Most Anticipated Book Releases 2025

Sunday 22nd December, 2024 Jaedia Comments 0 Comment

Hi hello! Happy Yule, Merry Christmas, and all of that good cheer and stuff. I had a wild hair to do a post looking over my most anticipated book releases for 2025 and then I saw Jamedi doing it and I was like, “Well, now I gotta, right?” So here I am. Listing books for you good folks once again. I really do miss doing those monthly release posts, you know? Just heck they took a lot of time to put together. I did do one of these kinds of posts last year but it was in checks notes er… February. So a little more timely for 2025!

A few of these I learned about through Jamedi via Trin‘s Discord server. He’s really got his finger on the pulse of SFF (and dips his toes into horror a bit too) and I can definitely recommend checking his stuff out. I also found some through various videos from the likes of Books and Lala and Jordaline… Possibly others I cannot quite recall right now. Some through BlueSky (this is me if you’re on there!). If I hear of something I definitely want to check out, I stick it on my preorders and just before each month I check what I have and ensure I still want what’s ordered at that point, and can afford it. Whether or not all of these make it to my shelves on launch, this is what caught my attention enough to not just make it to a wishlist, but to my current list of preorders. And no, I haven’t even finished going through all of the upcoming releases yet so there’s likely going to be huge changes over the year. Just how it goes!

It’s mostly horror and fantasy, I really am a horror girlie these days though I’ve been enjoying some more epic fantasy in 2024 so that’s been nice. But you know I’ll dip into sci-fi, historical fiction, lit fic… depends on the mood and how interesting something is.

Links included are my affiliate links. Anything purchased through these gives a little money my way and supports me.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman

Horror – 7th January – Amazon UK

The Americans meets The Exorcist as a suburban family are radicalised by a demonic force, seeping through social media and twenty-four hour news cycles. Perfect for fans of Delilah S. Dawson, Gretchen Felker-Martin and Jordan Peele.

Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reckoning” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help.

Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.

But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart-–literally-–as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn–-but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?

This ambitious, searing novel from “one of horror’s modern masters” holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.

Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

Horror Thriller – 7th January – Amazon UK

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner. But the bloody messes don’t bother her, not when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train.

But the killer was never caught, and Cora is still haunted by his last words: bat eater.

These days, nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, not her weird colleagues, and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her doorframe. After all, it can’t be real – can it?

After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes that someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.

Soon, she will learn . . . you can’t just ignore hungry ghosts.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Horror – 16th January – Amazon UK

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a twisted Southern Gothic horror from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group.

‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Every moment of their waking day is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid . . . and it’s usually paid in blood.

At Dark I Become Loathsome by Eric LaRocca

Horror – 28th January – Amazon UK

From the Bram Stoker Award®-finalist and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, a grim yet gentle, horrifying yet hopeful tale of grief, trauma, and love.

If you’re reading this, you’ve likely thought that the world would be a better place without you.

A single line of text, glowing in the darkness of the internet. Written by Ashley Lutin, who has often thought that, and worse, in the years since his wife died and his young son disappeared. But the peace of the grave is not for Ashley—it’s for those he can help. Ashley Lutin has constructed a peculiar ritual for those whose desire to die is at war with their yearning to live a better life.

Struggling to overcome his never-ending grief, one night Ashley connects with Jinx, who spins a tale both revolting and fascinating. This begins a relationship that traps the men in a tightening spiral of painful revelations, where long-hidden secrets are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light.

Only through pain can we find healing. Only through death can we find life.

Landlocked In Foreign Skin by Drew Huff

Science Fiction – 28th January – Amazon UK

How far would you go to reclaim your stolen body?

The Fisherman would do anything.

Anything to return to their natural, monstrous state in the alien oceans of Europa. But they’ve been kidnapped, trapped on a human ship, forced into human form–very pathetic–and dragged into a mad human princess’s plot to find an eldritch god. A princess that also seems…very interested in sharing a bed. Strange. All of this is strange.

