This is Soaliha here, I’m a journalist, writer, podcaster and book enthusiast with a particular passion for reading (and sharing) books by authors from diverse backgrounds — which is why we’ve launched this column in the first place.
Anyone who has spent even a modicum of time in online spaces like the infamous #BookTok will know that it is often the same types of books spotlighted again and again (The ___ of ___ and ___ titles need to go!), with little room for authors of colour or other marginalised voices to get their moment — which is disappointing given there are so many stories out there that deserve to be told! This book club was made specifically so that we can all diversify our reading and support authors from different walks of life.
From a futuristic queer re-telling of a spooky classic, to an unusual memoir of a woman metamorphosed into a clam, this particular month has some real bangers coming your way.
Check out our most anticipated books for 2025 below!
Best Books 2025: January
The Rest of You by Maame Blue
Flitting between London and Ghana, The Rest of You is a moving story about the emotional journey of Whitney Appiah, a Black British masseuse who, despite her job helping other people heal the trauma in their bodies, is only beginning to reckon with the pain of her own past.
Spanning three decades and gliding between the perspectives of Whitney, her aunts Gloria and Aretha, and their house help Maame Serwaa, the novel exposes painful memories and harsh truths of what it is to be a woman, to be Black, and for these identities to merge in Britain.
Maame Blue, who is now based in Melbourne, received glowing reviews for her previous book Bad Love, a coming-of-age romance which also centred Black characters. I can’t wait to see how she rips up our hearts this time.
The Rest of You hits shelves in Australia on January 1, 2025.
Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Set in the backstreets of Tokyo, Water Moon follows Hana Ishikawa, the owner of a magical pawnshop which only appears to lost people who can then barter their life choices and deepest regrets.
However, on the first day of her new job, Hana finds the store ransacked, her father missing, and one of the shop’s most valuable choices stolen. Even more suspiciously, a charming stranger stumbles in, who is unlike any other customer. And so begins a magical journey where the two dive head first into mystical lands to recover the stolen property and save Hana’s father.
This is my current read, and its description as a cross between Before The Coffee Gets Cold and a Studio Ghibli film is accurate! It’s full of heart, imaginative, and a refreshing take on romantic fantasy. Perfect for fans of the cosy fantasy genre!
Water Moon releases on January 16, 2025.
How To Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, And Doom by Johanna Hedva
If we lived in a different world, would illnesses be treated as inconveniences? Or are they just part of being alive? What is the antidote to capitalism, if not choosing to care for ourselves and each other despite it all?
In this incisive collection of essays, Johanna Hedva — one of the most influential voices in disability activism in the US — challenges what it really means to be disabled in a society that exploits sickness. In their musings, they cover everything from having to advocate for themselves in America’s healthcare system, to kinks and their relationship with the colour yellow.
How To Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, And Doom hits shelves on January 1, 2025.
Biology Lessons by Melissa Kantor
Grace Williams is going to make it to college. She is smart, ambitious and has her whole life planned out from her senior year to a Nobel prize in biology — until she accidentally falls pregnant.
Living in Texas, abortion is illegal, and even if it wasn’t, Grace’s parents would expect her to keep the baby. Suddenly, her potential is gone, before her life has even begun. But not if she can help it.
Grace turns to her friends, and the trio set off on an epic adventure to sneak Grace across state lines and to a clinic that can give her the healthcare she desperately needs.
Given the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US under Biden, and then Trump’s election and threats to abortion rights, this book could not come at a better time. It’s a testament to the power of solidarity, and it’s both terrifying and a beacon of hope for those women who already find themselves stuck and with nowhere to go.
Biology Lessons will release on 14 January 2025.
I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang
Jenna Chen is struggling. She’s been rejected from every Ivy League college she’s applied to, and feels like she’s failed her immigrant parents’ dreams for their American daughter. Feeling increasingly desperate, she starts to wish she was her much more successful cousin, Jessica Chen — and then her dream comes true.
But being Jessica Chen is not what Jenna thought it would be. As she learns Jessica’s secrets, her own real life begins to fade, and soon Jenna discovers that if she doesn’t figure things out, her old life could disappear forever.
In a darker, more anxiety-inducing take on Freaky Friday, I Am Not Jessica Chen reminds us all that sometimes, the grass is NOT always greener on the other side. It releases on January 28, 2025.
The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold
This sapphic love story between two teenage girls is set in a future dystopia (at this point, we could probably call it a speculative fiction), after a climate change catastrophe has destroyed society and few survivors are left. But already, another cataclysmic storm is set to shake the earth, leaving Liz — the sole inhabitant of the last bookstore on earth — no choice but to work with the prickly Maeve if she wants her home to survive.
Soon, Liz and Maeve develop a connection, but their prep for the storm falters as the world begins to collapse around them, and they realise there are more threats to their survival than they thought. As the world begins to collapse, secrets are unleashed and demons from the past resurface.
I’ve seen this book described as having similar vibes to The Last of Us, except cosy, somehow? It’s largely set in the bookstore and has a focus on interpersonal relationships and introspective musings, which means it’s good for both people looking for some action, and those who prefer domestic dramas.
The Last Bookstore on Earth releases on January 14, 2025.
Visualising Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation
Visualising Palestine tells the story of Israeli invasion and settler-colonialism in Palestine through striking illustrations and accessible infographics. These colourful portraits paint a picture for people who want to learn more about Gaza’s history but struggle to know where to start, or feel overwhelmed by the decades of information.
