Reviews+

As publishers continue to set new benchmarks for the sophistication and quality of audiobook production, lending numbers of the print-enhancing format keep growing year over year. In fact, OverDrive data shows that libraries broke digital lending records in 2025, with 820 million checkouts and over one billion minutes streamed.

Audio horror, fantasy, mystery, social sciences, and more. This spring’s audiobook stars offer auditory delights across a wide range of subjects and genres.

From metafictional cosmic horror to Latin American gothic stories, these audios offer chilling listens for every taste.

From a historical mystery, brimming with love, deception, and drama, to a gritty, psychological listen, these suspenseful listens unsettle even as they entertain and surprise.

Pitch-perfect performances and second-chance romance make for swoony, satisfying listens.

From a speculative fiction debut to a genre-bending fantasy blending horror and Western, these SFF audios make for tension-filled, entertaining, and altogether entrancing listens.

A beautifully rendered time-travel romance and a globe-hopping dark fantasy open windows into new worlds, relationships, and possibilities.

These 22 audiobooks, created from a symphony of voices and stories, represent the high point of a wonderful year of listening. From splendid pieces of fiction to experimental takes on what it means to tell a story through sound to nonfiction that creates shifts in perspectives, these titles, the best of 2025, will enhance any collection and please listeners for hours on end.

Audio cookbooks, drama, sci-fi, romance, and more. This fall’s audiobook stars offer auditory delights across all genres.