At the end of each year, we look with curiosity into our analytics, and collect the most popular reviews and interviews of the year for your enjoyment. Along with some work from simply great local writers, the popular pieces of 2025 tend to follow important and vital topics: the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and its rippling repercussions; the rise of medically assisted dying in Canada; Black history and, of course, sex.

1. First Times: Short Stories About Sex, edited by Karine Glorieux (March 2025)

“First Times offers a broader perspective on what constitutes a ‘first time’ in sexual experiences, challenging traditional, heteronormative definitions by including diverse narratives, ranging from queer experiences to self-exploration through masturbation. The stories in First Times reflect the anxiety, humour, and vulnerability often felt during these formative moments.” – Sruti Islam

2. Valentine in Montreal, by Heather O’Neill, illustrations by Arizona O’Neill (July 2025)

“Much like its eponymous protagonist, Heather O’Neill’s latest novel Valentine in Montreal is dreamy and comforting.” – Karolina Roman

3. Leila Marshy on My Thievery of the People (March 2025)

“My Thievery of the People helps us believe 2025 might not be that bad after all, and that big tech and other power structures should fear us. … Marshy’s sophomore book, My Thievery of the People signals that the writer’s literary path is only entering its bloom.” – Léa Murat-Ingles

4. Unravelling MAiD: Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide as Medical Care, edited by Ramona Coelho, K. Sonu Gaind, and Trudo Lemmens (March 2025)

“Unravelling MAiD is a timely and important book. The editors have done a fantastic job in curating this volume, and the works they have gathered should be of interest not only to those critical of MAiD.  Given the highly emotional and tense nature of the debate, it is more crucial than ever to look at the controversies of assisted suicide through the eyes of the other.” – Yoann Della Croce

5. Eyes Have Seen: From Mississippi to Montreal, by Fred Anderson (July 2025)

“Eyes Have Seen can be viewed as a contribution to alternative or counter-history, a crucial perspective that challenges dominant narratives and illuminates forgotten truths. Anderson’s point of view on these events is not only vital; it is dynamic and passionate, remaining true to the curious young self he evokes in earlier memories. This ever-present curiosity also emanates from his detailed portrayals of the real-life characters and places across North America that shaped him. That said, Eyes Have Seen represents much more than a historical offering – it is also a lesson on the importance of education for enacting real change in the world.” – Léa Murat-Ingles

6. Benjamin Libman on The Third Solitude (July 2025)

“I’m not saying I have my view, you have yours, let’s hold hands. I have strong views. I think Zionism is immoral. I don’t want us to agree to disagree, and I don’t want us to exclude people who disagree with us.” – Elise Moser

7. Oxford Soju Club, by Jinwoo Park (July 2025)

“Beneath the surface, Oxford Soju Club is – according to Park’s foreword –  a metaphor for the ruthless competition that can exist between Korean immigrants. It is also a story about various coping mechanisms that immigrants employ in order to survive.” – James Ivison

8. Curtis John McRae on Quietly, Loving Everyone (July 2025)

“Composed of eleven pieces, Quietly, Loving Everyone is itself a love letter to the city. The stories – some linked within the same narrative arc, others standing alone – weave a web of intimacies in a shared world: Montreal and its surroundings.” – Emma Dollery

9. Homebound, by Josh Quirion (August 2025)

“Though the stories are not connected in a single narrative arc, they often relate tangentially through characters and locations. Visiting recurring haunts, like the local pub, in different moments of time builds a kinetic backdrop and creates cohesion. Reappearing characters play the protagonist in some stories, then show up as side characters in others, fumbling along without the benefit of a first-person point of view. Quirion successfully portrays the roundness of his characters this way. We are all someone’s hero, and someone else’s villain.” – Gina Leola Woolsey

10. Mélikah Abdelmoumen on Baldwin, Styron, and Me (July 2025)

“Abdelmoumen’s entanglement with Baldwin and Styron throughout the years distinguishes her retelling. The book unfurls as an intertextual love story, combining memoir, correspondence, dramatic monologues, and quotations from the authors’ work.” – Faith Paré

Along with the year’s favourites, there are always reviews from our 25-year-plus archive that remain perpetually popular, or rise up in the metrics for mysterious reasons. This year, archival hits included recent-ish reviews of Éric Chacour’s What I Know About You by Alexandra Sweny (from October 2024) and of Michel Jean’s Kukum by Roxane Hudon (July 2023). H Felix Chau Bradley’s interview with Chris Bergeron, from November 2023, was a stark reminder of fiction anticipating reality: Bergeron’s Valid is set in a dystopian future in which trans people are forced to conceal their identity, and I for one had no inkling that this erasure would essentially become US law only a few years later. Meanwhile, perhaps related to stalwart Eastern Townships mystery novelist Louise Penny’s recent boycott of the US, longtime mRb editor Mélanie Grondin’s 2017 review of Penny’s Glass Houses also found itself frequently read.

Perhaps the most mysterious archival hit was a 2014 review of local graphic novelist Pascal Girard’s Petty Theft, by Frederik Byrn Køhlert. It was not only the most popular archival review of the year, but the most popular review period. Why? We haven’t figured that one out yet, but we look forward to reviewing the upcoming Girard collection, along with other samples of the wealth of literary talent coming out of Quebec.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy the holidays, and see you in 2026.