Brookfield Reads 2025: Chills & Thrills with Lori Rader-Day
This popular community-wide reading initiative returns this October with chills and thrills for all ages! The Brookfield Reads selection for 2025 is Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day, an Edgar Award-nominated and Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of Wreck Your Heart (forthcoming January 2026), The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, and others. Lori earned a Master of Arts in creative nonfiction and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. She lives in Chicago, where she co-chairs the crime fiction readers' event Midwest Mystery Conference and teaches creative writing at Northwestern University.
Read the book, attend activities all month long, and meet the author at the finale event. Register for special Brookfield Reads activities by clicking on the listings below.
Brookfield Reads for Teens and Tweens 2025
Under a Dark Sky not for you? You can still get into the Chills & Thrills spirit by trying out one or all of these YA titles below!
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron
Charity has the summer job of her dreams, playing the "final girl" at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. But on the last weekend of the season, Charity's co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity's role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real.
Promise Boys by Nick Brooks
J.B., Ramón, and Trey, students of the Urban Promise Prep School, must follow the school's strict rules, but when their principal is murdered, the three boys must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested.
Looking for Smoke by K. A. Cobell
When local girl Loren includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honor Loren's missing sister, Mara thinks she'll finally make some friends on the Blackfeet reservation. Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered. Because the four members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation.
The Counselors by Jessica Goodman
After a traumatic school year, camp counselor Goldie Easton is excited to reunite with her two best friends at an elite summer camp, but when a local boy is found dead on the grounds, all three must reveal a dark secret to find the murderer.
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
Mars, long overshadowed by his brilliant sister Caroline, is driven by grief to attend the exclusive Aspen Conservancy Summer Academy in her place after her mysterious death, only to uncover a world of idyllic charm masking unsettling secrets tied to Caroline’s enigmatic friends, the Honeys. As he delves deeper, Mars begins to lose his grip on reality under the sun-drenched yet decaying veneer of Aspen, where something sinister stalks him in daylight, and threatens to consume him entirely.
One of Us is Lying by M. McManus
When the creator of a high school gossip app mysteriously dies in front of four high-profile students all four become suspects. It's up to them to solve the case
Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis
Neely's monsters don't always follow her rules, so with a history of mental illness in her family and dealing with the suicide of her brother, Neely takes a job as a tour guide in the one place her monsters can't follow, the caverns. When her friend Mila is found brutally murdered in the caverns, Neely has to admit that her memories of that night are vague at best. With her monsters now out in the open and her grip on reality slipping, Neely must figure out who killed Mila and face the possibility that it might have been her.
Summer’s Edge by Dana Mele
When five estranged friends return to a summer lake house on the anniversary of their friend's death, unexplainable events begin happening, old betrayals rise to the surface, and the group suspects a killer among them is intent on revenge.
The Party by Natasha Preston
Bessie and her classmate's spring break party at a remote English castle turns deadly as a storm traps them with a killer, forcing them to unravel growing suspicions while the body count rises.
How We Fell Apart by Katie Zhao
Jamie Ruan is the queen bee of Sinclair Prep. Until one day she's ... dead. Her former closest friends have no idea what happened to her. Or do they? An anonymous poster, calling themselves The Proctor, points a finger: Jamie has four former friends. Each friend has a secret. Did one of them kill Jamie? Who is The Proctor, and what will they reveal next?
Check out the Brookfield Reads 2025-Related Reads list curated by librarians that includes these YA titles, plus more great adult thrillers and some awesome non-fiction recommendations!