The Most Anticipated Books Of Summer 2025

Summer’s here, and with it, lazy afternoons, poolside weekends, and maybe even a beach day or two. In other words: ample opportunity for getting back into your reading habit, even if you’ve let it slide in recent months.

Not sure what title to pick up first? If you’re looking for something contemporary, there’s no shortage of great new releases hitting bookstores in the coming months. Some are from tried-and-true favorites: Melissa Febos is back with The Dry Season, another thought-provoking memoir; R.F. Kuang delivers another dark academia tale with Katabasis; and Catherine Lacey once again pulls off a magic trick with the half-memoir, half-fiction The Möbius Book. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg: New books are forthcoming from blockbuster novelist Taylor Jenkins Reid, known for authoring beloved bestsellers like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six; from famed fantasy writer V.E. Schwab, whose novel The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue won avid fans and accolades alike; from Megan Gidings, who dazzled readers with 2022’s witchy dystopian epic The Women Could Fly; and from acclaimed genre-hopper Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who first broke through with 2020’s Mexican Gothic.

But there are plenty of debuts to get excited about, too: Stephanie Wambugu’s novel Lonely Crowds has literary circles buzzing, as does Michael Clune’s psychological fiction Pan. And after Ruben Reyes Jr.’s short-story collection hit shelves last year, readers are clamoring to read his first-ever novel, Archive of Unknown Universes.

All this to say, there’s no time to waste. Below, check out these highlights and more highly anticipated books, all of which deserve a spot on your to-read list.

Meet Me at the Crossroads by Megan Giddings

Out June 3. The award-winning author of Lakewood returns with this thought-provoking coming-of-age novel — a fantastical tale, yes, but also a haunting exploration of grief, faith, and the bond of sisterhood. It begins with Olivia and Ayanna, teenage identical twins, experiencing a world-changing event: the sudden appearance of seven doors that transport people to an unknown place. Ayanna is wary of the mysterious portals, but Olivia is curious — and eventually goes missing. — Gabrielle Bondi, entertainment editor

The Dry Season by Melissa Febos

Out June 3. After 20 years as a self-described serial monogamist, Melissa Febos entered into a period of celibacy. In The Dry Season, Febos interweaves her own narrative with research and reflections on desire that will keep you thinking well beyond the last page. — Grace Wehniainen, staff writer

The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison

Out June 3. We’ve got a Hollywood star, a nervous breakdown, an impromptu trip to Ireland, and... an alternate reality in which the protagonist’s best friend never died. Paige Harbison is one of the funniest writers working today, and this book delivers plenty of heart, too. — Hannah Orenstein, deputy editor, lifestyle and wellness

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

Out June 3. Maggie Stiefvater’s adult debut follows a WWII-era hotel manager as her elegant resort in West Virginia turns into a depository for captured Axis diplomats, forcing her to navigate FBI investigations while attending to the whims of those in her charge — and, perhaps most chillingly, serve Nazis with a smile. — Jake Viswanath, staff writer

How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast

Out June 3. Deep down, Molly Jong-Fast always knew this day would come. No, not the day when she’d lose her mother. (That was a given.) Rather, the day when she’d finally settle the score and write her own memoir about growing up as the daughter of Fear of Flying author Erica Jong. (Who, in her later works, often wrote thinly veiled characters inspired by her daughter's adolescence and experiences with substance abuse.) But in How to Lose Your Mother, Jong-Fast isn’t seeking revenge — instead she’s searching for a way to reckon with the messy realities of celebrity, addiction, and inheritance. — Samantha Leach, associate director, special projects

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Out June 3. The author of bestsellers Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones & The Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is back. For her latest novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid set out to write “a very high-stakes, dramatic love story,” as she recently told Time. With NASA’s 1980s space-shuttle program as the setting, it’s certainly high-stakes — and as readers follow astrophysicist Joan Goodwin on her life-changing journey, they’ll find there’s plenty of romance, too. (Read an exclusive excerpt here.) — Stephanie Topacio Long, copy editor

