I’ve always said that reading books and collecting them are two separate hobbies. This year, I bought far more books than I could count, but read one-hundred. I love a good, round number. Don’t you? Anyway, here are my 2025 reads, with quickie reviews…
🖤 Be Nice by TM Lunn
Quick, festive, and fucked up!
🖤 DIY Exorcism by David Washburn
Terrifying in a wholly different way. The ending ripped my heart out.
🖤 The Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead
Yes! Yes! Yes! I LOVED this.
🖤 American Rapture by CJ Leede
I think Leede is the only author I could ever forgive for THAT SCENE. This book is EVERYTHING.
🖤 Awake in the Night by Shauna Mc Eleney
Spooky, sinister, and heart-wrenching. A proper ghost story.
🖤 Memorials by Richard Chizmar
Feverously exciting! Blair Witch on steroids.
🖤 The Root Witch by Debra Castaneda
Castaneda’s signature style of slow, creeping horror written in her signature beautiful style.
🖤 Arsenic and Grandma’s Refrigerator by Jordan Triplett
Triplett presents an exceptional anthology of stories based around the theme of colours. Each author’s voice is celebrated.
🖤 Newsletter Ninja & Newsletter Ninja 2 by Tammi Labrecque
This made me start a newsletter. A blessing and a curse!
🖤 The Vile Thing We Created by Robert P Ottone
Uncomfortable. Mind-fucky. Absolutely wonderful. I felt this book in my soul.
🖤 The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
Much better than the first book in the series. Frustrating, but in a good way.
🖤 Serenade by Stephen Mizell
Creepy, brutal, and surreal. It lulls you into a sense of security and then *BAM*.
🖤 Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Quiet, sinister, unnerving. I genuinely didn’t want to stop reading this book. The audio version is PERFECTION.
🖤 Cult Following by JW Ocker
Witty, funny, shocking. A whistle-stop tour through cults you know and ‘love’, and some you don’t.
🖤 Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling
This book will have you saying ‘WTF’ over and over again.
🖤 The Elephant in the Room by Jon Ronson
Kinda sad, kinda scary, kinda ‘is this real life?’.
🖤 Pleasant Shade by Brad Thomas
If you like The Descent and The Hills Have Eyes, check this one out.
🖤 Salvation Day by Kali Wallace
Cults in space? Yes please!
March
🖤 Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers
Satirical, literary thriller. Such a fun take. Lots to think about.
🖤 Dark Tide 20 – Crystal Lake Pub – Leigh Kenny, Dan Franklin, and Nick Roberts.
These novellas will stay with you long after you’ve read them.
🖤 Frostbite by Angela Sylvaine
A fun, quirky read. All the nostalgia. All the B-movie vibes. I had such a great time with this book.
🖤 Ankle Snatcher by Grady Hendrix
I am a huge fan of Hendrix. This novelette packed a punch.
🖤 Sacculina by Philip Fracassi
Terrifying, claustrophobic, and full of heart.
🖤 The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy
The horrors of being a 50s housewife in America, with a supernatural twist.
🖤 In Bloom by Paul Tremblay
A creepy take on something that has no right being creepy. An awesome novelette.
🖤 Romeo: The Story of Roman Moreau by Lisa Hutchinson
story of loneliness and the desire to be loved. So what if Clara’s new suitor is undead?
🖤 Night Watching by Tracy Sierra
I could have read this in one sitting. I LOVED this book. A masterclass in thrillers.
🖤 The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
One of those ‘classics’ I always put off reading. I shouldn’t have. This book had me freaked out.
The last two books, I read as research for my next novel.
🖤 We Should All Be Feminists by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie
Adapted from a Ted Talk, this book gave great perspectives into Adichie’s experience.
🖤 The Grumpy Guide to Radical Feminism by Andreia Nobre
I can’t recommend this book in the slightest. It started off okay, and then the TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism) logic started creeping in. Bigoted, disappointing, and entirely anti-feminist.
