The Seaboard Review of Books: Best 2025 Picks

Our contributors pick their favourite reads from their 2025 reviews

It’s time to look back at some of the standout titles our contributors reviewed in 2025. I asked them to nominate one or two favourite reads from the books they covered this year—but many - myself included - found it impossible to choose just one, or even two. In the end, I opted to leave no book behind and include every title they felt deserved a “Best of 2025” pick.

Here they are, in no particular order. Have you read any of these, or are they on your TBR list? Let us know in the comments section.

We are also offering a 40% discount on new annual subscriptions until December 31, 2025. Please use this link: https://www.theseaboardreview.ca/EOY2025

James M. Fisher, editor-in-chief

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This special issue of The Seaboard Review of Books is brought to you by the good folks at Camel Literary Magazine.

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Michael Greenstein:

• The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien (Knopf Canada) Fiction

• This Is How We Love by Lisa Moore (House of Anansi) Fiction

• In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart (McClelland & Stewart) Fiction

Lisa Timpf:

• Out of the Ordinary by Tom Wayman (Harbour Publishing) Poetry

• Chrystia: From Peace River to Parliament Hill by Catherine Tsalikis (House of Anansi) Non-Fiction

• The Last of Its Kind by Sibylle Grimbert (Book*hug Press) Fiction

Dawn Macdonald:

• Muttertongue by Lillian Allen, Gary Barwin and Gregory Betts (Exile Editions) Poetry

Melanie Marttila:

• I Love You Bunny by Mona Awad (Scribner) Fiction

• The Midnight Project by Christie Climenhage (Poplar Press) Fiction

Shannon MacLeod:

• The Spirit of Scaterie by Lesley Crewe (Nimbus & Vagrant Press) Fiction

Ian Colford:

• A Town With No Noise by Karen Smythe (Palimpsest Press) Fiction

• Animals by Jerrod Edson (Galleon Books) Fiction

• The Austens by Sarah Emsley (Pottersfield Press) Fiction

Olga Stein:

• Endling by Maria Reva (Reviewed by Michael Greenstein) (Knopf Canada) Fiction

John Oughton:

• The Castor’s Choice by Jeff Wilson (Cormorant) Fiction

Anne Smith-Nochasak:

• Behind the Bricks: The Life and Times of the Mohawk Institute, Canada’s Longest-Running Residential School, edited by Richard W. Hill Sr et al.(University of Calgary Press) Non-Fiction

• When I Became Never by Nathalie Guilbeault (Montreal Publishing Company) Fiction

Heather McBriarty:

• This Rare Earth by Jeremy Gilmer (Vehicule Press) Non-Fiction

• The Arrows of Fealty by Jill MacLean (OC Publishing) Fiction

Melanie Jackson:

• Ham’s Heaven by Ori Gersht (Warbler Press) Fiction

• The Antifa Comic Book, revised and updated by Gord Hill (Arsenal Pulp Press) Non-Fiction

• Partisans: A Graphic History of Anti-Fascist Resistance, edited by Raymond Tyler and Paul Buhle, (Between The Lines Books) Non-Fiction

Naomi MacKinnon:

• We’re Not Rich by Sue Murtagh (Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press) Fiction

• We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin (Scribner) Fiction

• The Tudor Prophecy by Julie Strong (OC Publishing) Fiction

Laura Patterson:

• Reverse Ripples by M.E. Strautmanis (Purple Porcupine) Fiction

• The Road to Goderich by Linda McQuaig (Dundurn Press) Fiction

• Johnny Delivers by Wayne Ng (Guernica Editions) Fiction

Pamela Sinclair:

• Immortal Woman by Sue Chang (House of Anansi) Fiction

• Terminal Solstice by Sean Minogue (Turnstone Press) Fiction

• Fun Times Brigade by Lindsay Zier-Vogel (Book*hug Press) Fiction

James M. Fisher

• The Undesirables by Katie Ingram (Pottersfield Press) Non-Fiction

• Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon by Lisa de Nikolits (Inanna Publications) Fiction

• Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha (Undertow) Fiction, Horror

• Saints Rest by Luke Francis Beirne (Baraka Books) Fiction

• Midway by Brent Mason (Galleon Books) Fiction

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