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Meet the Hottest Debut Novels of 2025
One of the annual delights of maintaining a serious reading habit is the thrill of discovery. Each year, a new group of first-time authors release their debut novels into the literary ecosystem. For the adventurous reader, it’s a genuine thrill to discover a new writer you really connect with, out in the wild.
We’ve collected below several dozen of the year’s most anticipated debut novels from the first half of 2025, cutting across all genres and styles. The books are sequenced by release date, so prepare yourself for some whiplash swerves as we jump from literary fiction to ecological conjecture, magical realism to queer romance, historical fiction to mystery-thriller.
Some highlights, in no particular order: Holly Brickley documents a love story in the early 2000s indie music scene with Deep Cuts. Rob Franklin provides a sustained meditation on race, class, and downward spirals with Great Black Hope. And Jemimah Wei counts the costs of academic overachievement with The Original Daughter.
Also in the mix for 2025: sentient blobs, West Coast earthquakes, synesthetic ghosts, biotech immortality, alternate history, and a different kind of World War II story.
Check out the specially curated selections and descriptions below, and if you see anything to your liking, you can use the Want to Read button to add the book to your own digital shelf.
We’ve collected below several dozen of the year’s most anticipated debut novels from the first half of 2025, cutting across all genres and styles. The books are sequenced by release date, so prepare yourself for some whiplash swerves as we jump from literary fiction to ecological conjecture, magical realism to queer romance, historical fiction to mystery-thriller.
Some highlights, in no particular order: Holly Brickley documents a love story in the early 2000s indie music scene with Deep Cuts. Rob Franklin provides a sustained meditation on race, class, and downward spirals with Great Black Hope. And Jemimah Wei counts the costs of academic overachievement with The Original Daughter.
Also in the mix for 2025: sentient blobs, West Coast earthquakes, synesthetic ghosts, biotech immortality, alternate history, and a different kind of World War II story.
Check out the specially curated selections and descriptions below, and if you see anything to your liking, you can use the Want to Read button to add the book to your own digital shelf.
Separated by war in 1940s Shanghai, teenage soulmates Haiwen and Suchi reluctantly go their separate ways. Sixty years later, Haiwen is bagging groceries in Los Angeles when a chance meeting changes everything. Acclaimed for her short fiction and essays, author Karissa Chen splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei and writes a pretty good author bio.
Publication Date: January 7
Publication Date: January 7
Fictional author Cate Kay is remarkably successful, considering she doesn’t exist. Her real identity has been a necessary secret since a terrible tragedy, long ago. But all that is about to change. Actual author Kate Fagan, known for her literary sports writing, incorporates mystery elements and POV playfulness in a debut novel that’s being comped to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
Publication Date: January 7
Publication Date: January 7
What’s the proper course of action when you’re a lefty activist and your husband is running for Congress as a Republican? The debut novel from New York Times books reporter Elizabeth Harris is a warm and witty exploration of life’s more complicated terrains—queer romance, sibling dynamics, and the ferocity of 21st-century American politics.
Publication Date: January 7
Publication Date: January 7
Nature, in Her infinite wisdom, has arranged things so we experience our youth when we’re young. We’d never survive it otherwise. That’s the notion behind Aria Aber’s candid novel, which follows 19-year-old Nila, daughter of Afghan immigrants, through her hard-partying years in Berlin’s hipster underground. Aber’s coming-of-age story features “love and family, raves and Kafka.” Can’t argue with that.
Publication Date: January 14
Publication Date: January 14
Inspired by her own upbringing on the Upper East Side, debut novelist Cynthia Weiner spins a wild yarn concerning 1980s NYC, hot guys, cool bars, young lust, crazy mothers, and growing up in the era of cheap and plentiful cocaine. Weiner’s brand of (recent) historical fiction also folds in thriller elements based on the case of the infamous Preppy Killer.
