2025 Library Journal Best Books (Awarded by Library Journal)

Awards List

Graphic Novels

You Must Take Part in Revolution
(*)
Badiucao

The Cabbie: Definitive Edition
(*)
Riera Ferrer

The Legend of Kamui
(*)
Shirato Sanpei

Les Normaux: A Graphic Novel
(*)
Janine Janssen

Baby Blue
(*)
Bim Eriksson

The Curse of Monte Cristo: A Reimagining of the Novel by Alexandre Dumas
(*)
David Dabel

Fishflies
(*)
Jeff Lemire

Helen of Wyndhorn
(*)
Tom King

Santos Sisters Vol. 1
(*)
Greg & Fake

The New York Trilogy: City of Glass, Ghosts, The Locked Room
(*)
Paul Auster

The Pit
(*)
Erik Kriek

Spent: A Comic Novel
(*)
Alison Bechdel

Gaysians
(*)
Michael Curato

It Rhymes With Takei
(*)
George Takei

10,000 Ink Stains: A Memoir
(*)
Jeff Lemire

Death in Trieste
(*)
Jason

Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me
(*)
Mimi Pond

The Knives: A Criminal Book
(*)
Ed Brubaker

The Once and Future Riot
(*)
Joe Sacco

Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Life, Taken by Force
(*)
Ben Passmore

Out of Alcatraz
(*)
Christopher Cantwell

Total THB, Volume 1
(*)
Paul Pope

Horror

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes
(*)
Clay McLeod Chapman

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
(*)
Grady Hendrix

At Dark, I Become Loathsome
(*)
Eric LaRocca

The Poorly Made and Other Things: A Story Collection
(*)
Sam Rebelein

Victorian Psycho
(*)
Virginia Feito

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

Fever Dreams of a Parasite
(*)
Pedro Iniguez

The Unworthy
(*)
Agustina Bazterrica

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng
(*)
Kylie Lee Baker

Cold Eternity
(*)
S.A. Barnes

Direct Descendant
(*)
Tanya Huff

The Sundowner's Dance
(*)
Todd Keisling

When the Wolf Comes Home
(*)
Nat Cassidy

The Country Under Heaven
(*)
Frederic S. Durbin

The Night Birds
(*)
Christopher Golden

The Starving Saints
(*)
Caitlin Starling

Ecstasy
(*)
Ivy Pochoda

The Bewitching
(*)
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Creek Girl
(*)
Wendy N. Wagner

Angel Down
(*)
Daniel Kraus

The End of the World As We Know It
(*)
Christopher Golden

A Game in Yellow
(*)
Hailey Piper

Lucky Day
(*)
Chuck Tingle

Acquired Taste
(*)
Clay McLeod Chapman

Coffin Moon
(*)
Keith Rosson

Night & Day
(*)
Ellen Datlow

Play Nice
(*)
Rachel Harrison

Slashed Beauties
(*)
A. Rushby

Teenage Girls Can Be Demons
(*)
Hailey Piper

We Are Always Tender with Our Dead
(*)
Eric LaRocca

Girl Dinner
(*)
Olivie Blake

The Graceview Patient
(*)
Caitlin Starling

Herculine
(*)
Grace Byron

King Sorrow
(*)
Joe Hill

The Midnight Timetable
(*)
Bora Chung

Cursed Daughters
(*)
Oyinkan Braithwaite

Howl
(*)
Stephanie M. Wytovich

The Long Low Whistle
(*)
Laurel Hightower

The Place Where They Buried Your Heart
(*)
Christina Henry

Literary Fiction

Room on the Sea
(*)
Andre Aciman

Fifteen Wild Decembers
(*)
Karen Powell

The Fair Folk And Little Orphan Mary
(*)
Maria Konopnicka

Rosarita
(*)
Anita Desai

We Do Not Part
(*)
Han Kang

To Sicily with Love
(*)
Jennifer Probst

The Antidote
(*)
Karen Russell

Beach Vibes
(*)
Susan Mallery

Dream Count
(*)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl
(*)
Nanda Reddy