Endling by Maria Reva

Out June 3. Yeva has devoted her life to saving snail “endlings,” the last surviving members of a given species. Her methods are unusual (living in her own mobile lab, traversing the country to find specimens) and her means of securing funds are even more so: As a participant in Ukraine’s “marriage industry,” she’s paid to go on dates with Western bachelors who travel to Eastern Europe in hopes of finding a bride. At a marriage industry event, Yeva meets Nastia, a young woman rebelling against her mother, who made a name for herself protesting the marriage industry — until she abruptly left Nastia and her sister six months ago. Together, Yeva, Nastia, and Nastia’s sister embark on a trip in Yeva’s mobile lab, bringing with them a bunch of kidnapped bachelors. But when Russia invades (yep — this one’s set in 2022), their harebrained scheme skids fully off the rails. — Chloe Joe, features editor

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab

Out June 10. Five years after The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab is back with another speculative saga. This one’s a sapphic vampire love triangle that sprawls across six centuries and at least five countries. It’s bloody, lush, escapist fun — but it’s also a gorgeous meditation on female hunger. How much are you allowed to want? To take? — H.O.

An Exercise in Uncertainty by Jonathan Gluck

Out June 10. In his new memoir, journalist Jonathan Gluck opens up about living with a rare and incurable cancer — multiple myeloma — more than 20 years after his diagnosis. In addition to detailing the practical and surprising realities of navigating his illness, An Exercise in Uncertainty is just that: a moving exploration of one person’s practiced fortitude and determination to keep moving forward, even after the bottom falls out. — G.W.

UnWorld by Jayson Greene

Out June 17. In UnWorld’s near future, people are assisted by their “uploads”: conscious AIs that become digital doubles of their charges, and carry out day-to-day tasks in their stead. Yes, it’s as ethically thorny as it sounds, but most don’t think much of it, including Anna — until, months after her son’s death by suicide, her upload leaves her and ventures into the great, virtual uknown. The mystery will keep you reading into the wee hours. — C.J.

Ecstasy by Ivy Pochoda

Out June 17. Inspired by the Greek tragedy The Bacchae, Ecstasy follows Lena, a widow who feels suffocated by her controlling son and the elite’s societal rules. While attending the opening of her son’s new business in Naxos, a small island in Greece, she encounters a group of women on the beach that awakens something wild and defiant inside of her. At 227 pages, Ivy Pochoda’s new novel is the brisk, feminist beach read you’re looking for. — G.B.

The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey

Out June 17. The Möbius Book is really two books: a novella and a memoir with identical front and back covers. Or maybe it’s one story with no beginning, middle, or end, and maybe that’s the truest way to write about love. Maybe Catherine Lacey, one of our finest linguistic stylists and the author of 2023’s Biography of X, is incapable of recounting a devastating breakup without questioning what it even means to tell a story. It’s not an overstatement to say that The Möbius Book challenges the existing limits of what we think fiction can do. — Greta Rainbow, research editor

Next to Heaven by James Frey

Out June 17. Frey’s first adult novel in seven years follows four glamorous, miserable, and ultra-wealthy couples — a group whose glossy surfaces begin to crack when a swingers party ends in murder. With coke-fueled monologues, a surplus of extramarital sex scenes, and plenty of suburban ennui, Next to Heaven delivers a deliriously over-the-top portrait of decadence on the brink. — S.L.

Make It Ours by Robin Givhan

Out June 24. From founding Off-White to making history as Louis Vuitton’s first Black artistic director, Virgil Abloh had a legendary career. In her touching reflection, filled with thoughtful interviews and insightful anecdotes, Robin Givhan doesn’t only illuminate the enduring influence of the designer’s work but paints a full picture of his kind and unflappable character, too. — G.W.

When Javi Dumped Mari by Mia Sosa

Out June 24. As college students, best friends Javi and Mari promised to never date anyone without the other’s approval. But when Javi realizes it’s Mari he’s wanted all along, Mari reveals that she’s engaged — to a “Pedro Pascal knockoff” he’s never even met, no less. The latest rom-com from Mia Sosa promises plenty of mischief as Javi does his best to stop the wedding, resulting in a situation where the call to “speak now or forever hold your peace” is more than just a formality. — J.V.

The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley

Out June 24. On the heels of her New York Times bestseller Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley returns with a novel about a teenager at a crossroads. After her parents discover she’s pregnant, high schooler Adela Woods is banished to her grandmother’s house in small-town Florida. There, she meets a group of students navigating both girlhood and motherhood with each other’s support, and redefining what it means to be a “teen mom.” — J.V.

Archive of Unknown Universes by Ruben Reyes Jr.