Publication Date: January 21
Publication Date: January 21
Billed as a literary page-turner, this sprawling suspense story from recovering attorney Kristin Koval spans several decades, from Colorado ski country to post-9/11 New York City. A shocking death triggers memories of a long-ago tragedy as Koval’s characters confront issues of forgiveness, family loyalty, childhood trauma, and the cold realities of the justice system.
Publication date: January 28
Publication date: January 28
Leaning into the more playful traditions of magical realism, debut author Maggie Su tells the story of a desperate 20-something and her quest to create the perfect boyfriend. Her story answers the age-old question: Can you find true love with a properly trained sentient blob? Underneath the weirdness, Su asks some tough questions about love, control, and racial marginalization.
Publication Date: January 28
Publication Date: January 28
This first novel from renowned playwright Betty Shamieh looks back in time to track three generations of women in a loving but complicated Palestinian American family. In the mix: a 35-year-old NYC theater director, Detroit in the 1960s, and some hard truths about war, lost love, and generational trauma. Bonus trivia: Author Shamieh has written 15 stage plays translated into seven languages.
Publication date: January 28
Publication date: January 28
Set in Nigeria and New Orleans, this ambitious debut novel follows the fate of a young family who arrive in America just as a historic hurricane threatens to destroy their new city. Author Olufunke Grace Bankole doubles back to explore mother-daughter relationships, Nigerian folklore, Yoruba Christianity, and the almost unbelievable courage at the core of the immigrant experience.
Publication Date: February 4
Publication Date: February 4
Check out the fabulous book cover art for a sense of the tone on this one. Neena Viel’s debut novel, Listen to Your Sister, tells the story of three desperate siblings and an extremely unfortunate cabin rental experience. With its blend of family drama and literary horror, the book is recommended for fans of Grady Hendrix, Tananarive Due, Stephen King, and Jordan Peele.
Publication Date: February 4
Publication Date: February 4
Brooklyn author and Alabama native Erin Crosby Eckstine is generating a wave of remarkable enthusiasm for her debut novel. Designed as a work of speculative historical fiction, the book follows enslaved teenager Junie as she makes a terrible discovery in the years just before the Civil War. Also in the narrative arc: the ghost of Junie’s sister Minnie, with secrets of her own from beyond the grave.
Publication Date: February 4
Publication Date: February 4
Based on his own family history, Charles B. Fancher’s Red Clay is an expansive, multigenerational saga of an enslaved black family and their white owners in Red Clay, Alabama. Moving back and forth in time, from the last days of the Civil War to the early 1940s, the book traces the hope of Reconstruction as it decays into the horrors of the Jim Crow era.
Publication Date: February 4
Publication Date: February 4
Irish author Roisín O’Donnell brings deep empathy and terrible specificity to her debut novel of a young mother and two daughters fleeing an abusive home in Dublin. With nothing more than a bag full of clothes, Clara Fay must navigate abject poverty and a broken housing system as she raises two children in a hotel room—with her cruel husband in pursuit.
Publication date: February 18
Publication date: February 18
Do any of us ever love music as deeply as we did in our early 20s? That’s the rhetorical question in Holly Brickley’s debut novel, Deep Cuts, a love story with a built-in soundtrack. Music obsessive Percy Marks and songwriter Joe Morrow forge a personal and artistic relationship that winds up somewhere on the path to indie-rock stardom. Early readers are likening the vibe to Sally Rooney and Gabrielle Zevin.
Publication Date: February 25
Publication Date: February 25
One of the new year’s most intriguing debuts, Fundamentally is a dark comedy about a United Nations scholar who attempts to “rehabilitate” ISIS brides at an Iraqi refugee camp. Londoner Dr. Nadia Amin doesn’t have much luck with her deradicalization initiative, but she does have some rather startling adventures with an optimistic volunteer, a stubborn refugee, and a horny Frenchman.
Publication date: February 25
Publication date: February 25
Crush is the fiction debut from publishing veteran Ada Calhoun, who’s made the rounds a few times already with her nonfiction books and ghostwriting gigs. Her debut novel, inspired in part by hard experience, follows a married Gen X couple who decide to test the boundaries of marriage and desire in post-pandemic, midlife America. Quick recap: “The very best kind of hell breaks loose.”
