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This Month’s Best New Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Which of 2025’s biggest sci-fi and fantasy books deserve a spot on your reading list? Here are the 10 buzziest releases speculative fiction fans shouldn’t miss.
 
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Book cover for The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
A stunning Read with Jenna pick with ‘one of the best high-concept hooks of the year’ (Esquire)
WHY IT’S READWORTHY:
  • A woman’s dreams land her in a frightening facility in this example of speculative fiction at its “brilliant” best (Ann Patchett)
  • Longlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize, and penned by a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–nominated author
  • Gives a glimpse into a near-future that’s “gripping, Kafkaesque” (Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad)
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Media mentions for The Dream Hotel by Laila LalamiMEDIA MENTIONS:TODAY Book Club/Read with Jenna, Time Magazine, The New York Times/The New York Times Book Review, New Scientist, Roxane Gay's Audacious Book Club, The Atlantic, People, The Economist, The Washington Post, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Vulture, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Boston Globe, Library Reads, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Booklist, Electric Literature, Literary Hub
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AmazonOther formats and retailers
Book cover for Silver Elite by Dani Francis
This high-octane series starter is a certified BookTok hit!
WHY IT’S READWORTHY:
  • Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games, this instant New York Times bestseller is “dystopian romance at its absolute best” (Town & Country)
  • Decades after an earth-shattering war, Wren is conscripted into an elite force — where hiding her powerful abilities puts her life at risk
  • “I need the next book in the series injected into my vein right now,” says Ali Hazelwood
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Media mentions for Silver Elite by Dani FrancisMEDIA MENTIONS:Book of the Month, The New York Times/The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Town & Country, Paste, Smart Bitches Trashy Books, Reactor, Library Reads, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal
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AmazonOther formats and retailers
Book cover for The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
The time-bending masterpiece on every major reading list this year
WHY IT’S READWORTHY:
  • At The Sea — where time and space have no bearing — Lina and her father meet fellow displaced migrants from across centuries
  • Like “Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, Thien’s new work almost seamlessly integrates literary, historical, and science fiction” (Los Angeles Times)
  • Expect to see this “inventive and ambitious” work (The Boston Globe) on 2025 award ballots
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Media mentions for The Book of Records by Madeleine ThienMEDIA MENTIONS:Time Magazine, NPR, The New York Times/The New York Times Book Review, New Scientist, The Atlantic, People, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Esquire, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, Reactor, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, BookPage, Electric Literature, Literary Hub
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AmazonOther formats and retailers
Book cover for Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
This explosive return to the world of The Hunger Games is coming to the big screen
WHY IT’S READWORTHY:
  • Everyone is buzzing about this long-awaited dystopian in one of the all-time biggest science fiction series
  • It’s the 50th annual Hunger Games, and District 12 tribute Haymitch Abernathy is determined to shock the world
  • Take it from Stephen King: “I couldn’t stop reading”
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Media mentions for Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne CollinsMEDIA MENTIONS:NPR, TODAY Show, Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, The New York Times/The New York Times Book Review, Locus, People, Associated Press, USA Today, Slate, Elle, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Vulture, Forbes, Parade, The Guardian, New York Post, Rolling Stone, Variety, Reactor, BookPage
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AmazonOther formats and retailers
Book cover for Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Two stranded researchers realize a seemingly uninhabitable moon is teeming with strange life
WHY IT’S READWORTHY:
  • A propulsive deep space adventure from the modern master behind Children of Time
  • “Bizarre ecologies, nonhuman intelligences, and the genius of everyday people — this is the quintessential Tchaikovsky novel” (Library Journal)
  • First-contact sci-fi at its best, with complex concepts and inventive extraterrestrial worlds
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Media mentions for Shroud by Adrian TchaikovskyMEDIA MENTIONS:Locus, New Scientist, Reactor, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal
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AmazonOther formats and retailers
Book cover for Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
An ‘irresistible,’ genre-bending #1 New York Times bestseller (Booklist)
WHY IT’S READWORTHY:
  • In 1532 Santo Domingo, 1827 London, and 2019 Boston, three women’s lives intertwine as they face immortality
  • One of 2025’s most anticipated books according to USA Today, Goodreads, and more
  • From the author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
  • In a starred review, Library Journal raves, “Schwab’s haunting prose and character-driven plot will keep readers up until the very last page”
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Media mentions for Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. SchwabMEDIA MENTIONS:Book of the Month, TODAY Show, The New York Times/The New York Times Book Review, Locus, People, The Washington Post, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, Paste, Variety, Reactor, Indie Next List, Library Reads, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Booklist, BookPage
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AmazonOther formats and retailers
Book cover for When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
Chaos ensues when the moon turns to cheese in the latest from a Hugo Award–winning legend
WHY IT’S READWORTHY:
  • “The most entertaining, accessible writer working in SF today” (Joe Hill) delivers an instant USA Today bestseller
  • As ordinary humans wrestle with the impossible, a cheesy new development threatens the apocalypse
  • “Chock-full of Scalzi’s trademark humor… [Readers] are going to be rolling on the floor laughing out loud” (Library Journal)
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Media mentions for When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John ScalziMEDIA MENTIONS:Locus, New Scientist, The Guardian, Smart Bitches Trashy Books, Reactor, Indie Next List, Library Reads, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Booklist, BookPage
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Book cover for Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
An instant New York Times bestseller and ‘devilishly good time’ (People)
WHY IT’S READWORTHY:
  • A group of vulnerable teenage girls who meet at Wellwood House finally get a taste of power when they come across a book about witchcraft… but what will it cost them?
  • Imagine Rosemary’s Baby set in 1970s Florida
  • “There’s spells, there’s witches, and then there’s the magic Grady Hendrix conjures up in this amazing novel” (Stephen Graham Jones)
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Media mentions for Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady HendrixMEDIA MENTIONS:NPR, The New York Times/The New York Times Book Review, Locus, People, The Washington Post, USA Today, Town & Country, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, Paste, Variety, Smart Bitches Trashy Books, Indie Next List, Library Reads, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, Literary Hub
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AmazonOther formats and retailers
Book cover for The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia