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If you freeze in the face of too many options, this is the best news you’ll hear all day: The Goodreads Choice Award winners are here, narrowing down your selection of must-read books to the top 15 of 2025. According to Goodreads—the world’s largest website and social platform for cataloging, rating and reviewing books—readers cast a record-breaking 7.5 million votes this year.
Yes, you could base your reading list on other best-of-2025 selections (like Reader’s Digest‘s picks, which we still think is pretty great). But the best thing about the Goodreads Choice Award winners is that they’re chosen by millions of readers like you.
So get ready because we have the full list of Goodreads winners below, along with details about the books to help you make your selection. Still can’t decide? Nobody said you had to pick only one….
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The 2025 Goodreads Choice Award winners
The Goodreads Choice Awards gives readers a voice in naming the very best books of the year. The awards program is the largest of its kind, with millions of people voting on their favorite reads in various genres. Winning is an accomplishment in the publishing industry, but even being selected as a Goodreads Choice nominee is a major honor.
So which books earned the coveted award? Without further ado, here are the 2025 winners in each book genre.
My Friends by Fredrick Backman
Best Fiction
If you’ve been a Fredrick Backman fan since he published A Man Called Ove, you’ll understand why My Friends leads the votes in the fiction category. In this moving, poignant story by the celebrated Swedish author, four teenagers’ resilience and unshakable bond echo a quarter-century into the future when 18-year-old Louisa discovers a painting that ignites something in her. She embarks on a life-changing journey to discover the meaning behind the mysterious painting. A celebration of friendship, this book is best shared with your closest pals.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Best Historical Fiction
In this propulsive astronaut love story, beloved author Taylor Jenkins Reid weaves a masterful tale of a fictional 1980s space shuttle program. Atmosphere introduces readers to Joan Goodwin, one of the few women selected to participate in a new space program. A reserved physics professor, she leaves her comfortable life behind to join a band of exceptionally talented astronaut candidates. Fighting to prove she has what it takes, Joan soon becomes enamored with Vanessa Ford, a mesmerizing aeronautical engineer who pushes everyone around her to be the best version of themselves. But as the astronauts grow closer, so too does danger. The combination of history, romance and threat of catastrophe makes this truly electric.
Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson
Best Mystery & Thriller
Holly Jackson won legions of fans with her YA bestseller, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. This year, she’s back with another unputdownable thriller filled with suspense and twisty revelations. Her first adult novel, Not Quite Dead will grab you even before page one with this clever premise: 27-year-old Jet knows that she will be dead within a week. On Halloween night, she was brutally attacked by an intruder, her injuries so severe that doctors say she will suffer a fatal aneurysm within seven days. The clock is ticking, but in the time she has left, Jet is determined to discover who attacked her and solve her own murder.
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Best Romance
In this battle of the writers, Alice Scott, an optimist who hasn’t hit her big break yet, and Hayden Anderson, a Pulitzer Prize winner, must fight for the chance to tell the story of an elusive octogenarian living on a remote island. While spending time on Little Crescent Island, Hayden and Alice hear pieces of Margaret’s story, which emerges like a puzzle and threads mystery throughout the book. But this is an Emily Henry novel! So you can count on a few things: Alice and Hayden are drawn to each other, their romance is slow-building and magnetic, and Great Big Beautiful Life is a great, big, beautiful romance.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
Best Fantasy
In this genre-bending fantasy novel, author V.E. Schwab delivers a complex and compelling feminist manifesto that spans centuries. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil weaves a dizzying combination of horror, thriller and fantastical elements, spinning an intoxicating tale about hunger, immortality and love.
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Best Romantasy
The third and final installment of Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean romantasy book series, Onyx Storm begins 18 months after Violet Sorrengail began her journey at Basgiath War College. There’s no time left for lessons or learning; now she must put her education into practice. The battle has begun, and Violet must take a long, arduous journey into unfamiliar lands in order to gather allies who will stand with Navarre.
