IndIeReader Staff Picks: standout Fiction 2025
AMERICAN TIGER by Adam Skolnick
Adam Skolnick’s AMERICAN TIGER is an extraordinary, touching story about loss and reconnection as a winsome father-daughter pair navigates a gripping plot.
THE BONES IN THE GARDEN by Elizabeth Michaud
Elizabeth Michaud's poetry in THE BONES IN THE GARDEN beautifully and compellingly runs the gamut from historical injustice to modern themes of love, loss, and age.
F*CK THAT by Joshua Ericson
F*CK THAT is a raw, uncompromising work about mixed-race identity in America that refuses to comfort or educate. Joshua Ericson's controlled fury and precise observations create a necessary testimony about code-switching, survival, and the exhausting performance of acceptability.
THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST by Martyn Burke
Martyn Burke's THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST offers a fresh perspective on the Third Reich, revealing how whispers became a weapon against a regime of deafening propaganda. Centered on a society reporter and her editor, who turn celebrity scandal into resistance, this visceral historical novel blends documented absurdities with a propulsive fictional narrative. Burke's novel is a potent reminder that even frivolous words can fight totalitarianism.
I CONTAIN MULTITUDES by Christopher Hawkins
Christopher Hawkins's I CONTAIN MULTITUDES is a suspenseful and brilliantly realized variation on the concept of visiting parallel universes.
LATER DAYS by Chip Jacobs
Chip Jacobs' LATER DAYS subverts coming-of-age tropes and refuses to transform adolescent suffering into wisdom or institutional cruelty into meaning. Instead, it creates an honest, devastating portrait of trauma without redemption.
OF THE SUN AND THE SEA by Melissa K. Magner
Dense and dramatic yet heartfelt and relatable, Melissa K. Magner's OF THE SUN AND SEA is both a beautiful fantasy adventure and a poignant metaphor for grief and mental health.
STARLIGHT AND CINNAMON by Jem Spears
Jem Spears’s STARLIGHT AND CINNAMON is a deeply romantic, surprisingly complex, and wildly successful debut.
THE TALE OF THE ENGLISH TEMPLAR by Helena P. Schrader
In THE TALE OF THE ENGLISH TEMPLAR, Helena Schrader presents readers with a powerful story about vows kept and vows broken; faith in the face of torture, persecution, and corruption; and love that triumphs against all odds.
TOKYO JUKU by Michael Pronko
Michael Pronko's TOKYO JUKU brings a city to life, populates it with fully rounded characters, and drives a compelling narrative with meticulous plotting.
