Anticipated Releases for 2025

Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!

Today I'll be going through my most anticipated releases for the year. I simultaneously love and hate making this post every year. I love looking at what's ahead and seeing what books I have my eye on, but at the same time I hate that the list I have at the beginning almost never ends up being the list of new releases I end up reading. Not to mention there are always mistakes in these posts: whether the release date is pushed back, or the covers are incomplete, I never have a properly completed list. But oh well, because here we are again. 

And so, a disclaimer before we start: the publication dates are subject to change, these are just the dates that are assigned as of me writing this. Also, some books might not have finished covers, so I apologize if that will bother you (trust me, it bothers me too). 

Let's get into it!

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Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire
Publication date: January 7

Nadya had three mothers: the one who bore her, the country that poisoned her, and the one who adopted her. Nadya never considered herself less than whole, not until her adoptive parents fitted her with a prosthetic arm against her will, seeking to replace the one she'd been missing from birth. It was cumbersome; it was uncomfortable; it was wrong. It wasn't her. Frustrated and unable to express why, Nadya began to wander, until the day she fell through a door into Belyrreka, the Land Beneath the Lake--and found herself in a world of water, filled with child-eating amphibians, majestic giant turtles, and impossible ships that sailed as happily beneath the surface as on top. In Belyrreka, she found herself understood for who she was: a Drowned Girl, who had made her way to her real home, accepted by the river and its people. But even in Belyrreka, there are dangers, and trials, and Nadya would soon find herself fighting to keep hold of everything she had come to treasure.

Starting off with book 10 in the Wayward Children series. Of course, I love this series, so is anyone really surprised at this being one of my most anticipated releases of the year? No, probably not. I especially love the books that take place in the other worlds as opposed to the ones that take place at Eleanor West's school, so this is doubly intriguing me. (For those who are curious, my favorite book in the series is In an Absent Dream.)

All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall
Publication date: January 7

In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.

The reason this book is on my radar is because it's compared to Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, which is a sleeper favorite of mine (meaning I hardly ever talk about it, but it still very much is a favorite). Climate fiction is so interesting, but I haven't had a winner since I read Station Eleven, so maybe this could be it?

Everything is Poison by Joy McCullough
Publication date: January 14

For as long as she can remember, Carmela Tofana has desperately wanted one  to be an important part of La Tofana Apothecary, her mother’s apothecary in the Campo Marzio neighborhood of Rome. When she finally turns sixteen, she’s allowed into the workroom of the shop, where her mother and two other women make some of the most effective remedies in all of Rome. They also dispense a healthy amount of good, non-medical advice to their clients. But the workroom of La Tofana is no simple place, and for every sweet-smelling flower extract to be prepared, there’s another potion where the main ingredient is blood or something even less pleasant. And then there’s Aqua Tofana, the apothecary’s remedy of last resort and one of several secrets Carmela never bargained for in all her years of wishing to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Everything Is Poison is a story of a deadly secret hiding in plain sight and of the women who risk everything to provide care for those most in need.

I love Joy McCullough's writing, a blend of poetry and prose. Her book Blood Water Paint is honestly a masterpiece, and I've been hoping for a new book along the same lines. She must have heard my prayers because she's delivering! This story is following Giulia Tofana's (fictional) daughter. Giulia Tofana is one of those historical figures that I'm so intrigued by, so I'm very excited to read this!

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Publication date: January 14

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only the chosen ones—those who are lost—will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets. Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen, and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike its other customers, for he offers help instead of seeking it. Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and a night market in the clouds. But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own—and risk making a choice that she will never be able to take back.

I've heard people describing this as Spirited Away for adults, so naturally it's on my anticipated releases list. I truly love books that feel like a Studio Ghibli film, like The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh. They end up feeling so nostalgic despite having never read them before. I'm hoping this book will give me that same feeling.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Publication date: March 18

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight...and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

This might just be the most anticipated release of the internet at large. Obviously, this is a Hunger Games prequel that focuses on Haymitch's games. Personally, I'm hoping beyond hope that this book will mostly be about his PTSD and how he handles (or doesn't handle) being a mentor for later tributes. I will honestly be a little disappointed if the whole book is the games.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones 
Publication date: March 18

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.

