October 2025's Hottest New Book Releases You'll Want To Read ASAP

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As the seasons circle back around to the cooler, darker days we know and love, now's the perfect time to curl up with a hot new book. After all, fall is the ultimate reading season. "I read a lot during autumn and winter — the days are short and cold, so I can get everything done and curl up in bed to read for hours," wrote one Reddit commenter. Fortunately, October's release calendar is brimming with exciting new titles that are hard to put down. Some of these new books rank among our most anticipated book releases of fall 2025.

So, whether you're looking for a novel to sink into solo or you're in charge of this month's book club selection, these are picks you won't want to miss. From an A-list thriller to a memoir from one of the greatest contemporary magazine writers, these books will whisk you away to different worlds.

A-list actress and producer Reese Witherspoon definitely has a preference for picking one particular genre for her book club: thrillers. So it's no surprise that the longtime story lover finally tried her hand at writing one herself — alongside bestselling author Harlan Coben. In "Gone Before Goodbye," due to release October 14, surgeon Maggie McCage finds herself falsely accused of murder and scrambling to prove her innocence in a riveting story that earned 4.03 stars on Goodreads.

Readers praised the inventive plot and captivating prose. "From the start, I struggled to predict where the story would go, since Reese and Harlan were determined not to give anything away," wrote one Goodreads reviewer. "That uncertainty kept me hooked right to the end." The novel delivers on Coben's reputation for propulsive, impossible-to-put-down books, with a little extra sparkle courtesy of Witherspoon. As one excited Goodreads reviewer wrote, "ELLE WOODS WROTE A THRILLER."

Bestselling author Stephanie Garber uncovers the magical realism underworld of Los Angeles in "Alchemy of Secrets," released October 7. This blend of romance and fantasy, which earned 4.06 stars on Goodreads, is an immediate contender for the dark academia novels to add to your book club reading list. Garber's novel immerses readers in the glamorous world of old Hollywood, layered with her own knack for fantastical world-building.

From its plot to its heroine to its historical, vibrant details, readers found the book to be a delight. "With the vibes of the [1920s] set in a modern day and the nonsensicalness of Alice in Wonderland, this fantasy is utterly captivating from start to finish," wrote one Goodreads reviewer. Though this is the first Garber novel to take place outside her previously established Caraval world, longtime fans will find familiarity here. "I always love when an author has a clear voice that you can find in each of their books," wrote one Goodreads reviewer. "As you read, you'll notice that this story is recognizably hers. No one else could craft and build this absolutely addictive puzzle the way she did."

Longtime journalist Susan Orlean turns her analytical gaze on herself in "Joyride: A Memoir," due out on October 14. Orlean has always been a master of teasing out addictive, thrilling narratives from the quirky corners of the world. "Joyride" offers tantalizing insight into the author's mind in a book that's equal parts memoir and instruction manual on creativity; at the time of writing, it holds 4.49 stars on Goodreads.

True to form, Orlean knows how to make the mundane fascinating. "She gives readers the exact right amount of what we want to know: about her upbringing and family, about her conversations with various editors, about her troubled first marriage and blissful second marriage (to a guy who's every bit as nice as she portrays him)," wrote one Goodreads reviewer. "She goes deep on her reporting and writing methods, on her fondness for animals, on the characteristics that drove her to develop, research, and finish her books." The details coalesce into an unforgettable portrait of a master profiler at the height of her power.

Thomas Pynchon, the king of American magical realism, returns with "Shadow Ticket," released October 7. In this highly anticipated historical novel, Hicks McTaggart is whisked from the 1932 streets of Milwaukee to the mysterious world of Eastern Europe at the dawn of World War II. The story brims with Big Band music and Soviet spies as McTaggert tries to find his way home. Readers awarded this strange, sprawling novel 4.23 stars on Goodreads at the time of writing, with one Goodreads reviewer calling it "definitely, unmistakably a Pynchon."

Fans of Pynchon are delighted to return to the author's unique mind. "Pynchon heard us yelling into the void and dropped a Depression-era detective into a cheese-fueled geopolitical fever dream," wrote one Goodreads reviewer. "Nazis, counterspies, paranormal swing dancers — this man is still remixing history like it's Gravity's Lindy Hop." It's a story so sprawling that it almost defies summarization; another Goodreads review simply wrote, "It's peak."