The Best Fiction Books of 2025

June is almost over but before we head to July, we have a list of the best fiction books of 2025. Keep reading to find out what they are and what you should be adding to your reading list!

This has been a great first half and now NPR has returned with an extensive list of the best fiction books released in the first half of 2025. They are one of my favorite and my go-to for new books. Whenever I read their lists and book reviews, I can tell that they love their job and are surrounded by books.

NPR has a released its list of the best fiction books as selected by its staff and what a list. It is very long and just trying to read this list alone might take a year or two. The list includes every genre and even poetry. Who else is doing this besides NPR?! You can see the full list below1

The Best Fiction Books of 2025

• Among Friends by Hal Ebbott
• Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn
• The Antidote by Karen Russell
• Audition by Katie Kitamura
• Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward
• Darkenbloom by Eva Menasse, translated by Charlotte Collins
• The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
• The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
• Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
• The Garden by Nick Newman
• Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
• Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi
• Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems by Maria Zoccola
• Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang
• King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
• Liquid: A Love Story by Mariam Rahmani
• Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
• My Friends by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith
• My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende, translated by Frances Riddle
• The Naming of the Birds by Paraic O’Donnell
• Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow
• The Pretender by Jo Harkin
• Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
• The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
• The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie
• Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
• Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories by Torrey Peters
• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
• There’s Something About Mira by Sonali Dev
• These Days by Lucy Caldwell
• Tilt by Emma Pattee
• Too Soon by Betty Shamieh
• Twelve Post-War Tales by Graham Swift
• Vantage Point by Sara Sligar
• Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
• When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi 

Where do I even start with this list? There are tons of new books that I hadn’t heard of before and I will be doing my research on soon. But the ones that everyone is talking about are Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney, The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, and Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins.

Seeing The Hunger Games trend in 2025 was not in my bingo card. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong might go down as the best novel of 2025 and Beautiful Ugly may have made Feeney the next big author.

Conclusion

That is all for the best fiction books of 2025 according to NPR staff. This list is full of tons of amazing books and just trying to get through all of it will take some time. What books on this list are you excited to read? Let us know in the comments below. Happy reading!

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