The Fisherman can’t fathom why anyone would want to be human.

Small wonder. The Fisherman’s been ripped from their underwater home under Europa’s ice, and stripped of their skin–the nebulous outer layer that enables them to shapeshift for survival. Imprisoned on a ship that’s hunting for a mad undersea god, they must help the crew find it if they want to retrieve their skin and return home.

Dame Isobel, a cruel princess, owns the ship, desperate to find the god in the hopes that it will heal her mortally-injured girlfriend. The Fisherman is stuck in a female human form and pulled into a toxic romantic relationship with Dame Isobel– in a world where being LGBT is punishable by death. In the midst of this insanity, it’s quite clear to the Fisherman: Humanity is confusing, inefficient, and messy.

When Isobel reveals that she will never let the Fisherman go, even if they find the mad god, the Fisherman knows:
It’s time to get violent.

Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner

Horror – 18th February – Amazon UK

Girl in the Creek is a pulse-pounding eco-horror about how climate change is transforming our world, perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and T. Kingfisher.

Buried secrets only spread.

Erin’s brother Bryan has been missing for five years.

It was as if he simply walked into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and vanished. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mt. Hood where Bryan was last seen alive. He isn’t the first hiker to go missing in this area, and their cases go unsolved.

When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces–from this world and beyond–hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried.

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Science Fiction – 27th February – Amazon UK

They looked into darkness. The darkness looked back . . .

An utterly gripping story of survival and first contact on a hostile planet from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time.

A commercial expedition to a distant star system discovers a pitch-black moon alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is deadly to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.

Under no circumstances can a human survive Shroud’s inhospitable surface – but a catastrophic accident forces Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne to make an emergency landing in a barely adequate escape vehicle. Alone, and fighting for survival, the two women embark on a gruelling journey across land, sea and air in search of salvation.

But as they travel, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s unnerving alien species. It also begins to understand them. If they escape Shroud, they’ll somehow have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible. That is, if they make it back at all . . .

The Radiant King (Astral Kingdoms #1) by David Dalglish

Epic Fantasy – 4th March – Amazon UK

The first installment of USA Today bestseller David Dalglish’s latest epic fantasy trilogy about immortal demigods, civil wars, and ancient evil will be irresistible to classic fantasy fans and will appeal to readers of James Islington and Anthony Ryan.

Six immortal siblings. Five sworn to peace. One demands a throne.

Radiance, the mysterious power of life and creation, is theirs to command. Death cannot claim them. For hundreds of years, the ever-living ruled with ease. Yet when the world is nearly broken beneath their reign, the humbled six swear a vow: They will sit upon no thrones, wear no crowns, and no longer teach humanity the gifts of radiance.

But after centuries of peace, Eder rejects their vow, anoints himself Voice of Father, and spreads a new, cruel faith across the land.

Faron cannot allow such indiscretion. Returning from a self-imposed exile, he swears to crush Eder’s kingdom, and he will not do so alone–Sariel, their cold and calculating brother, knows all too well that an ever-living’s dominion is bound for brutality and destruction. But to overthrow a nation, they will need more than each other. They will need an army and a ruler who can take the throne their own vow forbids. And so, they pledge themselves to the fanatical Bastard Princess, a woman with incredible powers she insists were given to her by the goddess Leliel.

But Eder’s conquest is not what it seems, and it will take more than a holy war to stop an immortal who has heard the desperate plea of a god.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Historical Horror – 18th March – Amazon UK

A chilling historical horror set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. Perfect for fans of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab and Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice.

Etsy Beaucarne is an academic, who needs to get published. So when a journal, written in 1912 by a Arthur Beaucarne, a Lutheran pastor and her grandfather, is discovered within a wall during renovations, she sees her chance. She can uncover the lost secrets of her family, and get tenure.