Publication date: February 25
Publication date: February 25
When a massive earthquake levels Portland, Oregon, 9-months-pregnant Annie is crib shopping at the local Ikea. Trying to reach home on foot across the ruined city, Annie reflects on her unsteady marriage, ponders her uncertain future, and talks it out with her unborn child (nicknamed Garbanzo Bean). Author Emma Pattee delivers a groundbreaking (heh) hybrid of survival adventure and character portrait.
Publication Date: March 4
Publication Date: March 4
Born in Tehran, raised in L.A., and living in London, author Sanam Mahloudji writes about the slow-boil consequences of displacement in her debut novel. The Persians follows three generations of Iranian women. Some fled to America during the 1979 Iranian revolution. Some didn’t. Mahloudji weaves her five storylines through flashbacks into Iran’s troubled history.
Publication Date: March 4
Publication Date: March 4
A sociological parable wrapped around a mystery-thriller plotline, this bold debut introduces recent college graduate Evie Gordon, currently the target of a nationwide manhunt. It seems that Evie’s week got suddenly and severely weird when her gig tutoring L.A. rich kids turned into a bloody murder scene. Author Hannah Deitch has some things to say about money, media, and America’s delusions concerning social mobility.
Publication Date: March 18
Publication Date: March 18
Billed as a true-to-life story, Sarah Damoff’s The Bright Years chronicles the dissolution and ultimate restoration of a Texas family with problems. Ryan and Lillian Bright brought multiple secrets into their marriage, and their daughter, Georgette, paid the price. Told from three separate POVs, Damoff’s book is recommended for readers of Mary Beth Keane and Claire Lombardo.
Publication Date: April 1
Publication Date: April 1
Digging deep into the complex connections of family, community, politics, and heritage, Jon Hickey’s debut novel follows a small group of characters involved with the governance of an Anishinaabe tribal community in Wisconsin. Recent law school grad Mitch Caddo must navigate conflicting obligations to friends and family as a tribal election turns into an all-out brawl.
Publication Date: April 8
Publication Date: April 8
If you're looking for a fever-dream road trip novel about a nonbinary corporate burnout traveling from Chicago to Arkansas to find their missing conspiracy-theorist father...well, I have excellent news for you! This new novel is giving a modern-day Hunter S. Thompson vibes with howling class rage, economic spiraling, and gender expression.
Publication Date: April 8
Publication Date: April 8
This historical fiction debut follows four young women who enroll at Oxford University in 1920—the first year the university formally admitted female students in degree-granting programs. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, Beatrice, Marianne, Otto, and Dora form an unlikely, life-affirming friendship in the wake of the Great War.
Publication Date: April 15
Publication Date: April 15
Inspired by actual events largely overlooked in historical accounts, The Lilac People begins in Berlin’s vibrant queer community just before Hitler’s rise to power. Trans man Bertie’s efforts to advance queer rights in his city suddenly turn into a desperate struggle for survival. And when the Allies arrive, things don’t get much better. Author Milo Todd presents the full story of an obscured corner of WWII history.
Publication Date: April 29
Publication Date: April 29
Canadian author Morgan Dick draws from her own experience working in the mental health field for this unique novel concerning an estranged father, two half-sisters, and an unusual bequeathment. It’s a twisty story, but the important question is this: What’s the protocol when you learn that your new therapist is actually your sister?
Publication date: April 29
Publication date: April 29
The Original Daughter spotlights two sisters growing up in working-class Singapore and pursuing academic perfection at all costs. No friends. No life. No fun. When a betrayal drives them apart, the sisters begin to question their cultural obsession with efficiency and achievement. San Francisco Bay Area author Jemimah Wei proposes a new riff on the tradition of the social novel.
