19 New October Books the Goodreads Editors Can't Wait to Read

Posted by Cybil on October 1, 2025

Here at Goodreads World Headquarters, we sort through a lot of books each month. Our monthly Readers' Most Anticipated Books feature is exactly that—selections based on the data about the books that Goodreads members are placing on their Want to Read shelves. Essentially, these are the books that your fellow Goodreads regulars are excited about.
 
Of course, the Goodreads editorial staff gets excited about books, too. And we regularly come across specific new releases that we can’t wait to read—or “won’t shut up about,” to borrow a phrase from the colleagues who sit right next to us.
 
As to be expected, there are always way more great books each month than we have time to read, so we're passing our findings along to you, complete with genre tags, our unhinged commentary, and general enthusiasm. Think of this list as our intel on the books you might not be hearing about absolutely everywhere else, from two people who really, really want to help you find a great read.
 
Some of the stories on tap for October: dark academia among the mesas of New Mexico, Victorian shipwrecks off the coast of Scotland, and literary family drama in the working-class neighborhoods of Puerto Rico. Bonus pick: a cozy historical mystery circa 1930!
 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: A gothic literary thriller? Yep, I am all in on this one. Here, a marine archaeologist is called to investigate a Victorian shipwreck off the coast of Scotland when she starts encountering eerie phenomena. 

Genre: Horror/Historical fiction
 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: More gothic vibes because it is October. In this romantic mystery, two warring lovers must join forces to figure out the secrets luring within the walls of the murderous Lackaday House. Think gloomy mansions, gaslights (of all kinds), and a fraught inheritance. All you need now is a reading nook with a fireplace!

Genre: Gothic/Mystery
 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: The author of the thriller Blood Sisters is back this month with a mystery about a missing Native American teenager who vanishes along with newly discovered skeletal remains. Archaeologist Syd Walker is called in to investigate, so get ready for some good detective work! 

Genre: Mystery/Thriller
 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: This book is being pitched as Nancy Drew meets Yellowjackets. And check out this premise: Two teen detectives found fame as they cracked capers, but now it's 20 years later, a new murder matches an old M.O., and the team is forced back together to solve the crime.

Genre: Mystery
 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: Would you be willing to make a deal with the devil to get a promotion? Well, our title character here, poor Colin, does just that. Unsurprisingly, things go awry. This book is being comped for the Venn diagram of readers who love the show Severance and the book Assistant to the Villain. 

Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Weirdness!
 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: This is an ambitious assignment: Figure out how the U.S. got to our present-day "here." Leave it to Jelani Cobb, New Yorker writer and dean of the Columbia Journalism School, to tackle this subject, looking at the country's upheavals between 2012 and today. 

Genre: Nonfiction


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: This book is an exploration of our collective fascination with criminal profiling, from the Victorian era onward through a look at six different investigations. Corbett delves into Arthur Conan Doyle’s work on the Jack the Ripper case, a Harvard psychologist’s profile of Adolf Hitler, and the FBI’s famed Behavioral Science Unit’s investigations of such killers as Ted Bundy. If you're a true-crime fan, this one's for you.

Genre: Nonfiction/True crime
 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: I am truly fascinated by this memoir, which was a huge hit in China. It was originally published there in 2023 and is finally being published in the United States. With deadpan humor and keen observations, AnYan documents his life working in China's gig economy in a way that touched a nerve with his fellow workers who feel trapped by the constant hustle. 

Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir
 


Cybil can't wait to read this book because: I was thrilled to learn that the author of the beloved memoir Ordinary Girls was coming out with her debut novel this month. This is an epic story centered on a mother and daughter who struggle with the aftermath of a murder, set against the backdrop of a tight-knit, working-class neighborhood in Puerto Rico. If you need a literary page-turner this fall—and, yes, you do!—this is an automatic add to your Want to Read shelf!

Genre: Literary fiction
 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: In what might be the most experimental novel of the fall, Brandon Hobson (The Removed) offers a dense novel-within-a-novel featuring, among other things, youthful rivalries, biblical plagues, a Cherokee artist named Brandon interviewed by a Cherokee writer named Sanbo Hornbond (think about it), and literary references galore. It's giving dense, chewy, Pale Fire vibes, and I for one can't wait!

Genre: Literary fiction
 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: Speaking of experimental novels, this one follows a Sliding Doors format where reality diverges depending on whether or not two young, happily married (but not to each other) parents embark on an affair. According to a blurb by author Tony Tulathimutte, this is "the best book about adultery since Madame Bovary." I mean. How does one resist?!

Genre: Fiction
 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I always end up emotionally demolished when I read literary fiction set in dystopian landscapes wherein parents take desperate measures to protect their children…and yet I cannot stop reading these books. It's me, hi, I'm the problem! Majumdar's newest features two such parents in near-future Kolkata, on opposite sides of a theft that ripples out into devastating consequences for all.

Genre: Literary fiction
 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: One of the pitches I received for this book was "What if dark academia…but set in New Mexico?" Look, I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been done more! The U.S. Southwest can feel downright haunted, and I'm glad someone is bringing those vibes to the dark academia subgenre. Here we have two magicians reluctantly bound to each other who must solve a centuries-old mystery at their alma mater.

Genre: Dark academia/fantasy
 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: If you enjoyed the cozy, gossipy, midcentury feel of Daniel M. Lavery's Women's Hotel, then I've got good news for you! We're headed back to the Beidermeier, this time in the form of a holiday-season novella. The blurb promises us hijinks of the highest order: One resident tries to start a telephone-order male escort agency! A jewel heist that may or may not implicate two other boarders! The most magical time of the year!

Genre: Historical fiction
 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: This satirical romp follows Joonie, copywriter by day and fanfic auteur by night who just so happens to be convinced that no man could ever measure up to her book boyfriend, the sexy merman Ryke. Then she finds out that the character is based on someone the author knows and, really, what's a girl to do? Set off on a road trip to track down the real Ryke, of course. Reader, I'm sure it all ends well for Joonie, but don't try this at home!

Genre: Romance/satire
 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I'm always on the hunt for genre-aware, Golden Age-esque mysteries, and this book looks promising! Georgiana Radcliffe has become Buncombe-upon-Woolly's resident amateur sleuth after the quaint English village experiences an improbably high number of murders in a single year. Her latest case appears to be a natural death, but all is not as it seems in this 1930s cozy whodunit.

Genre: Cozy historical mystery
 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: On an island rebirthed through stories, Simran the witch and Vina the knight are bound to reenact a doomed love story, over and over for eternity. Can the two lovers find a way to break the cycle before a mysterious assassin targeting the island's magic destroys them both?

Genre: Fantasy
 


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: This novel centers on the lives and friendships of a group of ICU nurses who move into an RV park near their hospital in order to safeguard their families and patients during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm not entirely sure I'm emotionally ready to return to that time, but doing so through the stories of heroic frontline workers seems to be the best entry point.

Genre: Fiction


Sharon can't wait to read this book because: I tend to think speculative fiction writers are among our most clear-eyed cultural critics, so I immediately clicked the "Want to Read" button when I saw that Tochi Onyebuchi (Riot Baby) was writing a book of nonfiction essays dissecting the internet's role in shaping racial identity. This one's sure to be thought-provoking!

Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir-in-Essays