NotesOnDawn's 2025 Midyear Book Review
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NotesonDawn here. Can you believe we’re already halfway through 2025? This year has been flying by, and my reading pile has seen... well, let’s call it "a lot of action."
If you’ve been following my updates, you'll know my 2025 reading has been a complete rollercoaster. I’ve had some of the highest highs—books that will undoubtedly make my end-of-year list—and some of the most disappointing lows I’ve experienced in a long time. There have been hyped books that fell flat, and quiet, unexpected novels that completely blew me away.
I thought the midpoint of the year was the perfect time to sit down, grab a cup of tea, and give you the full, honest breakdown. This is my 2025 midpoint wrap-up: the best, the worst, the complicated, and the essential.
Let's get into it.
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🌟 The Raves: My Absolute Top Tiers of 2025
I want to start with the good stuff. These are the books that remind me why I love reading. They are, without exception, my top recommendations from the year so far.
Best Book So Far: Rouge by Mona Awad
Oh, Mona Awad. You’ve done it again. After the surreal brilliance of Bunny, I knew I was in for a ride, but Rouge is, for me, her masterpiece. This is, hands down, the best book I have read in 2025.
Rouge is a gothic fairytale, a fever dream, and a biting social satire all rolled into one. It’s a Snow White retelling, but in a way only Awad could imagine—trading the fairytale forest for the nightmarish, cult-like world of high-end, obsessive skincare. The story follows Belle, who, after her mother's mysterious death, is drawn into a bizarre and sinister spa that promises eternal youth and beauty.
What makes this my "best" is the sheer audacity of the prose. It's luscious, unhinged, and darkly hilarious. Awad perfectly captures the horror of modern beauty standards and the complex, often toxic, relationship between mothers and daughters. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and it’s deeply unsettling. I felt like I was in a trance while reading it. An absolute 5-star experience.
Favourite: The Lotus Kingdom by Tasha Suri
(Note: The prompt listed 'The Lotus Empire', but I'm reviewing the final book in the trilogy, 'The Lotus Kingdom'.)
There’s a difference between your "Best" book and your "Favourite" book. "Best" is about technical brilliance. "Favourite" is pure, unadulterated emotional connection. And The Lotus Kingdom was my favourite reading experience of the year.
This is the final book in The Burning Kingdoms trilogy, and the pressure was on. I have lived and breathed this India-inspired, sapphic, anti-colonial epic fantasy for years. I was so worried. How could Tasha Suri possibly stick the landing for the complex, morally grey, and deeply compelling relationship between Priya and Malini?
Well, she did. She absolutely did. This book was everything I wanted and more. The plant-based magic was inventive, the political manoeuvring was sharp and ruthless, and the ending was... well, no spoilers, but it was earned. It was satisfying. It was beautiful. I closed this book with that perfect, bittersweet ache of saying goodbye to characters who feel like old friends. This is why I read fantasy.
Definitely Recommend: Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa
This book is not a "favourite" in the same way. It’s not a comfortable or joyful read, but it is, in my opinion, one of the most essential. Mornings in Jenin is a book I definitely, unequivocally recommend.
This is a powerful, sprawling, and deeply heartbreaking work of historical fiction. It follows four generations of a Palestinian family, beginning with their displacement in 1948. We see the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict not through news headlines, but through the eyes of one family—specifically Amal, a young girl whose life is shaped by loss, resilience, and the search for a home that no longer exists.
I'm not going to lie; this book is devastating. I cried multiple times. It's a tough read, filled with tragedy. But it's also filled with so much humanity, love, and life. Susan Abulhawa’s writing is beautiful, and she gives a powerful, humanising voice to a perspective many of us in the West rarely get to read. It's a story that needs to be told and, more importantly, a story that needs to be read. It broke my heart, but it also filled it with a profound sense of empathy.
💔 The Disappointments & Let-Downs
Now, for the other side of the coin. It pains me to do this, but honesty is key in a review (it's the 'Trustworthiness' in E-E-A-T, after all!). These books, for various reasons, just did not work for me.
Worst: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
I know. I know. Please don't send the mob. This book is one of the most beloved sci-fi novels of the last decade. And... I’m labelling it my "worst" read of the year.
Let me be very clear: "worst" does not mean "badly written." It means "most fundamentally misaligned with my personal reading tastes." This is the classic "it's not you, it's me" breakup. This book is the literal definition of "cozy sci-fi." It's 100% character vibes, 0% plot. I kept waiting for... well, anything to happen. An angry planet? A central conflict? A climax?
