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NPR's Best Fiction Books Roundup Will Inspire Your Next Gripping Read

Ever since National Public Radio (NPR) was founded in 1970, it's been a trusted go-to source for factual news and cultural programming. So now that the publication's staffers are sharing their top fiction reads of the year thus far, we're all ears.
Ahead, we've rounded up the best fiction books of 2025 according to NPR so you can keep your reading list stacked. From romance reads to gripping thrillers, trust us — you won't be able to put these novels down.
Scroll to see all the best fiction books for 2025, according to NPR!
Amazon
Among Friends by Hal Ebbott
Published on June 24, Among Friends is an exploration of friendship, marriage, class, and overall power. It centers on two tight-knit families as they spend a fall weekend at a countryside home in New York to celebrate a birthday.
From the outside, the families seem like "an enviable portrait of middle age." The wives and their husbands have been friends for more than three decades, and their daughters have spent their childhoods together. But jealousy and resentment start to boil over during the autumnal getaway, leading to one shocking act.
"Accusations, denials, and shattered illusions follow, driving wedges between friends, spouses, children, and parents, and exposing the treacherous fault lines on which these families have dwelt," per the synopsis.
Amazon
All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman
This thriller offers a fresh, twisty take on a modern mystery. A 31-year-old mother named Florence Grimes is a broke and single ex-girl-band member who's just trying to keep her life together while raising her tween son, Dylan.
Then, everything goes awry when Dylan's bully goes missing, and her son winds up the main suspect. The tragedy leaves Florence with no choice but to find the bully and prove Dylan's innocence.
"Never mind that she has no useful skills (let alone investigative ones) and that all the other school moms hate her. Oh, and she has a reason to suspect Dylan might not be as innocent as she'd like to believe," the synopsis reads.
Amazon
Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn
Animal Instinct was released in March and delivers a darkly comedic look at both sex and artificial intelligence (AI) during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the center is Rachel Bloomstein, a recently divorced mom of three who lives in Brooklyn and has found herself quarantined like the rest of the world.
She eventually consults her best friend for help with online dating and starts "rotating" between potential matches, none of whom are Rachel's perfect fit. That's what inspires her to create an AI chatbot named Frankie, who can fulfill all of her needs.
"But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart's content, she begins to realize she can't reprogram her ex-husband, or her children, or her friends, or the roster of paramours that's grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself," per the synopsis.
Amazon
Audition by Katie Kitamura
Whether we like to admit it or not, we all put on performances for the people around us every single day. Audition seeks to analyze these acts and expose the pretenses that inspire them.
It begins with two individuals, a woman and a man, meeting up in Manhattan for lunch. The woman is an actress rehearsing for a premiere, and the man is young–so young, in fact, that he could be her kid.
"Who is he to her, and who is she to him?" the synopsis asks.
"In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day–partner, parent, creator, muse–and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately."
Amazon
Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
Imagine your seemingly-perfect spouse goes missing, and after spending a year grieving, you discover the disappearance might not have happened as you thought. In Beautiful Ugly, that's precisely the situation the protagonist Grady Green finds himself in.
He loves his wife, Abby, and one day, he calls her to share some good news while she's traveling home. Suddenly, he hears her hit the brakes in her car, exit the vehicle, and the line goes dead.
Grady later found Abby's car abandoned by a cliff, and she remained missing for a year. He never got over it, either, so his agent ultimately urges him to get some time away on a little Scottish Island. That's when Grady stumbles upon a woman who bears a striking resemblance to his missing wife.
"Wives think their husbands will change, but they don't. Husbands think their wives won't change, but they do," reads the thriller's synopsis.
Amazon
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
If you're searching for a nuanced take on the classic murder mystery, look no further than Fair Play. It follows a friend group as they gather to celebrate New Year's Eve at an Airbnb, complete with a Murder Mystery party. But as the night unravels, complete with drinks and questionable decisions, one attendee named Benjamin is actually discovered dead in the morning.
His sister, Abigail, struggles to process what happened as authorities arrive to investigate the murder. And now, no one inside the Airbnb is safe from suspicion.
"Gripping and playful, sharp and profoundly moving, Fair Play plumbs the depths of the human heart while subverting one of our most popular genres," per the synopsis.
Amazon
Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang
This haunting thriller offers a dark glimpse into the underbelly of social media (and the digital facades we strive to uphold). Julie Chan Is Dead features identical yet estranged twin sisters who lead very different lives.
Julie works as a cashier at a supermarket; meanwhile, her twin, Chloe VanHuusen, is an influencer. So after Chloe is discovered dead under mysterious circumstances, Julie decides to take on her late twin's identity and live out her more luxurious life.
The only problem is that, before long, Julie comes to realize that Chloe's life isn't all glitz and glamour. And she struggles to find her footing with her late twin's social circle, a challenge that reaches a head during an island getaway.
"As events spiral out of control, Julie uncovers the sinister forces that may have led to her sister's demise and realizes she might be the next target," the synopsis reads.
Amazon
The Garden by Nick Newman
Have you ever dreamt of growing old alongside your best friend or sibling, removed from the outside world? In The Garden, two elderly sisters are living out this possibility.
In an unknown time and location, Evelyn and Lily reside inside a walled garden. They don't remember their lives before, and they don't know what's outside. Rather, the sisters simply spend every day taking care of the garden they call home.
Well, that's until they find a boy without a name hiding in a boarded house on their property, and their remote existences are upended. They have no clue who he is or what he wants.
"As suspicions gather and allegiances falter, Evelyn and Lily are forced to confront the dark truths about themselves, the garden, and the world as they've known it," per the synopsis.
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More of NPR's best fiction books for 2025:
- The Antidote by Karen Russell
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
- The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward
- Darkenbloom by Eva Menasse
- The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
- The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
- Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
- Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq
- Helen of Troy, 1993: Poems by Maria Zoccola
- King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
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- Liquid: A Love Story by Mariam Rahmani
- Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
- My Friends by Fredrik Backman
- My Name Is Emilia Del Valle by Isabel Allende
- The Naming of the Birds by Paraic O'Donnell
- Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow
- The Pretender by Jo Harkin
- Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
- The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
- The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie
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- Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
- Stag Dance: A Novel & Stories by Torrey Peters
- Sunrise on the Reaping by Susan Collins
- There's Something About Mira by Sonali Dev
- These Days by Lucy Caldwell
- Tilt by Emma Pattee
- Too Soon by Betty Shamieh
- Twelve Post-War Tales by Graham Smith
- Vantage Point by Sara Sligar
- Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
- When The Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
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