We're fast approaching another year, so ... drumroll please! Here are my most highly anticipated SFF, horror, and bizarro books of 2025 to add to your ever-expanding TBR. The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks Release: January 14, 2024 When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND. As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone… is up. And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent – and death stalks their every move. The Teeth of Dawn (The Five Penalties #3) by Marina Lostetter ...
Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon is a queer sci-fi thriller that explores transness, personhood, and our relationship to our bodies in a beautiful, thought-provoking way.Bo First off, I really loved the concept of masks in this book. The biotech masks in this world grant different abilities depending on the type of mask (kind of like in Majora's Mask—albeit with a sci-fi twist). For instance, an ox mask will grant its user extra strength and a rabbit mask heightens your awareness and alerts you to danger. I’ve also got to applaud the author for taking artistic choices that pay off. The story is actually told from the perspective of the sentient mask, and it switches from I to you to we depending on how integrated the mask is with Wylla at the time. I felt like this works cleverly on a thematic level to show the two characters' growing connection with each other. All and all, this book turned out to be one one my favorite reads of the year. It’s an inventive and boldly honest sci...