Instead, I got a very, very long and pleasant intergalactic commute where people are nice to each other and sort out their feelings. I know, for many people, that is the entire appeal! But I need stakes. I need tension. I need a plot. This felt like reading the appendices of a space opera I actually wanted to be reading. I was so bored I almost fell asleep.
Least Favourite: Mrs. S by K Patrick
This one falls into a similar-but-different category. While Angry Planet was my "worst" experience, Mrs. S was my "least favourite."
This is a highly literary, very sparse, sapphic novel set at an elite boarding school. It follows a young Australian woman who takes a job as a "matron" and becomes obsessed with the enigmatic wife of the headmaster, the titular Mrs. S.
It’s all subtext. All of it. It’s 200 pages of longing glances, unspoken desires, and descriptions of lakes and weather. The prose is so sparse and abstract that I just couldn't find a foothold. It felt like it was trying to be withholding, to be clever, and I just found it... cold. It's a "vibe" book, and the vibe and I were not compatible. I finished it and just thought, "But... what was the point?"
Don’t Recommend: What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
This one genuinely hurts me. I am a huge T. Kingfisher fan. The Hollow Places and Nettle & Bone are all-time favourites. I love her blend of cosy, creepy, and common-sense horror.
What Feasts at Night is a follow-up novella to What Moves the Dead, revisiting the non-binary protagonist, Alex Easton. And I just... don't recommend it. It felt like a re-tread. It was the same formula—Easton goes to an isolated European village, something creepy is in the woods, they investigate—but without any of the magic. The mystery was thin, the "creepy" felt predictable, and the charm of Easton's narration felt a bit flat.
It felt like a contractual obligation, not a story that needed to be told. If you're new to T. Kingfisher, please do not start here. This is the only book of hers I've read that felt... fine. And "fine" from an author I love is a massive disappointment.
🤔 The Complicated Ones: Books That Made Me Think
Finally, we have the books that don't fit into "love" or "hate." These are the complicated ones, the books that surprised me or left me with mixed feelings.
Defied Expectations: Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
I went into Hungerstone with my expectations firmly on the floor. It's a YA thriller pitched as "Dungeons & Dragons meets The Hunger Games." I was bracing myself for something derivative and full of cliches.
Instead, this book completely defied my expectations. It was so much smarter, darker, and more compelling than I ever imagined. The story is set in a resource-scarce, high-fantasy world where an elite group of students are forced into a deadly, high-stakes LARP (Live Action Role-Play) that is broadcast to the masses. The "game" is a tool of propaganda and control.
Kat Dunn can write. The characters felt real, the trauma they were processing was palpable, and the twists were genuinely clever. It took the "deadly game" trope and actually did something new with it. I was so impressed by how it handled themes of grief, propaganda, and survival. It was a fantastic, pacey thriller that had no right to be that good.
Could Have Done More: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
And now, the big one. The return to Panem. Sunrise on theReaping, the story of Haymitch Abernathy's Hunger Games.
Look, am I glad I read it? Yes. Is it a good book? Yes. It's Suzanne Collins. The action is, as always, brilliant. The tension is high. Haymitch is a fascinating character.
But.
For me, it "could have done more." The reason The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was so revolutionary was that it was a deep, philosophical character study that completely re-contextualised the entire series. It made us question everything we thought we knew about Panem, about Snow, about human nature.
Sunrise on the Reaping... just felt like another Hunger Games book. A very good one, but a standard one. It told us what happened to Haymitch—we saw the arena, we saw the reaping. But it didn't give me that same deep, uncomfortable why that Songbirds did. It was a brilliant story, but it wasn't a revelation. I wanted a paradigm-shift, and I got a (very, very good) prequel.
My Final Thoughts
So, that's my 2025 so far. A year of stellar highs (Rouge, Lotus Kingdom) and baffling lows (Angry Planet). It's been a ride, but that’s what makes reading so exciting.
The key takeaway is that reading is, and always will be, deeply personal. My "worst" book might be your all-time favourite, and that's the beauty of it.
Now, I need to know: What have been your reading highs and lows of 2025 so far? What’s been your "Best Book"? What’s been your "Worst"? Please let me know in the comments below—I'm always looking to add to my (ever-growing) TBR pile!
Thanks for reading, - NotesonDawn
