Few times are as perfect for reading as that beautiful transition from summer to fall. We’ve binged our beach reads and sat pool side with bright and shiny prose. Now, it’s time to get darker, cozier and curled up. From some new horror reads that will set off spooky season, to dark academia that gives all the back-to-school vibes, and of course, just some absolute stunners, these are the reads that will take you through to the end of the year.
The Disappearers by Marlon James (9/1)
Booker Prize Winner Marlon James returns with another heart-stopping story. Set in Kingston, Jamaica, eight men are rehearsing for a play. They are strangers to each other, but they share one thing in common: they are all gay. And in 1988, the world is a harsh place. One night, they are all beaten, and one of them is killed. In the wake of the attack they all feel different things, vengeance, denial, the urge to disappear. As they cope with what happened, James explores their journey with humor, a keen eye with the page-turning propulsion of a crime novel.
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Under Story by Chloe Benjamin (9/1)
Laurel is hiding from the world as a dishwasher at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. She used to be a renowned young scientist, but now, she seeks only solace. Even this remote landscape can’t hide her from her past. When a mysterious light appears, it draws the attention of physicists from around the world, including her husband. Convinced the Arc leads somewhere unimaginable, Laurel is determined to lead him into the unknown in the hopes of turning back the clock.
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Taipei Story by RF Kuang (9/8)
From the brilliant mind that brought us Yellowface, The Poppy War series, Katabassis and Babel, comes a new contemporary that explores identity, family and what connects us. When Lily Chen heads to Taipei expecting to feel at home, she’s forced to reconcile with how alone she feels. The intensive language program is beyond challenging, she isn’t clicking with her roommate, and now she’s the source of gossip. When her grandfather passes, questions she had hoped to find answers to are now out of reach. She must explore culture, memories and stories to try to piece together an understanding of her family’s history and who she is within it.
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The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon (9/8)
The New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen River has returned with another captivating story of a courageous woman in history. Grace O’Malley dreamed of the sea, but her station in life placed her in the marriage with a dangerous and brutal marriage. Nonetheless, she manages to amass a loyal following and when her husband casts her out, she has the opportunity she always believed was in her grasp. Commanding a fleet against Queen Elizabeth’s incursion, O’Malley’s incredible tale is one that reads like fantasy and demands to be known.
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The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman (9/8)
Are you as ready for Practical Magic 2 as we are? Brace yourself because it’s officially witch season and the author who brought us the Owens sisters is back as well. Set in 1950s Cambridge, MA, Ava and Lauren arrive to Radcliffe College. Different as two women could be, they share more in common than they think. With powers they are only beginning to discover, they are invited into the Lilith Society. But as they grow their abilities, other members begin to disappear and they realize the Salem Witch Trials may not be as far back in history as they believe.
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Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel (9/15)
If you loved Station Eleven, then get ready for Exit Party as Emily St. John Mandel returns to a dystopian future. It’s 2031 and after the fall of the United States, curfew has been lifted. Ari Walker goes to a party where the joy is high, but a mysterious twin appears and the party’s host walks out and disappears. Thrown into a mystery, Ari travels the world and beyond in all its perils after the events of that night.
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Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm (9/22)
In a stunning debut, Marina is determined to return to her grandmother’s childhood home, despite being warned of its haunting existence. Though her mother is well aware of the stories about the home in Haifa, she agrees to follow. As Marina comes in contact with Nafud’s home, the infecting presence of the place’s history begins to overtake her. Soon, three generations of women are wrapped up in the secrets and dangers that lurk within its walls.
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American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee (9/29)
From the New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko (adapted into the Apple TV series) comes the next beautiful novel from this highly acclaimed author. The story follows the three Koh children as their lives go from a comfortable middle class upbringing in Korea to a shocking turn of fortune amidst the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Following the family as they immigrate to Sydney and settle into Southern California, American Hagwon explores the commitment to education being the path forward and how each of them evolve as they seek success and stability.
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The Siren by Tomi Adeyemi (9/29)
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Legacy of Orisha series has arrived with a new contemporary title. Stepping into the dark academia realm, Adeyemi introduces Emery, a young woman simply trying to maintain her scholarship, stay on her meds and keep her head down. When she encounters the captivating Roux and her cohort of friends known as “The Sirens”, Emery will be faced with risking everything to be “in”.
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Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror by Cynthia Pelayo (9/29)
What’s fall without a spooky read or two? Break your terror up into bite sized bits with this incredible anthology that explores immigration, colonization, folklore and more through the lens of horror. Featuring some She Reads favorites like Isabel Cañas and Xochitl Gonzalez, this collection is one of a kind and just in time for the season.