Out July 1. It’s only human to wonder, “What if?” What if I’d fallen in love with someone else? What if I’d gone it alone? What if history had taken a different path — where would I be? The difference, for the characters in Reyes’ novel, is they have access to a device called the Defractor, which lets users see alternate versions of themselves, living out their what ifs. And for Ana and Luis — college students, and children of immigrants who fled the Salvadoran Civil War — those alternate selves open a window into another possible world, in which the war ended differently. — C.J.

Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer

Out July 8. It took just one delirious afternoon hour to read Marlen Haushofer’s Killing Stella, but I have thought about this piercing little book many days since. The Austrian writer’s drama of infidelity and honor, originally published in 1958 and now in English for the first time, is far more feminist than most of what’s on the market today. — G.R.

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart

Out July 8. Gary Shteyngart has done it again. Just as some feared the author’s pandemic-set social comedy, Our Country Friends, might feel too soon and too cringe, the premise of his latest — a story of post-Trump America full of self-driving cars and a campaign to give women three-fifths of a vote — might sound offputting. But Vera, or Faith is ultimately a fable, and 10-year-old narrator Vera Bradford-Shmulkin is so brilliant, funny, and relatably anxious that, through her, we might become receptive to new and necessary understandings of dystopia. Vera means “faith” in Russian; Shteyngart makes the case for not entirely losing it. — G.R.

Bitter Sweet by Hattie Williams

Out July 8. When Charlie scores her first big job working at a London publishing house, she doesn’t expect to encounter the literary star whose novels offered her a lifeline when she lost her mom at 16. Or that the much older, very much married author would be interested in her — and their relationship could unravel her completely. Bitter Sweet is a quietly devastating debut about desire, grief, and power imbalance. — S.L.

Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza

Out July 15. I was elated when Jo Piazza, who (full disclosure) is a close friend of mine, told me she was following up her first thriller, 2024’s The Sicilian Inheritance — which I devoured over the course of a weekend — with another murder mystery. Her latest peels back the curtain on the dark side of influencer culture when a magazine writer’s estranged friend — now a famous “tradwife” with a huge following — goes missing and her husband turns up dead. — Christina Amoroso, editorial director

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Out July 15. The bestselling author of Mexican Gothic returns with a new twisted, multi-generational tale. The Bewitching follows a graduate student named Minerva, whose research centers on stories of witches — an interest first sparked by her great-grandmother Nana Alba’s haunting tales. But Nana Alba’s scary stories begin to feel a bit too real when Minvera begins researching the disappearance of Great Depression-era author Beatrice Tremblay. Turns out, Tremblay’s horror novel was inspired by a true story, and the supernatural force that upended both Tremblay and Nana Alba’s lives might now threaten Minerva’s own. — G.B.

The Payback by Kashana Cauley

Out July 15. In Cauley’s timely and playful novel, three retail co-workers-turned-friends hatch a plot to wipe out student loan debt. From bonding over their distrust of the debt police to carrying out their daring scheme, the trio’s story reads like a delightful heist movie. (Actually, Hollywood, if you’re listening: Snap this one up.) — G.W.

Blowfish by Kyung-Ran Jo

Out July 15. For readers of Han Kang and Sheila Heti, an atmospheric, melancholic novel about a successful sculptor who decides to commit suicide by artfully preparing and deliberately eating a lethal dish of blowfish. — G.R.

The Stone Door by Leonora Carrington

Out July 22. This one’s for the real freaks. If The Hearing Trumpet (Carrington’s brilliantly batsh*t tale about women living in a wacky retirement home, and also a hunt for the Holy Grail) was just too decipherable for your tastes, and if Down Below (her off-the-wall memoir of madness and Nazi-fleeing) felt a touch linear, great news: The Stone Door is just what you’ve been waiting for. — C.J.

Pan by Michael Clune

Out July 22. Fifteen-year-old Nicholas is having panic attacks — at least, that’s what the doctors say. He’s not so sure, eventually landing on a very different explanation: The Greek god Pan is trapped inside him. Obviously. Rendered in dazzling prose, Clune’s debut novel paints a luminous portrait of the unique psychosis that growing up in suburbia can foster. — C.J.

Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde

Out July 22. The author of Vagabonds! — a critically acclaimed novel-in-stories about people living on the fringes of society in Lagos — returns with Necessary Fiction, a book about queerness, chosen families, and what it takes to survive as an outsider. Once again, Osunde brings their characters to life with startling verve. — C.J.

Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky

Out July 29. It’s 2081, and things are not going great: The USA has fallen, and its people have either 1) sought refuge in hyper-militarized, trillionaire-controlled city-states, or 2) decided to fend for themselves in the wilderness. Lucius belongs to the former camp, but to pursue his anthropological research — under the close supervision of one of the aforementioned billionaires — he’s left the New York City Administrative and Security Territory to travel to the Catskills compound of a long-running cult. There, he’s challenged to change his beliefs about sexuality, society, and what it takes to build a better world. This graphic novel is the rare work that manages to impart a clear message — change is possible! — without ever seeming saccharine or trite. — C.J.

Mean Moms by Emma Rosenblum

Out July 29. BDG’s former chief content officer is known for writing twisty, page-turning mysteries that skewer rich people behaving badly. Her latest turn — about a group of wealthy, beautiful New York City private school moms who mysteriously run into a spate of bad luck after a new mother crashes into their lives from Miami — once again delivers satire and intrigue in equal measure. — C.A.

Sloppy by Rax King

Out July 29. Veritable ethnographer of lowbrow Americana, Rax King described her last book, Tacky, to Bustle as “a series of love letters to 12 things that I distinctly remember loving, out of the hundreds and hundreds of things that caused me pain over the course of my life.” Sloppy could be called a series of 17 confessions to vices both personal (stealing from Brandy Melville to distract herself from alcohol withdrawal tremors) and universal (lying, smoking, not texting back). The references are fun and the philosophies are sincere. — G.R.

Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu

Out July 29. Is it a New England campus novel? A coming-of-age under the specter of Catholic guilt? A send-up of the art world and its minority fetish in the early 1990s? Stephanie Wambugu’s impressive debut careens across these worlds, sketching the small and beautiful moments of a life two girls built together while becoming women. The tragedy is the pair’s fundamental difference, distilled as: “Some children believed in stories longer than others.” This instantly classic tale deserves a top-shelf spot in the canon of complex female friendship. — G.R.

Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama by Alexis Okeowo

Out Aug. 5. The sophomore book from New Yorker staff writer Alexis Okeowo blurs the lines between memoir, journalism, and historical nonfiction, bouncing between Alabama’s larger history and her Nigerian parents’ immigration story. All the while, the author wrestles with whether she can grow to love her hometown while acknowledging the state’s crimes against Black communities. — J.V.

She Used to Be Nice by Alexia LaFata

Out Aug. 12. She Used to Be Nice follows a recent college grad whose life changed when she was sexually assaulted. A year later, the man resurfaces. Despite the dark subject matter, it’s also a gritty, bold, and darkly funny exploration of young womanhood. Alexia LaFata captures the messiness of your early 20s with searingly precise accuracy — the fuzzy morning-afters, the emotional weight of friendship, and the wild swings between hope and frustration that permeate your love life, career, and self-confidence. — H.O.

The Re-Write by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

The premise of Blackburn’s new rom-com immediately pulled me in. Your ex goes on a reality dating show? Then you’re hired to ghost-write a memoir for this now-famous ex? Sold! The Re-Write — aptly described “lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers” novel — follows Temi and Wale as they navigate in this unconventional arrangement. It’s a delicious read for Bachelor and Love Island fans who wonder about their favorite contestants’ inevitably messy love lives beyond the show. — G.W.

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders

Our Aug. 19. Jamie hopes to reconnect with her reclusive mother, Serena, by revealing a secret about herself: She’s a witch! So begins Charlie Jane Anders’ novel, which blends magical spells with some very down-to-Earth family healing. Plus, its cozy setting in autumn in New England makes it the perfect read for ushering in fall — and the book’s late-summer release date arrives just in time for those of us (hi!) who don’t mind starting the season ahead of schedule. — G.W.

Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

Out Aug. 26. If you can’t get enough of dark academia, then Katabasis, from the bestselling author of Babel, deserves a spot on your to-read list. In the new novel, rival graduate students Alice and Peter must journey into Hell to save their professor, an acclaimed magician whose demise may have been Alice’s fault. R. F. Kuang builds a detailed, atmospheric world with many twists and turns, but it’s the enemies-to-lovers romance that makes this a true page-turner. — G.B.

A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews

Out Aug. 26. Novelist Miriam Toews shifts to nonfiction with her latest. In A Truce That Is Not Peace, she takes a nontraditional approach, using vignettes, letters to her late sister, quotes, and more to explore the humor and pain of her past. — S.T.L.