Some Books I Loved This Year, 2025

Hi everyone! Sorry the blog has been on hiatus while I'm traveling. But at the very least, let me get this up. It's been a fantastic year of reading for me, I hope for you all as well

Not a ranking, not even a comprehensive list of my favorite books. I like reading, I like writing, I like writing about reading, and I love being able to share. Just what it says at the top: Some books I loved this year

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"Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013)

I always feel like I have to put out a weird explanation of, "I don't only read speculative fiction. Just mostly," whenever I want to talk about a book that's more "serious" literature. But yes, although not in line with much of what I read, "Americanah" was not only one of the best books I read this year, it's the one of the best books I can recommend, period. It is without question a masterpiece

This book is a portrait of the immigrant experience, from Nigeria to both America and the UK. It's a discussion of the current state of race relations, the reality of the experience of so many people, in all of these countries. And yes, it's just a story about two people finding each other in the midst of this wide, wide world

I can't remember the last time I read a book where the characters felt so real. So fully realized and complicated and animated and everything else. A truly incredible book, my highest recommendation

If they asked what she did, she would say vaguely, “I write a lifestyle blog,” because saying “I write an anonymous blog called Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black” would make them uncomfortable. She had said it, though, a few times. Once to a dreadlocked white man who sat next to her on the train, his hair like old twine ropes that ended in a blond fuzz, his tattered shirt worn with enough piety to convince her that he was a social warrior and might make a good guest blogger. “Race is totally overhyped these days, black people need to get over themselves, it’s all about class now, the haves and the have-nots,” he told her evenly, and she used it as the opening sentence of a post titled “Not All Dreadlocked White American Guys Are Down.”

tags: Black/African Lit, Standalone

"Chain Gang All-Stars" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (2023)

The setup for this book is simple, convicted felons sentenced to death can instead participate in gladiatorial fights to the death. Televised, of course. One a week for three years, and your sentence is commuted or even pardoned. This spawns an entire industry, with pundits and blogs and fantasy leagues

The metaphor is of course, quite obvious. It's basically asking us how different this even is from the modern US penal system. And in turn, it's asking us to question how complicit we, the members of this society, are

This is not a comfortable read. It's not meant to be one. But it raises some very, very important questions that we all need to be asking ourselves

'What does that mean? Aren’t there fewer criminals on our streets?'
'I mean that all those issues that you’re talking about are symptoms of our current system. Rampant poverty, a lack of resources for people suffering from addiction and mental health issues—those are difficult problems, but ones that can be addressed. But they aren’t. Because criminalization dehumanizes individuals and implicates them rather than a society that abandons them in times of need.'

tags: Black/African Lit, Dystopia, Near-future, Queer Lit, Standalone

"Small Miracles" by Olivia Atwater (2022)

Ok so, hear me out, this book is basically The Good Place in reverse. As in, in The Good Place, the premise is that we have a person with a strong moral compass in Chidi, and he's trying to help Eleanor (a self-proclaimed "Arizona trashbag") be a better person

Well, in "Small Miracles" we have the "Fallen Angel of Petty Temptations" (fallen, that is, as their previous job was as the "Angel of Small Miracles") given the mission of corrupting a pure soul (to settle a gambling debt with another angel). Not like, turn her into a mass murderer or anything. Just like, get her to loosen up, make some selfish decisions. Indulge in some chocolate every once in a while, at least. And it proves to be very difficult

I read this while going through a "cozy" fantasy kick last summer, and it really was just a warm and soothing light little novel about two people finding each other. The way that the right person can change your life in the right way and all that. It's a delight (and it's indie-published as well, hooray!)

In truth, the entire scene felt… warm, and homey. It was comfortably cosy—rather like his knitted vest. Gadriel couldn’t help basking in the sheer normalcy of it all. His mind drifted inevitably back to the early days. Things hadn’t always been rosy for him as a guardian angel, of course—but it was easier just now to remember the good parts, with families all gathered up around the hearth and children chasing each other around. Why, he wondered, were there so many Rules concerned with collecting virtue and so few concerned with collecting moments like this one?

tags: Cozy, Fantasy, Feminist Lit, Indie, Queer Lit, Standalone

"Kings of the Wyld" by Nicholas Eames (2017)

I worry that I overuse the word "fun" in a lot of my reviews, but sometimes it's the only way to describe why I like a book. This book is just plan fun, a nice little fantasy world with familiar elements but enough fun twists to be original, brisk narrative pacing throughout an adventure, and anchored by a great main character, Clay Cooper

