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The Most Anticipated Books of 2021
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 will be long remembered as a Dumpster fire of a year. But the nice thing about time is that it keeps moving forward. For those of us with a serious reading habit, the new year means that a flotilla of new books is just now coming round the bend. Jane Harper! Kazuo Ishiguro! Walter Isaacson! Angie Thomas! And that’s just the beginning…
At the end of each calendar year, the Goodreads Editorial team takes a look at the upcoming books that are being published in the U.S. We also track early reviews and crunch the numbers on how many readers are adding these books to their Want to Read shelves. All of that information ultimately fuels our curated list of the Most Anticipated new releases of the coming year.
Be sure to add anything that catches your eye to your Want to Read shelf, and let us know what you're reading and recommending in the comments.
Recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is driving home from work one night when she spots a man, Emmett, about to jump to his death from the side of a bridge. When Tallie interrupts the would-be suicide, she doesn’t yet know that the encounter will change both of their lives forever. Author Leesa Cross-Smith (Whiskey & Ribbons) shares a powerful story about one random act of kindness.
Release date: February 2
Release date: February 2
From the author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds brings readers back to America’s days of true desperation—the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era. The book follows one woman’s fate in the winds of change. Those in the market for top-shelf historical fiction will want to keep a bookmark handy for this one.
Release date: February 2
Release date: February 2
In Paris, 1939, young Odile Souchet is enjoying her dream job at the American Library in Paris. But when the Nazis roll in, things get real dark, real fast. Odile and her fellow librarians join the Resistance. Forty-some years later, a lonely teenager in Montana befriends her elderly neighbor, who has a story to tell.
Release date: February 9
Release date: February 9
In the publishing world of 2021, it’s safe to say that The Committed is Kind of a Big Deal. Nguyen’s debut novel, The Sympathizer, won a Pulitzer Prize, along with a dozen other major literary awards, and Nguyen is widely acknowledged as a major new voice. This follow-up novel is billed as a “literary thriller” and tracks the anonymous narrator of the first book, now a refugee in Paris.
Release date: March 2
Release date: March 2
Serious fans of WWII thrillers will want to crack The Rose Code, which follows three women from Britain’s famed Bletchley Park, where Allied code breakers thwarted the Nazis with superior brainpower. Reunited after the war, the three women must collaborate again to fight off a deadly traitor from their covert espionage days. Author Kate Quinn (The Huntress, The Alice Network) is a marquee name in this realm of historical fiction.
Release date: March 9
Release date: March 9
Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, this wrenching novel from author Imbolo Mbue (Behold the Dreamers) details the seemingly hopeless struggle of poor villagers against an enormous and rapacious American oil company. With their farmlands ruined and their children poisoned, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back the only way they can. It’s a struggle that will last for decades.
Release date: March 9
Release date: March 9
In a sprawling narrative that spans 19th-century Cuban cigar factories and modern-day ICE detention centers in Miami, Gabriela Garcia’s debut novel follows several generations of women within and around the Cuban diaspora. The youngest of the women, Jeanette, must navigate the future and the past in a story about mothers and daughters, community and displacement, people and poisons.
Release date: April 6
Release date: April 6
Ever been to one of those parties that gets seriously out of control? Yeah, that’s what’s about to happen to the wealthy and troubled Riva family, whose annual end-of-summer party is the talk of Malibu in the long, hot August of 1983. Nina, surfer and supermodel, has just been publicly dumped by her famous tennis pro husband. Her various siblings are about to introduce still more drama. Just add alcohol and mix…
Release date: June 1
Release date: June 1
This highly anticipated debut thriller is described as a cross between Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada, and that sounds pretty good, right? Twenty-six-year-old Nella Rogers is sick of being the only Black employee at her publishing house. So she’s happy when newcomer Hazel joins the team. She’s less happy when the threatening notes appear. And she’s entirely unhappy when the real nightmare begins.
Release date: June 1
Release date: June 1
An inspired riff on the gothic classic Jane Eyre, Rachel Hawkins’ twisty update moves the action to a creepy One Percenter hive in the gated communities of the new South. Poor Jane keeps busy by walking the dogs and occasionally lifting the jewelry of her wealthy clients. Enter Eddie Rochester, a widower whose wife died under dubious circumstances. Or did she? Troubletown!
