Arina’s Top 10 Reads of 2025

The Door on the Sea by Caskey Russell

Caskey Russell debuted his first novel last year with The Door on the Sea, an epic fantasy travel-quest where Elān, a young man from the Eagle Clan, sets off on a coming-of-age traditional journey, inspired by Tlingit indigenous culture.

In the modus operandi of classic fantasy, Elān not left unaccompanied; with him on this journey are an elder and another “initiate” from his land, a woman from an allied clan, a Wolf-clan chief, and a Bear-clan chief (the Wolf-clan chief being an actual wolf).

He’s also joined by Raven, an insulting yet nevertheless extremely knowledgeable and respected member of this culture, even when Elān doesn’t hesitate to let him have a piece of his mind every time he missteps with either his harsh words or his loose butt (yes, bird pooping is aplenty in this book).

Elān and his team have a goal: to find and bring back a weapon Raven saw the warmongering Koosh lose to the sea, and with this, bring back the hope of finally balacing the scales between his people and these strange colonizers from (literally) another world.

The world of The Door on the Sea is so fascinating and fresh, the entire book feels like classic fantasy re-imagined with an inventive eye; the characters are complex, the narrative deeply invests you in the outcome for these people you have come to care about and the underlying mystery of who exactly the Koosh are is, surprisingly satisfyingly (as I’m one of those readers who loves to get -almost- all the answers) both quenched and left unanswered for the next installments in the series, leaving room for the reader to wonder and thirst until the next book (which, I’m hoping and I’ve heard, should come out this year).

I’ll definitely be standing in the front lines to get the first glance.

An epic quest fantasy debut that is the Tlingit indigenous response to The Lord of the Rings

When Elān trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold the key to saving his people from the shapeshifting Koosh invaders plaguing their shores. In exchange for its freedom, the raven offers a secret that can save Elān’s home: the Koosh have lost one of their most powerful weapons, and only the raven knows where it is.

Elān is tasked with captaining a canoe crewed by an unlikely team including a human bear-cousin, a massive wolf, and the endlessly vulgar raven. To retrieve the weapon, they will face stormy seas, cannibal giants and a changing world. But Elān is a storyteller, not a warrior.

As their world continues to fall to the Koosh, and alliances are challenged and broken, Elān must choose his role in his own epic story.

Miasma by Jess Hyslop

Miasma is a short book, part of the novella series by Luna Press, called Luna Novella. It tells the story of Nereus, a young boy who lives in a toxic swamp with his mother and who one day finds his life and truth upended by the arrival of a stranger.

Toxic fog that can either turn someone into a bloodthirsty zombie or gift them with magical abilities and lizard-riding knights are only a few of the worldbuilding elements in this book that inspired this sense of wonder and curiosity for the wider world so masterfully hinted at in its short pages.

This is one of the most unique novellas I’ve ever read and a true testament to the power of the short story.

Living alone with his mother on the edge of an ever-encroaching swamp teeming with toxic magic, young Nereus Vestryn has grown up hearing stories about the feral people the ‘miasma’ has infected.

So when one morning he finds his mother crawling sickened from the swamp, he has no choice but to summon a mage to help her.

But mages are feared figures, reminders of the ways the swamp can twist people, and her arrival has greater repercussions than Nereus bargained for.

As long-held family secrets are uncovered and an unexpected threat arrives on the doorstep, Nereus must ask himself: what really makes a monster?

Priest of Lies by Peter McLean

Timy bullied me into reading this one asap but honestly I am not even mad. I liked Priest of Bones (and Billy the most), but I loved Priest of Lies. McLean shows us the excitement of keeping up with a series that slowly build up on both world and characters, widening the world and introducing new discussions such as class disparities, and the ways war ravages men and land, long after its end.

Billy also gets some serious character development in this book, which I loved to see! McLean clearly is immune to 2nd book syndrome, because Priest of Lies not only builds on its predecessor— it surpasses it.

