TOP PICKS – October 2025
Welcome to this month’s Top Picks!
Every month, we like to share with you our favourite reads of the month. We’ve rounded up our contributors and asked them each to recommend just one favourite read of the month.
A big thank you to Nils for coming up with this feature, and our contributors for taking part!
Let’s find out what the team has read this month…
Nils: House of Splinters by Laura Purcell
Apart from a fantastic buddy read with Beth of The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow which featured a Lady Knight, a gentle historian and some time travel twistiness, I concentrated mostly on spooky reads this month.
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison was a really good contemporary take on a haunted house with a powerful feminist twist, I loved it. I also read some British horror folklore short stories from The Monstrous Tales anthology and found two absolute gems by Sunyi Dean and Stuart Turton! I also just finished The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi which features some senior citizens trying to find the serial killer who is brutally murdering their friends one by one—there’s also talks of a demon and aliens! Although slashers are way out of my comfort zone this one contained a lot of heartbreaking themes and I loved it for that.
My top pick goes to House of Splinters by Laura Purcell which acts as a sort of prequel to The Silent Companions. This haunted house tale cleverly built up on the chilling atmosphere and horror elements, read like a gothic classic and gave us plenty of characters to fear for. I adored being back at The Bridge manor and delving into more of the Bainbridge’s family history and I have to say Purcell left me suitably spooked!
Emma: Wishing for a Werewolf by Krista Luna
It’s going to be difficult to choose but this month has mainly been dominated by werewolves, which luckily is how I like it. For a more serious vibe may I direct you to the reverse harem with five werewolves and one lucky hybrid Wolves of Crescent Creek trilogy by Tessa Hale. There’s danger, there’s drama, but best of all there’s a happy ever after and yes lots and lots and lots of spice. Do let me know which were is your favourite!
Fancy some lower stakes, cosy, autumnal, feel good reading? Get your cute butt over to Wishing for a Werewolf by Krista Luna. Luna is one of my favourite cosy smut writers and she delivers gold every single time. If you’ve never read her before I would recommend starting with her orc collection, but it’s not needed, just a lot of fun. There’s quite a bit of crossover between that series and this one, but you could easily read this as a standalone, however I don’t think you’d want to, it’s a world you want to get stuck in. Get ready for magic gone awry, suppressed feelings, autumnal overload and some furry fun.
Cat: This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne
It’s been a quiet month for me reading-wise, but that means my pick stands out all the more: This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne. I really enjoyed her ‘Tea’ cosy fantasy series, but this ups her writing game considerably. It’s a scifi/horror adventure that involves a dive into the depths of the ocean (and all its associated dangers and claustrophobia), a lethal virus, political stakes and two powerful women with issues! Fast-paced, genuinely thrilling and yet never losing its core humanity, I’m already eager for the next part.
Gray: Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin
As it is spooky scary skeleton month, I am legally obliged to promote reading things that go bump in the night. In addtion to Scott Snyder’s incredible Wytches, I’ve been throughly enjoying Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin and company. A fairly typical small town horror/urban fantasy that distinguishes itself by revolving entirely around the dogs that live there. Not quite as artfully handled as A Night In The Lonesome October, but I’m really not going to judge anyone for not being more artful than Zelazny. That is one high hurdle to clear. Anyway, it is emotionally touching and well worth a Halloween read, particularly if your spookiness tolerance is more Scooby Doo than slasher horror.
Theo: Saturation Point by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I’ve had quite a good month volume wise, courtesy of some enticing novellas. To start at the bottom of my quartet of spec-fic reads we have The Adventure of Tom Bombadil and other stories from the Red Book, an anthology of 12 poems with a critical commentary. My two takeaways from this are that a) Tom Bombadil is not only ‘not canonical’ but was actually one of Tolkien’s children’s toys conscripted into the LotR with scarcely more provenance than an appearance by Pooh Bear, and b) Frodo was originally going to be called BIngo – fortunately Tolkien made the right call (did you see what I did there?!). Curious insights but not enough to make up for – spreads hands – poetry!
My third placed read is Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the HIgh Castle which I read as part of my spec-fic education. Interesting historical insights and I particularly liked the prescience of a failing fascist (Nazi) state seeking to distract its ground down populace with ambitious plans to colonise Mars – but still not a winner.
Which left me with two Adrian Tchaikovsky novellas, Made Things – a fun fantasy exploration of differently manufactured and characterful homunculi and Saturation Point – a sci-fi cli-fi novel where Tchaikovsky’s protagonist explores an earth environment that climate change has made as hostile as anything we saw in Shroud or Alien Clay. It’s not just my cli-fi inclinations but the sheer inventiveness and shocking twists in the narrative that make Saturation Point my pick of the month.
Kat: The Change by Kirsten Miller
I have two competing for my top pick this month: Snake-Eater by T Kingfisher and The Change by Kirsten Miller. Given that I’ll be submitting my review of Snake-Eater imminently, let’s go with The Change for my top pick.
I have to remind myself that this one does actually fall under the fantasy category because the magical elements feel so natural within this contemporary setting that it slips my mind. This is a story about power and misogyny and class and an abundance of feminine rage. It will make you furious and upset and disgusted with a particular subset of humans and it echoes some of the larger celebrity headlines that we’ve seen in recent years. Our three protagonists are so brilliantly different from each other and each form a piece of an unexpected puzzle that brings a community to its knees when they become determined to see justice done for the dead girl they find at the edge of their small town.
RSL: Negative Space by B. R. Yeager
I’ve been sick this month, so that means I get to complain about everything AND reread some favourites for the arrival of cozy evenings and red leaves— as well as finally get round to some TBRs that befit the occasion.