Release date: January 5
Release date: January 5
Dedicated mystery fans can tell you: Australian writer Jane Harper (The Dry, The Lost Man) is ridiculously good at what she does. Her books elevate the whodunit to another level entirely. Details are scant as of yet with her latest mystery, The Survivors, but apparently we can expect the following: a missing brother, a body on the beach, a sunken wreck, and the sudden disclosure of several long-held secrets. That’ll do nicely.
Release date: February 2
Release date: February 2
In recent years, the true-crime genre has exploded in popularity–films, podcasts, TV shows. Alex Finlay’s new psychological thriller explores the collateral damage of all the cultural ghoulishness. NYU student Matt Pine has returned home to bury his family, previously traumatized by a true-crime doc on his imprisoned brother Danny. Now the media is in a frenzy and Matt’s own life is on the line.
Release date: March 2
Release date: March 2
From the author of The Mother-In-Law comes another familial thriller about the ties that bind…and cut and tear. Rose and Fern seem as close as sisters can be. But years ago, Fern did something Very Bad, and sister Rose has never told a soul. Complicating matters, the sisters’ mom had a streak of true madness in her. Family drama, right? It’s a killer.
Release date: April 13
Release date: April 13
Details are scarce on the new novel from Alex Michaelides, author of last year’s massively successful The Silent Patient, winner of the 2019 Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller. But expectations are high. Michaelides’ debut was a critical and commercial smash, the bestselling debut novel of the year by some metrics. No pressure, though, Alex. You do you.
Release date: June 1
Release date: June 1
The new thriller from pseudonymous superstar Riley Sager (Final Girls), Survive the Night is set in the early 1990s, back before smartphones could resolve plot points instantly. College student Charlie Jordan is sharing a ride back to Ohio with a guy who may or may not be a serial killer. Calling for help would require a pay phone. Running away would require a cruising speed less than 55 mph. It’s a pickle, all right.
Release date: July 6
Release date: July 6
Nnedi Okorafor is one of the brightest stars in the sci-fi skyline, winner of the most coveted awards in the business. So when Okorafor drops a new book, it’s a good day. Advance details on Remote Control are hard to come by, but that’s OK. It’s usually best to go fresh into Okarafor’s worlds, anyway. We do have one clue: The book features the adopted daughter of the Angel of Death. Sold!
Release date: January 19
Release date: January 19
Recommended for fans of Big Little Lies, Killing Eve, and, um, Westworld, Sarah Gailey’s frankly bananas new story poses a question: What would you do if your husband were having an affair with a clone? Important detail: What if the clone was a replica of you? It conjures some complicated feelings, doesn’t it? This is why science fiction is the best.
Release date: February 16
Release date: February 16
Nobel laureate and Booker Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go, The Remains of the Day) returns to science fiction with some big questions on his mind. Advance word is that Klara and the Sun features mystery and suspense elements and engages some of the more difficult ethical issues concerning artificial intelligence. What is life? What is love? What is real?
Release date: March 2
Release date: March 2
Author Jeff VanderMeer (Annihilation) has staked out a unique chunk of territory in the literary world with his hyper-imaginative brand of weird fiction and ecological sci-fi. Hummingbird Salamander is being billed as a “speculative thriller” concerning climate change and endangered species, but with the added bonus of VanderMeer’s restless imagination. Expect twists, turns, conspiracies, mysteries, and taxidermy.
Release date: April 6
Release date: April 6
How great does this sound? Andy Weir, author of The Martian, returns to space with the story of a last-ditch, fat-chance effort to save Earth from an extinction-level event. Astronaut Ryland Grace is on his own, millions of miles from home, having just awoken from a looong cryogenic sleep. Using a patchwork spaceship, two corpses, and his very fuzzy memory, he’s going to have to improvise...
Release date: May 4
Release date: May 4
Set in the Jazz Age milieu of 1920s New York City, Nghi Vo’s novel transposes The Great Gatsby into new realms of alternate history, fantasy, and practical magic. Jordan Baker is rich, beautiful, and connected. She’s also Asian, queer, and largely dismissed by her social circles. Rethinking F. Scott Fitzgerald is a crazy, bold flex, and early reviews on this one are absolutely ecstatic.