As she researches, she comes to learn of her grandfather, and a Blackfeet called Good Stab, who came to Arthur to share the story of his extraordinary life. She discovers the journals detail a slow massacre, a chain of events charting the history of Montana state as it formed. A cycle of violence that leads all the way back to 217 Blackfeet murdered in the snow.

A blood-soaked and unflinching saga of the violence of colonial America, a revenge story like no other, and the chilling reinvention of vampire lore from the master of horror.

Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen

Gothic Horror – 25th March – Amazon UK

“I’m in your blood, and you are in mine…”

The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy’s twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband’s grand estate. The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister’s condition, but it’s clear her twin is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is harboring secrets of her own, too.

Then, the worst happens. Sarah’s behavior takes a turn for the strange. She becomes angry… and hungry.

Lucy soon comes to suspect that something is trying to possess her beloved sister. Or is it madness? As Sarah changes before her very eyes, Lucy must reckon with the dark, monstrous truth, or risk losing her forever.

Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes

Science Fiction Horror – 8th April – Amazon UK

Cold Eternity is the newest action-packed space horror from S.A. Barnes, where desperation for eternal life leads to a fate worse than death…

Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth’s most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago…

The cryo program, created by trillionaire tech genius Zale Winfeld, is long defunct, and the AI hologram “hosts,” ghoulishly created in the likeness of Winfeld’s three adult children, are glitchy. The ship feels like a crypt, and the isolation gets to Halley almost immediately. She starts to see figures crawling in the hallways, and there’s a constant scraping, slithering, and rattling echoing in the vents.

It’s not long before Halley realizes she may have gotten herself trapped in an even more dangerous situation than the one she was running from….

A Song of Legends Lost (The Invoker Trilogy) by M.H. Ayinde

Epic Fantasy – 8th April – Amazon UK

A SONG OF REBELLION. A SONG OF WAR. A SONG OF LEGENDS LOST.

In the Nine Lands, only those of noble blood can summon the spirits of their ancestors to fight in battle. But when Temi, a commoner from the slums, accidentally invokes a powerful spirit, she finds it could hold the key to ending a centuries-long war.

But not everything that can be invoked is an ancestor. And some of the spirits that can be drawn from the ancestral realm are more dangerous than anyone can imagine.

When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

Horror Thriller – 22nd April – Amazon UK

An unabashed, adrenaline-fueled pop horror thriller about parenthood and other monsters from “The Stephen King of TikTok” The Lineup, reminiscent of Joe Hill and Grady Hendrix.

One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy’s father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.

As they attempt to evade the boy’s increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first Jess thinks she understands what they’re up against, but she’s about to learn there’s more to these surreal and grisly events than she could’ve ever imagined.

And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig

Horror – 29th April – Amazon UK

Five high school friends, bonded by an oath to protect each other no matter what.

On a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere

One friend walks up – but never comes back down.

Now twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared, and the friends return to find the lost boy – and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods…

The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

Historical Dark Fantasy – 6th May – Amazon UK

Europe stares into the abyss.

Plague and famine stalk the land, monsters lurk in every shadow and greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions. Only one thing is certain: the elves will come again, and they will eat everyone.

Sometimes, only the darkest paths lead towards the light. Paths on which the righteous will not dare to tread . . .

And so, buried beneath the sacred splendour of the Celestial Palace, is the secret Chapel of the Holy Expediency. For its congregation of convicted monsters there are no sins that have not been committed, no lines that will not be crossed, and no mission that cannot be turned into a disastrous bloodbath.

Now the hapless Brother Diaz must somehow bind the worst of the worst to a higher cause: to put a thief on the throne of Troy, and unite the sundered church against the coming apocalypse.

When you’re headed through hell, you need the devils on your side.

A Steep and Savage Path by JJA Harwood

Fantasy Romance – 8th May – Amazon UK

From the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of THE THORNS REMAIN comes an enemies-to-lovers journey to the underworld unlike any other, for fans of THE CRIMSON MOTH and THE CRUEL PRINCE

An immortal vampire. A mortal bride. A vow that even death can’t break.