But do not be fooled, the colourful imagery might look beautiful but it still conveys heart-wrenching statistics about the plight of Palestinian people, and details not only the loss of their land, but their steady resistance to the ethnic cleansing of their people.
Visualising Palestine will be available to buy on January 1, 2025.
The Queen’s Spade by Sarah Raughley
Once a princess of the Egbado clan, Sarah is forced to live in the heart of the colonial empire that ripped her from her home and relegated her as simply royal property.
From inside enemy lines, she plots her revenge against the British throne, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get her life and freedom back. However, others start to suspect she is not the harmless sweetheart she has been pretending to be — and slowly, the walls start closing in.
Simmering with rage and grief, this historical fiction novel is based on the life of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria’s African goddaughter. We live in a time where novels about the Victorian era are heavily romanticised and the race politics are woeful to say the least (hello, Bridgerton). For many women, especially Black women, Victorian England was actually a horror story — and this book won’t let you forget it.
The Queen’s Spade comes out on January 14, 2025.
A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williams
Now I know we have more than enough dragon-centric romantasies out there, but I’m intrigued by this one in particular because of S.F. Williams’ background in linguistics, and her specific interest in the way languages shapes meaning and relationships in different cultures. Perhaps I am being ambitious, but I’m hoping that this means A Language of Dragons will have more philosophical substance to it than the usual fare!
The novel is a dark academia fantasy set in London in the 1920s starring Viv Featherswallow, a student who accidentally finds herself at the centre of a civil war. In order to save her loved ones from certain death and right her own wrongs, she has no choice but to become a code-breaker. Her job? To demystify the mysterious language of dragons.
But as Viv works at this seemingly impossible task, she starts to question the politics of what she is doing, and whether the war is one she actually wants to fight for. Who are her real enemies?
Honestly, this book is pressing all my buttons. Dark academia, a focus on languages and how they shape beliefs, and a slow burn enemies to lovers that isn’t the main plot point? Yes please.
A Language of Dragons debuts on January 2, 2025.
Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
Ebby Freeman was 10 years old when her family experienced a profound tragedy that led to unwanted media scrutiny and repressed trauma. Almost two decades later, Ebby is still running from her demons, with heart ache following her from the US to France.
As she begins to realise that she cannot escape her past, Ebby revisits that fateful night long ago, when a gun went off, her brother fell to the ground, and the centuries-old jar belonging to her enslaved ancestor shattered into pieces. She revisits her ancestry, her family history, and finds that perhaps it is here that she will find the keys to her future.
Good Dirt is about the enduring trauma of slavery and white supremacy — these things didn’t happen that long ago, and the wounds are still healing. It will be released on January 28, 2025.
Best Books 2025: February
Those Opulent Days by Jacquie Pham
For fans of Knives Out and Glass Onion, this murder mystery set in 1928 follows a group of four wealthy friends as they indulge in a celebration — only for one of them to be murdered.
Flitting between the fateful night and a series of events leading up to the murder, Those Opulent Days shines a light on the glaring economic inequality amidst the French occupation of Vietnam. A combo of historical fiction and whodunnit, this genre-bending story isn’t just about murder. Under colonialism, violence and suffering breeds more heinous crimes.
Those Opulent Days releases on 29 January, 2025.
Half Truth by Nadia Mahjouri
Set between Tasmania and Morocco in the late ‘90s, Half Truth follows two women searching for answers: Khadija, a mother in Marrakesh whose son has been missing for 20 years, and Zahra, a daughter in Tasmania who seeks the father she never knew.
Khadija seeks closure, and Zahra seeks belonging. When their stories collide, they both learn about motherhood, belonging and loss — and how these can change you, for better or for worse.
Half Truth releases on 11 February, 2025.
Ugliness by Moshtari Hilal
Have you ever felt ugly? I know I have. Growing up as a dark-skinned Pakistani girl in Australia with thick eyebrows, a hairy face and a sloped nose certainly saw to that. But who decided these features were ugly, and what role does ugliness play in hatred?
Afghani author Moshtari Hilal asks all this and more in her incisive exploration of how we see ourselves. Through essays, illustrations, autobiographical passages, poems and photos, Hilal explores the relationship between power, beauty, ugliness and race — and ultimately, what it would mean to embrace ugliness, rather than fear it.
The English translation of Ugliness releases on 11 February, 2025.
Capitana by Cassandra James
If you’re a fan of romantasy but tired of the formulaic, eurocentric enemies-to-lovers stories that BookTok shoves down our throats, then check out Capitana by Cassandra James: a pirate romantasy inspired by Colombian culture and mythology.
Ximena Reale has spent her life training to become a Cazador — pirate hunter — and is finally given the chance to prove herself when the queen is kidnapped by seafaring bandits. If she can bring the queen back, she’ll finally get her dream job. However, her classmate Dante deLeon is also gunning for the role of rescuer, and so this isn’t just a mission — it’s a race. Rivals-to-lovers fans, this one’s for you.
Capitana hits shelves on 4 February, 2025.
Beirut by Barrack Zailaa Rima
This stunning graphic novel is a poetic and autobiographical look at the bustling city that is Beirut. Rima and her family act as tour guides, showing us around their beloved city as we bump into various characters along the way who share their stories amidst winding alleyways and warm cafes.