Tomas Piety has been many soldier, priest, gangster…and spy. As Tomas’s power grows, the nobility better watch their backs, in this dark and gritty epic fantasy series.

People are weak, and the poorer and more oppressed they are, the weaker they become–until they can’t take it anymore. And when  they rise up…may the gods help their oppressors.

When Tomas Piety returned from the war, he just wanted to rebuild his empire of crime with his gang of Pious Men. But his past as a spy for the Queen’s Men drew him back in and brought him more power than he ever imagined.

Now, with half of his city in ashes and the Queen’s Men at his back, the webs of political intrigue stretch out from the capital to pull Tomas in. Dannsburg is calling.

In Dannsburg the nobility fight with words, not blades, but the results are every bit as bloody. In this pit of beasts, Tomas must decide once and for all whether he is truly the people’s champion…or just a priest of lies.

Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey

I picked up this book from Libby entirely at random; I don’t read much non-fiction (both because I’m more of a genre reader and because most non-fiction I’ve tried is either suspiciously biased or entirely boring) and I wanted to fix that.

I knew John Grisham, obviously, from his infamy in the legal thriller genre, and Jim McCloskey was a stranger, but a quick google search will tell you that he founded Centurion Ministries and dedicated his life to exonerating wrongfully convicted people.

I was excited to read the perspective of these two narrators: one a truth-seeker who had extensive firsthand experience with the fatal flaws in what I, reluctantly, will call a system (a system, I believe, should imply something that works), and the other a former criminal law attorney and probably the most prolific author in the legal thriller genre in modernity.

This would ground the book in reality, in experience and, most importantly, in understanding and empathy, instead of a “here are the facts you need to know to support my theory”. And, I suppose (having no previous experience with his work) Grisham’s authorial hand played its part in making the recount of each of the cases

But I was not truly prepared for the horror described in these 10 cases.

If not for The Reformatory, this would have been my favorite book of the year. I cannot recommend this enough and I strongly urge everyone to read this book at least once.

Ten harrowing true stories of wrongful convictions. Impeccably researched and grippingly told, Framed offers an inside look at the injustice faced by the victims of the United States criminal justice system.

A fundamental principle of our legal system is a presumption of innocence, but once someone has been found guilty there is very little room to prove doubt. Framed shares ten true stories of men who were innocent but found guilty and forced to sacrifice friends, families, wives, and decades of their lives to prison while the guilty parties remained free. In each of the stories, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey recount the dramatic hard-fought battles for exoneration. They take a close look at what leads to wrongful convictions in the first place, and the racism, misconduct, flawed testimony, and the corrupt court system that can make them so hard to reverse.

Told with page-turning suspense as only John Grisham can deliver, Framed is the story of overcoming adversity when the battle already seems lost, and the deck is stacked against you.

Thralls of a Tyrant God by Mars G. Everson

This book was a surprise favorite and an entirely impulsive read. Well, all my reads are impulsive, but I picked up Thralls of a Tyrant God on a whim; I believe the first book was discounted on one of those usual big fantasy bundle sales and I snatched it up because the cover was cool. The story within proved just as catching.

The basis of Thralls is the power of ideas, or concepts, and the way they can grant gods either physical shape or eternal oblivion. See, a god doesn’t exactly represent a being to be believed or worshiped, rather, concepts like greed, tyranny, truth, when enforced or widespread enough, can then embody these gods in physical form. This is explored in such fascinating ways in this grimdark revenge story that it set out the book for me.

It’s dark, brutal but so cleverly fleshed out that I can’t wait to read the next installments in the series.

A Dark Fantasy Epic, The God Engine trilogy is the start of a unique and exciting universe, perfect for fans of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere and Steven Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

What would you sacrifice to be free?