It's a fantasy adventure, getting the old band of mercenaries back together for one last job, a road trip through dangerous lands on an impossible quest. Excellent. No problem with that. The twist, as it were, is that the novel started with the idea "what if fantasy Adventurers were like rock stars?" and it takes that to some fun places: Groups of mercenaries are referred to as "bands", travelling fighting monsters and fulfilling quests is called "touring", the leader and most famous member of a group of mercenaries is referred to as the "frontman", etc. It's fortunately not too overdone, because that could get annoying

But amusingly, while it started as a silly idea, this book grew into a pretty thoughtful book about aging. Think a DnD campaign crossed with "Almost Famous". It's worth a read, for sure--a better book than even the author himself set out to write

From the Author's Afterward:

"I set out to write a funny book. A ridiculous book. A book that didn't take itself too seriously (hence the goblins, the erectile dysfunction potions, and the fact that my antagonist has bunny ears). But the characters just . . . got away from me. I blame Clay Cooper"

tags: Fantasy, Series (ongoing)

The "Warden" series (starting with "The Warden") by Daniel M. Ford (series; 2023-)

(it's deeply amusing to me that alphabetical order places this and "Kings of the Wyld" next to each other. They're not the same books at all, but I loved them for much of the same reasons

If producers aren't in a bidding war for the rights to this series, they certainly should be. It wouldn't even take that much adapting. The premise is simple--an elite noble girl graduates from the college of magic and is accepted as one of the kingdom's "Wardens" (sheriff-mages). Rather than the cushy city posting she was expected, she's sent out to the middle of nowhere. Fish out of water, she has to work with these country folk who distrust a pampered city girl, while slowly realizing that maybe there's more going on in this part of the country than anyone suspects, maybe her expertise with necromancy will come in handy after all . . . bam, done, that's basically your pilot episode right there

In the end, the series works simply because Aelis, fearless and badass and always ready with a witty quip, is too damn enjoyable to read. She's great, and this is a great series because of her

“Doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.”
“My ideas never are. But my execution is flawless.”

tags: Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Feminist Lit, Queer Lit, Series (ongoing)

"The Refrigerator Monologues" by Catherynne M. Valente (2017)

I remember I had other plans for what I wanted to review during Women's History Month this year, I'd actually planned on blogging about a different Valente novel (she's soooo cool). But I read this novel, devoured it in like a day and a half, and knew I wanted to write about it

This is Valente's attempt to write stories from the perspective of every female comic book character who's been killed off ("fridged") in order to motivate the male hero. As the great Gail Simone pointed out decades ago, it's pretty goddamn common. So Valente rights a book about "The Hell Hath Club", where they sit around in the afterlife and tell stories about their lives

Valente knows that she can't fix everything. In an interview she did regarding the book, she put it best when she says that as an author, the only thing she can do is just give them a voice:

You can’t fix Gwen Stacy dying. She was always going to die. She always dies. It’s kind of a thing. And I’ll tell you right now, I didn’t save her. The book takes place in hell. I’m not that kind of hero. I can’t swoop in and save the damsel. What I can do is turn on a mic and let the damsel scream.

tags: Feminist Lit, Short Fiction, Standalone, Superhero

"The City in Glass" by Nghi Vo (2024)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, as long as Nghi Vo keep writing, there's a very good chance she'll have a book of hers on this list every year. In this one, she dives straight into the theme of loss and grief, and she portrays it with absolute heartshattering beauty

The main character is a demon, who loved her city and looked over it for centuries until its destruction at the hands of cold and uncaring angels. Vo paints this grief in such simple terms: "The sky is still blue, Vitrine thought, looking up. I am not sure that the sky should still be allowed to be blue."

The second character is the novel is one of the angels that was responsible for the destruction. Stranded behind, he is beside the demon as she rebuilds her city or at least tries to rebuild herself. Enemies-to-lovers is a pretty common genre these days, but in the hands of Nghi Vo . . . yeah. This book is special

He had gone so high that first her eyes could only fall on the sea that lapped the coast, how the line of the water met with perfect love the blue of the sky, and how in its vastness it curved down. The light was clearer than the glass of her cabinet and so bright it threatened to mend the cracks that ran her through. For a single moment, she could truly see the size of the world and how far it went. She could travel so far without ever seeing a thing that she had seen before. In a world so large, you could run from anything, and Vitrine’s grief threatened to flee. She wrestled it back to her like it was a child running into a busy street, snarling and protective because now she could see the angel’s ploy.

tags: AZN/Asian Lit, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Queer Lit, Standalone

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And so, we wrap up another year! Man, this was a good one. I am happy, I am very happy

I loved so many books this year

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