Irina is about to be married to a dead man. She is the willing village sacrifice for the Wedding of the Dead: a desperate ritual designed to lay the hungry vampire that has been terrorising her Transylvanian village to rest. Irina’s beloved sister’s soul is trapped in the land of the dead. If Irina can retrieve it, she could bring her back – but Irina would need a guide, one who can walk between the living and the dead.

Irina strikes up a deal with her new husband – if he agrees to get her safely there and back again, then he can drink her blood as much as he wants.

They begin a perilous journey through the afterlife together, in which Irina realises Stefan isn’t the cruel and terrifying monster that she thought. In a land of three-headed beasts, winged creatures and walking corpses, the last thing Irina would have expected was to fall in love.

Only, Irina learns that by bringing Stefan to the land of the dead she has put him in grave danger, and will be faced with an impossible choice. Will they be able to make it out, undead or alive?

Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd by Delilah S Dawson

Epic Fantasy – 10th May – Amazon UK

A party of adventurers must brave the horrors of Ravenloft in this official Dungeons & Dragons novel!

Five strangers armed with steel and magic awaken in a mist-shrouded land, with no memory of how they arrived: Rotrog, a prideful orcish wizard; Chivarion, a sardonic drow barbarian; Alishai, an embittered tiefling paladin; Kah, a skittish kenku cleric; and Fielle, a sunny human artificer.

After they barely survive a nightmarish welcome to the realm of Barovia, a carriage arrives bearing an invitation: Fairest Friends, I pray you accept my humble Hospitality and dine with me tonight at Castle Ravenloft. It is rare we receive Visitors, and I do so Endeavor to Make your Acquaintance. The Carriage shall bear you to the Castle safely, and I await your Arrival with Pleasure. Your host, Strahd von Zarovich

With no alternative, and determined to find their way home, the strangers accept the summons and travel to the forbidding manor of the mysterious count. But all is not well at Castle Ravenloft. To survive the twisted enigmas of Strahd and his haunted home, the adventurers must confront the dark secrets in their own hearts and find a way to shift from strangers to comrades—before the mists of Barovia claim them forever.

Six Wild Crowns (Queens of Elben #1) by Holly Race

Epic Fantasy – 10th June – Amazon UK

NO KING CAN RULE THEM.

THE TUDOR QUEENS AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN THEM BEFORE – DISCOVER YOUR NEW EPIC FANTASY OBSESSION.

The king has been appointed by god to marry six queens. Those six queens are all that stand between the kingdom of Elben and ruin. Or so we have been told.

Each queen vies for attention. Clever, ambitious Boleyn is determined to be Henry’s favourite. And if she must incite a war to win Henry over? So be it.

Seymour acts as spy and assassin in a court teeming with dragons, backstabbing courtiers and strange magic. But when she and Boleyn become the unlikeliest of things – allies – the balance of power begins to shift. Together they will discover an ancient, rotting magic at Elben’s heart. A magic that their king will do anything to protect.

A captivating epic fantasy filled with dragons, court politics and sapphic yearning, perfect for fans of The Priory of the Orange Tree and House of the Dragon.

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

Horror – 10th June – Amazon UK

From V. E. Schwab, the No. 1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying, unforgettable novel to sink your teeth into.

Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532.
London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.

Awakened by Laura Elliott

Horror – 10th June – Amazon UK

Science has stolen sleep and awakened a world of horror.

“I’ve been an insomniac all of my life, but I’m not Sleepless and I won’t become Sleepless, just as long as the chips that were put into their heads never get put into mine. There’s little chance of that, since I won’t put the machinery into my brain and neither will Edgar and neither will the Professor, and we’re the only three left who could. I don’t want to be Sleepless…”

Civilisation has ended. In a bid to make us more productive, to give us more time, science took sleep from humanity. But sleeplessness turned people into feral monsters and now a small group of scientists are trapped in the Tower of London, consumed by guilt at what they have done and desperately searching for a cure. And then one day, as the last ravens circle, two miraculous survivors walk into the Tower.