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Best Sci-Fi
A mind-bending sci-fi dystopian debut from Aisling Rawle, The Compound centers on a group of young reality-TV contestants, with a twisted, high-stakes premise. The world around her may be falling apart, but bored 20-something Lily is content on her desert compound. Along with her housemates, she’s part of a survival-of-the-fittest reality show. The group must complete challenges to win everything from luxuries like Champagne to necessities like food and even a front door. Yet as the stakes continue to rise and the bonds within the group strengthen, Lily must decide what she’s willing to risk in order to win it all.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Best Horror
In the ’70s-set Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the typical home for unwed mothers takes a twisty, horror-filled turn. The Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, collects girls who are loose, fast and pregnant—like 15-year-old Fern. Under the watchful eye of Miss Wellwood, Fern befriends a pack of equally powerless young girls. Hope arrives in the form of an occult book about witchcraft, and with it, the opportunity for power and change becomes a tantalizing reality. But while power gives, it also takes away.
Alchemised by SenLinYu
Best Debut Novel
Readers are going absolutely wild for this dark fantasy, author SenLinYu’s debut novel. In Alchemised, former alchemist Helena Marino is a prisoner in a necromancer-ruled world, her memories vaporized and seemingly out of reach. Eventually, it becomes apparent that Helena’s lost memories may hold a valuable key that unlocks critical information to the resistance, a group of fighters trying to overturn the necromancers. Can Helena uncover her memories and keep them from being used for evil?
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
Best Audiobook
Best Romantasy winner Onyx Storm makes another appearance on the Goodreads Choice winners list for its audio edition, and if you prefer to listen to your books, this is the ideal format for experiencing Yarros’s cult hit. With the audiobook, listeners get a performance from four different narrators—Rebecca Soler, Jasmin Walker, Justis Bolding and Teddy Hamilton—which brings the beloved characters to life.
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Best Young Adult Fantasy & Sci-Fi
The highly anticipated fifth installment of the long-running Hunger Games YA book series provides the origin story of beloved character Haymitch Abernathy. In Sunrise on the Reaping, we follow Haymitch as he’s chosen to compete in the Hunger Games on its 50th anniversary, a celebratory year that sees twice as many tributes selected. Haymitch is thrust into a world he never asked for, and he soon discovers that there is a fighter within that has the will to survive.
Fake Skating by Lynn Painter
Best Young Adult Fiction
Bookworms are big fans of hockey romances. And they’re even bigger fans of the enemies-to-lovers trope. So it should probably come as no surprise that Lynn Painter’s YA rom-com won readers’ hearts. In Fake Skating, a disgraced hockey player and figure skater—former friends who are now closer to enemies—fake a romance in order to repair their tarnished reputations. There’s just one problem: The faux romance feels a lot more real than either of them expected it to.
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green
Best Nonfiction
Who would have thought a book about tuberculosis would win the Best Nonfiction award? And who would have guessed that John Green (yes, beloved YA author John Green) would pen the book? Everything Is Tuberculosis is a surprisingly earnest and witty reflection on the world’s deadliest disease, told with heart and humanity, by one of the 21st century’s most beloved storytellers.
The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke
Best Memoir
The House of My Mother is the shocking, powerful and brave book from the eldest daughter of the Franke family, which became famous for its 8 Passengers YouTube channel and infamous for mother Ruby’s abuse. This deeply personal memoir uncovers the heart-wrenching abuse Shari and her siblings faced at the hands of their mother. Explosive and honest, the book reveals the hidden reality that unfolded behind the closed doors of the Franke home while identifying the consequences of influencer culture and Shari’s own battle for survival.
How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy’s Guide to Silencing Women by Zoe Venditozzi and Claire Mitchell
Best History & Biography
Zoe Venditozzi and Claire Mitchell, hosts of the popular Witches of Scotland podcast, uncover the grisly business of identifying, trying and executing women who were labeled witches during the Reformation period. In the process, they unravel a patriarchal system that continues to thrive centuries later. With trial transcripts, firsthand accounts and legal documents, How to Kill a Witch reveals a haunting and violent history.
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Source:
- Goodreads: “Readers’ Favorite Books of 2025”