Release date: June 1
Release date: June 1
“When a reaper comes to collect Wallace Price from his own funeral, Wallace suspects he really might be dead.” That’s a pretty good teaser and a quick glimpse of T.J. Klune’s warm, wry, and quirky approach to fantasy storytelling. A tale of grief and hope, Under the Whispering Door features a reluctant dead man, a curious romance, a mysterious ferryboat ride, and a powerful being called The Manager.
Release date: September 21
Release date: September 21
Maybe the year’s most intriguing autobiography, Michael Leviton’s book details his unusual childhood in a family that demanded absolute honesty in all things. As such, Leviton never learned to tell those little lies—in job interviews, on dates—and the consequences tended to be severe. By the time he was 29 years old, Leviton had told exactly three lies in his entire life. Is honesty always the best policy?
Release date: January 5
Release date: January 5
Mixing personal memoir with cultural history and contemporary resonance, Nadia Owusu’s autobiographical coming-of-age story is a singular kind of book. Abandoned by her mother when she was a toddler, Owusu traveled with her father all over the world—Rome, London, Kampala. Then her father died when she was just 13. Owusu’s achingly honest memoir traces the fault lines of emotional trauma into adulthood.
Release date: January 12
Release date: January 12
There’s a certain undeniable timeliness to the topic at hand in Think Again, the new book from author and organizational psychologist Adam M. Grant. The quick gist: Rethinking long-held opinions is a good habit to adopt in a world that moves as fast as ours does. Holding on too tightly to old ideas can lead to real trouble, on both personal and societal levels. Think Again is a book about the benefit of doubt.
Release date: February 2
Release date: February 2
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
by Walter Isaacson
by Walter Isaacson
Biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her collaborators pioneered the world-changing genetic engineering technology known as CRISPR, which opens up an entirely new universe of medical miracles—and serious ethical questions. Biographer Walter Isaacson, author of previous tomes on Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Steve Jobs, turns his gaze to the world of life science and 21st-century genetics.
Release date: March 9
Release date: March 9
This harrowing true-crime narrative tells the story of the Last Call Killer, a vicious psychopath who preyed upon gay men in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s. At the time, the murders were largely overlooked amid the chaos of NYC’s crime rates and the AIDS epidemic. Author and journalist Elon Green details the decades-long chase to find the killer.
Release date: March 9
Release date: March 9
The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos
by Judy Batalion
by Judy Batalion
Author Judy Batalion—the granddaughter of Polish Holocaust survivors—uncovers the lost stories of courageous Jewish women who fought their own guerrilla war against the Nazi regime in World War II. The so-called ghetto girls ambushed Gestapo officers and bombed German trains while at the same time caring for the sick and spiriting refugees out of danger. Batalion’s book was recently optioned by Steven Spielberg for a motion picture adaptation.
Release date: April 6
Release date: April 6
This collection of autobiographical essays and remembrances promises to be one of the most flat-out fascinating memoirs of the year. Author Lauren Hough was raised in the infamous Children of God cult, which took her from Germany to Ecuador, Japan to Texas. Breaking free of the cult was just the beginning. Frank, courageous, and often very funny, Hough’s book details “notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely.”
Release date: April 13
Release date: April 13
Michelle Zauner, leader of the experimental indie pop project known as Japanese Breakfast, looks back on her upbringing as a Korean American kid trying to find her way in the ever-changing rhythms of the 21st century. Zauner’s incredible story details the heartbreak of losing her mom to cancer and subsequent explorations into her Korean heritage—and especially Korean food.
Release date: April 20
Release date: April 20
When reluctant drug dealer Maverick Carter discovers that he’s going to be a father, he tries making a break for the straight life. But walking away from the street isn’t as simple as it appears. Author and former teenage rapper Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give) is back with another story set in her Garden Heights neighborhood.
