Shane’s 2025 Top 10

Shane’s ten favorite reads from 2025 (not necessarily published in 2025) in alphabetical order by author.

Featured

Private Rites

by Julia Armfield

Herculine

by Grace Byron

Women, Race, and Class

by Angela Davis

Dungeon Crawler Carl

by Matt DInniman

In Dungeon Crawler Carl, Carl’s world collapses. Literally. Every interior on Earth with a roof is collapsed and absorbed into the 18-Level World Dungeon. Part Hunger Games, part role-playing game, The Dungeon is an episodic intergalactic reality show with impossible odds. Dinniman has a clear understanding of what makes action readable and an impressive ability to bring a character to life. And beneath the very foot-enthusiastic game host A.I. and the ultra charismatic talking cat, Dungeon Crawler Carl is about humanity—finding and keeping it under a system that exploits and commodifies. It is the funnest, most engaging series I’ve ever read—and it all starts here: “You will not break me."