Featuring Lily King, David Szalay, Gish Jen, Han Kang, and More

It’s time to fête some fiction.

We, the dogged review sleuths at Book Marks, have spent the past 12 months ferreting out raves, pans, and everything in between from more than 150 publications. Yes, every outlet from the New York Times to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Scotsman to the Los Angeles Review of Books was combed through. Every damn book review under the sun was considered.

At the end of it all, we ran the numbers, checked ’em twice, and can now report, with near-certitude, that these are the best reviewed fiction titles of 2025.

Happy holidays and happy reading!

Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews.

*

1. Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen (Knopf)

14 Rave • 3 Positive Read an essay by Gish Jen here

“Oscillates between plainspoken narrative and bold, italicized dialogues between Gish and her kvetching dead mother. The conceit is risky but pays off. The imagined colloquies punctuate the prose like counter melodies … The exchanges are edged with humor and skepticism: the mother scoffing at or replying brusquely to her daughter’s reminiscences, questions, speculations … What transforms it into a transcendent work of art is Jen’s empathy for all her characters.”

–Rhoda Feng (The Boston Globe)

2. Heart the Lover by Lily King (Grove)

14 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an interview with Lily King here

“King captures her guileless sense of awe with just a dusting of parody that never grows silly or bitter … Tender … With deft dialogue and knowing asides, King suggests Jordan’s nagging unease, the awkward feeling of wearing a cherished jacket that doesn’t quite fit right … What’s particularly remarkable is how subtly King ages her narrator, preserving the kernel of that young woman’s openhearted urgency in the older woman’s complex voice … Her style is too natural to be called poetic, but there’s definitely something poetic about her sense of narrative structure … Only Lily King could tell a story so steeped in sorrow and so filled with hope.”

–Ron Charles (The Washington Post)

3. Flesh by David Szalay (Scribner)

**18 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Flesh here **

“A gentle yet deeply affecting novel about a taciturn man who overcomes abuse and loss early in life to stumble into transitory contentment—if not quite true happiness—as an adult … Fascinating and unexpected … If you’ve ever woken up to the realization that your life has become something you never planned for, anticipated, or desired, you’ll likely find Flesh all too human.”

–Cory Oldweiler (The Boston Globe)

4. Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser (Catapult)

20 Rave • 2 Positive • 2 Mixed Read an excerpt from Theory & Practice here

“Deftly crafted … The excesses of 1980s academia are ripe fodder for de Kretser’s mordant wit, but her aim here is more ambitious—and the results more rewarding. An Australian novelist of the first rank… de Kretser has long been fascinated by the gap between our ideals and our actions … A taut, enthralling hybrid of fact and fiction impossible to disentangle, situates itself firmly in the mess.”

–Emily Eakin (The New York Times Book Review)

5. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hogarth)

14 Rave • 1 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Not so much a novel as a marvel … Here is sweet validation of the idea that to create something truly transcendent—a work of art depicting love, family, nature and culture in all their fullness—might take time … Where to begin analyzing these close-to-700 pages, not one extraneous or boring? … One of the many miracles of Desai’s writing is the attention she gives to secondary and even minor characters … Among those most rarefied books: better company than real-life people. Feel the tingle.”

–Alexandra Jacobs (The New York Times)

6. We Do Not Part by Han Kang, trans. by E Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (Hogarth)

21 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan

“Lushly poetic … While narratively the novel comprises just two voices, the memories and spirits of many thousands occupy its pages, and especially in its latter half, the voices feel as if they emanate from an almost ethereal plane of existence … [A] masterpiece.”

–Cory Oldweiler (The Boston Globe)

7. The South by Tash Aw (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

12 Rave • 4 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Aw allows much to remain unknown, uncertain, or unsaid in The South, and he does so beautifully, allowing readers to find the nuance within the very specific scenes … A strong opening for Aw’s projected quartet, a quiet yet expansive novel, and it’s with great anticipation that I discovered that he is already hard at work on the second installment. If the first book is anything to go by, there is a lot to look forward to.”

–Ilana Masad (The Los Angeles Times)

=8. Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett (Little Brown)

12 Rave • 2 Positive • 3 Mixed Read a craft essay by Adam Haslett here

“Acute empathy and insight … I have never read a more informed and vividly rendered account of Peter’s daunting profession … Documents an emotional odyssey that in the end feels satisfying and real, and Haslett’s account of Peter’s life is unparalleled in its portrayal of a worker on the front lines of our immigration wars buckling under the weight of his burden.”

–Mary Ann Gwinn (The Los Angeles Times)

=8.So Far Gone by Jess Walter (Harper)

12 Rave • 2 Positive • 3 Mixed

“Searing and sublime … Walter is a slyly adept social critic, and has clearly invested his protagonist with all of the outrage and heartbreak he himself feels about the dark course our world has taken. He’s also invested his protagonist with a self-deprecating sense of humor that keeps his pessimism from veering into maudlin territory. If there’s hope to be found within this harsh landscape, it’s in our connection with one another.”

–Leigh Haber (The Los Angeles Times)

10. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (Pantheon)

12 Rave • 9 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from The Dream Hotel here

“Powerful, richly conceived … Lalami skates along at the height of her powers as a writer of intelligent, complex characters … Although it relies on a speculative technology for its plot, The Dream Hotel is astounding, elegantly constructed, character-driven fiction.”

–Anita Felicelli (The Los Angeles Times)

**Our System: **

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points The fifteen books with the highest points totals are ranked by weighted average, and the top ten make the list