The 2025 Books On Our Radar

2025’s must-read novels, non-fiction, and poetry.

Sure, books are having a “moment,” but before the dawn of the celebrity book club, there’s one reality TV star who made a really good point. “There is just something about holding a book,” Heidi Montag bravely wrote in 2020. So true!

As we look ahead to 2025, we’ve got a lot of freaky, hot, and tender books on our radar…books you’re really just going to want to, you know, hold. Like Maggie Su’s build-a-boyfriend debut Blob: A Love Story, poet Aria Aber’s electrifying coming of age Berlin novel Good Girl, or Girl on Girl, Sophie Gilbert’s smart and nuanced take on ‘00s celebrity culture. (Actually, we’re excited about so many books next year that we had to narrow our selections down to only January-April releases. We’ll do another round-up in the spring.)

Ahead, Language Arts’ most-anticipated 2025 books.

GOOD GIRL by Aria Aber - Penguin Random House, Jan. 14

Poet Aria Aber’s intoxicating coming of age story follows a 19-year-old Afghani woman growing up in public housing with swastikas scribbled on the hallways, the legacy of her family, freeing nights spent in sweaty Berlin nightclubs, and an obsession with an older American writer.

BLOB: A LOVE STORY by Maggie Su - HarperCollins Publishers, Jan 28.

Who says you can’t build a boyfriend? Blob: A Love Story follows a flailing young woman who discovers a shapeless blob in the middle of the night, and decides to bring it home...and mold it into her ideal partner.

SOFT CORE by Brittany Newell - FSG, Feb. 3

Between a master’s degree she doesn’t use and shifts dancing for crypto bros and weirdos at the club, Ruth is feeling untethered. Just when she feels like she’s got things under control, her beloved ex-boyfriend and ketamine dealer Dino suddenly disappears without a trace, forcing her to search the misty underbelly of San Francisco — from dive bars to BDSM dungeons — in search of the man she loves.

ALLIGATOR TEARS by Edgar Gomez - Crown, Feb. 11

We’re obsessed with Edgar’s first book High-Risk Homosexual, a memoir detailing growing up queer and Latinx in Florida — think cockfighting ring, bathhouses, and Pulse Nightclub. We saw him read an excerpt from his sophomore effort (featuring plenty of America’s Next Top Model references…) and cannot wait for his essay collection about surviving in the Sunshine State.

THE DREAM HOTEL by Laila Lalami - Pantheon, March 4

Pulitzer prize finalist Laila Lalami crafts an eerie, technologically-advanced near future in which even the contents of our dreams are under the watchful eye of the surveillance state. Don’t sleep too tight…

HOT AIR by Marcy Dermansky - Knopf, March 18

Two single parents’ post-pandemic first date is cut short when a tech billionaire and his disgruntled wife accidentally crash a hot air balloon into a suburban pool. What follows is a two-day romp told from each character’s perspective, in this strange escape of a novel, which you can enjoy over the course of a single afternoon.

PARADISE LOGIC by Sophie Kemp - Simon and Schuster, March 25

Sophie Kemp’s debut novel follows Reality Kahn in a noble and divine quest: becoming the greatest girlfriend of all time. It’s a wacky and jarring quest for true love — from the sticky floors of a Gowanus punk house to delirious clinical trials that promise improved partnership. But is blind optimism and a wildly open heart enough to make her dreams come true? We couldn’t put this book down.

TILT by Emma Pattee - Simon & Schuster, March 25

Emma Pattee’s riveting novel follows a nine months pregnant woman who’s shopping at Ikea when the Big One hits Portland, leading her on a journey through a crumbled city — and plenty of time to think about life, love, and destruction.

ECSTASY by Alex Dimitrov - Knopf, April 1

Reading an Alex Dimitrov poem is like the first sip of a martini: revelatory, glam, and sedating. Whether he’s writing about inhaling poppers, eating bananas in the kitchen with a new lover, or nearly getting hit by a taxi cab while looking at the tulips on Fifth Avenue, we’ll drink up every one of these poems.

SKY DADDY by Kate Folk, Penguin Random House, April 8

Kate Folk’s subversive and touching love story follows Linda, a woman whose paramour exists beyond the trappings of sex and gender: She’s in love with planes. Can she maintain her normal life while longing to be consumed (in a fiery crash, of course!) by her metallic desires?

BAD NATURE by Ariel Courage - Henry Holt and Co., April 1

It’s a tale as old as time: A woman gets diagnosed with cancer on her fortieth birthday and decides it’s a sign to abandon her life, drive west, and kill her dad. We’re all in on this revenge-fueled road trip novel.

I LOVE SHOPPING by Lauren Cook - Nightboat, April 1

First published in a limited edition, this cult favorite internet novel that dares to dream of a heaven like all the skateboarders you kissed in middle school, is back in print.

GIRL ON GIRL by Sophie Gilbert - Penguin Press, April 20

A painfully insightful dive into the hyper-objectification, sexualization, and infantilization of women and celebrity culture in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s — and the ramifications still felt today.