My Top 10 Fiction Books of 2025

My Top 10 Fiction Books of 2025

Saturday, 17 January 2026

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In 2025 I read 69 books (I can hear your giggles from here), 50 of which were fiction. Usually I’ve tended to read more equal amounts of fiction vs non-fiction but clearly I just wanted to be told stories last year! I didn’t end up sharing my favourite books of 2024 last year and wanted to make sure I shared my 2025 faves this year. I revisited several favourites, including two re-reads of The Hunger Games main trilogy and listening to audiobooks of The Chronicles of Narnia. I haven’t included any re-reads in this list though, as they would have likely been featured before! So, here are my top 10 fiction books of 2025. I would love to hear your thoughts on these books if you’ve read them and any of your recommendations for what I should read in 2026! (Apart from numbers one and two, these are in no particular order!)

Affiliate links are marked with *. If you buy a book through this link, as well as supporting independent bookshops, I receive a 10% commission. 

1. The Safekeep* by Yael van der Wouden

I have not stopped banging on about this book since I read it in May. While I don’t normally do these lists in order, The Safekeep is my favourite book of 2025. It blew me out of the water. The characters were fascinatingly created, the story engrossing and the themes so important and relevant. I was not expecting the big twist, it truly shocked me and opened up the story to new layers and complications. Set in post-war Netherlands, we follow Isabel (Isa) who lives alone in her rural family home, when her brother asks if his girlfriend Eva can move in with her over the summer. The Safekeep’s critical and commercial success is well deserved in my opinion, and I am still in awe that this is a debut novel. I can’t wait to see what Yael van der Wouden does next! 

2. Black Butterflies* by Priscilla Morris

This book made me gasp out loud on the Metro. That, I feel, is enough review. Set in Sarajevo in 1992, Black Butterflies follows Zora, an artist and teacher, as the Bosnian War breaks out and her city is under siege. It is heartbreaking and beautiful. Morris does not shy away from showing the brutality of war whilst also portraying the moments of kindness, community and joy that can be found amongst the violence. It made me want to learn more about this war and the history of Sarajevo and I look forward to reading Priscilla Morris’ future work.

3. Small Things Like These* by Claire Keegan

Small Things Like These was the first book I read in 2025. I actually read it in one sitting on the evening of New Year’s Day, and wow it got my reading year off to a good start. At 116 pages, this book is a firecracker. Claire Keegan really knows how to pack a punch in a small container. A look at Ireland in the 1980s, the Magdalen laundries and mother and baby homes, this novella takes a look at the every day small acts of kindness, of empathy and understanding, and questions how harm and maltreatment become normalised in society, and how you speak out against injustice when it is so entrenched in day to day life. I am in awe of Claire Keegan and will pick up anything she has written. 

4. The Rachel Incident* by Caroline O’Donoghue

I had heard so much about this book that I wasn’t sure if it would live up to the hype but I loved it. The characters were so complicated, it was so messy and dramatic, and at times quite heartbreaking. A coming of age story set in Cork, it shows questionable power dynamics, early unhealthy relationships, reproductive justice, friendships… I could go on. 

5. Lover Birds* by Leon Egan

Lover Birds is a gloriously queer and Northern romcom. I listened to the audiobook on a train back from visiting friends in Leeds and couldn't turn it off as I went about the rest of my evening, so ended up finishing it in one day. It was so joyful and the characters so genuine I could easily believe they were walking around the streets of Liverpool. It was such a well written love story that celebrated and explored queerness, neurodivergence, and Scouse culture. I’m so glad that Leon Egan is writing novels and that young people have them to read. 

6. Whale Fall* by Elizabeth O’Connor

You know when you hear about a book and you suddenly see it everywhere? That’s what happened with me and Whale Fall. It was following me wherever I went so I had to read it. I have been making an effort this year to read more books, fiction and non-fiction, by Welsh authors and set in or about Wales, and early on in the year this fit the bill with the setting of a remote island on the coast of Wales. Whale Fall follows 18-year-old Manod, when, in 1938, a whale is beached on the island and two English anthropologists arrive to survey the island’s small population. It is another debut that has made it to this list! This was also the first time I’d read a novel where the main character speaks Welsh as their first language, and that felt very special.