Beirut is actually a trilogy, and it’s just been translated into English. This beautiful novel will hit Australian shelves in February.
Needy Little Things by Channelle Desamours
In the United States of America, 36% of girls and women reported missing in 2022 were Black, despite the fact that Black women and girls only make up 14% of the population. Black women are six times more likely to be murdered than their white counterparts, according to The Lancet, and we know that crimes against Black women go unreported. It’s with this in mind that Needy Little Things, a YA mystery and speculative fiction novel about Black girls going missing, is a poignant and relevant read.
Sariyah Lee Bryant has precognition — she can tell what people need if the item is a tangible thing, like a phone or pencil. When her best friend Dejah goes missing shortly after she fulfills her need, Sariyah is desperate to find her. In a world where police are dangerous and the media is only interested in missing persons when they’re white, Sariyah must find her friend on her own — before she, too, is at risk.
Needy Little Things by Channelle Desamours releases on 4 February, 2025.
Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell
Nesting is a gut-wrenching story about an Irish woman’s struggle to escape an abusive relationship with her two young daughters in tow — and all the ways society makes this courageous act feel impossible.
In Australia, an average of at least one woman a week is killed by a current or former partner. Domestic violence is one of the key issues of our time, and yet support services are anemic, shelters are few and far between, women who try to escape domestic violence aren’t protected or taken seriously, and the government is slow to act. These stories are important because they are the reality of so many women, here and abroad, and yet we continue to treat men’s violence as though it is invisible, simply part of the fabric of society.
Nesting hits shelves on 29 January, 2025.
Palestine In A World On Fire: A Global Conversation by Katherine Natanel and Ilan Pappé
It has been 16 months since Israel began its genocidal onslaught in Palestine. In these months, the plight of the Palestinian people and their fight for self determination has become known across the globe — but Palestinian resistance has been central to liberation literature for decades.
Palestine In A World On Fire: A Global Conversation is a collection of interviews with some of the world’s leading progressive thinkers (Angela Y. Davies, Noam Chomsky and Judith Butler, to name a few) who highlight the intersections between Palestinian liberation, and the fight against misogyny, colonialism and capitalism.
Palestine In A World On Fire: A Global Conversation was initially published in October 2024, but will be available in Australia this February.
(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi
This YA fantasy novel is based on Caribbean folklore and follows the demonic appetites of two teenage girls who are not what they seem. Fifteen-year-old Marison is the daughter of a soucouyant — every new moon, she transforms into a fireball witch who must feed on the lives of others. Genevieve, 17, is suffering from a skin condition and battling a hunger she doesn’t truly understand. Both girls are struggling to live the life they yearn for — but things are about to get explosive, and not for the reasons either of them expected.
Personally, the best YA books are the ones about girls who are monstrous — who eat the hearts of princes, and who choose their own satisfaction over others. One of my favourite YA novels is Midnight Girls, which is also about teenage girl witches who eat others, so I am very excited for this one.
(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi releases on 11 February, 2025.
Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis Sharma
Prudence Wright has made it. After emigrating from Johannesburg, South Africa, she has excelled in her career, married a loving man and settled in a large home in Washington, DC, where she can now raise her autistic son. However, one dinner party changes everything.
Her husband’s new colleague and guest is Matshediso, a man she knew from her time as a law student in South Africa. Matshediso’s presence forces Prudence to revisit the harrowing Truth and Reconciliation hearings she attended in the ‘90s which uncovered the horrors of Apartheid in South Africa. But his appearance also forces her to reckon with her own secrets: horrors from her own past, forced deep into the abyss, only to resurface when she least expected it.
Whether we can truly recover from stains of the past is a question that is more poignant now than ever. The legacy of apartheid in South Africa continues to this day, and spills over into discourse about Israel’s occupation and destruction of Gaza.
Casualties of Truth releases on 11 February, 2025.
Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza
Originally written in Spanish — where the word victim is feminine — Death Takes Me is a subversive literary crime thriller that follows a professor who finds the castrated corpse of a man in a dark alley, left with a poem written in nail polish. She calls the police, and becomes involved in solving the crime. But the bodies keep piling up, and she must use every part of her wits to put a stop to the violence.
What makes this novel so interesting is its refusal to fall into the convention of having nameless and mutilated female bodies as central to the plot. The crime genre is riddled with the dehumanisation of women — but what if all the bodies, sexually mutilated or not, belonged to men? Would we so easily stomach this violence? When does it stop being a game?
Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza releases on 25 February, 2025.
Modern Divination by Isa Agajanian
Ava Reid, author of A Study in Drowning, described Modern Divination as “the cosy contemporary fantasy of my dreams”. Olivie Blake, best known for The Atlas Six, called it “lush and atmospheric”. If the GOATs are loving Isa Agajanian’s witchy dark academia, it’s probably safe to bet we will too.
Modern Divination follows Aurelia, a witch who goes to Cambridge and keeps her magic a secret. However, Aurelia is in danger: someone is hunting witches and stealing their magic, and she herself is losing some of her powers. Forced to ask for help from fellow witch and rival Teddy Ingram, the pair seek refuge in his family home. But as they become closer, the killer grows nearer…
At a time where diverse gender identities are under attack and their books are being banned, it’s important to read books written by trans and non-binary authors!
Isa Agajanian’s Modern Divination hits shelves on 28 January.
That’s all from us for now — check in next month for March new releases.