Goddess Complex
(*)
Sanjena Sathian

A Hole in the Story
(*)
Ken Kalfus

Hunchback
(*)
Saou Ichikawa

Liquid
(*)
Mariam Rahmani

Sister Europe
(*)
Nell Zink

Theft
(*)
Abdulrazak Gurnah

Twist
(*)
Colum McCann

What Is Wrong with You?
(*)
Paul Rudnick

Wild Dark Shore
(*)
Charlotte McConaghy

The Women on Platform Two
(*)
Laura Anthony

Counting Backwards
(*)
Binnie Kirshenbaum

Rabbit Moon
(*)
Jennifer Haigh

The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen
(*)
Shokoofeh Azar

Only Smoke
(*)
Juan Jose Millas

Songs of Summer
(*)
Jane L. Rosen

What Will People Think?
(*)
Sara Hamdan

Where the Rivers Merge
(*)
Mary Alice Monroe

Atmosphere: A Love Story
(*)
Taylor Jenkins Reid

Bug Hollow
(*)
Michelle Huneven

Double Room
(*)
Anne Senes

Endling
(*)
Maria Reva

Fox
(*)
Joyce Carol Oates

The Girls Who Grew Big
(*)
Leila Mottley

Great Black Hope
(*)
Rob Franklin

The Great Mann
(*)
Kyra Davis Lurie

Off Menu
(*)
Amy Rosen

So Far Gone
(*)
Jess Walter

The Summer House
(*)
Masashi Matsuie

This Is Not a Ghost Story
(*)
Amerie

Archive of Unknown Universes
(*)
Ruben Reyes Jr.

The First Line
(*)
Jean-Marie Laclavetine

The Peculiar Gift of July
(*)
Ashley Ream

The Rabbit Club
(*)
Christopher J. Yates

These Summer Storms
(*)
Sarah MacLean

The View From Lake Como
(*)
Adriana Trigiani

A Dog in Georgia
(*)
Lauren Grodstein

The Incredible Kindness of Paper
(*)
Evelyn Skye

People Like Us
(*)
Jason Mott

Songs for Other People's Weddings
(*)
David Levithan

What Hunger
(*)
Catherine Dang

When the Cranes Fly South
(*)
Lisa Ridzen

The Winds from Further West
(*)
Alexander McCall Smith

Cece
(*)
Emmelie Prophete

Discontent
(*)
Beatriz Serrano

Trigger Warning
(*)
Jacinda Townsend

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat
(*)
Syou Ishida

The Wilderness
(*)
Angela Flournoy

Bad Bad Girl
(*)
Gish Jen

Heart the Lover
(*)
Lily King

Intemperance
(*)
Sonora Jha

Minor Black Figures
(*)
Brandon Taylor

The Second Chance Cinema
(*)
Thea Weiss

Beasts of the Sea
(*)
Iida Turpeinen

Days at the Torunka Cafe
(*)
Satoshi Yagisawa

The Ferryman and His Wife
(*)
Frode Grytten

Palaver
(*)
Bryan Washington

The Tortoise's Tale
(*)
Kendra Coulter

Untitled
(*)
Mark Z. Danielewski

Wreck
(*)
Catherine Newman

The Award
(*)
Matthew Pearl

Before I Forget
(*)
Tory Henwood Hoen

The Book of Luke
(*)
Lovell Holder

Emotions
(*)
Jean-Philippe Toussaint

The Mushroom Gatherer
(*)
Viktorie Hanisova

Murder Your Darlings
(*)
Jenna Blum

Short Stories

This Is Salvaged: Stories
(*)
Vauhini Vara

Show Don't Tell: Stories
(*)
Curtis Sittenfeld

Early Stories by Tennessee Williams
(*)
Tennessee Williams

An Oral History of Atlantis: Stories
(*)
Ed Park

After Midnight
(*)
Daphne Du Maurier

Near Flesh
(*)
Katherine Dunn

Tamiami Trail
(*)
Jennifer Bannan

Winter Stories
(*)
Ingvild Rishoi

Christian Fiction

Midnight on the Scottish Shore
(*)
Sarah Sundin

The Filling Station
(*)
Vanessa Miller

This Promised Land
(*)
Cathy Gohlke

The Other Sister
(*)
Jessica R. Patch

The Codebreaker's Daughter
(*)
Amy Lynn Green

Last Light over Galveston
(*)
Jennifer L. Wright

The Fault Between Us
(*)
Stephanie Landsem

On the Edge of Trust
(*)
Patricia Bradley

Contemporary Romance

Temple of Swoon
(*)
Jo Segura

Unromance
(*)
Erin Connor

First-Time Caller
(*)
B.K. Borison

The Love Lyric
(*)
Kristina Forest

Yin Yang Love Song
(*)
Lauren Kung Jessen

Code Word Romance
(*)
Carlie Walker

My Big Fat Fake Marriage
(*)
Charlotte Stein

Promise Me Sunshine
(*)
Cara Bastone

Any Trope But You
(*)
Victoria Lavine

Great Big Beautiful Life
(*)
Emily Henry

Say You'll Remember Me
(*)
Abby Jimenez

Can't Get Enough
(*)
Kennedy Ryan

Crossing Paths
(*)
Katie Ruggle

Give Me a Shot
(*)
Gia De Cadenet

What Happens in Amsterdam
(*)
Rachel Lynn Solomon

What If It's You?
(*)
Jilly Gagnon

Along Came Amor
(*)
Alexis Daria

Finders Keepers
(*)
Sarah Adler

Last Night Was Fun
(*)
Holly Michelle

Writing Mr. Wrong
(*)
Kelley Armstrong

The Dirty Version
(*)
Turner Gable Kahn

How Freaking Romantic
(*)
Emily Harding

Love Is a War Song
(*)
Danica Nava

Only Lovers in the Building
(*)
Nadine Gonzalez

Roll For Romance
(*)
Lenora Woods

Scotch on the Rocks
(*)
Elliot Fletcher

The Spirit of Love
(*)
Lauren Kate

The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold
(*)
Ally Carter

Heart Strings
(*)
Ivy Fairbanks

If Not for My Baby
(*)
Kate Golden

Once Upon a Time in Dollywood
(*)
Ashley Jordan

The Dating Prohibition
(*)
Taj McCoy

People Watching
(*)
Hannah Bonam-Young

We Met Like This
(*)
Kasie West

An Academic Affair
(*)
Jodi McAlister

The Marriage Narrative
(*)
Claire Kann

Secret Nights and Northern Lights
(*)
Megan Oliver

Some Kind of Famous
(*)
Ava Wilder

How to Grieve Like a Victorian
(*)
Amy Carol Reeves

The Love Audit
(*)
Lucy Eden

Love Letters for Other People
(*)
Shaylin Gandhi

Crime Fiction: Mystery

The Dentist
(*)
Tim Sullivan

A Death in Diamonds
(*)
S.J. Bennett

Lessons in Crime
(*)
Martin Edwards

Death of an Ex
(*)
Delia Pitts

Loose Lips
(*)
Kemper Donovan

Murder in the Dressing Room
(*)
Holly Stars

Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right
(*)
Walter Mosley

Dead in the Frame
(*)
Stephen Spotswood

The Mailman
(*)
Andrew Welsh-Huggins

The Queens of Crime
(*)
Marie Benedict

The Wolf Tree
(*)
Laura McCluskey

Broken Fields
(*)
Marcie R. Rendon

The Four Queens of Crime
(*)
Rosanne Limoncelli

Galway's Edge
(*)
Ken Bruen

The Girl from Greenwich Street
(*)
Lauren Willig

Hang on St. Christopher
(*)
Adrian McKinty

Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder
(*)
Bellamy Rose

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne
(*)
Ron Currie Jr.

