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 ...
In Fable for the End of the World , Ava Reid crafts an intriguing dystopian world. The inhabitants of Lower Esopus live in a flooded city where they must navigate by raft and take decontamination tablets to survive. Mutated wildlife roam the woods, and citizens who accumulate enough debt must participate in a deadly cat-and-mouse game called the Gauntlet. I also adored MelinoĂ« as a character. She's an Angel—an augmented cyborg who's raised to be a weapon. However, she must grapple with the guilt of killing people and repeatedly have her memories erased (think along the lines of Bucky or Caleb). When she’s assigned to hunt a girl named Inesa in the Gauntlet, she becomes conflicted. However, it’s the relationship itself where the story falls apart for me. For someone who vehemently despises the government, I feel like Inesa is far too quick to trust her would-be assassin. Likewise, MelinoĂ« is far too quick to discard all of her programming to protect Inesa. In essence, their ene...