Best Books 2025: March
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Dream Count follows four Nigerian women: Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer living in the US, her best friend Zikora, a successful lawyer who is left betrayed and brokenhearted, Omelogor, Chiamaka’s opinionated, brash and very rich cousin, and Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper who is about to face an unthinkable hardship. The four women must navigate complicated relationships with others and themselves, as they try to understand where happiness can be found — and if it is even attainable.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an award-winning author whose work has been translated into more than 55 languages, so Dream Count is very highly-anticipated — even more so because it’s her first book in 10 years. This is actually a huge deal in the literature world, so add it to your TBR right now!
Dream Count hits shelves on 5 March.
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
A bombshell bestseller in Japan, this award-winning novel is an important, confronting and visceral read about the autonomy and agency of disabled people — and is one of my most anticipated books of the year, even though I know it’ll be an uncomfortable read.
The story follows Shaka, a wealthy woman in her 40s born with a congenital muscle disorder that involves her spine crushing her lungs. The condition has left her in an electric wheelchair with a ventilator, though Shaka is uninterested in anyone’s pity. One day, Shaka posts a proposition online — and to her surprise, her younger, cash-strapped male nurse responds. What follows is a sordid, messy arrangement that will put into question ideas of power, agency and exploitation.
Hunchback’s English translation releases on 6 March.
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
Set in the not-so-distant dystopian future when thought-policing is real and dreams are under surveillance, Sara is apprehended at LAX airport by the Risk Assessment Administration who allege she is about to commit a crime. At least, that’s what their algorithm thinks.
Sara is then imprisoned with other dreamers — all women — who are confined for crimes that an AI has determined they will commit. Almost losing herself in the monotony, things abruptly change with the arrival of a new prisoner who will disrupt the order of the facility.
During a time where thought-policing is becoming increasingly common-place (and we’re seeing it happen to Palestinians and Arab diaspora the most these days), it’s important to interrogate what the difference is between thinking and doing — and how much we are willing to give up to AI for the sake of convenience.
The Dream Hotel releases on 4 March.
The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie Wen Zhao
In a world at war with demons, Àn’yīng’s family has been torn apart. Now, she is older — a trained fighter, and not a helpless little girl. Determined to win the pill of eternal life to save her mother, Àn’yīng enters the Immortality Trials, which is open to any mortal who can survive the journey to the immortal realm. It’s a deadly game, every man for himself — and yet Àn’yīng finds that her rival, Yù’chén, appears to be protecting her — but why? What doesn’t she know?
This dark fantasy duology inspired by Chinese culture is perfect for readers who are looking for something like Throne of Glass or The Hunger Games.
The Scorpion and the Night Blossom releases on 4 March.
A Kind of Madness by Uche Okonkwo
As the title suggests, this searing collection of 10 short stories set in Nigeria explores “madness”, though not necessarily in the traditional sense of the word. Really, all of us have said, done or felt things that some might consider a type of madness: irrational jealousy, all-consuming desire, or flaming hatred.
Uche Okonkwo zeroes in on the drives behind some of our most intense relationships — neglectful mothers with overburdened daughters, best friends who compete with and are jealous of each other, children who watch porn for the first time — and uses them to make incisive commentary on the human condition. This is probably one of 2025’s most anticipated books!
A Kind of Madness releases on 1 March.
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
After a devastating hurricane submerges Mercy, Louisiana, a red algae bloom takes over, mutating wildlife into terrifying creatures. However, Noon knowns that monsters have always walked among us — all she has to do is think back to that one party that changed her life. Now, Noon has been tasked with killing the monster in the depths — and she must survive the town with her mother, who believes their family have been turned into sea creatures, to do it.
This YA horror novel with a queer protagonist explores our anxieties about the destruction of climate change. With natural disasters and rising sea levels, what terrors might wash up on our shores?
They Bloom at Night hits shelves on 13 March.
Where The Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh
From the “Queen of African horror” comes another heart-pounding tale about possession, family secrets and murder, anchored in Nigerian myths and culture.
Bata is 11 years old and tormented by nightmares, which culminate in her body, possessed by the supernature, fighting a ghost-bride. However, the exorcism to rid her of supernatural possession kills her — and so Bata must learn to navigate the spirit realm and her new powers, so she can return to those she loves.
Where The Dead Brides Gather releases on 1 March.
The Divine Flesh by Drew Huff
Jennifer has three main problems in her life: 1) she is a self-confessed “junkie” and inter-dimensional space drug mule; 2) she shares a body with the Divine Flesh, an eldritch God who hates her but needs her body to live and 3) the Divine Flesh is dating Jennifer’s ex-husband, through her body. Yikes.
When Jennifer takes a new drug and frees herself from the Divine Flesh’s control, it only releases the demonic being to do what She has always craved: “love” people by absorbing them into her flesh.
At the time of writing, I’m only about a quarter of the way through this book thanks to an ARC on NetGalley — and wow, is it a bonkers read! Equal parts hilarious and gruesome, this bizarre feminist body horror romp is one I’m delighted to have stumbled upon.
The Divine Flesh hits shelves on 4 March
The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
Exploring the complications of migrating and resettling, and the expectations this can place on third-culture kids, The Persians tells the story of three generations of the Valiat family: Elizabeth, her daughters Shirin and Seema, and her granddaughters Niaz and Bita.