7. Drift* by Caryl Lewis

Another Welsh novel! This was Caryl Lewis’ debut English language novel, with the rest published in Welsh. Set in a remote village on the Welsh coast, Nefyn rarely leaves the isolated cottage where she lives on the cliffs with her brother Joseph, who often works away further north. Hamza, a Syrian mapmaker, is incarcerated in the nearby military base. Their lives soon become intertwined. I have seen Drift described as haunting and that feels accurate to me. All of the characters felt so thought out and well-rounded and the connection to the natural landscape and flickers of the supernatural brought together two realms into one and hint at further magic beyond our knowledge.

8. Dawn* (and the rest of the Lilith’s Brood series) by Octavia Butler

I have never read anything like the Lilith’s Brood series before. I adore Octavia Butler, she is one of my favourite authors and one of my dream dinner party guests (along with Jane Austen and Rob Reiner). This trilogy was published between 1987-1989, and follows a potential future where the Cold War heated up and half the Earth had been destroyed due to nuclear war. In this potential future (that could have been a possibility at the time), an alien species called the Oankali come to Earth and rescue the few survivors, including the protagonist, Lilith, to hold them in stasis to both heal and study them. 250 years later, they wake Lilith up to task her with a very specific mission. I loved this series and would love more people I know to read it so I can discuss - come on people!

9. Sunrise on the Reaping* by Suzanne Collins

I am a Hunger Games obsessive, and have been since I was about 13. That is not news to anyone who knows me or even anyone who follows me on Instagram! I went to the midnight launch of Sunrise on the Reading at my local Waterstones and had so much fun celebrating a series and author we love together. This prequel added so much to an already brilliant series. The Hunger Games has influenced me a lot, in terms of who I am and my politics, and Sunrise only adds to those discussions about long term organising, revolution, and propaganda. I wrote some of my thoughts down in an Instagram post but I hope to expand on those at some point soon. I am also buzzing for the film, even if I know it will break me.

10. Against the Loveless World* by Susan Abulhawa

I read Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa last year and it blew me away. Against the Loveless World blew me away in a completely different way. The method of storytelling is so different and still so compelling, and demonstrates the brutality of apartheid and displacement. One review of this book highlights that it ‘reads as a riot act against oppression, misogyny, and shame’, and honestly that pretty much sums it up. Incarcerated in solitary confinement in an unknown location, Nahr is held as a ‘terrorist’. We are told her story in flashbacks and see glimmers of her current life in ‘the Cube’. I urge you to read this book.

Honourable Mentions

I thought I would share some more books that I really enjoyed this year that didn’t make it to the main list, but that I still wanted to celebrate, either for their craft or just for bringing me some joy. Those are:

The general works of Ali Hazelwood* - I have been particularly enjoying her STEMinist romcoms. 

Instructions for a Heatwave* by Maggie O’Farrell.

Boulder* by Eva Baltasar.

If Beale Street Could Talk* by James Baldwin

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past couple of years, it’s that I seem to have a particular love for Irish authors - Claire Keegan, Caroline O’Donoghue, Maggie O’Farrell, Graham Norton, Emma Dabiri and others. Clearly there’s something in the Irish waters that pleases me. Will that continue as a trend in 2026? We shall have to find out.

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Happy 10th Birthday Another Ranting Reader!

Happy 10th Birthday Another Ranting Reader!

Tuesday, 13 May 2025

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On 11th May 2015, I published my first blog post here on Another Ranting Reader.