Release date: January 12
Release date: January 12
From the author of the 2019 Edgar Award winner Sadie, this buzzy YA thriller spotlights rookie journalist Lo Denham and her efforts to uncover the truth about a dangerous religious cult. The tricky part: Lo grew up in the cult herself, and now the group’s dangerous leader has Lo—and her sister—back on his radar. Kirkus calls it "a powerful, suspenseful, and heartbreaking thriller about identity, sisterhood, and belonging."
Release date: February 2
Release date: February 2
The Gilded Ones is the first book in a new fantasy series steeped in the legends and lore of West Africa. Sixteen-year-old Deka is preparing for solemn blood ceremony, which will determine her fate in the village. But when her blood runs gold, instead of red, a mysterious woman appears to offer her a life-altering choice. Author Namina Forna’s debut is recommended for fans of Children of Blood and Bone and Black Panther.
Release date: February 9
Release date: February 9
From the celebrated author of Ninth House—winner of a 2019 Goodreads Choice Award—Rule of Wolves returns readers to the land of Fjerda, where a king, a general, and a spy must work together to forge a new future. Bonus trivia: Several of author Leigh Bardugo’s previous works have already been optioned for film and TV. Check your local listings.
Release date: March 30
Release date: March 30
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Except sometimes it doesn’t. Morgan Rogers’ Honey Girl follows the odd adventure of astronomist and overachiever Grace Porter, who is definitely not the type to get drunk in Vegas and wind up married. Unfortunately, that’s just what she did. The upside: Grace’s new wife, Yuki Yamamoto, is kind and beautiful. Whew!
Release date: February 23
Release date: February 23
Fans of Talia Hibbert’s series The Brown Sisters will be happy to hear a new story is en route, this one dedicated to Eve—invariably described as the flightiest of the sisters. The good news: Eve has found a guy. The bad news: She just hit him with her car. The weird news: He’s now her boss. It is kind of romantic, when you think about it.
Release date: March 9
Release date: March 9
Here’s an interesting new twist on the romance thread: Author Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is being billed as “a queer spin on Kate & Leopold” and features a 23-year-old woman who discovers that her subway crush is displaced in time from 1970s Brooklyn. Finding love is hard enough without breaches in the time-space continuum. Why must there always be these complications?
Release date: June 1
Release date: June 1
Author Helen Hoang has found remarkable success with her series The Kiss Quotient, which draws in part from the author’s own experience with autism spectrum disorder. This third installment of the series focuses on young Anna Sun, who gets the feels for business CEO Quan Diep, even as she struggles to accommodate her OCD tendencies. Love! There’s just no stopping it.
Release date: August 17
Release date: August 17
Which books are you most excited to read this season? Let us know in the comments!
Check out more recent articles, including:
36 of the Most Anticipated Mysteries and Thrillers of 2021
45 of the Most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2021
Meet 33 of 2021's Hottest Romances
Check out more recent articles, including:
36 of the Most Anticipated Mysteries and Thrillers of 2021
45 of the Most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2021
Meet 33 of 2021's Hottest Romances
Comments Showing 101-150 of 231 (231 new)
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Debi
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Jan 05, 2021 10:03AM
The next Outlander book, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, by Diana Gabaldon. It's been 6 years in the making.
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Anyone can tell me if Robert Caro’s 5th volume on LBJ will be published in 2021?
I've been waiting a long time, it seems, for Jane Harper's next book. Glad to see it's here. Love Kristen Hannah & am happy to see a new one from her.
I can't wait until "Til' I Want No More" by Robin Pearson comes out new month!
I'm looking forward to Mary Balogh's "Someone to Cherish." After seven Westcott family novels, I can't wait to read Harry's story!
How on earth could you not add Sarah Maas: A Court of Silver Flames...February can't get here soon enough!
Natasha LESTER The Riveria House(?) Due in August.
Norma Roberts has a 3 book series called Dragon Heart Legacy. The first book came out in November 24, 2020. She is a very good writer. I can't stop once I start her book series. She draws you into the people and the story like you are there!
Saving Grace by Debbie Babitt. Pub date March 16, 2021 by Scarlet
Grisham will have two coming out in 2021. Surely there will be new books by standby authors such as Connelly, Archer, Baldacci, Backman, Wingate, Hannah, Chamberlain, etc. But I also love to find a book by an author new to me. I would be happy to read 24 hours a day; however, I require more than 8 hours of sleep. So many books on my Want to Read list, so few on my Read list--manage barely over 40 per year. Sad.