For Senn, former slave turned rebel leader and now the powerful Herald of the Lord of Greed, the answer was everything. He thought he had left hope behind forever. But when a ghostly child with sparkling blue eyes appears to him, Senn’s loyalty is tested. His own God and army turn against him, forcing him to flee into the harsh desert wasteland alone and powerless.

But as he searches for revenge and a new source of power, he must confront his past, including the woman he left behind at the mercy of the Forever King and his Chainkeepers. A new path that may lead him to Hope, even if he’s not yet ready to embrace it.

Will Senn find redemption and a new purpose, or will he fall to the forces that seek to destroy him and turn all of humanity into thralls?

Misery by Stephen King

My sister is a huge Stephen King fan, so this year, while visiting her for nearly a month, my curiosity for these fabled, awe-inspiring stories and writing finally got the better of me and had me picking up what is likely the author’s most influential work (of which he has many, so this may be a preposterous claim).

And by god, it was perfect. A 5/5, a “no notes”, the embodiment of everything a psychological thriller should be, nay, a book should be! Characters, ideas, complexity, tension, mystery, misery, ah, this book truly had it all, and the writing and the care within it are footprints of a true master.

And yes, I know the depiction of disability here is a topic of great dissension, but I truly read so much nuance in it and saw it for a melancholic discussion on abandonment and neglect. In fact, one of the most memorable moments of the book is when Paul is wondering this very thing, as he gazes at Annie and imagines the woman she could have been. Whether this is an implication of Stockholm Syndrome or a nudge for something else is in the eye of the beholder, and that’s also one of the most interesting things about this book.

Most of all, through the horror and the pain, this book is in truth a very honest criticism of the relationship and expectations between author and editor, author and reader, and reader and book. It’s truly a fantastic story for anyone who enjoys reading and a fascinating opportunity for self-assessment.

If you’re someone that shies away from super popular books, I cannot stress enough how much this one is worth your time and your wonder.

One of the true classics of psychological suspense, about a writer and his No. 1 fan, now with a stunning new cover look.

Paul Sheldon used to write for a living. Now he’s writing to stay alive.

Misery Chastain is dead. Paul Sheldon has just killed her – with relief, with joy. Misery made him rich; she was the heroine of a string of bestsellers. And now he wants to get on to some real writing.

That’s when the car accident happens, and he wakes up splinted and in pain, in the remote mountain home of his rescuer, Annie Wilkes.

The good news is that Annie was a nurse and has pain-killing drugs. The bad news is that she has long been Paul’s Number One Fan. And when she finds out what Paul has done to Misery, she doesn’t like it. She doesn’t like it at all . . .

The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

M.L. Wang‘s The Sword of Kaigen is a SPFBO champion, a self-publishing darling, and, I don’t think it’s unfair to say, the book that got Wang on the traditional publishing market (as in, it garnered an insane amount of online attention all by Wang‘s—and her readership’s— efforts, not as in self-publishing being merely a stepping stone). But my first encounter with it was during last year’s SPFBO: the Champions League. I hadn’t ever read The Sword of Kaigen and I probably would not have picked it up so soon had it not been for the competition.

What a fucking fool I was.

Do I think the book is perfect? Nearly. Yes, this “nearly” gnaws at my insides: there are many plot points left to the wind, most of them even raised at the end of the book to lead absolutely nowhere (considering Wang has announced this as a standalone). I’m one of those readers that doesn’t need all the answers, in fact, a good open-ending is my favorite kind of ending, but The Sword of Kaigen stretches the concept until it just becomes a book that seems like it’ll have a sequel but it’s lying.

Furthermore, much of the book also veers off into a secondary storyline set in the past which drastically changes the dramatic, immersive tone of the main story and ends up intersecting it with this sort of coming-of-age teenage flick, rife with unrealistic imagery (teenagers as untouchable superheroes who kick hardened criminals’ ass is probably my least favorite trope in a story, sorry).

HOWEVER.

The main storyline of this book. By god, the main storyline and the narrative that comes with it.

