The A.V. Club's most anticipated books of summer 2025

“We were entering the famous-for-being-famous era, where the only currency was public recognition,” writes Jeff Weiss in a pre-publication excerpt of Waiting For Britney Spears: A True Story, Allegedly. “Literary romanticism seemed laughable.” It seems pretty serious now, based on his tone here. In the 2000s, Weiss, a young, ambitious, and struggling writer, took a job at a celebrity magazine. Not only did he have a front-row seat to the celebrity mania of the new millennium, but it was his job to report on it as the industry moved online. Weiss was in the clubs and at the intersections with Britney Spears, and when he wasn’t, he was on the hunt. Certainly, the tale is lurid, but from what we’ve read so far, Weiss makes it sound really poetic. [Drew Gillis]

It’s impossible to talk about Talking Heads without also delving into the once-in-a-lifetime environment from which they emerged. In Burning Down The House: Talking Heads And The New York Scene That Transformed Rock, New Yorker contributor Jonathan Gould paints a portrait of the 1970s New York music scene that fueled the band’s singular sound. Gould also dives into the band members’ interpersonal dynamics and their relationship with mercurial frontman David Byrne. Like with his now-classic book Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, And America, Gould infuses his writing with an indelible sense of time and place, making the music feel like part of the scenery and vice versa. [Jen Lennon]

At 86 years old, no one would blame Joyce Carol Oates for taking a breather. Instead, for the past 13 years, she’s dutifully pumped out at least one novel per year and shows no signs of slowing down. Her latest effort is Fox, a 672-page psychological thriller about a magnetic and mysterious English teacher named Francis Fox. After two men discover Francis’ car underwater with parts of a body scattered nearby, Detective Horace Zwender must unravel who Francis really is—or was—and what happened to him. As Detective Zwender uncovers the extent of Francis’ lies and manipulation, everyone in Francis’ orbit must reckon with what happened. [Jen Lennon]

Catherine Lacey’s The Möbius Book is split into two parts: one half fiction, one half memoir, fused together into a continuous narrative with no beginning and no end. The fiction side follows two friends catching up in one of their apartments as something that looks like blood seeps out from under her neighbor’s door. The memoir (which requires flipping the book over to the opposite cover and turning it upside down to read it) sees Lacey examining her life in the wake of a devastating breakup. It’s a challenging, technically ambitious work that weaves together themes of faith, fear, and love. [Jen Lennon]

Two trans women athletes play for the boys’ team in Hot Girls With Balls, the debut novel from Benedict Nguyễn. Six and Green, the titular hot girls with balls, are dating and about to make their debut in the men’s professional indoor volleyball league—but they’re playing for rival teams. Six is a social media star, an influencer whose follower count keeps rising the more she documents her relationship with Green, who’s not quite as comfortable with their private lives being public fodder. As the season goes on, the tension mounts, culminating in a climax where Six and Green go head-to-head on the court. [Jen Lennon]

In his first book, Black Genius: Essays On An American Legacy, cultural critic Tre Johnson blends personal history with data and reportage, offering an in-depth survey of Black American culture. By exploring the singular ingenuity and innovation of Black Americans, Johnson seeks to redefine our understanding of genius. There are examples of it all around us—even, he argues, in something as ubiquitous as airbrushed graffiti T-shirts. [Jen Lennon]

Baldwin: A Love Story, Nicholas Boggs’ biography of James Baldwin, sheds new light on the writer and civil rights activist’s personal relationships. Boggs focuses on four of Baldwin’s most important connections: his lover, Lucien Happersberger, his mentor, Beauford Delaney, and his artistic collaborators Engin Cezzar and Yoran Cazac. Boggs also examines how these men influenced Baldwin’s work, creating a three-dimensional portrait of Baldwin as an artist and as a person. [Jen Lennon]

After mastering fantasy novels like The Poppy War and its sequels, and delivering an acidic satire with 2023’s Yellowface, R.F. Kuang tackles the supernatural in her upcoming book. The aptly titled Katabasis, which is Greek for traveling to the underworld, sees protagonist Alice Law travel all the way to Hell to get a recommendation letter from her favorite professor. Now that’s commitment to the cause. Alice has sacrificed her health, romance, and even her sanity just to work with the greatest magician in the world. But after his death, which may or may not be her fault, she’s determined to fix her mistakes and beat out her rival in the process. [Saloni Gajjar]

• • Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid (June 3)
• • The Gowkaran Tree In The Middle Of Our Kitchen by Shokoofeh Azar (June 10)
• • Homework by Geoff Dyer (June 10)
• • Make It Ours: Crashing The Gates Of Culture With Virgil Abloh by Robin Givhan (June 24)
• • Vera, Or Faith by Gary Shteyngart (July 8)
• • Sharing In The Groove: The Untold Story Of The ’90s Jam Band Explosion And The Scene That Followed by Mike Ayers (July 22)
• • Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (August 12)