Seattle Staff Faves 2025: Fiction, Part 1
Every year we ask our staff across the system for their favorite books published in a given year. Like last year, we needed two parts to accommodate all of the adult fiction our staff read! Enjoy this variety of fiction staff favorites, with annotations by staff members or as noted. (Created November 2025)
-
The Devils
In an alternative medieval Europe, a young monk is tasked to lead a disparate group of supernatural beings on a holy quest using very unholy methods. (LibraryReads)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View The Devils -
Stop Me If You've Heard This One
"I giggled my way through this absurdly humorous, delightfully sapphic novel set in Central Florida featuring Cherry: a lesbian clown nearing 30 who's caught between her miserable aquarium store job and pursuing her main life's passion as her alter-ego, Bunko the Clown. A good yarn—guaranteed laughs all around!"--Catherine M.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Stop Me If You've Heard This One -
We Could Be Rats
Two small-town sisters have very different experiences of post–high school life. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View We Could Be Rats -
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng
In the midst of the COVID pandemic of 2020, Cora's haunted by her deceased sister and stalked by a serial killer as her chaotic life spirals further out of control. (LibraryReads)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng -
The Unworthy
This heartrending postapocalyptic tale from Bazterrica examines religious devotion and the search for tenderness in a world torn apart by climate collapse. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View The Unworthy -
Spent
"What fun to revisit some of my favorite Dykes to Watch Out For characters in midlife! Literally LOLed several times while reading this."--Abby B.
Format: Graphic Novel
Availability: Available
View Spent -
Harriet Tubman
Revived in the present day along with a handful of other famous historical figures (Cleopatra has reinvented herself as an Instagram model), Harriet teams up with the narrator, legendary hip-hop producer Darnell Williams, to connect Black people to their ancestry through music. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Harriet Tubman -
The Second Death of Locke
Bound by blood and magic to the mage Kier, Grey Flynn hides a world-altering secret as they embark on a perilous mission to protect a rival kingdom's child -- one that could cost her life and threaten the future of all magic. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View The Second Death of Locke -
At the Bottom of the Garden
After adopting her nieces, a woman finds her life turned upside down by the ghosts of her past come back to haunt her—literally. (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View At the Bottom of the Garden -
Be Gay, Do Crime
A celebration of queer chaos from an all-queer author lineup featuring Myriam Gurba, Emily Austin, Alissa Nutting, and Francesca Ekwuyasi. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Be Gay, Do Crime