Emily Vance Brown

By Maria Reva

5/5

Endling was my favorite read of 2025 so far. I discovered Maria Reva a few years ago when she had just published her debut novel, Good Citizens Need Not Fear, and I’ve been eagerly waiting for more since. Good Citizens was an interconnected short story collection that follows the residents of an accidentally uncataloged apartment building in Ukraine. The book’s characters and unusual style left quite an impression on me and I think about it often. Endling was no different. The plot is ingenious bordering on insane. I’m fairly certain no one else would have come up with a cast of characters that include an asexual snail scientist, the two daughters of a disappeared activist, and the Ukrainian bridal tourism industry itself. Reva’s book tackles some of the heaviest topics of our current society, yet somehow comes across as more whimsical than dark. It has a magic to it that I yearn for in my literary fiction, and I’m sure I’ll be thinking about it, and recommending it for years to come.