🖤 Motel Styx by Michelle Von Eschen and Jonathan Butcher
Devilishly hilarious, beautifully written, laugh out loud funny, and so so gross. I loved every second of it!
🖤 Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy V Snyder
In the best way possible, what the fuck did I just read?!
🖤 Pink Neon by Megan Stockton
My brawl-mate, and what an awesome brawl-mate to have! A quick, heart-wrenching, gory read. As usual, Stockton broke my heart.
🖤 Missed Connection by Michael Laimo
Quick, witty and fast-paced. I couldn’t give a sh*t which characters got a happy ending, but I NEEDED to know what happened to them.
🖤 Clown World by Jamie Tahsin and Matt Shea
A really interesting, terrifying, and at times humorous take on the manosphere and Andrew Tate.
🖤 The Return by Rachel Harrison
Deeply flawed, realistic characters, a fast-paced plot, and an ending that leaves your jaw on the floor.
🖤 Seven Rabbits by Timothy King
Seven Rabbits epitomises ‘horror with heart’, which is rare for a slasher. Expertly written!
🖤 Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates
Horror of a different variety. It is terrifying to see how easily vulnerable young men get sucked into something nefarious.
🖤 Theme Music by T Marie Vendelly
A fun take on the final girl trope. I loved this book.
🖤 The Haunted by Bentley Little
A masterclass of horror.
🖤 Usher of the Fallen by LM Kaplin
Cults? Gods? Reporters who’ll stop at nothing to get a story? Usher of the Fallen has it all. What more could a gal ask for?
🖤 The Terror of Willow Falls by Jay Bower
Dark, twisty, and kept me interested to the last page. At times graphic, at times creepy, and always engaging.
🖤 The Fovea Experiments by MJ Mars
The Ring meets Final Destination in this non-stop thrill-ride.
🖤 Home by Ben Young
Home is – at its heart – a story of human mortality, under the guise of horror. It reads like a Goosebumps book for adults.
🖤The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
Wholly believable, incredibly relevant. A must-read.
🖤 Dead Rabbit by Joseph Murnane
A unique take on both human, and inhuman monsters.
🖤 My Name Isn’t Paul by Drew Huff
An LSD-induced fever dream from start to finish. So unique, so clever, and really bloody fun!
🖤 WILLIAM by Mason Coile
Sci-fi horror at its finest.
🖤 Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
Wow! Just wow. An investigation into the alt-right/conspiracy theory pipeline.
🖤 Bless Your Heart & Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan
Sookie Stackhouse with less sex and more horror. Perfection!
🖤 It Eats Your Hunger by Joseph Murnane
Heart-breaking, creepy, and touches on incredibly important, real-life horrors.
🖤 Air Conditioned Nightmare by David K Slater
A tongue-in-cheek, bordering on satirical, mastermind of a horror novel.
🖤 Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
A classic for a reason.
❤ Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
If, like me, you’re a lover of YA books but you’re looking for books with more grit and gore, this is the book for you.
❤ Swish by Tom Carter
PURE NOSTALGIA.
Perfect for fans of Hush, Vampire Academy, The Hunger Games. Reminiscent of old-school YA fiction.
❤ You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
An absolute mind-fuck. Fan of House of Leaves, but want something with an easier format, look no further.
❤ Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle
Who would have thought that a horror book based around statistics could be so fun?!
❤ The Bloodless Queen by Joshua Phillip Johnson
Magical prose, enchanting plot, endearing characters.
❤ Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer
Fun, queer, culty horrorness.
❤ In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
I fell in love with this book. It was beautifully written, thoughtful, hard AF sci-fi. Pure literary fiction (which I tend to avoid, but was drawn to this one). This book is perfection.
🖤 Crulus by Llrac Nodbe
Reminiscent of 80s old-school horror. Unapologetically Welsh. Unapologetically brutal. Unapologetically heart breaking.
🖤 The Cellar by Richard Laymon
Weird AF.
🖤 I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Beautifully written. A must read for 90s kids.
🖤 Secret Lives of the Dead by Tim Lebbon
Adventure horror with a supernatural edge.