Publication Date: May 6
Publication Date: May 6
What’s in a name? That’s the thesis question in this ambitious debut novel that begins with the moment a mother chooses the name of her child. From there, London author Florence Knapp tells three parallel stories—alternating chapter by chapter—with each thread following the child’s life with a different name. Early readers are loving the bold storytelling and life-affirming vibe.
Publication date: May 6
Publication date: May 6
When 43-year-old Abe Jacobs is told by doctors that he's dying, and dying fast, he reluctantly returns home to the Ahkwesáhsne reservation where he was raised. There he turns to his great uncle Budge Billings—an unsentimental, recovering alcoholic healer—for help. If you're looking for a coming-of-middle age tale full of emotion and reckoning, this is an immediate add to your Want to Read shelf!
Publication date: May 6
Publication date: May 6
Supermarket cashier Julie Chan may have just made a big mistake. She has stolen the identity of her recently deceased twin sister, Chloe, a rich and glamorous influencer with powerful friends. But as Julie soon learns, Chloe’s life was (and is) very complicated. And very dangerous. Canadian author Liann Zhang presents a decidedly 21st-century kind of thriller.
Publication date: May 13
Publication date: May 13
A novel about mothers, daughters, and the essential tyranny of adulthood, Honor Jones’ debut introduces a recently divorced mom facing her radically new life. Circumstances have led Margaret back to her own childhood home, with her daughters in tow. Amid painful flashbacks and new relationships, Margaret is determined to be the mother that she never really had.
Publication date: May 13
Publication date: May 13
Author Daria Lavelle introduces one of the new year’s most flat-out fascinating ideas with the story of an aspiring New York City chef who discovers he can taste the presence of ghosts. This innovative debut novel promises to be a kind of synesthetic experience itself, crossing evocative food writing with family drama, percolating romance, and a new kind of ghost story.
Publication date: May 13
Publication date: May 13
What happens when a Black and queer Stanford graduate student gets busted for cocaine in the Hamptons? Nothing good, turns out. Author Rob Franklin takes readers from the shadows of NYC nightlife to a homecoming in Atlanta, with detours into tragic deaths and missing friends. Great Black Hope explores the unforgiving liminal spaces among class and race, privilege and peril, criminal law and court-mandated recovery rooms.
Publication date: June 3
Publication date: June 3
Zoe and Jack, partners in every sense of the word, have just dropped out of Harvard to pilot their new startup company. The product: An anti-aging drug that promises virtual immortality. What can possibly go wrong? Debut author Austin Taylor plumbs the treacherous depths of American ambition, 21st-century biotechnology, and young love. Pretty great book cover design, too.
Publication date: June 3
Publication date: June 3
The debut novel from Colorado author Nini Berndt blends elements of mystery and dystopia into a story set about five minutes into our collective, uncertain future. When Lucy moves to Denver to investigate the death of her brother, she finds a city falling apart—with a massive storm on the way. She also finds an undeniable connection with Helen, the woman her brother loved.
Publication date: June 3
Publication date: June 3
Built around a twisty love story—and a devastating moral dilemma—Finding Grace traces the consequences of a shocking event that changes one family’s ultimate trajectory, forever. Author Loretta Rothschild asks the uncomfortable questions: Do we keep our secrets, or let them go? Does the past always determine the future? Can love really conquer all?
Publication date: June 10
Publication date: June 10
Runner-up for our unofficial Most Compelling Book Title award, Ruben Reyes Jr.’s Archive of Unknown Universes is a genre-bending hybrid of historical fiction, sci-fi, war chronicle, and dual love stories—with action in 2018 Massachusetts and 1978 Havana. At the center of it all: the Defractor, an experimental device for glimpsing alternate versions of the past.
Publication date: July 1
Publication date: July 1
Winner of this collection’s Most Compelling Book Title award, Hot Girls with Balls charts the competitive heat between “Six” and “Green,” two Asian American trans women in the volleyball match of the year. Benedict Nguyễn’s playful satire tackles everything from sports celebrity to social media, romantic jealousy to girlboss politics. Also: hot volleyball action.
