A running ranking of the books that I have reviewed this year, updated and reranked after each book that I finish.

Whether you’re looking for the next viral BookTok recommendation, a thriller from a favorite author, or a Pulitzer-worthy literary fiction masterpiece, I’ve rounded up the top upcoming books of 2026 that you need to preorder now.

★★☆☆☆ While not exactly a sequel, Matt Haig revisits the premise of 2020's The Midnight Library with another examination of the different paths our lives can take.

★★★★★ In her first book since The Help, Kathryn Stockett transports us to 1933 Mississippi where a female-driven cast exposes the misogynistic society of the time.

★★★★☆ A 36-year-old woman navigates divorce and reclaims her identity from a comic character based on her in this latest adult novel from Rainbow Rowell.

★★☆☆☆ A multi-timeline story that had me hopeful for something akin to Cloud Cuckoo Land unfortunately sputters to a disjointed and wholly unsatisfying conclusion.

★★★★☆ A haunting, dual-timeline tale of estranged siblings reckoning with a traumatic childhood serves up a unique blend of family drama and dark fairy tale.

★★★★☆ Six authors compete on a remote Scottish island to finish a dead writer's final novel in this middling Clue-like send-up of the publishing industry.