidates. Atmosphere is also a journey of queer discovery, and readers get to see Vanessa and Joan blossom into new characters by the end of the story. What I loved about this novel is how it starts and ends with the space mission at the beginning.
When readers first start the novel, they won’t truly understand the relationship between Joan and Vanessa and why Joan cares for her so much, but this makes the ending so much more powerful. Reid seamlessly works their relationship into the story, and it truly feels like their coupling was destined by the stars.
Reid’s romance novels are artfully written, and there’s always more to the story than the romance itself — we especially see this in Atmosphere, where Joan and Vanessa’s relationship is set against the backdrop of NASA’s space program.
If you’re looking for books to finish out your to-be-read (TBR) for the year, consider picking up one of these! Even if some of these books aren’t from genres you typically read, trying something new might result in a new favorite.
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest!