Dystopia. Dark academia. Lady knights. Vampires. Cyberpunk cities. Drowned coasts. Magical romance. 2025 was another major year for micro-trends within the fantasy and science-fiction genres. It’s ...

Our columnist picks the year’s outstanding books. Credit...Photo illustration by Sebastian Mast Supported by By Alida Becker Alida Becker was an editor at the Book Review for 30 years. She was the ...

Is fiction good for us? We spend huge chunks of our lives immersed in novels, films, TV shows, and other forms of fiction. Some see this as a positive thing, arguing that made-up stories cultivate our ...

Narrowing down the best books of 2025 to a list of 15 inevitably means leaving out fine works, including Shadow Ticket, the first novel by Thomas Pynchon in 12 years, and We Do Not Part by Nobel Prize ...