We are staring down the barrel of the final weeks of 2025 (it’s gonna be a good riddance—let the door hit you hard on the way out—NYE). For many people, that means wrapping up what they can and checking out as much as possible, until it’s time to reset in the new year. If you care about the total number of books you read for the year, you may want to sneak in some shorter reads to bump up that number. If you don’t care about reading stats and only care about the pleasure of reading a book, this time of year might leave you with less time for that, and a book on the shorter side might be exactly what you need.
These five books are “short” in regard to the number of pages they contain, but they aren’t short on quality or content. Plus, I’ve got recommendations for different reading tastes, from a spy thriller to a middle grade graphic novel!
Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park
Page count: 232
This is a perfect example of a novel that blends a spy thriller (plenty of action) with a literary novel, one that asks a lot of questions about identity and immigrant communities, including internal conflicts. The story starts with North Korean spy Yohan, whose mentor, Doha, has been killed in Oxford. At the center of the question of who killed Doha and why are a Korean restaurant and North Korean, South Korean, and Korean-American spies, all in multiple timelines. As POV changes, we see them each grappling with their line of work and what it means to be Korean. This slim book packs a punch in many ways!
The Things She’s Seen by Ambelin Kwaymullina, Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Page count: 208
This is a YA murder mystery about Beth Teller, an Aboriginal girl who died at the age of 15 and is now a ghost. She’s helping her dad, who can see her, with two things: to get through his grief over her death, and solve a mysterious fire at a children’s home that resulted in a missing caretaker and an unidentified dead body. Along with Beth, you also follow her detective father and a witness to the fire, Isobel Catching. This was a beautiful and poetic novel that I read over a handful of years ago and still think about.
Goldie Vance Vol. 1 by Hope Larson, Brittney Williams
Page count: 112
I grab a graphic novel whenever I want a one-sitting read that I can get lost in, and this has remained a favorite over the years. Goldie Vance is a teen, working in a Florida resort that her dad manages while her mom works nearby as a live mermaid. Goldie is a valet, but she has her heart set on solving mysteries and her eye on Mr. Tooey’s job, the resort’s in-house detective. What starts out as a missing necklace turns into Goldie and her best friend/co-worker decoding a symbol, and sleuthing on a missing person’s case… a great read for fans of Veronica Mars, Nancy Drew, and Pushing Daisies!
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My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Page count: 240
A lot has happened in the seven years since this book made a big splash, so if you’ve yet to get to it, or this is the first time it’s crossed your radar, let me introduce you to a dark and complicated sister relationship. Ayoola has a trail of dead boyfriends in her wake, and her sister Korede is always cleaning up after her —quite literally in the opening of the book. But will Korede still protect her sister when Ayoola sets her sights on the man Korede is in love with?
Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones
Page count: 144
This book is impossible to talk about without spoiling the entire thing, and I think that’s why it’s fallen into the category of books where the reader’s expectations really affect how they react to it. So let me say that it is a very smartly constructed social horror that intentionally starts as one thing and ends as another. It’s dark, and clever, and fresh—and that’s all I’m going to say because the unfolding of the story is the best part!
Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf, and see 2025 and 2026 releases! Until next time, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Goodreads, Litsy, and Multitudes Contained.
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