“In the morning when the Sun returns. It’s possible for us to hope.”
Another year done and dusted. We’ve been treated to some stellar reads this year, and admittedly some not-so-hot ones. Overall, we read twenty books in total, one more than in 2024. From nihilistic campus classics to poignant explorations of found family and identity, we were able to cross off some big names from our TBR pile, firmly cementing our obsession with sad-girl literature and wacky jabs at late-stage capitalism. So, from elite Shakespearean arts colleges to artificial friends with big hearts, join us today as we take a look back at our best books from 2025!
5. Boy Parts – Eliza Clark
We’re kicking off our list of our favourite 2025 books with our final read of the year, Eliza Clark’s Boy Parts. One of the most trailblazing and fiery books in the viral “woman wronged” genre, Boy Parts is a dizzying descent into the inner machinations of Irina, a photographer who specialises in taking erotic snaps of the men she scouts on the street.
What makes Boy Parts such a compelling and potentially divisive read is its unflinching depiction of trauma, abuse, and an utterly unhinged protagonist and her unreliable narration of events. Eliza Clark’s highly satirical and sexually explicit tone is so saturated that all the jaw-dropping acts of violence begin to feel numb, which is a huge credit to Clark’s writing.
Thought-provoking, timely, and unflinching in its exploration of gender, power, and art, complete with some interesting commentaries on the north-south divide, and identity in the digital age, Boy Parts is a scathing, darkly comedic and binge-worthy social satire that we absolutely devoured.
Check Out Our Boy Parts Book Review
4. If We Were Villains – M.L. Rio
Last year was the year we really sank our teeth into the dark academia genre with books like The Secret History and The Bellwether Revivals, and in May 2025, we took on another one of the most successful novels in the genre, If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. This story follows a group of Shakespearean actors at an elite arts college, where their on-stage personas and messy dynamics lead to a shocking act of violence that upends everything.
The comparisons to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History are inevitable, but there’s than enough within If We Were Villains that helps it stand up on its own merits as one of the best dark academia novels.
What makes If We Were Villains such a hauntingly addictive thriller is the characters at the heart of its mystery. They all do a stellar job of demonstrating the ways in which performance, obsession, and identity can all collide, and the thespian tragedies that spin out over the span of the story were seriously compelling.
Check Out Our If We Were Villains Book Review
3. The Rules Of Attraction – Bret Easton Ellis
We’ll be honest: for the first fifty pages or so of Bret Easton Ellis’ The Rules of Attraction, we weren’t having the best time. The long, unbroken rambling style of paragraphs and the lack of distinction in the different character POVs and their voices made the first few chapters really make us wonder whether this campus classic was really worth all the hype we had seen.
We stuck at the slog, though and, come that final infamous ending sentence, we finished knowing we had read one of the most uncompromising and addictive reads of the year.
The Rules of Attraction is a cold, nihilistic, emotionally vacant tale of four rowdy, sexually promiscuous characters and their various escapades at an elite liberal arts college during the Reagan-eighties. Messy, fragmented, and often bleak, Easton Ellis never wavers, isn’t interested in any growth or closure, and it is this relentless adherence to the central themes of The Rules of Attraction that helps sell it as an impossible-to-ignore staple of the dark academia genre.
Check Out Our The Rules Of Attraction Book Review
2. Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind – Molly McGhee
Anyone who’s been here for a while will know that our favourite books are the ones that have character. The ones who might not be perfect, but which have a unique premise and enough potential that we continue to think about them long after we’ve finished the final page. And, whilst it objectively almost certainly isn’t the best book we read in 2025, few books match the originality of Molly McGhee’s Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind.
Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind tells the story of a down-on-his-luck twentysomething who gets a job as a “dream auditor”, tasked with entering the dreams of white-collar workers to remove their anxieties and make them more productive during the day.
McGhee’s novel is a rip-roaring fever dream brimming with deadpan humour and dizzyingly psychedelic imagery. You often wonder where you are and what’s real, but at its heart, there’s a surprising amount of tenderness and commentary about productivity, purpose, and what really constitutes fulfilment in our chaotic modern world.
Abernathy is hands down our favourite protagonist of the year, with his unrelenting optimism and genuine empathy shining through in what is otherwise a scathing critique of hustle culture and late-stage capitalism. Whilst he may have his flaws (don’t we all?), you come to understand him in a way other books can only dream of matching.
Check Out Our Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind Book Review
1. Klara And The Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
For the second year in a row, Kazuo Ishiguro tops our best books of the year list! We don’t need to waste any lines on what makes Ishiguro one of the most gifted writers in the world, but we should stress that Klara and the Sun was, by some distance, the most beautiful book we read in 2025. So many times, we found ourselves shaking our heads at just how Ishiguro is able to sling prose together. As writers, it made us jealous. As readers, we adored every second of it.
Klara and the Sun tells the story of Klara, an artificial friend who is selected by a girl called Josie to become her companion. Immediately, one of the biggest pluses of Klara and the Sun is Klara herself; her mix of childlike innocence and robotic precision, which gradually changes as the novel progresses, coupled with her unwavering dedication to Josie, makes her the sort of rootable hero we all love.
Ishiguro sprinkles in just enough dystopian detail to make the novel recognisable as his work, but there’s a warmth behind Klara and the Sun compared to a book like Never Let Me Go that made for a welcome change.
Beautifully crafted, thought-provoking, and accomplished in both its scope and delivery, there’s not much more to say other than Klara and the Sun is a bittersweet and comforting read that showcases an author operating at the peak of his powers.
Check Out Our Klara And The Sun Book Review
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