Are they the answer or a terrible question?

The Last Vigilant (Kingdom of Oak and Steel #1) by Mark A. Latham

Epic Fantasy – 24th June – Amazon UK

The Last Vigilant begins an unmissable new epic fantasy series, where unforgettable characters, intricate conspiracies and ancient magic collide

Shunned by the soldiers he commands, haunted by past tragedies, Sargent Holt Hawley is a broken man. But the child of a powerful ally has gone missing, and war between once peaceful nations is on the horizon. So, he and his squad have been sent to find a myth: the Vigilant. They are a rumored last survivor of an ancient order capable of performing acts of magic, and they’ve been lost to the world for decades. No one truly expects Hawley to succeed.

When he is forced to abandon his men, he stumbles upon a woman who claims to be the Last Vigilant. Enelda Drake is wizened and out of practice, and she seems a far cry from the heroes of legend. But they will need her powers, and each other, to survive. For nothing in the town of Scarfell is as it seems. Corrupt soldiers and calculating politicians thwart their efforts at every turn.

And there are dark whispers on the wind threatening the arrival of an ancient and powerful enemy. The Last Vigilant is not the only myth returning from the dead.

American Rapture by CJ Leede

Genre-Bending Thriller – 26th June – Amazon UK

The scorching new feminist apocalyptic novel and instant international bestseller from CJ Leede, the author of Maeve Fly. One of Esquire and Vulture‘s Best Horror Books of the year and a GoodReads Editors’ Pick.

In C.J Leede’s latest genre-bending thriller, Sophie, a good Catholic girl who has been kept separate from the world, must traverse the apocalyptic hellscape of the midwest to try to find her lost brother, whilst learning the reality of her own sexuality in a suddenly lust-filled world.

A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust. Nothing in Sophie’s strict religious upbringing could have prepared her for the arrival of the scorching winds that sweep through the Midwest – not the righteous breath of God, but an evil gust that delivers an ungodly, fevered lust unto the virtuous and the wicked alike.

Though her own body has become a carnal battleground, she must somehow find her way through the ravaged world to rescue her brother, hoping the fever hasn’t taken him; hoping he can still be saved. The end times are coming and Sophie soon discovers that there are far worse fates than dying a virgin . . .

Tenderly, I Am Devoured by Lyndall Clipstone

Gothic Fantasy Romance – 1st July – Amazon UK

Perfect for fans of Saltburn, For the Wolf, and House of Hollow, Tenderly, I Am Devoured is a moody, monstrously Gothic romantasy in which a young woman must bind herself to a dangerous chthonic demon with the help of the son of a rival family to save her family’s legacy–and herself–from ruin.

Expelled from her prestigious boarding school following a violent incident, eighteen-year-old Lacrimosa Arriscane returns home in disgrace to discover her family on the point of financial ruin. Desperate to save them, she accepts a marriage of convenience… to Therion, the chthonic god worshipped by Lark’s isolated coastal hometown.

But when her betrothal goes horribly wrong, Lark begins to vanish from the mortal realm. Her only hope is to seek help from Alastair Felimath: the brilliant, arrogant boy who was her first heartbreak, and his alluring older sister, Camille. As the trio delve into the folklore of gods, Lark falls under the spell of the Felimath siblings.

Ensnared by a fervent romance, they perform a bacchanalia with hopes the hedonistic ritual will repair the connection between Lark and her bridegroom. Instead, they draw the ire of something much darker, which seeks to destroy Therion–and Lark as well.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling

Medieval Horror – 3rd July – Amazon UK

From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing fever dream of medieval horror following three women in a besieged castle that descends ravenously into madness under the spell of mysterious, godlike visitors.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Horror – 17th July – Amazon UK

Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.

‘Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches’: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva – stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.

In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.

Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.