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The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw (9/29)
Scharisse Freeman is the wife of a megachurch pastor and with that comes a lot of eyes, and talk. What she lacks in friends she makes up for in enviable business savvy and success. On her 40th birthday, she’s invited to take part in the First Ladies Pageant along with other pastors’ wives, putting a spotlight on Schar. When scandal erupts, rumors fly and her whole life is on display while she tries to reconcile the shame she feels for the past she thought she left behind.
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Partita by Barbara Kingsolver (10/6)
Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver is returning with a story about love, art and the life we choose. Livia has accepted her marriage, the farm country and the moderate living, but when a call from a former lover awakens a time period she’s left behind, she has to face the road that led her here. Exploring her abandoned passion for music, her childhood, and the man that broke her, she must decide if this proposed reunion could reignite something she’s lost or stir up ghosts that are best left in the past.
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Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson (10/6)
If you’re obsessed with bookish books, this is the fall romance that can’t be missed. Emily Henry calls it “a once-in-a-lifetime read about truth, art, vulnerability, and all the sticky places they intersect”. When a debut author’s dreams were tanked by a razor sharp critic, Parker’s second book is the chance to find his footing once again. But Selina’s blistering review is still following and all eyes will be on what she thinks of his latest work. When it’s another takedown, the online world erupts. However, private messages between the two foes start to shape an entirely different story.
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Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger (10/6)
Twenty years after the release of her multi-million copy selling novel The Time Traveler’s Wife, and after two adaptations, Audrey Niffenegger returns to the world to pick up with Alba’s story, the daughter of Henry DeTamble. Born with the same ability to time travel as her father, Alba pops decades in and out of the past, realizing futures she cannot change and attempting to live a normal present while constantly getting ripped away. As she copes with the knowledge she carries and the losses she sustains, Alba must try to build a life out of order.
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Friends and Family by Natalie Baszile (10/6)
The beloved author of Queen Sugar—adapted by Oprah’s OWN—comes a story of two mothers. Babs and Nora have grown a friendship over a decade as they shared family secrets, town gossip and conversation about Nora, a white woman, raising her black adoptive son, Nathan. When the police are called on both of their kids, the women are put at odds. As Nathan seeks comfort and connection with Babs, she has to juggle the lines Nora has drawn with what she feels is right. The choice she makes will change both of their lives forever.
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Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus (10/13)
For anyone who loved the #1 New York Times bestselling debut, Lessons in Chemistry (and subsequent show), Bonnie Garmus is back with her sophomore novel. Batter Gray left college in 1982 with a skill no one appears to be looking for. He has a true knack for poetry, but that has only qualified for a job folding shirts. When he’s offered a position at Peck & Peck, a premier publisher of poetry, he’s caught in the whirlwind between warring Editors in Chief and a rigid commitment to only producing the very best poetry has to offer.
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Savage Lake by Nick Medina (10/27)
Nick Medina is becoming a can’t-miss voice in indigenous horror, and we’re getting this one just in time for Halloween. Nell had hoped to never return to the lake that has stolen so much from her, but when her father passes, she and her teenage son must return to sell his cabin so she never has to return again. While their, the local tribe barricades the road and traps Nell and Oscar. Oscar is a horror movie buff, so he knows what to expect, but when even his mother begins to transform into someone he hardly recognizes, he has to uncover the truth about his family’s past before it consumes him too.
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“A Court of Thorns and Roses 6” by Sarah J Maas (10/27)
No cover. No title. No synopsis. Just a looming release date for this long-awaited sixth book in the internationally bestselling series A Court of Thorns and Roses. With a quick follow-up release of book seven in 2027, all ACOTAR fans can do at the moment is hit pre-order and wait.
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Peculiar Stars by Rebecca Yarros (11/17)
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Emyrean series, comes a fresh novel for fans of her contemporary romance work. With the heartwrenching plot you’d expect, Peculiar Stars follows Callista who thought she was getting the life she’d been waiting for. However, a sailing trip gone wrong leaves her and her fiancé’s cousin stranded on an island for 18 months. As hope drifts away and feelings emerge amidst survival, Callista begins to learn who she says just as she’s returned home. The world may be unchanged, but she is not.
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All the Little Secrets by May Cobb (11/17)
If you binged The Hunting Wives and were left on a cliffhanger from May Cobb’s January 2026 novel All the Little Houses, Christmas has come early. The sequel to this year’s release has arrived in the same year! With a Longview, Texas queen dead and many who could be deemed as guilty, money on the table and power dynamics at play, there’s no stopping the drama that will unfold in this follow-up.
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