Books I've Read: Q2 2025
Look at this gorgeous room for the packed Quais du Polar literary festival (2025 edition) in Lyon, France. April 5, 2025.
I finished the following books (in rough order) in the second quarter of 2025:
Voluntary Madness, by Vicki Hendricks
Blackbirds, by Chuck Wendig
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, by Horace Mc Coy
Shella, by Andrew Vachss
Where the Axe is Buried, by Ray Nayler
Bad Nature, by Ariel Courage
The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne, by Ron Currie
When We Were Real, by Daryl Gregory
Gifted & Talented, by Olivie Blake
Plum, by Andy Anderegg
Make Sure You Die Screaming, by Zee Carlstron
Bird Box, by Josh Malerman
The Sundowner’s Dance, by Todd Kiesling
Where the Bones Lie, by Nick Kolakowski
rekt, by Alex Gonzalez
When the Wolf Comes Home, by Nat Cassidy
Creating Character Arcs, by K. M. Weiland
No Such Thing as Duty, by Lara Elena Donnelly
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, by Kylie Lee Baker
The Fisherman, by John Langan
Burning Down the House, by Charles Baxter
A Thousand Natural Shocks, by Omar Hussain
Old School Indian, by Aaron John Curtis
The Art of Subtext, by Charles Baxter
Wounds, by Nathan Ballingrud
Putting the Science in Fiction, by Dan Koboldt
Extremophile, by Ian Green
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, by George Saunders
A Sharp Endless Need, by Marisa Crane
Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock, by Maud Woolf
Metallic Realms, by Lincoln Michel
Whistle, by Linwood Barclay
The Science of Storytelling, by Will Storr
Gringos, by Charles Portis
The Expat, by Hansen Shi
Harmattan Season, by Tochi Onyebuchi
Structuring Your Novel, by K. M. Weiland
Manhunt, by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Ascension, by Nicolas Binge
Next Level Plot Structure, by K. M. Weiland
Stay God, by Nik Korpon
Writing Your Story’s Theme, by K. M. Weiland
Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove
Mewing, by Chloe Spencer
The Mountain in the Sea, by Ray Nayler
Julie Chan is Dead, by Liann Zhang
The Song is You, by Megan Abbott
The Sons of El Rey, by Alex Espinoza
Sweet Angel, Nik Korpon
Revelator, by Daryl Gregory
King of Ashes, by S. A. Cosby
What to Expect When You’re Dead: An Ancient Tour of Death and the Afterlife, by Robert Garland
Goddess from the Machine, by Daniel Rodrigues-Martin
X, by Davey Davis
The Man Who Saw Seconds, by Alexander Boldizar
Penance, by Kinae Minato
As I do with every quarter’s list, I bolded the titles that really stuck with me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t really enjoy other titles on the list, so don’t let me dissuade you from reading a title that isn’t bolded, I’m also willing to talk about any of these, if you’re curious.
Earlier this year, I posted my best of the best list for the books I read in 2024 and I shared the books I finished in the first quarter of 2025, too.
And the reading continues!