Publication date: July 1
Publication date: July 1
Recommended for readers of Nora Ephron or Joan Is Okay, Katie Yee’s debut novel is dedicated to the art of turning sudden tragedy into defiant comedy—or at least the grace of gentle humor. The book’s narrator has to make some choices when she faces marital breakup just before a cancer diagnosis. Her remedies include Chinese folklore and naming her tumor after the Other Woman. Good thinking.
Publication date: July 22
Publication date: July 22
Which debut novels are you looking forward to reading this year? Let’s talk books in the comments!
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Jan 01, 2025 01:02AM
Woot woot
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One of the best book lists GoodReads put together! I have almost every book as my TBR and pre order. Amazing!
The Edge of Water, Junie and Red Clay are on my TBR.
Isn't there another book or movie identical to Tilt?
Fyi, Goodreads silenced my criticism of this list by removing the comment exchange between me and another user.
Thanks for sharing this list! I'm looking forward to reading some of these.
I just added a fair few from this list to my TBR. Thankyou 🫶🏼
Definitely some unique debuts.I was already aware of two I had on my watch list - Listen to your Sister and Julie Chan is dead.
Also now adding to perhaps try - Penitence; Junie; Nesting; The Bright Years; The Eights
,
I read Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson last year. I love this book it's one of my favorite books. On January 28, 2025 her new book will be released called, "Good Dirt". I just can't wait to read it.
Hey everyone ! I've been reading books by Colleen Hoover. My favorites are: "It ends with us" and "Ugly Love", I can mention others but the list would be to long. Give her books a try you come to love them as much I do.
I’m just going to casually add all of these to my TBR 💅🏼. The artwork on the covers looks amazing aswell!
Cool list! The most dazzling debut to me is A DESERT OF BLEEDING SAND right here https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sho...
A book that I don’t see on the list, but should definitely be 👀 The Cost of Perfection by Mark Alexander 🙌
I’ve read Homeseeking, Junie, Red Clay, and The Persians and enjoyed them all. Homeseeking was my favorite of the ones I read! Great list of books!
these all look so intriguing!! cannot wait to read them :))
I have a few ARCs for some of these, which is something I am looking forward to. Great Black Hope, The Blob, The Persians, and Fundamentally all seem really intriguing.
Just pre-ordered Aftertaste, sounds like a interesting read!
You have TILT linking to a Jojo Moyes book, twice. (as of 3:15 EST on 1/17).
Everything We Thought Was True by debut author Lisa Montanaro Jan 27! Looking forward to this one.
I’m looking forward to Tell Me You Trust Me by Elle Owens!!
shoutout to all the new authors. what an accomplishment!i've had the pleasure to read amy rossi's THE COVER GIRL and folks, get it on your summer TBR alongside the books on this list. i'd say more but this review really gets it!
Everything here seems to be adult and contemporary or literary fiction. No YA? No Sci-fi or Fantasy? There are so many worthy novels by debut authors being published in these genres in 2025.
Has anyone noticed that so many new book titles are made up of just one word or two? Is that a trend?
“Her Writhing Crown” by L.A. Riemenschneider! I was given an ARC and it was soooo good! Comes out March 4th 2025 :) definitely recommend it!
I am so excited to read Milo Todd's book, "The Lilac People". A uniquely new way to describe those who lived during WWll, inspired by real events. I pre-ordered!
This is a disappointing list for horror, fantasy, and sci-fi lovers. Where are all the debut authors writing in those genres?
Currently reading “Penitence” soooo good!!! And got early ARC copy for “Listen to your sister” too!
Nice
I have soooo many books on my want to read list! Will I have enough time on the planet to read them all? Yikes! I make it worse every month when I check out the new books lists. Good thing there’s public libraries. Being retired gives me time but not money for books. I wish I could get paid to read.
I love this eclectic mix of life experiences!!
Have written down a few . Now will see what happens