 

A 15-year-old schoolgirl who had moved to England from Wales barely 8 months before. My confidence was knocked, I felt like the odd one out in most situations, especially at school, where I felt like an intruder in friendship groups, grappling to stay above water. I was quieter than I had been, gradually becoming out of my shell as the surrounding became more familiar – yet at the same time still heartbroken seeing my friends at home living life without me.

 

I was always a massive reader. I love writing and telling stories from a young age. It made me happy and writing stories about mermaids morphed into finding a purpose through storytelling. I wanted to write for a living, I think I still wanted to write fiction and crate my own narratives, to become a published novelist. Since then, those goals have changed somewhat, but very naturally.

 

I was frustrated by career advisors at school telling me that to be a writer I would only be able to write corporate copy, rather than have the freedom to express myself. I think it was after that, in my usual stubbornness that has only increased as I’ve got older, that I decided to start my blog. I wanted somewhere to share ideas, be creative, practise my craft and, maybe someday, earn a living from writing. And that I did.

 

I began determined to write regularly. And I mostly did. Sharing posts twice, sometimes three times a week. There wasn’t much cohesion in what I was writing for a while. My very first post was an article I’d written for an assignment in school, where we had to share an opinion in the style of a newspaper columnist like Caitlin Moran. I wrote about the books that influenced me, philosophical tangents my brain took me on, advice for other people moving fair distances.

 

Eventually, as I started learning more about feminism, climate, injustice and politics (much of which was sparked by the differences I was seeing around me compared to back home in Pembrokeshire – access to different resources, events, and opportunities based on increased funding and proximity to London), I began sharing my thoughts on political events and issues. The type of writing that would develop into my journalism and campaign writing. You can definitely see a lot of my political development throughout this blog.

 

I think that lonely 15-year-old would be in awe of the 25-year-old she has become. She wouldn’t believe that I am now a four-times Sunday Times published journalist, that I make my living from writing and telling stories (and even for correcting people’s grammar and spelling!). She wouldn’t believe that I’ve led rallies or marches or confronted oil bosses or even changed policy at a students’ union. She would probably be surprised that I lived so far up north. But I know that I would make her proud. I remember often wondering, wow what will I be like at X years old. What will I be like in my twenties?! I must have all my life together, own my own house, have a steady partner and a cat and know exactly what to say. But that’s not the case. And to be honest I don’t care about that (apart from the cat, I’ve lived with several as an adult but hopefully will be able to adopt my own soon, landlord willing…). I now have more steady work, where my skills as a communicator pay my rent and bills. I have a wonderful community around me – and further afield – of people I love and who love me and whom I trust and who trust me. I understand my OCD brain and my bisexuality a lot more than I did 10 years ago (I think I knew I had OCD then but wasn’t ready to admit it to myself.

 

As a much more confident 25-year-old who still doesn’t have her shit together, I still know that 15-year-old is in there somewhere. Every time I publish a new article she gives a cheer.

 

Another Ranting Reader was the first step of me stepping out of my comfort zone. Initially, it was pretty vulnerable. I thought it might give me more ridicule and make me stand out more than I already did as the random Welsh kid in the class. But it become a route for me to regain my confidence and find myself as a writer. It helped me developed my politics, my outlook and life, and ultimately, became a way for me to getting my first paid writing job 6 years later.

 

I can’t imagine what my life would be like without Another Ranting Reader. It’s so linked with everything I do now, even if I don’t publish very often here anymore. That quiet is for a good reason though, and the reason why I ultimately started this blog – I am busy writing elsewhere as part of my work.

 

So, here’s to 10 years of Another Ranting Reader, to celebrating ourselves and our non-traditional successes and milestones, and here’s to the 15-year-old Welsh girl who always felt like the odd one out. You’re not anymore.

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8 Book Recommendations from My Recent Reads

8 Book Recommendations from My Recent Reads

Friday, 26 July 2024

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2024 has been such a joyful reading year for me so far. I’ve read so many fun books but also some masterful ones. For some reason I read more than usual in June and had a great time with all the books I read. So, I thought I’d take some time to discuss them all here! I would love to hear your thoughts on these books if you’ve read them, and if you haven’t, some books you think I might like based on my thoughts on these. I've also added where I got these books to show the range of how you can access books. 

Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons – Borrowed from my local library

I saw Fair Rosaline on a library shelf while I was returning another book. At first, I thought it was the book that inspired the film Rosaline, a comedy which tells Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of Rosaline Capulet, Romeo’s first love and Juliet’s cousin. That turned out to be a different book, but Fair Rosaline follows a similar premise. However, instead of following a light-hearted romantic comedy route, Natasha Solomons highlights the darker side of the classic story that is often undiscussed by putting the predatory behaviour of men in the spotlight.

 

Having lost her mother to the plague and about to be sent to spend the rest of her days in a nunnery by her father, Rosaline is desperate and vulnerable. Looking for a taste of freedom, she attends a Montague party under cover and is quickly swept up by the charms of the older Romeo. After her honour is ‘ruined’, she discovers his ulterior motives and meets previous women he has harmed. She begins a quest to save her child cousin Juliet from him.

 

I became so quickly engrossed in Fair Rosaline. Solomons flips characters we all know so well on their head and prompts us to ask questions both of our society and the fictional ones we know from classic literature. I love retellings of classic tales, whether they be Shakespearean, Greek or Roman myths, or other historical tales. I think they’re so important for reclaiming marginalised stories through history and I think #MeToo and works like Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad has done a huge amount in this trend of classic story retellings. 

Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson – Borrowed from a friend.

I was staying at a friend’s house after coming back from Hay Festival so of course we had a bookish catch up. She told me about Neon Roses, which she had just bought but hadn’t read yet. As soon as she told me it was Welsh and gay I was desperate to read it. Beginning in the Dulais Valley at the centre of the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike, Neon Roses follows Eluned as she meets members of LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) as they visit her small town from London. During their visit Eluned realises a few things about herself…

 

Neon Roses was joyous, sexy, angry, and so loudly Welsh. I absolutely adored it. I’ve never read any queer Welsh fiction before, and as a queer Welsh young woman this novel felt so special. I cannot wait to see what Rachel Dawson does next.

 

(And Ems you will get your book back soon, I promise!)

Percy Jackson and the Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan – 1b Books, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I recently re-read the Percy Jackson series while on holiday at Hay Festival. I love this series and have since I was a kid. I remember reading the books with my brother and mum and still adore them now. Rick Riordan is a master of his craft and ignited a love of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology in a whole generation (including me!).

 

I was walking past my local bookshop when I saw this new Percy Jackson book in the window and did a double take. A NEW PERCY JACKSON BOOK?! Turns out I was pretty late to the party as it has already been out for a year. But better late than never! I read this so quickly. It was so fun to revisit characters I was first introduced to as a kid and hold a huge amount of affection for. The stakes were incredibly low in this book, but it was a joyous, nostalgic ride with old friends.

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa – Waterstones, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Mornings in Jenin took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Susan Abulhawa’s story follows one Palestinian family from before the Nakba to the 2000s across four generations. It is harrowing and shocking, do not get me wrong, but it is also so full of joy and love. The characters are beautifully written and fleshed out so that you feel you know them so well. You feel their pain, they joy, their determination and confusion. I had a little cry at several points and any book that makes me cry immediately gets bumped up the recommendations list.

 

I’m trying to read more Palestinian literature and although Mornings in Jenin is very different to books like Palestine+100 (which I have spoken about extensively both on this blog and on social media), I think together they demonstrate how impactful literature can be. As the events of this novel follow from pre-Nakba Palestine to the years when I was a child, it follows the turmoil of decades of displacement, occupation and apartheid enforced on Palestinians and I felt like I understood the events of recent Palestinian history so much better. These weren’t just dates on a timeline anymore, they felt personal.