Once “somebodies” in Iran, the Valiat family are nobodies in America. After an annual vacation in Aspen goes horribly wrong and Shirin is arrested, the family’s past glory becomes her obsession. Determined to restore the family name, Shirin is on a mission — but one day she’ll have to realise that the very story that she believes liberates her, is also what prevents her from growing.
The Persians releases on 5 March.
The Serpent Called Mercy by Roanne Lau
This Malaysian Chinese-inspired fantasy novel has been described as “The Witcher meets Squid Game” and follows best friends Lythlet and Desil, two girls shackled by debt and poverty who brawl in illegal fighting rings for money.
However, as the pair are lured by ambition and wealth, the cracks in their friendship worsen, and the two are turned against each other. Will they maintain their honour and friendship, or will they choose greed and fortune?
The Serpent Called Mercy releases on 25 March.
Best Books 2025: April
Daughters of the Nile by Zahra Barri
Daughters of the Nile follows three women from the Bin-Khalid family as they navigate the trials and tribulations of being young Arab women.
In Paris, 1940, Fatiha befriends Muslim feminist Doria Shafik and her entire outlook on life changes. In Cairo, 1966, Fatiha’s daughter is publicly shamed when she is caught with a bisexual boyfriend. In Bristol, 2011, Nadia has an identity crisis and moves in with her aunt.
Spanning decades and continents, this intergenerational story of female resilience, friendship and strength explores issues of religion, feminism, sexuality and revolution. Personally, this one is one of the books I’m most excited for in April — stories where feminism and queerness can be explored in tandem with and not in opposition to Islam always pull at my heart as a Muslim girlie myself.
Daughters of the Nile hits shelves in Australia on April, 2025.
Red Dust Running by Anita Heiss
If you love a cheeky romcom, look no further because Red Dust Running has it all: a proud Aboriginal lead, opposites-attract romance, and cowboys.
Annabelle is a serial avoider of matters of the heart, and runs away from danger yet again after a disastrous relationship pretty much destroys her public life in Sydney. Back in Brissy, she is focussed on her dream job as a curator for a First Nations gallery, and is determined for things to work out this time.
During a night out with her tiddas, Annabelle meets cowboy Dusty and the chemistry is off the charts. Even though Annabelle keeps telling herself Dusty doesn’t take art or activism seriously enough to be with her, things heat up between them. Can he step up, or will she leave him in the dust?
Red Dust Running releases in Australia on 2 April, 2025.
Worthy of the Event by Vivian Blaxell
Vivian Blaxell has lived a life and a half, and her wisdom and wit is on full display in this expansive collection of essays anchored in the trans experience.
Introspective and intellectual, Vivian will take you on a metaphysical journey through history, jumping from Japan to Australia, Hawai’i to Mexico, with the backdrop of the 1960s which is the era in which she transitioned. She dissects Nietzsche and Hegel, Indigenous metaphysics and the human condition, her musings flitting between Big Ideas and the intimacy of her own personal experiences.
This is definitely one to pop on your radar given the current political climate — at a time where trans rights and bodily autonomy are under threat, it’s voices like Vivian’s which we need to platform and listen to.
Worthy of the Event releases in Australia in April.
Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin
Move over cannibalismcore, the latest twisted romance involving the consumption of flesh is Eat the Ones You Love — where the carnivorous creature in question is… a plant?
Shell Pine has just left her fiancé, lost her job and moved out of her parents home in Ireland, so when she sees a “help needed” sign in a flower shop, she goes for it — and is rewarded with the company of the lovely and beautiful Neve who definitely needs help of some kind. Unfortunately, she also must contend with an orchid by the name of Baby who has already laid claim to Neve — and nothing else will satisfy him but pure possession in the form of consuming her.
This is a weird and deranged tale about a messy queer throuple which, honestly, is my favourite genre.
Eat The Ones You Love releases on 22 April, 2025.
Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara
Is the creation of ChatGPT going to lead to our liberation, or subjugation? Tech journalist and Pulitzer finalist Vauhini Vara — who went viral in 2021 for using AI to help write a (quite disturbing) essay about her sister’s death — asks this question in her collection of provocative essays that interrogate the way AI has replicated (or rather, stolen) our language.
Interspersed with fragments of her own internet use in the form of Google searches and Amazon reviews, Searches explores how we communicate with each other, and the way our relationship with machines is changing and reshaping this. Ultimately, she seeks to discover if there is a way we can use AI that isn’t rooted in exploitation — one that brings us together, rather than tears us apart.
Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age releases on April 8, 2025.
Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
Julie Chan is is a supermarket cashier with not much else going on in her life until she is thrust into the world of luxury influencer and YouTuber Chloe VanHuusen — who also happens to be her long-lost twin (as discovered in her video Finding My Long-Lost Twin And Buying Her A House #EMOTIONAL).
When Julie discovers Chloe’s dead body under suspicious circumstances, instead of doing the normal thing and calling the police, she pretends to be her and takes over her life. Julie soon discovers that Chloe was not the person she pretended to be, and a week-long stay at an island resort with her fellow influencers leaves Julie with the awful realisation that maybe whoever was behind Chloe’s demise might come for her next.
Look, is this basically the plot of The Glass Onion? Yes. But will I read it anyway? Also yes.
Julie Chan is Dead hits shelves on April 29.
