The end of the year can evoke a range of complex emotions. Whether you are celebrating or mourning the end of 2025, we have you covered with a list of new releases to welcome you to 2026. From literary fiction to new science fiction, this upcoming year is sure to be one filled with many new and interesting novels. Keep reading to discover new books to add to your TBR or to start your reading challenge off with a bang.
The Halter by Darby McDevitt
In this debut science fiction fusion of cyber-noir and psychological suspense, Kennedy Spark is paid to (literally) pull the plug. Part detective, part counselor, all professional halter, Kennedy trails the world’s darkest surrogate reality in search of the lost while dreaming of a one-way trip to Mars and its new salvaged Earth colony. One evening, a mysterious client offers Kennedy a new case: find out what led to Delia Walsh’s disappearance inside the surrogate reality called The Forum by traversing its dark and dangerous secrets.
The Ice Angels by Caroline Mitchell
Ten years ago, Detective Elea Baker’s daughter was taken and never found. Now, in the quiet streets of Lincoln, girls are disappearing again. When one shows up in a cathedral clutching a clue to a decades-long abduction cold case, only Baker can solve it. Determined to find the truth and bring her daughter home, she will have to confront the darkness bubbling just under Lincoln’s small-town surface.
Love by the Book by Jessica George
Remy is lucky: her best friends have always been there for her. Until the day they’re not, and they find themselves all on different life paths. One is moving to New York. One is pregnant. And one is too busy with her awful boyfriend. Simone has never needed friends until her family cuts her off and she realizes how truly alone she is. When Simone and Remy meet in a bookshop, they might’ve just found each other at exactly the right time. This isn’t a romance but a book about the deep love of friendship.
The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu
In this debut science fiction novel from Nebula and Hugo-winning author John Chu, a story unfolds about physics and generational trauma. Ellie’s universe is falling apart: her ailing mother is in a coma, her sister keeps accusing her of being insufficiently Chinese, and a shadowy cabal of engineers is trying to hijack her machinery that keeps each universe working the way it’s supposed to. Ellie’s cousin, Daniel, has also found an illicit device keeping her mom in a comatose state and creating destabilizing bugs in the physics of their universe. Ellie is then faced with the task of confronting her mother’s legacy and overcoming generational trauma if she wants to save the universe from collapsing and reconcile with her sister.
The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke
Cat Clarke and V.E. Schwab team up as Evelyn Clarke, who debuts a heart-pounding mystery that is impossible to put down. When one of the world’s best-selling novelists, Arthur Fletch, invites six struggling authors to his Scottish private island, they come to a shocking realization: Arthur Fletch is dead, and his last book is unfinished. Tasked with the impossibility of imagining an ending worthy of the Fletch name, the authors will compete in finishing his book and ghostwriting the final chapter. But getting to the end could be murder.
You Did Nothing Wrong by C.G. Drews
In their adult debut novel, You Did Nothing Wrong, C.G. Drews weaves a story about single mother Eloise and the fairy-tale twist her life has taken since meeting her golden retriever husband, Bren. He’s whisked her and her autistic son, Jude, away to the crumbling, gothic family house he’s renovating. Everything is perfect until Jude starts hearing voices in the walls and inexplicable things start happening around the house.
A Good Person by Kirsten King
Lillian is determined to lock Henry down, even if her friends call it a “situationship,” and he does nothing to disprove it. She’s committed to being the best version of herself until he falls in love with her. But when Henry blindsides her with a break-up, all Lillian manages to do is drunkenly hex him, which backfires when Henry literally dies. Desperate to clear her name and presume the rightful place as Henry’s mournful girlfriend, Lillian will stop at nothing to pursue the truth, even if the truth makes her tailspin down a dark path.
She Made Herself a Monster by Anna Kovatcheva
A self-proclaimed vampire slayer joins forces with a teenage girl to create a monster strong enough to vanquish their demons in this Gothic debut set in nineteenth-century Bulgaria. Yana rides from one desolate town to the next, staging grisly displays while the villages treat corpses like animals in the square and eggs are filled with blood in chicken coops. Alongside telling them stories of creatures that stalk the night, Yana eliminates the threat and sows seeds of hope. But she finds this hope difficult when she arrives in the village of Koprivici, a place plagued by exceptional illness and misfortune. It is there that she will be tested, and there she meets the headstrong orphan the villagers blame for their curse. Together, Anka the orphan and slayer Yana conjure a monster that might be powerful enough to allow for Anka’s escape.
Skylark by Paula McLain
Paul McLain intertwines two stories in two different Paris settings.1664: Alouette Voland is a master dyer at the famed Gobelin Tapestry Works who dreams of escape and saving her father from unjust imprisonment. But Alouette’s efforts to save him lead to her own confinement in the notorious Salpêtrière asylum, where thousands of women are held captive and tormented. 1939: Kristof Larson is a medical student beginning his residency in Paris, whose Jewish neighbors on the Rue de Gobelins have fled Poland. When Nazi forces invade their city, Kristof becomes their only hope. A spellbinding and transformative look at a side of Paris very few know.
Meet Me in the Garden by Nina Lacour
Odette has always been one of the Honore sisters, glamorous and admired in their Creole community. But while her sisters are content with the lives laid out for them, Odette longs for something, someone, else. It is only to her cousin Delphine that Odette can tell her secret–that she is in love with a woman. Delphine has a secret lover, too, a white man. It is in the garden where Odette and Delphie can tell of their lives and plot their miraculous escapes. But five years later, Odette’s life is nothing like she planned. She is a widowed mother living in Los Angeles, and she and Delphie have spiraled apart.
Eating Ashes by Brenda Navarro, Translated by Megan McDowell
Adrift and alone in Barcelona, an unnamed narrator is haunted by her brother’s death. Plagued by the memories of her helping raise him from boyhood in Mexico, she recounts the events that led to his death and her finding herself living a solitary existence. To balm her Ulysses syndrome, the narrator develops a strange compulsion to touch and taste her brother’s ashes. A novel that flows and ebbs like a river stream, Eating Ashes is one you won’t want to miss this January.
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
Following her sensational memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy returns with a character study on the complications of adolescence. Waldo is a yearning, naive, wise, and impulsive seventeen-year-old with a pit of endless wanting. And the thing she wants the most is her creative writing teacher, Mr. Korgy. She doesn’t know why she wants him. His life experience? His passion? Or, maybe, she just likes how he seems to see her when no one else does.
These are just a few of the new, exciting books set to be released in 2026. From historical fiction to Jennette McCurdy’s second novel, there is something for everyone waiting in the new year. Be sure to check out these books and add them to your TBR. Happy reading!
Interested in more books to add to that ever-expanding TBR? Check out some more recommendations here.
Find these titles and more on our Literary Fiction shelf.