I love Stephen Graham Jones's writing and at this point I'll read whatever he comes out with. I haven't finished reading his entire backlist, but I'm not that far off. I heard someone say that this book is about vampires, which I'm not sure where they got that information because I haven't seen that personally, but if that's true then I am here for this.

The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah
Publication date: April 15

Neither here nor there, but long ago… After fleeing a patricidal prince, legendary merchant Loulie al-Nazari and banished prince Mazen bin Malik find themselves in the realm of jinn. But instead of sanctuary, they find a world on the cusp of collapse. The jinn cities, long sheltered beneath the Sandsea by the magic of its kings, are sinking. Amid the turmoil, political alliances are forming, and rebellion is on the rise. When Loulie assists a dissenter—one of her bodyguard’s old comrades—she puts herself in the center of a centuries-old war. Trapped in a world that isn’t her own and wielding magic that belongs to a fallen king, Loulie must decide: Will she carry on someone else’s legacy or carve out her own?

I've been waiting for this book for over a year and a half at this point. This is the sequel to The Stardust Thief which I read way back in 2023. It was supposed to come out last year but the publication date was pushed back until 2025. I'm hoping the delay means that Chelsea Abdullah had the opportunity to really form a tight plot. But mainly I'm annoyed that I've had to wait so long!

Overgrowth by Mira Grant
Publication date: May 6

Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has been willing to listen. Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it's already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia's biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child.

Mira Grant is a pen name of Seanan McGuire for her horror books. I've only read one book by "Mira Grant," Into the Drowning Deep, and I had such a great time with that story. This book seems to be even more sci-fi leaning than that one, but I know that if it's a Mira Grant novel, it will be very scary.

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater
Publication date: June 3

High in the Appalachian mountains is a place quite unlike any other. The Avallon Hotel and its enigmatic General Manager, June Hudson, are famed for offering unrivalled luxury, season after season, to those who come from far and wide to indulge in its beautiful hot springs and take the healing waters. Everything is perfect. Perhaps too perfect. So when the Avallon is called upon to help the war effort - to oust its guests and host three hundred diplomats and Nazi sympathisers - June's priority is business as usual. But as dark alliances and unexpected attractions crack the polished veneer of the hotel, she is forced to reckon with the true price of luxury. After all, only June knows the sacrifice required to keep everyone happy - her staff, the FBI and, above all, the tumultuous sweetwater running through the heart of the hotel.

I went back and forth for a long time trying to decide if this book would be on my list or not. On one hand, Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favorite authors, but on the other hand, I don't love mysteries or WWII type novels, and this book seems to be both of those. At the end of the day, I will be reading this, but I don't know if I'll be buying it right away.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
Publication date: June 10

Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1837. Boston, 2019. Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth.

Ah, my most anticipated release of 2025! I've been waiting for this novel ever since Victoria (V.E. Schwab) teased it on her Instagram as "toxic lesbian vampires." This summary gives us practically nothing, and yet I'm foaming at the mouth waiting for this book to be in my hands. Truthfully, I would read V.E. Schwab's grocery list if she published it. 

Ascension by S.T. Gibson
Publication date: July 8

Now the High Priest of Boston's famed and secret Society, Rhys McGowan has a lot on his shoulders. With the help of his adoring witch wife, Moira, and his newly rekindled relationship with psychic boyfriend, David, Rhys is destined to become the most powerful High Priest ever. However, Rhys's insatiable ambition may be his undoing...

This is the sequel to Evocation, which was one of my favorite books of 2024, so naturally I'm very excited for this. Again, this summary gives me nothing, but I can't wait. If Evocation was David's book, then this one will clearly be Rhys's book. That means that book three will be Moira's! 