The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

Horror – 22nd July – Amazon UK

Dark academia meets cosmic horror in this murderous tale of betrayal and broken hearts at an elite academy for the gods and monsters of the world, perfect for fans of The Atlas Six, If We Were Villains and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told when she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But there’s more to Hellebore than meets the eye. On graduation day, the faculty go on a ravenous rampage, feasting on Alessa’s class. Only Alessa and a group of her classmates escape the carnage. Trapped in the school’s library, they must offer a human sacrifice every night, or else the faculty will break down the door and kill everyone.

Seven Recipes for Revolution by Ryan Rose

Epic Fantasy – 22nd July – Amazon UK

The Bear meets Attack on Titan in this exhilarating, food-based epic fantasy filled with high stakes and monster steaks, perfect for fans of Pierce Brown and Jay Kristoff.

Paprick is a common butcher, carving slabs of meat from gargantuan monsters so elite chefs can prepare magic-granting meals for the rich. But Paprick’s true passion is cooking, and if he can learn the secret art, his dreams of liberating his people and sharing the monsters’ magic with the world could come true. He steals the precious ingredients needed to practise recipes at home, but if he’s caught, he’ll be executed.

As his desperation grows, he ventures into the black market and uncovers a spice imported from unknown lands. Combining it with the last of his stolen meat, he cooks a dish the world has never tasted before, with side-effects he couldn’t have foreseen.

The dish’s magic grows Paprick to kaiju-size, and legends of his powers spread among the people. Immediately, the rulers arrest him, but Paprick convinces them to make him a chef’s apprentice—if they ever want to learn his Recipe. However, his exposure to the world of high cuisine reveals the rot at its centre, and with his new power, rebellion is only a few recipes away…

Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher

Fantasy – 19th August – Amazon UK

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes Hemlock & Silver, a dark reimagining of “Snow White” steeped in poison, intrigue, and treason of the most magical kind

Healer Anja regularly drinks poison.

Not to die, but to save– seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on.

But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja’s unorthodox methods can save her.

Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick.

Or it might be the thing that kills them all.

It Was Her House First by Cherie Priest

Horror Thriller – 22nd August – Amazon UK

Ronnie doesn’t know it yet, but her fate rests in the hands of the dead.

Silent film star Venita Rost’s malevolent spirit lurks spider-like in her cliffside mansion, a once-beautiful home that’s claimed countless unlucky souls. And she’s not alone. Snared in her terrible web, Inspector Bartholomew Sloan―her eternal nemesis―watches her wreak havoc in helpless horror, shackled by his own guilt and Venita’s unrelenting wrath.

Now the house has yet another new owner. This time it’s Ronnie Mitchell, a grieving woman who buys the run-down place sight unseen. She arrives armed with an unexpected inheritance, a strong background in renovation, and a blissful ignorance regarding the house’s blood-soaked history. But her arrival has stirred up more than just dust and decay. In the shadows, unseen eyes watch. Then, a man comes knocking. He brings wild stories and a thinly veiled jealousy, as well as a secret connection to the house that can only lead to violence.

Venita’s fury awakens, and a deadly game unfolds.

Caught between a vengeful ghost and a ruthless living threat, Ronnie’s skepticism crumbles. The line between living and dead isn’t as sharp as it seems, and she realizes too late that in Venita’s house, survival might be just an illusion.

8114 by Joshua Hull

Horror – 26th August – Amazon UK

8114 is a terrifying horror novel investigating the mysterious death of a high school friend through an embattled podcast and hallucinatory hauntings at the abandoned house of his childhood.

After returning to his hometown, Paul, the beleaguered host of a small-time podcast, discovers a longtime friend committed suicide in the dilapidated ruins of Paul’s childhood home. Desperate to find answers, Paul interviews friends and locals hoping to find closure. He finds himself in a chilling downward spiral of his memories and the land he grew up on. Has his past caught up with him or is there something far more sinister at play?