I started off with the usual Stephen Kings, like The Shining and Doctor Sleep, and it was interesting to see the flow between them. Shining is so clearly a King deep into the horror of addiction, with a close third-person narration that has rambling, anxious monologues of the Torrences. While Sleep felt meditative, pensive with its subject matter and constant rebuttal of the past. Any fear to be had in this novel was far more of the existential kind, of shame and regret and what hurt we pass on to one another, especially the vulnerable and so-in-need of protection.
After that, I had The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown. This nonfiction, written about the Donner party in 1846 (which is also the time when John Franklin’s expedition was going awry), follows the harrowing details of one Sarah Graves as she journeyed with the Donner Party toward California. Beset by illness, starvation, the general horror of humans left to their worst devices, it always feels like the sheer depths of human misery really has a weird element in how powerful those emotions can be.
My top-pick, though, was actually B R Yeager’s Negative Space. A novel that will bring anyone back to the y2k nostalgia of online forums and high-school-rumour mills, the spooky season felt fit to end on the deep anxiety that fills us when we’re never able to escape the small town, escape the identities people cast us in. Full of teen angst and banal infernos, Negative Space made me so happy I’m not sixteen, when everything felt cataclysmic. Now, I have the flu-like numbness of being jaded to protect me!
Hil: Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis
I’ve been on a reading hiatus in recent weeks, due to, well…everything really. Focusing on anything complicated has caused my eyes to glaze over and my brain to scuttle off to a corner and refuse to come out. My pick for this month patted me on the hand, said it’s all ok and then gently brought me into a tale of wicked queens, dastardly dukes and an accidental librarian. The writing is sharp, witty and warm. Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis is my hot pick and it should be yours as well.
Vinay: Whispers of the Storm by Z. B. Steele
October was a hectic thing, outside of books with some travel also involved. Usually travel means I get time to read (on planes, trains, automobiles and meetings) but this time it was a bit tight as I had to get social. Nonetheless, I got through a bunch of fabulous books.
Cold Eternity by SA Barnes hit the spooky season spot pretty well with its haunted house in space creepily reverberating through the book. Essa Hansen’s Casthen Gain felt like a riff on the underrated 2010 movie Predators except with a chef-assassin as a lead and pocket universes everywhere. Peter Clines’ God’s Junk Drawer is a modern day tribute to Land of the Lost with interesting ideas and just about every wild concept packed in. KJ Parker’s Making History is an interesting novella for the post-truth world we live in, with the powers that be rewriting history with scant regard for truth or accuracy.
Ultimately, my choice for the Top Pick landed between two books. Antonia Hodgson’s The Raven Scholar has just been there everywhere and I picked this up based on Nils’ review. And boy, this was a twisty, intriguing novel that just had some fantastic writing and plotting with the book really ascending to a new level post 50% wherein the twists just keep on coming and leave you stunned. However, my Top Pick is Z. B. Steele’s Whispers of the Storm. This is a book that hits a lot of the tropes I love – a condemned prisoner narrating his life story, his rags to power story (not exactly that but you get it), the training school story etc. But what really stands out is the sheer class of writing. This is a fantastically written novel, that while it hits predictable notes is still extremely engrossing. It also has a playful tone to it, with a bunch of hints and winks towards the audience. 400 pages just vanish in a flash and that was much needed given the month I had.
Jonathan: When There Are Wolves Again by E. J. Swift
I’ve had a good reading month, if somewhat all over the place, though goodness knows what else I expect from my life after 40 years of this. As part of a new tutoring job, I’ve been reading/rereading some classics, the winner this month being Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem so intrinsically metal it inspired Iron Maiden’s best song.
Outside of that I’ve read some great SFF and horror as well. Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Black Flame continues her remarkable run as one of our best writers, and Lauren Du Plessis’ debut novel Tender is a brilliant literary botanical body horror.
But top place must go to E.J. Swift’s wonderful When There Are Wolves Again, surely the book everyone will be talking about for the next 12 months as it snags all the awards. I can only presume Iron Maiden are writing a song about it as we speak.
Jonathan’s review | Available now
Beth: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
I too have had a super busy reading month, all thanks to most of my reads being fairly short! Wanting to make the most of the season, I’ve predominantly read spooky or dark reads; I started this theme off with Freya Marske’s hauntingly beautiful Cinder House in which she imagines a Cinderella retelling in which Cinderella herself is a ghost. I then launched into T. Kingfisher’s Sworn Soldier trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed Kingfisher’s varied representations of horror subgenres. I also squeezed in a reading of my first ever Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher, so I could compare Kingfisher’s retelling What Moves the Dead. I then read Seishi Yokomizo’s classic Japanese mystery Murder At the Black Cat Cafe, recently translated by Bryan Karetnyk for Pushkin Press – the edition also included the story Why Did the Well Wheel Creak. I thought this would be a great read for this time of year as, although they’re crime thrillers, the stories I’ve read of his so far, and certainly these two, have such an unsettling quality about them. There is always an element to them that creates a sense of dread. I’m currently rounding off my month by reading The Book of Witches, an anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan – I’ll be reading this throughout Halloween night itself!
So, what am I picking for my Top Pick? Well, none of those I’m afraid. Sorry horror fans (Jonathan), but my favourite read of the month, in fact my favourite read of the year so far, was one I finished within the first week of the month but stayed with me throughout – The Everlasting by Alix. E. Harrow. As Nils said above, this was our buddy read – we’re both huge fans of Harrow and we’ve read a number of her books and novellas together now, but this had so many elements that I just love in my fantasy; Arthurian-inspired mythology, time travel, stories that aren’t what they seem. I’ve already lent my copy out and I expect this to be my number one recommendation for some time to come.
Buddy read review | Available now
What was your favourite read of the month? Share with us in the comments!