Murder and a Missing Manuscript
(*)
Richard Tyler Jordan

The Museum Detective
(*)
Maha Khan Phillips

Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)
(*)
Jesse Q. Sutanto

The Dark Maestro
(*)
Brendan Slocumb

A Fashionably French Murder
(*)
Colleen Cambridge

Marble Hall Murders
(*)
Anthony Horowitz

Murder Takes a Vacation
(*)
Laura Lippman

The Safari
(*)
Jaclyn Goldis

Badlands
(*)
Douglas Preston; Lincoln Child

A Case of Mice and Murder
(*)
Sally Smith

Death at the White Hart
(*)
Chris Chibnall

A Shipwreck in Fiji
(*)
Nilima Rao

Thus with a Kiss I Die
(*)
Christina Dodd

Welcome to Murder Week
(*)
Karen Dukess

A Case of Life and Limb
(*)
Sally Smith

Fast Boys and Pretty Girls
(*)
Lo Patrick

Florida Palms
(*)
Joe Pan

History Lessons
(*)
Zoe B. Wallbrook

Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue
(*)
Spencer Quinn

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes
(*)
Sandra Jackson-Opoku

The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective
(*)
Jo Nichols

Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library
(*)
Amanda Chapman

The Girl in the Green Dress
(*)
Mariah Fredericks

The Impossible Fortune
(*)
Richard Osman

We Had a Hunch
(*)
Tom Ryan

The Botanist's Assistant
(*)
Peggy Townsend

The Devil in Oxford
(*)
Jess Armstrong

The Ivory City
(*)
Emily Bain Murphy

Murder in Mint Condition
(*)
Richard Tyler Jordan

Murder in Manhattan
(*)
Julie Mulhern

The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum
(*)
Valerie Wilson Wesley

