This is the #1 Indie Next List Pick!

Here it finally is, one of the most anticipated books of 2025! Following up on the dark academia fantasy Babel, this new standalone novel follows two students going through hell—literally. Alice and Peter are rivals at Cambridge, but they’ll have to work together to rescue their professor from Hell after he dies in an accident. Partly because they need his recommendation to advance their careers, and partly because his death might be Alice’s fault. —Liberty Hardy

Legendary writer Arundhati Roy writes about her experience growing up with a single mother in Kerala, India. Her mother, Mary, passed away in 2022, and Roy was startled by the depth of her grief. She began to write about her mother “to be able to continue to love her.” Roy’s first memoir is a stunning rumination on grieving and the messiness of truly loving someone. —Kendra Winchester

In her second of three books coming out in 2025, T. Kingfisher tackles the story of Snow White. Anja is a poison-drinking healer who is called to the castle by the king to save his dying daughter, Snow. All of Anja’s abilities are unable to cure her—until she discovers a magic mirror that houses a secret world. Does this world actually house the cure…or their destruction? T. Kingfisher is an auto-buy author for me, which means I have many of her books, because she is so prolific! But honestly, this book had me at “narcissistic cat.” (Which is redundant.) Prediction: “She always had that little drop of poison.” —Liberty Hardy

Steph Harper is determined to become the first Cherokee astronaut. Her ambition will stretch not only her own capabilities but also her relationships with her mother, Hannah; her sister, Kayla; and her college girlfriend, Della. Over the course of three decades, we follow Steph and the three women closest to her as she strives to journey to the stars. Meanwhile, Kayla becomes an Indigenous social media influencer, and Della fights to reclaim her identity after being removed from her Cherokee family as a child. —Danika Ellis

This is for fans of missing person cold cases, sisters, and southern thrillers!

Natalie Campbell disappeared after her 18th birthday. When her blood was discovered in a car, she was presumed murdered, and a man’s arrest closed the case. Now, more than two decades later, her younger sister Claire is an investigative journalist returning home to help care for her mother after an accident. On a whim, she takes a job at a vineyard/farm on the South Carolina coast—the same place her sister worked at right before she disappeared. —Jamie Canaves

Roan Parrish is back to her cozy roots in this story about Jamie, who designs haunted houses for a living and is pretty sure ghosts are nothing but bells and whistles on the human plane. But then they meet Edgar Lovejoy, who has been haunted by ghosts his entire life. It’s been a few years since we’ve gotten anything new from Parrish, and this sounds like another delightfully cozy, sob-worthy hug of a book. —Jessica Pryde

Through the epistolary form of his email drafts, we watch our unnamed protagonist grapple with the complicated realities of queer polyamorous life in the contemporary world, where open marriages aren’t as taboo as they once were, but where his messy feelings still feel unprecedented. There’s no room for grieving a relationship when you’ve got a fulfilling job, an adoring husband, and a trans kid to protect from a cold, transphobic world. His emails start with his ex-boyfriend Ben, but they soon expand to his mom, his therapists, his kids, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and himself.

His therapists (yes, plural) beg him to stop sending them the drafts of his emails to his ex-boyfriend, but I say keep them coming. Middle Spoon playfully explores the anxieties, joys, and uncertainties of modern queer love while also confronting the difficulties of trying to be a good partner, parent, and person in today’s chaotic world. It’s playful yet deep, contemplative yet hilariously entertaining. You’ll love spending a few hours in the head of this unforgettable protagonist. —Susie Dumond

You might recognize Andrew Joseph White from his YA novels like Hell Followed with Us and The Spirit Bares its Teeth, which feature trans and autistic characters. This is his debut adult novel. Appalachia has been invaded by aliens, and the world as we know it is over. For autistic trans man Crane, it’s a fresh start, an opportunity to reinvent himself. He’s also just met and started to fall for Levi. But then Levi gets Crane pregnant, and in the face of the end of humanity, Crane must make a difficult choice that goes against what the rest of the world might want from him. —Danika Ellis