I didn’t track my reading in any formal way this year, and I probably won’t remember to do that very well in 2026 either, but I do have a nice list of highlights, books that I read and loved this year. Some of them are available to go buy or get at your library now, and some are not out yet but you should pre-order them. And there were a few I can’t list properly because they were manuscripts I beta-read for friends and critique partners, but you better believe I’ll be shouting about them as soon as I can.
Highlights from my 2025 Reading
At Dark, I Become Loathsome by Eric LaRocca
Cold Eternity by SA Barnes
When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
The Needfire by MK Hardy
The Faceless Thing We Adore by Hester Steel
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
Good Boy by Neil McRobert
Atlas of Unknowable Things by McCormick Templeman
The Bone Queen by Will Shindler
We Sent Them Down Singing by Libby Edwardson
Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo
You Weren’t Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White
We Are Always Tender with Our Dead by Eric LaRocca
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A Snyder
Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer
Abyss by Nicholas Binge
Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes
A Cold Night for Alligators by Viggy Parr Hampton
The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
Plus several novels that aren’t yet published, which I beta-read for friends, and which I can’t wait to recommend to you as soon as I’m able to.
What I’m currently reading:
The Shining by Stephen King
I saw a post recently that I can’t remember verbatim, but which was recommending re-reading your old favorites periodically. It said something like, “The book never changes, but your perspective will.” And it hit just right, that sentiment, as I’ve been re-reading this one. I like The Shining more now than I ever have, and it was always a book that was important to me.
What I’m excited to read next:
The Secret Attic by Chelsea Conradt
Our Winter Monster by Dennis Mahoney
rekt by Alex Gonzalez
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
Dig by J. H. Markert
A Veritable Household Pet by Viggy Parr Hampton
Edenville by Sam Rebelein
Wretch by Eric LaRocca
Sick Houses by Leila Taylor
(since writing this list I’ve already thought of three more books that I’m adding to it, but actively updating the list would be a whole job, so suffice it to say that I’m looking forward to those books up there in my immediate future, and also I’m already excited about books I will be reading up to a year from now, and I will likely never be able to list them all)
This post has been an excerpt from my newsletter, C. J. Dotson’s Dreadful Dispatch. Read the rest here!