Crime Fiction: Suspense

The Hospital
(*)
Leslie Wolfe

The Last Room on the Left
(*)
Leah Konen

Johnny Careless
(*)
Kevin Wade

The Quiet Librarian
(*)
Allen Eskens

The Undoing of Violet Claybourne
(*)
Emily Critchley

You Deserve to Know
(*)
Aggie Blum Thompson

The Confessions
(*)
Paul Bradley Carr

El Dorado Drive
(*)
Megan Abbott

Salt Bones
(*)
Jennifer Givhan

Writers and Liars
(*)
Carol Goodman

Kiss Her Goodbye
(*)
Lisa Gardner

Lime Juice Money
(*)
Jo Morey

The Tutor
(*)
Courtney Psak

The Wasp Trap
(*)
Mark Edwards

We Are All Guilty Here
(*)
Karin Slaughter

Her One Regret
(*)
Donna Freitas

The Living and the Dead
(*)
Christoffer Carlsson

Crime Fiction: Thriller

The Oligarch's Daughter
(*)
Joseph Finder

Famous Last Words
(*)
Gillian McAllister

This Book Will Bury Me
(*)
Ashley Winstead

The Devil's Kitchen
(*)
Mark Thielman

Cold Burn
(*)
Jon Land

South of Nowhere
(*)
Jeffery Deaver

The Havana Syndrome
(*)
Jeffrey James Higgins

King of Ashes
(*)
S.A. Cosby

The Medusa Protocol
(*)
Rob Hart

The White Crow
(*)
Michael Robotham

Mean Moms
(*)
Emma Rosenblum

Stillwater
(*)
Tanya Scott

All This Could Be Yours
(*)
Hank Phillippi Ryan

The Belles
(*)
Lacey N. Dunham

The Break-In
(*)
Katherine Faulkner

Nobody Knows You're Here
(*)
Bryn Greenwood

The Vanishing Place
(*)
Zoe Rankin

Final Orbit
(*)
Chris Hadfield

The Hitchhikers
(*)
Chevy Stevens

Home Before Dark
(*)
Eva Bjorg AEgisdottir

Wild Instinct
(*)
T. Jefferson Parker

Everybody Wants to Rule the World
(*)
Ace Atkins

Huguette
(*)
Cara Black

Fantasy

The Bones Beneath My Skin
(*)
T.J. Klune

The Ashfire King
(*)
Chelsea Abdullah

The Sovereign
(*)
C.L. Clark

Tonight, I Bleed
(*)
Katharine J. Adams

Immortal
(*)
Sue Lynn Tan

Mother of Rome
(*)
Lauren J.A. Bear

Water Moon
(*)
Samantha Sotto Yambao

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales
(*)
Heather Fawcett

The Outcast Mage
(*)
Annabel Campbell

Aunt Tigress
(*)
Emily Yu-Xuan Qin

Greenteeth
(*)
Molly O'Neill

The Keeper of Lonely Spirits
(*)
E.M. Anderson

The River Has Roots
(*)
Amal El-Mohtar

The Tomb of Dragons
(*)
Katherine Addison

The Winter Goddess
(*)
Megan Barnard

A Drop of Corruption
(*)
Robert Jackson Bennett

Eat the Ones You Love
(*)
Sarah Maria Griffin

The Raven Scholar
(*)
Antonia Hodgson

This Monster of Mine
(*)
Shalini Abeysekara

The Adventures of Mary Darling
(*)
Pat Murphy

Anima Rising
(*)
Christopher Moore

Anji Kills a King
(*)
Evan Leikam

Awakened
(*)
A.E. Osworth

Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame
(*)
Neon Yang

City of All Seasons
(*)
Oliver K. Langmead

Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil
(*)
Oliver Darkshire

When the Tides Held the Moon
(*)
Venessa Vida Kelley

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
(*)
V.E. Schwab

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me
(*)
Django Wexler

The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association
(*)
Caitlin Rozakis

