Sci-Fi Books That Defy Genre and Expectations
Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone.
Publishing’s Silence on Neil Gaiman Allegations is Loud
Mainstream publications including The Washington Post, The Guardian, and NPR have all covered the story, but responses have been almost entirely absent from within the publishing industry and publishing media, with the exception of a paywalled piece at Publishers Lunch…As for book media’s main players? Nothing from Publishers Weekly. Nothing from Shelf Awareness. Nothing from Lit Hub or the L.A. Times.
8 Genre-Defying Sci-Fi Books That Resist Expectations
I’ve written about genre-blending science fiction in the past: lists of books and stories where genre is blended, re-molded, and made something new. Genre-blending, in any and all genres, is something very near and dear to me, as both a reader and writer. It’s the excitement and temptation to tell stories that contain multitudes, for we, as artists and as people, contain multitudes. Now, let’s talk about genre-defying books.
The Most Anticipated Queer Books of 2025, According to All the Lists
I’m always interested in which queer books break through to the mainstream reading world, so in addition to reading dozens of lists of upcoming queer books, I’ve also combed through six of the biggest mainstream lists of most-anticipated books of 2025 and pulled out the queer books I spotted. I used lists from Book Riot (naturally), Goodreads, Time, Vulture, Lit Hub, and Barnes & Noble (Fiction, Nonfiction, YA).
Your Favorite Children’s Book Authors’ Favorite Children’s Books
From classic authors like A.A. Milne or E.B. White to more recent favorites like Jacqueline Woodson and Grace Lin, there are children’s books out there for everyone. It can make it hard to decide what to pick up and what to leave on the shelf. Maybe turning to the beloved children’s authors we already like can help point us in the right direction. What children’s books do these iconic children’s authors recommend, then? Well, let’s find out!
I Think I Like “Cozy” Dark Romance
A few months ago, my IRL romance book club decided we should try reading dark romance. Instead of picking one book, we choose a theme, trope, or subgenre to discuss, so we all spent a month reading as many dark romances as we wanted to, and when we came together at the end of it, we had all discovered some interesting things about books and reading…and ourselves.