🖤 Unnatural Causes by Dr Richard Shepherd
Intriguing peak behind the curtain of pathologists.
🖤 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
‘Dead’ interesting! – See what I did there?
🖤 The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
Absolute perfection.
🖤 Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
10000% a must-read book. Beautifully written, a storyline that is both painfully stark and all-consuming, and important political commentary.
🖤 Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
A fun, funky, fresh take on the haunted house trope.
🖤 What We Fear Most by Dr Ben Cave
Full of heart, humour, and crazy (pun intended) stories.
🖤 The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw
A poetic, bizarre, fever dream.
🖤 Hey, Hun by Emily Lynn Paulson
An interesting account of life in an MLM. If you have friends currently in the MLM pipeline, shoot this one their way.
🖤 Bad Date by Ellery Lloyd
A quick, pacey thriller.
🖤 Soul Mirror by Edmund Stone
Devastating. Haunting. A unique, spooky book, with beautifully approached autism rep.
🖤 Entity by Justin Boote
Boote is a master at creating desperate, heart breaking situations, and characters you care for deeply. The complete loss of control the characters feel is palpable, visceral, and all consuming.
🖤 The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Long. Long. Long. Beautifully written, but so long!
🖤 Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer
Schaefer takes hold of the narrative Trad Wives are trying to push and rips it to shreds in this mile-a-minute, weird AF novel. Ideal for fans of Delicate Condition and Rosemary’s Baby.
🖤 1984 by George Orwell
A classic for a reason. We all know why I chose to revisit this now, right?
🖤 Going Mainstream by Julia Ebner
Terrifying. Thought-provoking. Actionable. Highly recommend.
🖤 Cold Eternity by SA Barnes
SA Barnes has never once disappointed me. The absolute QUEEN of Space Horror!
🖤 The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
Perfect, historical horror.
🖤 Morbidly Curious by Coltan Scrivner
A must-read for any horror lover, or friend of a horror lover. Being morbid isn’t weird, guys! Funny, intelligent, and comforting.
🖤 Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Ahhhh! I loved this so much. Beyond frustrating, sad, but also strangely optimistic.
🖤 Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang
Weird AF. I’m so here for it!
🖤 The Terror by Dan Simmons
At a whopping 930 pages, this took me most of the month to read. Don’t let the size (or time investment) put you off. This is a MUST READ.
🖤 Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Guiffre
This book broke my heart. It’s incredibly powerful, especially in light of the author’s suicide. Nobody should have to write a book like this, but everyone should have to read it.
🖤 Boys with Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell
Boys with Sharp Teeth oozes delicious dark academia.
🖤 The Indigo Room by Stephen Graham Jones
A short story that packs a punch! Jones’s signature no-nonsense style filled me with existential dread.
🖤 Ushers by Joe Hill
I loved the writing style, but I think I loved the characterisation more. In such a short story, I genuinely felt invested.
🖤 Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
Intricate, thought-provoking, and agonisingly human.
🖤 All That Remains by Sue Black
A humorous, life-affirming take on death.
🖤 Thin Air by Michelle Paver
This felt like a campfire ghost story. Perfect for cold, snowy nights.
🖤 What Lies Unseen by S.E. Howard
Howard has created an intensely human story of grief, desperation, and horror. With thriller-worthy twists, frustratingly real characters, and sinister as hell scenes, What Lies Unseen promises to live on in your mind long after you’ve finished reading.
🖤 Year of the Rat by Harry Shukman
Shukman has a great way of acknowledging the monstrous beliefs and actions of the Far Right, while also approaching the participants with understanding and dignity.
🖤 Last Days by Adam Nevil
Cults, found footage, paranormal entities? Hell yeah!
🖤 Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
Mind-blowing!
🖤 There Is No Antimemetics Division by Qntm
I have no idea what I just read, but I LOVED it.
I’ve toyed with the idea of doing a Top Ten or Top Twenty list, but I’m not sure I’d be able to manage it! What do you think? Would you like me to try?
Sarah Jules Writing 
Leave a comment