Gifted and Talented by Olivie Blake
Olivie Blake, my love, I will read anything you write… even if I ended up hating the direction that The Atlas Six went — sorry! Though, if the premise of this novel is anything to go by, those who loved that series will want to check out this book. I mean, it’s blurb literally starts with: “When there’s a will, there’s a war.” OBSESSED.
Thayer Wren, CEO of Wrenfare Magitech, is dead. His children, each dysfunctional, magical, and desperate for approval, will fight tooth and nail to inherit his throne. Each have secrets and their own motivations, and each believe they need this the most — but who will come out on top?
This is like if Succession was an urban fantasy, so get ready to deal with mystery, intrigue and the most annoying people you’ve ever read.
Gifted and Talented releases on April 1, 2025.
The Hollow Half by Sarah Aziza
In October 2019, Sarah Aziza nearly died from an eating disorder. The traumatic event launched her into the past, reconnecting her with her family’s ancestral struggle of survival. She is the daughter and granddaughter of Palestinians from Gaza, and she will persevere.
This incisive and lyric memoir traces Sarah’s family history, weaving it into her life, threading it through her nightmares. She seeks to understand them, herself, the world. And maybe once she can break down these contradictions, we all can understand that there are multiple truths inside us.
The Hollow Half hits shelves on 22 April, 2025.
Meet Me at Blue Hour by Sarah Suk
Described as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” meets “Past Lives”, this YA novel is about two childhood friends who must navigate their relationship after one erases their memories of the other.
Yena Bae is spending the summer in Busan, working at her mother’s memory-erasing clinic. She feels lost and untethered, and has been in this state since her best friend Lucas Pak moved away four years ago.
However, Yena then runs into Lucas — who is back in Busan! — except he doesn’t remember her. He has erased her from his mind, and she has no idea why. The two reconnect and try to figure out what happened all those years ago that could lead him to want to forget her… and whether perhaps there is still something here worth remembering.
Meet Me at the Blue Hour releases on 1 April, 2025.
Authority by Andrea Long Chu
With the rise of social media and anti-intellectualism comes the death of the review. Instead of honest, critical analysis, we get sponsored posts that must be brand safe, and opinions spouted by everyone — which can sometimes be a good thing, but not always. The critic isn’t dead yet, but there is something sinister going on in this space, and Pulitzer Prize-winning Andrea Long Chu is determined to interrogate it.
Authority is a collection of essays centred on a single question: if everyone has an opinion on everything (and all these opinions are pretty equally accessible), then who has authority? And really, how important is authority to begin with — is this heircharchy something to be preserved, or should we embrace a future where opinions are decentralised? Or, wait, trick question — maybe they never can be?
Authority hits shelves on April 8, 2025.
Best Books 2025: May
Mettle by Anne-Marie Te Whiu
As the title suggests, this playful collection of poignant and provocative poetry is an ode to the tenacity and resilience of Māori people. Told in three parts, it plays with form and structure to tell multiple stories at once, if only you learn to read between the lines.
Anne-Marie Te Whiu’s sincerity is disarming and it’s what allows her to navigate stories of dispossession and survival with so much eloquence. I binged this collection — which is probably not the best way to read poetry — and found it to be so resonant even as a settler in so-called Australia who has ancestry in another colonised land. I interviewed Anne-Marie Te Whiu for Missing Perspective’s Book Smart podcast, and hearing about her creative process only makes her work more intriguing.
I know poetry can be scary for some; it can seem inaccessible or too hard to engage with if it’s not what you’re used to. If you feel that way, give this one a go: you’ll be surprised at the ideas you come across and the way they’ll inspire thought days, weeks or even months after you read them.
Mettle releases on April 29, 2025.
Chinese Parents Don’t Say I Love You by Candice Chung
At 35, food journalist Candice Chung has found herself single after 13 years, and as a consequence of this, no longer has a partner for reviewing restaurants. When her retired Cantonese parents offer to be her new food buddies, she considers what paths lay in front of her: eating together in that familiar though profoundly pregnant silence so many of us children of immigrants know, or forging ahead and addressing what the silence obscures, even denies.
You might have noticed from reading this column that I rarely include memoirs, but I was hooked by Candice Chung’s writing three paragraphs into the first page. Earnest and perceptive, she meditates on topics so many of us know shouldn’t be taboo, and yet we struggle to talk about. I really enjoy introspective and descriptive writing, and while I haven’t finished this book yet, I know it’s going to be one that resonates.
Chinese Parents Don’t Say I Love You releases on 29 April, 2025.
Broken Brains by Jamila Rizvi & Rosie Waterland
Jamila Rizvi was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour at 31. When she shared this news with friends and family, it was Rosie Waterland who was able to provide humour and solidarity in a way that felt uniquely resonant, because Rosie herself has been dealing with significant trauma symptoms after a childhood of neglect and abuse.
Broken Brains shares the pair’s experiences of being sick, lingering on the surprising similarities despite their different circumstances. Humorous and with some sage advice to boot, it shines a light on what it’s like living with complex needs and disabilities.
Broken Brains releases on 6 May, 2025.
The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei
The year is 2015, and Genevieve Yang is coming to terms with her mother’s terminal illness. As she grieves, her mother urges her to reconnect with Ari, Genevieve’s estranged younger sister. Considering this, Genevieve casts her mind back to their origin story — the years Ari entered her life as the shameful legacy of a betrayal — and traces how they met, clung to each other, and ultimately imploded.