The Breaks by Julietta Singh – Queer Lit, Manchester

I won’t lie, I was first drawn to The Breaks by its gorgeous cover. I’m an aesthetic and superficial gal, what I can I say. The book itself has a lovely feel to it, and while that’s not the most important part of a book, it definitely enhances the reading experience. I love a well-made book so props to Daunt Books for that! 

 

The Breaks is written as a letter from Julietta Singh to her six-year-old daughter. Singh is a beautiful writer. At times her words feel lyrical and there is a sense rawness and honesty throughout, at her own confusion and internal struggles while grappling with the adult capitalist world, her relationship to her heritage as a both Jewish and Punjabi living in North America, queer family-making and the climate crisis. This is a fascinating look at how we live our lives both on a broader scale but also on a smaller, domestic level, and the connections between generations. 

 

There was one aspect of the book I wish Singh had unpacked more: the topic of overpopulation. It’s something she mentions a few times in relation to the climate crisis and expresses her previous intense anxiety over. However, as many climate campaigners, scientists and academics have pointed out, overpopulation as a cause of the climate crisis is a racist myth. Many people better equipped than me have written and talked on this issue, so please do your own research, but we know that the cause of the climate crisis is largely down to overconsumption of the rich, people with resources. The impact of a single person on the climate various greatly often depending on their wealth, with resources unequally distributed across global populations. As an academic who looks into capitalism, colonialism and the climate crisis (and are all extensively discussed in this book), I was surprised at how little that idea was challenged by Singh.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell – Richard Booth’s Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye

Having read and adored Hamnet, I have been very excited to read more of Maggie O’Farrell’s work. While at Hay Festival, I wandered into Richard Booth’s the largest and oldest bookshop in Hay-on-Wye and found a huge array of her books. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox caught my eye. 

 

In Edinburgh in the 1930s, the Lennox family have a troublesome daughter called Esme. Decades letter, Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that her great-aunt she didn’t know existed is about to be released from a psychiatric unit. The premise hooked me in straight away. It includes so many things I love in a book – complex women characters, mystery, intrigue and questions about wider systems like patriarchy and the state. If I was still doing my Master’s, this is the kind of book I would have loved to have written about and fits in with the kind of texts I was researching.

 

I was not disappointed when I read this. I absolutely adored it. It had brilliant characters, was shocking, and took twists that I didn’t expect. Maggie O’Farrell, I love you!  

The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood - Borrowed from my local library

Another retelling, this time from the notorious hero Perseus (the namesake of Percy Jackson) to the women in his story: Danaë, Medusa, and Andromeda. Claire Heywood retells the story of Perseus – from the origins of his birth to his return to his mother’s homeland – except removes the lens of glory through which we are used to viewing these ‘heroes’. 

 

I didn’t know much about Danaë and Andromeda before reading this book. But I’m keen to find out more about them now. Perseus’ character became repulsive as we see how the pressure of patriarchal masculinity twists him into something his mother was striving to prevent. He’s not the only character we see affected by such pressure. Throughout there are male characters who are driven by their power and station and the idea that the women around are there property – and it often becomes their demise. 

All the Violet Tiaras by Jean Menzies – Gay on Wye, Hay-on-Wye

I have followed Jean Menzies’ work on social media and YouTube for years, but before All The Violet Tiaras I hadn’t read any of her writing. I saw a signed copy of this book in Gay on Wye, Hay’s newest bookshop, and straight away knew it was coming home with me. I couldn’t attend Jean’s talk at Hay so I was excited to still read her book, especially as a lover of Greek myths and queer stories. 

 

Part of the 404 Inklings series, All the Violet Tiaras is pretty short, at only 82 pages, but there is a lot packed in there. The three main chapters look at how new stories have used ancient storytelling forms, how Greek myths are still relevant to us today and how those myths are being re-queered. Menzies draws on a wide variety of ancient and contemporary texts to demonstrate this and introduced me to some texts I’d never heard of before but am now so excited to read. She highlights queer characters in mythology, such as Tireisus and Achilles and Patroclus as well as historical figures like Sappho, but also emphasises the importance of the narrator – who is telling this tale? Is the villainous women really as bad as she’s made out or the hero really so great? 