Harmattan Season
(*)
Tochi Onyebuchi

Six Wild Crowns
(*)
Holly Race

The Witch Roads
(*)
Kate Elliott

The Memory of the Ogisi
(*)
Moses Ose Utomi

Beasts of Carnaval
(*)
Rosalia Rodrigo

The Dragon Wakes with Thunder
(*)
K.X. Song

Lessons in Magic and Disaster
(*)
Charlie Jane Anders

Silvercloak
(*)
L.K. Steven

Audition For The Fox
(*)
Martin Cahill

Katabasis
(*)
R.F. Kuang

A Ruin, Great and Free
(*)
Cadwell Turnbull

The Summer War
(*)
Naomi Novik

Wild Reverence
(*)
Rebecca Ross

The Glass Slide World
(*)
Carrie Vaughn

Kill the Beast
(*)
Serra Swift

The Ordeals
(*)
Rachel Greenlaw

Psychopomp and Circumstance
(*)
Eden Royce

Red City
(*)
Marie Lu

When They Burned the Butterfly
(*)
Wen-yi Lee

The Witching Moon Manor
(*)
Stacy Sivinski

The Blackfire Blade
(*)
James Logan

Blood for the Undying Throne
(*)
Sung-il Kim

The Bookshop Below
(*)
Georgia Summers

Brigands & Breadknives
(*)
Travis Baldree

Dead Hand Rule
(*)
Max Gladstone

The Everlasting
(*)
Alix E. Harrow

Fallen City
(*)
Adrienne Young

Letters From An Imaginary Country
(*)
Theodora Goss

The Strength of the Few
(*)
James Islington

Turns of Fate
(*)
Anne Bishop

Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
(*)
Emily Krempholtz

The War Beyond
(*)
Andrea Stewart

Witches of Dubious Origin
(*)
Jenn McKinlay

Historical Fiction

Let's Call Her Barbie
(*)
Renee Rosen

The Boxcar Librarian
(*)
Brianna Labuskes

The Jackal's Mistress
(*)
Chris Bohjalian

The Book Club for Troublesome Women
(*)
Marie Bostwick

Tough Luck
(*)
Sandra Dallas

The Traitor of Sherwood Forest
(*)
Amy S. Kaufman

The Listeners
(*)
Maggie Stiefvater

Typewriter Beach
(*)
Meg Waite Clayton

Wayward Girls
(*)
Susan Wiggs

The Art of a Lie
(*)
Laura Shepherd-Robinson

The Harvey Girls
(*)
Juliette Fay

This Here Is Love
(*)
Princess Joy L. Perry

Buckeye
(*)
Patrick Ryan

The Kaboom Boys
(*)
Don Keith

One of Us
(*)
Dan Chaon

The Mad Wife
(*)
Meagan Church

The Missing Pages
(*)
Alyson Richman

Daughter of Genoa
(*)
Kat Devereaux

Historical Romance

A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke
(*)
Adriana Herrera

My Inconvenient Duke
(*)
Loretta Chase

Hardly a Gentleman
(*)
Eloisa James

Rules for Ruin
(*)
Mimi Matthews

Gabriela and His Grace
(*)
Liana De la Rosa

LGBTQIA+ Romance

Single Player
(*)
Tara Tai

The Shots You Take
(*)
Rachel Reid

Dream On, Ramona Riley
(*)
Ashley Herring Blake

Kiss Me, Maybe
(*)
Gabriella Gamez

A Rare Find
(*)
Joanna Lowell

Ready to Score
(*)
Jodie Slaughter

Ladies in Hating
(*)
Alexandra Vasti

Lady Like
(*)
Mackenzi Lee

The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy
(*)
Roan Parrish

Thirsty
(*)
Lucy Lehane

Paranormal Romance

Fan Service
(*)
Rosie Danan

The Folklore of Forever
(*)
Sarah Hogle

Romantasy

Blood Beneath the Snow
(*)
Alexandra Kennington

Behooved
(*)
M. Stevenson

Arcana Academy
(*)
Elise Kova

A Forbidden Alchemy
(*)
Stacey McEwan

Never the Roses
(*)
Jennifer K. Lambert

Soulgazer
(*)
Maggie Rapier

Tusk Love
(*)
Thea Guanzon

Wrath of the Dragons
(*)
Olivia Rose Darling

The Maiden and Her Monster
(*)
Maddie Martinez

Cinder House
(*)
Freya Marske

The Isle in the Silver Sea
(*)
Tasha Suri

The Keeper of Magical Things
(*)
Julie Leong

The Last Wish of Bristol Keats
(*)
Mary E. Pearson

Ship of Spells
(*)
H. Leighton Dickson

Son of the Morning
(*)
Akwaeke Emezi

Ember Eternal
(*)
Chloe Neill

Science Fiction

All the Water in the World
(*)
Eiren Caffall

Death of the Author
(*)
Nnedi Okorafor

The Garden
(*)
Nick Newman

Picks and Shovels
(*)
Cory Doctorow

Symbiote
(*)
Michael Nayak

Dissolution
(*)
Nicholas Binge

Idolfire
(*)
Grace Curtis

Luminous
(*)
Silvia Park

Murder by Memory
(*)
Olivia Waite

Two Truths and a Lie
(*)
Cory O'Brien

The Ephemera Collector
(*)
Stacy Nathaniel Jackson

Esperance
(*)
Adam Oyebanji

Of Monsters and Mainframes
(*)
Barbara Truelove

The Afterlife Project
(*)
Tim Weed

Amplitudes
(*)
Lee Mandelo

The Folded Sky
(*)
Elizabeth Bear

Shroud
(*)
Adrian Tchaikovsky

Inner Space
(*)
Jakub Szamalek

Automatic Noodle
(*)
Annalee Newitz

The Shattering Peace
(*)
John Scalzi

Sunward
(*)
William Alexander

What We Can Know
(*)
Ian McEwan

The Heist of Hollow London
(*)
Eddie Robson

Saltcrop
(*)
Yume Kitasei

Exo
(*)
Colin Brush

Simultaneous
(*)
Eric Heisserer

Slow Gods
(*)
Claire North

We Will Rise Again
(*)
Annalee Newitz

Award Categories

Christian Fiction

Contemporary Romance

Crime Fiction

Crime Fiction: Mystery

Crime Fiction: Suspense

Crime Fiction: Thriller

Fantasy

Graphic Novels

Historical Fiction

Historical Romance

Horror

LGBTQIA+ Romance

Literary Fiction

Paranormal Romance

Pop Fiction

Romance

Romantasy

Science Fiction

SF/Fantasy

Short Stories

World Literature

Award Years

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018