Set in working-class Singapore in the late 1990s, this buzzy debut explores the pressures of being an eldest daughter, the pursuit of perfection and success at all costs, and the powerful yet destructive nature of sisterly bonds.
The Original Daughter releases on 6 May, 2025.
Salty, Spiced and a Little Bit Nice by Cynthia Timoti
This debut novel is a sweet rom-com about Ellie Pang, a young woman who is sick of her family controlling and micromanaging her after she is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
When her family plans for her to marry a business partners’ son without her permission, she decides she has had enough and escapes across the country to open her own (diabetes friendly) bakery. Instead, she finds a derelict building in need of renovations, and the man for the job is none other than the childhood crush who broke her heart. When he reveals that he needs a fake girlfriend for a business deal, the two develop a scheme of their own — faking a relationship for both their benefit. And, well, I think we know where this is going.
The backdrop of the story was inspired by Cynthia’s own family: her son was diagnosed with diabetes in 2020, and this novel is her way of showcasing what living with diabetes is actually like — while still keeping things fun and flirty, of course.
Salty, Spiced and a Little Bit Nice releases on 16 May, 2025.
Find Me At The Jaffa Gate by Micaela Sahhar
This genre-bending narrative-non-fiction book traces the lineage of Micaela Sahhar, a daughter of survivors of the Nakba. Following her family from Bethlehem, to Jerusalem and eventually to Sydney, Sahhar examines what is passed down from parent to child, grandparent to aunt, sister to brother.
This is a book that is about more than displacement — it’s about resilience, truth-telling and the fragments of stories that are often forgotten but which form the bones and heart of what it means to Palestinian diaspora.
Find Me At The Jaffa Gate releases on 1 May, 2025.
So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Caro de Robertis
This beautiful, timely and essential foray into history highlights voices seldom heard in the mainstream: that of non-white trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and two-spirit elders.
It’s true that most of queer media focuses on the young — this is often when we grow into ourselves and come of age, but there are also other reasons too, like the fact that the AIDS crisis and deeply entrenched transphobia, misogyny and homophobia have led to lower life expectancies and higher suicide rates among trans and genderqueer people. Factor in racial background, and this perspective is even more underrepresented.
Written after hundreds of hours of interviews, Caro seeks to highlight the voices of genderqueer people who have always been here, and also remind young trans and nonbinary youth that they are not alone, or the first to go through these experiences — they are part of a community, they have a lineage, and there is so much life left to live.
So Many Stars: An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color is available to purchase from 13 May, 2025.
Hope You Are Satisfied by Tania Malik
Set in Dubai in the ‘90s, before the city became glamorous and a coveted holiday destination, 25-year-old Riya is part of the city’s migrant underclass and works for the kind-of tragic tourist company Discover Arabia.
Placed on an outpost in the middle of the desert, away from her family in India, Riya is looking to make more money than she could at home — a dream that becomes possible thanks to the help of a notorious figure. However, with explosive conflict brewing, things might not be so simple for Riya and her band of misfits.
Hope You Are Satisfied releases on 2 May, 2025. (New South pick)
The Eyes of Gaza by Plestia Alaqad
The world first discovered Plestia Alaqad when she began documenting life in Gaza in 2023. At just 22 years old, she became the face of journalists in Palestine who continue to risk their lives daily to shed light on the atrocities committed by Israel.
Plestia told the stories of the people of Gaza through video interviews and written poetry in a bid to humanise a population that were often treated as statistics and numbers. Now, she has released an account of the first 45 days of the genocide, formatted in the style of a series of diary extracts — reminiscent of Plestia’s own poignant social media posts while she remained in Gaza — which seek not only to shed a light on the horrors endured by Palestinians, but also for the world to recognise their courage and resilience.
The Eyes of Gaza releases on 29 April.
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned A Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
From riot grrrls to trad wives to cool girls to Only Fans creators, our ideas of what constitutes feminism and the ideal woman have changed dramatically since the ‘90s.
Pulitzer-Prize finalist and The Atlantic staff writer Sophie Gilbert examines how we got here by looking at the trajectory of pop culture over the last 30 years, tracing our pattern of in-fighting and analysing why it is we are always at each other’s throats, even when we’re trying to call in rather than call out. As the title suggests, Gilbert places special emphasis on the impact porn has had on how we view ourselves and each other — leaving us with a pretty searing indictment of the state of women’s relationships with ourselves and each other.
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned A Generation of Women Against Themselves releases on 29 April.
A Letter From The Lonesome Shore by Sylvie Cathrall
I rarely include series in this round up, but the Sunken Archives duology deserves a mention because of its sensitive and compassionate depiction of what it’s like living with debilitating anxiety.
This magical light academia story follows E. and Henerey, who are missing and presumed dead — until fragments of their mysterious (and romantic) communications are found by their siblings. Told through fragments of letters and notes, the first novel focuses on E. and the crippling anxiety which makes it hard for her to leave her home and connect with other people. She struggles with this anxiety while in a long distance romance with Henerey, a scholar of underwater creatures, and the way they navigate it together is really sweet.
A Letter From The Lonesome Shore is a continuation of their story, in which they have found themselves now in each other’s company for real — and face to face with a world that is stranger than fiction.
A Letter From The Lonesome Shore hits shelves on 6 May.