Joshua Hull, screenwriter of Glorious, brings an edge of horror film expertise to this story of small-town haunting, trauma, and grief that just won’t let go. 8114 roots out the rot of a small town’s past and unravels the memories we must face to survive the present.

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Horror Fantasy – 28th August – Amazon UK

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld.

Two academic rivals from Cambridge must travel to hell to rescue the soul of their advisor. Getting there was easy. Surviving it – and each other – is another thing entirely.

2025’s most unexpected love story is going to be hell in the new novel by Sunday Times Number One Bestseller R.F. Kuang. Coming August 2025.

We Are Always Tender with Our Dead (Burnt Sparrow #1) by Eric LaRocca

Horror – 23rd September – Amazon UK

Michael McDowell’s Blackwater meets Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show in the disturbing first installment of a new trilogy of transgressive literary horror from the Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

The lives of those residing in the isolated town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, are forever altered after three faceless entities arrive on Christmas morning to perform a brutal act of violence—a senseless tragedy that can never be undone. While the townspeople grieve their losses and grapple with the aftermath of the attack, a young teenage boy named Rupert Cromwell is forced to confront the painful realities of his family situation. Once relationships become intertwined and more carnage ensues as a result of the massacre, the town residents quickly learn that true retribution is futile, cruelty is earned, and certain thresholds must never be crossed no matter what.

Engrossing, atmospheric, and unsettling, this is a devastating story of a small New England community rocked by an unforgivable act of violence. Writing with visceral intensity and profound eloquence, LaRocca journeys deep into the dark heart of Burnt Sparrow, leaving you chilled to the bone and wanting more.

The Isle in the Silver Sea Hardcover by Tasha Suri

Fantasy Romance – 28th October – Amazon UK

“This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle […] This precious stone set in the silver sea […] This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.” – Richard II, Shakespeare

THE ISLE IN THE SILVER SEA is out in October 2025, and it’s my dive into the world of British folklore, Arthuriana, queer community, and what it means to love – and kill – your other half over hundreds of lifetimes. Yes, this is my sapphic knight/witch reincarnation romance novel. This is also a novel about monarchy and the myths wielded by those in power. What truths – and what tales – lie under the nationalistic myths we’re told define us? In truth, I wrote this for anyone else who has felt as if they were from ‘Elsewhere’ – invisible in the tales that raised them.

King Sorrow by Joe Hill

Horror – 30th October – Amazon UK

Arthur Oakes is an outsider. His mother is in prison, his father is long gone, so he spends his time lost in the legends of English mythology. Then one unintended incident – one moment of standing up for another underdog – leaves his mother in danger and him with orders to steal rare books from the college library. And the events that will unfold from that single act of bravery will lead to slaughter.

Because his gang of six close friends, all outsiders, intend to use a tome bound in human skin in an arcane ritual to summon the notorious dragon-demon King Sorrow to kill their tormentors… They enter into a pact – King Sorrow will kill the couple who have been terrorising the group in exchange for their worship.

But dragons are not to be trusted, and soon they realise this isn’t just revenge. They must repeat the ritual every year – including choosing who their King will kill next…

From 1980s Midwest America to 2020s England, King Sorrow is a game-changing horror novel with an unforgettable cast led by six clever, damaged protagonists battling all manner of menaces, both supernatural and all too human – unmissable for fans of Stephen King, Jordan Peele, and Leigh Bardugo.

So er yeah. That’s everything I have on my pre-order list at time of posting. I got a little more into booktube this year and book community and so I’ve started noting more releases that catch my eye. Heck seeing them all lined up like this gets me excited all over again. I just really love books, you guys! And after a bit of a so-so year in 2024, I’m actually real hopeful about a great many of these. It’s looking like 2025 could be an incredible year for new releases! Of course, I’ll continue reading older releases too. I’m a snail-paced reader and have so much left unread, I gotta balance between the two. It’s nice having a new book or two each month, though.

Any of these got your eye? What are you sneefing for 2025? Let me know in the comments! Maybe I’ve missed something real interesting.