Seattle Staff Faves 2025: Fiction, Part 2
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)
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Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
Four teenage girls trapped in a secretive maternity home for unwed mothers in 1970 St. Augustine, Florida, find an unexpected source of power through witchcraft. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Honoria
When Ida is sent away for the summer to stay with the Murphys--friends of her father, but also of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald--she travels from New York to France and, unknowingly, into the artistic epicenter of 1929. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Graphic Novel
Availability: Available
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Sad Tiger
Through a fragmented narrative about the abuse she suffered for years, the author explores the different facets of memory - her own, her mother’s, as well as her abusive stepfather’s; and of abuse itself in all its monstrosity and banality. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness
Over the course of generations, a house in the mountains of Catalonia bears witness to wolves, the ravages of several wars, witches, bandits, and the devil in various guises. (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Woodworking
In small-town South Dakota, newly divorced Erica, a closeted trans teacher, forms an unlikely bond with Abigail, a bold trans student navigating senior year, as their friendship withstands community scrutiny as it shapes their journeys toward self-acceptance and authenticity. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Starving Saints
Fans of sapphic romance and gory cannibalistic horror will find unexpected common ground in this masterful medievalesque fantasy from Starling. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Chocolate Chip City
Following three Black sisters in DC, Steadwell offers a magical, wise, and wry exploration of relationships in the face of the complicating factors of work and lovers. (Publisher)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Listeners
The true story of Axis diplomats detained in the U.S. at the start of World War II is transformed into a dazzling historical novel set at a sumptuous West Virginia hotel. (Kirkus Reviews)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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The Isle in the Silver Sea
In an England fuelled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on A Dead Man)
When a young woman searching for a missing friend leads Vera to the mysterious murder of influencer Xander Lin, she delves into his enigmatic life, untangling secrets and hidden identities to help her future daughter-in-law, Officer Selena Gray, solve the case. (NoveList Plus)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on A Dead Man)