Wang truly shines here; her writing carves out emotion without mercy, her world is recognizable yet oh so rich, mainly because of how it is such an intrinsic part of her characters. Her character work is an art form; they are alive, they laugh, they bleed, they feel and you with them. Wang uses the political tensions between China and Japan to tell a truly beautiful story in a Japanese-inspired setting, where one holds to tradition while fighting to build a new place within it, where one is proud, not, ultimately, for a country but for a strength of community and self.

There is so much pain in these pages but what’s really incredible about this book is how Wang manages to turn that pain into something beautiful; something complex and fully-realized, something you can think about, and question, and theorize on, long after you’ve finished the book.

I’m doing that right now and it’s beautiful.

A mother struggling to repress her violent past,
A son struggling to grasp his violent future,
A father blind to the danger that threatens them all.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies even reach their shores?

High on a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire’s enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name ‘The Sword of Kaigen.’

Born into Kusanagi’s legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: to master his family’s fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen’s alleged age of peace, Mamoru realizes that he might not have much time to become the fighter he was bred to be. Worse, the empire he was bred to defend may stand on a foundation of lies.

Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her growing son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of an impending invasion looming across the sea, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.

The Silverblood Promise by James Logan

I was fortunate enough to win The Silverblood Promise on a giveaway Logan himself did on Bluesky.

The giveaway was two-book bundle, put together with his wife E.J. Swift, featuring both Silverblood and The Coral Bones, Swift’s cli-fi novel. Swift and Logan dedicated each of these books to one another. Don’t ask me why this tidbit of information is relevant, but I found this so sweet that I jumped in on the giveaway to explore both their writing.

Sometimes the reasons our curiosity is spiked is nonsensical like that, but it can lead to wonderful journeys.

I intended to work through my tbr a bit more before reading any of these novels, but then an opportunity to review Silverblood‘s sequel, The Blackfire Blade, came around and Lukan Gardovan skipped the line, rogue lil bastard (affectionate) he is. Fate was kind, I loved this book to death.

The Silverblood Promise is a clear ode to old-school fantasy, with all its wonders, machinations, and skillful work of emotional resonance in both world and character while discussing, as fantasy does, contemporary preocupations. The world Lukan takes us through is vast, complex, peppered with the ancient and a joy to explore. Lukan is a fascinating character and his chaotic gravity pulls in a compelling cast of characters and events.

These books are so much fun and a must-read for anyone craving the excitement that a truly well put-up fantasy book can give.

Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and―thanks to a duel that ended badly―the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away.

When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father’s death.

His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin. Lukan only seeks the truth, but instead he finds danger and secrets in every shadow.

For in Saphrona, everything has a price―and the price of truth is the deadliest of all.

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

The Reformatory was Phil William’s suggestion for the 12 friends 12 books challenge, and my favorite book of the year. In fact, it is now one of the best books I have ever read, and an immediate recommendation for anyone looking for a good horror novel.

I had heard of Tananarive Due, of course, as the author is nothing short of the legend in the horror genre. But as usual, my stupidity only allows me to pick up masterpieces after someone has pointed them out to me.

Due’s blends and blurs the genres of historical fiction and horror, by telling the story (fictional in the sense of characters but very much real in the historical sense) of Robert, a young Black boy who is sent to a reform school as punishment for defending his sister from a white boy.

Gracetown School for Boys is based on real reform schools spread through America, where children (poor, and mostly Black) were abused under the guise and supervision of government officials. Robbie himself is Due’s dedication to her great-uncle, who was imprisoned in such a place. For prisons are what they are, and Due spares no detail unveiling the horrors the children sent to these places were submitted to.

Due also masterfully explores the haunting consequences of complacency through other characters, and the ways hate is institutionally imprinted in America, particularly the South.

It’s a dark, heavy book, written with such heart and soul that each character and horrific moment jumps out from the page.

Set in Jim Crow Florida, follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.

Gracetown, Florida

June 1950

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.