 

A joyful read I would so recommend of mythology and I now can’t to read more 404 Inklings! 

If you liked this post you might like: My Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2023

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5 Books to Read Instead of Watching Eurovision 2024 🇵🇸

5 Books to Read Instead of Watching Eurovision 2024 🇵🇸

Friday, 3 May 2024

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I love Eurovision - I normally watch it either with family or friends. But this year, like thousands (if not millions) of others, I will not be tuning in due to the hypocrisy of Eurovision refusing the ban Israel from participating despite their continued bombardment of and genocide in Gaza while rightfully banning Russia days after they invaded Ukraine. 

My friend Anna-Marie made a YouTube video discussing 5 books you could read instead of watching Eurovision, and as a booknerd myself this got me thinking about some other books that could be relevant. So, if you think you’re going to be bored while Eurovision is on and need some distraction for solidarity, here are 5 books I recommend that you could read instead. 

There is still time for Eurovision to boycott Israel. I have put together a resource list with information about how you can contact performers, country representatives, hosts, sponsors and show-organisers about the boycott, petitions and other campaigns such as Queers for Palestine who are taking action. You can access that here.

Palestine +100 edited by Basma Ghalayini

I read this book as part of Shado Mag’s book club and I’m so happy I joined this year. This is a short story collection written entirely by Palestinian writers imagining life in Palestine 100 years after the first Nakba, so 2048. These stories are all science fiction, and vary a huge amount - from alternate realities and different dimensions for different states to inhospitable environments and haunting noises. Palestine +100 ultimately asks, will Palestine ever truly be free?

Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y Davis

Angela Davis is one of my favourite writers and this is the first book that really made me understand the connection between Israel's apartheid regime and police oppression and brutality across the world. This is a collection of Angela Davis’ speeches, interviews, and essays from throughout the years all focusing on the theme of freedom and state violence - from the legacies of previous liberation struggles and movements to the ones we fight now and their interconnectedness.  

Border Nation by Leah Cowan

In Border Nation, Leah Cowan looks at borders – how we interact with them on a daily basis, how they impact our movements, how they are monetized through the prison industrial complex and the colonial history of their formation. This is mostly from a UK perspective, which I think is really valuable as often a lot of these conversations can be US-centric, making it seem like Britain is innocent when we really are not. This book expertly breaks down so many myths around immigration, borders and freedom of movement. A must read. Leah Cowan has a new book coming out soon called Why Would Feminists Trust the Police? and I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.

Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde’s work is unbeatable. This collection encompasses some of her poetry and essays, all of which are beautifully crafted. While this whole collection is valuable and should be read, I would like to highlight two essays in particular that I think are especially relevant to liberation in Palestine: Poetry is Not a Luxury and The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. Poetry is Not a Luxury looks at how art is essential for survival and now makes me think of the poetry of Gazans and Palestinians fighting for survival over the decades such as ‘If I Must Die’ by Refaat Alareer and ‘Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying’ by Noor Hindi. 

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Okay, major trigger warnings for this book. Sexual assault, violence, racist violence, murder, slavery, suicide and suicidal ideations. It’s a lot. But this book is also one of the best I’ve read recently. Octavia Butler is a mastermind, her writing is just incredible. Another science fiction story, Kindred is set in the 1970s and focuses on Dana, a young black woman who gets pulled back in time to save the life of a white boy in 1815. Turns out this white boy is her ancestor. Kindred is a fascinating look at hierarchies, dehumanisation, power, freedom, struggle and joy, as well as how those unjust systems are maintained. The characters have such complicated relationships and it’s fascinating to see how those change. Octavia Butler is such an incredible writer.

If you liked this post you might like: My Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2023

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