Best Books 2025: June
Awake in the Floating City by Susanna Kwan
The year is 2050, and San Francisco is drowning. Apocalyptic rain has devoured its high rises and forced most of its residents to flee. But Bo, an artist who lost her mother after she was swept away in a storm surge, cannot bring herself to leave. When Mia, her 130-year-old neighbour, hires her as a caretaker, Bo finds a reason to stay and the pair strike up an unlikely friendship.
This literary climate dystopia is about isolation and connection amidst destruction. While its premise might promise some survivalist action, it’s actually a slow and meditative read about the power of family and intimacy. (Side note, but the amount of speculative fiction coming out about apocalyptic floods lately… I’m scared.)
Awake in the Floating City releases on 4 June 2025.
When Devils Sing by Xan Kaur
When Neera Singh strikes a deal with a devil, she thinks it will save her from the poverty plaguing her Southern hometown. Instead, she finds herself investigating the mysterious disappearance of a peer from her family’s motel. Soon, she discovers a web of mystery that indicates the wealthiest people from her small town may be drawing their power from a terrible and ancient source.
Kaur described her YA gothic horror novel as a “critique of the violent pursuit of the American Dream explored through a Southern Gothic lens” which prompts readers to question, “who gets to survive in rural America, and at what cost? Who is allowed to prosper?”
When Devils Sing hits shelves on 3 June, 2025.
Clam Down by Anelise Chen
This unusual memoir follows a writer who, while going through a divorce, is told by her mother to “clam down”. The innocuous typo leads the writer to have a metamorphosis into a clam, retreating into her shell until she is transformed. As a clam, she traces her genealogy, spanning her own father’s disappearance and natural history to challenge her own insecurities and fears of abandonment.
I am famously bored of memoirs, but this genre-defying Kafka-esque exploration of what it means to be human (or clam) has me intrigued. I also love the punny title — both a typo and also an exclamation that reminds me of “diva down!”.
Clam Down releases on 3 June, 2025.
A Mouth Full of Salt by Reem Gaafar
When a little boy drowns in a mighty river, the search for his body unearths treacherous secrets buried in a small northern Sudanese village. This stunning novel follows the stories of three women whose lives are separated by time but connected by the life-giving — yet unforgiving — Nile.
The civil war in Sudan has often been referred to as the “forgotten war” because of how little it is spoken about in the west. It’s estimated that more than 150,000 people have been killed in the carnage since the war began in 2023, and more than 14 million have been displaced — making this the world’s worst displacement crisis.
It’s in times like these that Sudanese storytelling must be elevated more than ever — so these stories are not forgotten.
A Mouth Full of Salt by Reem Gaafar releases on 25 June, 2025.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
The plot of V.E. Schwab’s latest novel has been very hush hush — so much so that even the press release I received with my ARC had no synopsis.
What I can tell you is that it is a multigenerational sapphic vampire story set across three distinct eras: 16th-century Spain, Victorian-era London and present-day Boston. In true V.E. Schwab fashion, it’s a hefty book about dark magic, and girls who hunger for more than life can offer them.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil releases on 10 June, 2025.
The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
Booker Prize nominated author Leila Mottley is back with an empathetic literary fiction novel about teenage mothers and the social fallout they endure — as well as the community they find and nurture together.
The story follows 16-year-old Adela who is banished to a small town in Florida after she falls pregnant. It is here she meets Emory, Simone and The Girls, a community of “wayward” teen mothers who are navigating two of our most intense transitionary periods — girlhood and motherhood — at the same time.
The Girls Who Grew Big releases on 24 June, 2025.
Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove
I’m normally not too interested in reboots and remakes (God knows we are in a crisis of unoriginality right now) but this bonkers re-telling of Dracula has me intrigued.
Of Monsters and Mainframes is a queer sci-fi novel that follows Demeter: a sentient spaceship whose passengers keep dying under mysterious circumstances. Her AI medical system Stuart tells her this is because of equipment failures, but Demeter is pretty sure the deaths have something to do with the ancient vampire that boarded her. So, in order to avoid becoming decommissioned, she and a team of monstrous misfits face down the ultimate evil: Dracula.
I suspect this book will be for fans of TJ Klune’s In The Lives of Puppets — which, if you haven’t read it, is a delightful queer retelling of Pinocchio, complete with sexy robots and a sentient vaccuum.
Of Monsters and Mainframes releases on 1 June, 2025.
Perfect Victims by Mohammed El-Kurd
As a rule, I don’t typically spotlight male authors in this column. However, Mohammed El-Kurd is an exception.
In the almost two years since Israel began its most recent and intense attempt at wiping out Palestinians, El-Kurd has become a critical voice in colonial discourse — especially at a time where people are prone to either demonising or fetishising Palestinians.
Perfect Victims is Mohammed El-Kurd refusing to exist in this binary, challenging depictions of Palestinians on our phones and in our minds which insist they perform perfect victimhood in order to deserve liberation.
Perfect Victims hits shelves on 1 June, 2025.
Flashlight by Susan Choi
One night, when Louisa is 10 years old, she goes to the beach with her father. She washes up on the sand, sodden but alive. Her father does not, and is presumed drowned.
A narrative with impressive scope, Flashlight flits between time, nations and the perspectives of multiple family members as they come back to the night that changed everything. This is a story of a Korean man born and raised in Japan, and of his family’s complicated and confronting history.
Flashlight releases on 3 June, 2025.