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Publication date: July 15

“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales. In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances. As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch. Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Silvia Moreno-Garcia. The first book of hers that I read, Mexican Gothic, was incredible and one of my favorites of the year that I read it in. Since then, I've read two other books of hers (The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Silver Nitrate) and didn't enjoy either of them. Is Mexican Gothic a one-hit-wonder for me? I feel like this book will be the deciding factor for me.

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
Publication date: August 28

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world. That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault. Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams…nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion. With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like. But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.

This is definitely high up on this list. I've read all of R.F. Kuang's books and have thoroughly enjoyed them all (yes, even Yellowface) and I love that this seems to be another sort of dark academia novel. It's giving Dante's Inferno as well, which I am also loving. I'm begging for the cover to be dropped already!

A Land So Wide by Erin A. Craig
Publication date: September 9

Like everyone else in the settlement of Mistaken, Greer Mackenzie is trapped. Founded by an ambitious Scottish lumber merchant, the tiny town on the edge of the American continent is blessed with rich natural resources that have made its people prosperous—but at a cost. The same woods that have lined the townsfolks’ pockets harbor dangerous beasts: wolves, bears, and the Bright-Eyeds—monsters beyond description who have rained utter destruction down on nearby settlements. But Mistaken’s founders made a deal with the mysterious Benevolence: the Warding Stones that surround the town will keep the Bright-Eyeds out—and the town’s citizens in. Anyone who spends a night within Mistaken’s borders belongs to it forever. Greer, a mapmaker and eccentric dreamer, has always ached to explore the world outside, even though she knows she and her longtime love, Ellis Beaufort, will never see it. Until, on the day she and Ellis are meant to finally begin their lives together, Greer watches in horror as her beloved disappears beyond the Warding Stones, pursued by a monstrous creature. Swiftly realizing that the stories she was raised on might be more myth than fact, Greer figures out a way to escape Mistaken for the very first time. Determined to rescue Ellis, she begins a trek through the cold and pitiless wilderness. But Greer is being hunted, not only by the ruthless Bright-Eyeds but by the secret truths behind Mistaken’s founding, as well as her own origins.

This is Erin A. Craig's adult debut, so I'm cautiously optimistic about this. I actually really love her YA Grimm retellings, every single one has been great. This book seems to be departing from her formula however, so while I'm excited to see how her writing style lends to an adult plot, I'm wary about the plot itself, just because I don't do well with change.

Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon
Publication date: September 16

It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind. Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world. A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries. And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall...

Hooray, another book in the Roots of Chaos series! While this isn't technically a novella, I'm considering it one based on the length of the novels in this series (Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night are both over 800 pages). This is a direct prequel to Priory and it follows characters that we see in that book. Any Roots of Chaos content will in fact be bought and read by me.

A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo
Publication date: October 7

Wandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes. Trapped in the mansion of a sinister magistrate, Chih and Almost Brilliant must learn what happened in Baolin when the famine came to call, and they must do so quickly... because the things in the shadows are only growing hungrier.

I don't have much to say about this, since it's book six in the Singing Hills Cycle. Every book in this series just gets better and better, and the last one really blew me away with the more creepy, horror-like atmosphere. This book also seems to be quite scary based on the summary, and I'm definitely not mad about that.

Queen Demon by Martha Wells
Publication date: October 7

Dahin believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs' Well, and the Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there's something he isn't telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself. Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch? And can he trust his companions to do what’s right?

This is the sequel to Witch King which I read back in 2023 and really enjoyed. I wasn't expecting there to be a sequel, but I will definitely be reading it. I think I might have to do reread of Witch King before picking this up though, but at least I have plenty of time to figure that out. 

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And those are all of my most anticipated releases for 2025! Of course these aren't the only books I'm looking forward to. You can find my full list on my Goodreads under the tag "2025-books."

Which books are you looking forward to this year? Do any of our choices overlap? Let me know in the comments, or DM me on Instagram.

Until next time!