Obviously Sunrise on the Reaping! I made a whole reading vlog for it, I was so psyched for this book.

I actually ended up reading this three times last year which is wild! any Hunger Games fans out there who haven’t read this yet, really should, even if you decide its not really for you… but I loved the focus on propaganda and how easily manipulated footage can be, and how media is used to sway the public’s perceptions. Very on topic.

I’ve been loving the series Dial A For Aunties. Its a very fun, quirky, kind-of murder mystery book series based around a Chinese-Indo family of 4 sisters (the aunties) and their niece (the main character) as they start a wedding business together and get into… situations… together! The audiobook is amazingly narrated, they all felt very real and alive.

Sawkill Girls was a bit of a surprise for me this year too, it’s been on the edge of my awareness for years but I had no idea what it was about. I got it confused with Wilder Girls (to be fair, similar vibes) but I LOVED IT and keep thinking about it. Very modern gothic, creepy, magical girls energy… I’m thinking about making a little recommendations videos because there are so many other books, games, TV shows and films I feel like have similar vibes people would enjoy as well!

They Both Die At the End took me out. This one was part of my challenge of reading the books I physically own (which is on hiatus for a little bit as I was having to rely on spotify audiobooks to read them as I can’t find most of these books on the Libby app across 6 libraries… boo boycott spotify!!!) I’m not sure why I didn’t pick this one up sooner but this is another book I keep thinking about since reading it in summer 2025… I even recommended it to my chiropractor who is like… a 45 year old bald white man. Actually devastating, even though you know they both die at the end… imagine living in a world where you get a call telling you you’re going to die sometime in the next 24 hours and you don’t know when or how… *shivers*

I’ve read a lot of great dystopian sci-fi this year and I don’t think I can ignore one of the first books I read in 2025, which was also an iconic dystopian novel, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler… I really got pushed to read it after I saw people talking about how she predicted the California fire season becoming year-round by 2025! Plus many other terrifying things. I preferred the first book but the second is a good follow up to find out how the world issues progressed.