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This was the kind of year that felt 100 years long, so who could blame us for leaning into a bit of escapism? Some of us buried our noses in books in 2025, and thankfully, there were plenty of good reads to get lost in. Here are some of the Engadget team\u2019s top picks from the year.<\/p>\n
Wild Dark Shore<\/em><\/a> pulls off a magnificent balancing act of telling an intimate, personal story coupled with the backdrop of impending climate disaster. A father and three children are living on a remote island near Antarctica, taking care of a vast seed bank that was part of an abandoned research facility. They\u2019re literally trying to stay above water for a few months until they get bailed out from the island along with as much of the seed bank as they can save before it goes under when a woman named Rowan washes up on shore. She survives, is nursed back to health, and starts forming bonds with her rescuers and their mission \u2014 but at the same time, she has some unexpected connections to the island and the former research team that lived there that she keeps to herself.<\/p>\n The magic of this book is in the way Charlotte McConaghy builds tensions from many sources throughout the book; you feel a lingering sense of discomfort through, waiting for the other shoe to fall even as Rowan gets closer and closer to the family. It\u2019s a small-scale story at its heart, but with the backdrop of disaster looming the stakes feel extremely high. And McConaghy is a master at putting these feelings on the page in gorgeous prose. As she showed in her previous work Migrations<\/em>, she has a real talent for realistically describing near-future climate disasters, but Wild Dark Shore<\/em> raises the personal stakes in a visceral way. \u2014 Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor<\/em><\/p>\n This book is a chaotic and deeply weird rollercoaster ride that repeatedly gave me whiplash, and I loved it. Fair warning, it’s not for the weak-stomached. It is horrifying, hilarious, nauseating and somehow a very good time and a very bad time simultaneously. Moonflow<\/em><\/a> is told through dual narratives, one following Sarah, a trans woman and mushroom dealer who has found herself in a desperate situation, and the other following the henchwomen of a deranged cult that’s made its home in a cursed forest. After Sarah ventures into these woods in search of the King’s Breakfast, a rare mushroom said to grant divine understanding to those who consume it, all hell breaks loose.<\/p>\n Karella’s writing is immersive, and this is the kind of book you can see, feel, hear and smell, for better and worse. Every person in this book is like a caricature of someone I’ve crossed paths with at some point in life, and the names of the cult members are just\u2026 chef’s kiss<\/em>. Some of them had me howling. It is completely unpredictable \u2014 except in those few moments where it seems the author wants you to know exactly<\/em> where things are going just to make you dread the inevitable. Reading Moonflow<\/em> was a visceral, unforgettable experience. \u2014 Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor<\/em><\/p>\n Another one about a cult, except this cult rules. I picked up Simplicity<\/em><\/a> knowing nothing about it except that everyone cool on the internet seemed to be praising it, and was excited to discover that it’s set near where I live in New York’s Hudson Valley, in a future version of the Catskills. And here in the Hudson Valley, it often feels like I’m one or two innocuous decisions away from accidentally joining a cult, so there was an immediate connection. In Simplicity<\/em>, it’s the year 2081 and New York City is a high-tech dystopia run by a billionaire. North of the city, though, various communities have settled off-grid, including a group called The Spiritual Association of Peers.<\/p>\n Lucius Pasternak, a trans man, is sent on an anthropological assignment from the mayor to SAP’s compound, Simplicity, and it doesn’t take long for their uninhibited way of life to start growing on him. But Lucius soon begins to have strange dreams, and a series of violent attacks shakes up the community. Through his mission to understand the people of SAP and later to find and stop the entity that’s targeting them, a beautiful story about queerness and identity and belonging and fighting for what’s important unfolds. This feels like the kind of book that should be passed around between friends who just get it<\/em>, and I imagine many readers will feel incredibly seen by it like I did. \u2014 C.M.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Or Stephen Graham Jones’ Interview with the Vampire. <\/em>The Buffalo Hunter Hunter<\/em><\/a> blends historical fiction and horror to give us one of the most impactful vampire novels of our time \u2014 one that serves as an uncomfortable but necessary reminder of the atrocities committed against indigenous people in the US by white settlers. It begins with the discovery of a crumbling journal that claims to contain the confession of a Blackfeet man-turned-vampire named Good Stab, as told to Lutheran pastor Arthur Beaucarne. What follows is a gutting chronicle of slaughter, heartbreak and revenge. It’s a classic in the making. \u2014 C.M.<\/em><\/p>\n Historical fiction is how I trick my brain into possibly learning something. And because the endings are set, the author has to hook you into the drama with more than just the peril of an unknown outcome. I fell deep into Wolf Hall<\/em> even though I knew which heads Henry VIII chopped off. I thought Isola <\/em>might be similarly gratifying.<\/p>\n It tells the story of Marguerite de la Rocque de Roberval, a young noblewoman from France who was intentionally marooned on an island off the coast of Canada in 1542. The story is based on historical records so you know the plot won\u2019t adhere to safe formulas<\/a>, but mon dieu<\/em>, I was not prepared for how rough things would be for Marguerite.<\/p>\n Her troubles began long before she found herself fighting for survival on a wild uninhabited island with brutal winters. From birth, nearly every happiness was undercut by more dominant forces, yet the woman never stopped moving forward. Thankfully, Goodman draws Marguerite\u2019s character not as some tired brand of plucky heroine with grit and a wink, but as a perceptive, pragmatic being who also gives in to impulse and doesn\u2019t have everything figured out.<\/p>\n Isola<\/em><\/a> is beautifully rendered, from the stone chateaus to creaking ships and rough abundance of the island. Despite being set over 400 years ago, nothing feels dated. Human versus universe is an unfair battle, but I rooted for Marguerite on every page \u2014 and those pages turned quickly. \u2014 Amy Skorheim, Senior Reporter, Buying Advice<\/em><\/p>\n This was one of the first books I read this year, and it’s really stuck with me. Old Soul<\/em><\/a> travels through time and all over the world, across multiple storylines to trace the devastating impact of one mysterious woman who seems to defy the rules of mortality and always leave tragedy in her wake. Barker’s writing in Old Soul <\/em>pulls the reader in and doesn’t let go. It’s an unsettling slow burn that did a great job of getting under my skin.\u00a0 \u2014 C.M.<\/em><\/p>\nMoonflow<\/em> by Bitter Karella<\/h2>\n
Simplicity<\/em> by Mattie Lubchansky<\/h2>\n
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter<\/em> by Stephen Graham Jones<\/h2>\n
Isola<\/em> by Allegra Goodman<\/h2>\n
Old Soul<\/em> by Susan Barker<\/h2>\n
Meet Me at the Crossroads<\/em> by Megan Giddings<\/h2>\n