What about BLACK BUCK set at a StarBucks in Brooklyn, NY and out NOW!
Looking forward to Jennifer Robson's The Darket Night. Robson never disappoints.
Positively a crime that Daughter of Sparta, the debut book by Claire Andrews is not on this list! It's a can't miss. I got to read an ARC and was blown away. Lots of promise from this young author, I can't wait to see what she does next (hopefully a sequel....).
The description for The Project isn’t correct because Lo didn’t grow up in the cult... unless I massively missed something.
Other than Project Hail Mary and Klara and the Sun, nothing remotely interests me. Why isn't Stephen King's Later on the list? Or You Love Me, the 3rd book in Caroline Kepnes's Joe Goldberg series? Maybe The Committed is hugely anticipated, but I wasn't as over the moon about Nguyen's The Sympathizer as I hoped I would be. As for the book I'm most anticipating, it's Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle, which is being published on September 14.
Helene Wecker, author of the touching and hilarious "Golom and the Jinni" will be releasing "The Iron Season" a much-anticipated sequel.
Looking forward to read The Maiden by Alex Michaelides
Surprised that Matt Haig's new book wasn't mentioned!
Michelle wrote: "Everytime a book on this list is set in World War 2, drink. Wait, don't do it, you'll die."Damn... Beat me to it! :')
Jenny Lawson, "Broken".
release date-April 6, 2021.
I already pre-ordered it. Can't wait! She is so funny and speaks my language!
Where is my Court of Frost by Sarah Maas? Been waiting a very long time for this story to play out!
Jacob wrote: "No science books? Really?"nah... 2021 is all about race, queers, color, women, hardships of life, and "the feels".
Science is just facts, y'know. Who cares about those, really?
I am sooo looking forward for The Story of the Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley’s even though the book isn't listed here
I'm on a biographical fiction kick, and there are two books in particular that I'm eager to read: YOUR STORY, MY STORY by Dutch writer Connie Palmen (about the volatile marriage of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes) and NORA: Love Story of Nora and James Joyce by Irish writer Nuala O'Connor. https://www.amazon.com/Your-Story-My-...
where's Anyway the wind blows by Rainbow Rowell in this list?
What about the new George RR martin book inds of winter
I'm looking forward to Madam by Phoebe Wynne and Common Ground by Naomi Ishiguro -- both debut novels for the respective author!
Sooooo many that I can't wait for. Thank you Ilona Andrews for Blood Heir that I read it 3 times already. But to at least keep it within the first QTR that I haven't read yet:The Prodigal Son Gregg Hurwitz 1/28 Sounds like Orphan X has Mommy issues.
The Duke Heist Erica Ridley 2/08 The Apple Dumpling Gang does the Regency.
Dancing with Danger Kerrigan Byrne 2/09 Where the Goode girls go bad.....so very bad.
Quiet In Her Bones Nalini Singh 2/28 NS displays her mystery suspense writing chops....so very well.
Marriage and Murder Penny Reid 3/02 Will Cletus and Jen make it to the alter? What can top the chicken choking incident? Will pie be the groom's cake?
Wild Sign Patricia Briggs 3/16 I have so missed my Anna and Charles.
The Postillion S. M. LaViolette 3/23 You ride like a girl!
Wilde Child Eliosa James 3/30 Those zany Wildes are up to no good. (Happy Birthday to me!)
I will stop here...but I could go on for days. :-) Happy 2021!
No horror books? I can think of at least ten great horror authors off the top of my head that have upcoming things.
SAM wrote: "The doors of stone? Lol"Never going to happen
Waiting for One Last Stop will actually drive me insane lol
I think Klara and the sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and code breaking by Jennifer Doudna are going to be interesting! :)
Sophia wrote: "Mine would be rule of wolves and a court of silver flames"You are so not alone!!!
Raven wrote: "I know it's not on this list but is anyone else waiting for "The Betrayed" to come out on November 12th? As for me, I'm ecstatic about the 2nd book of "The Betrothed" series coming out."ikrr.....the first bool is such a cliffhanger, november just couldn't come faster!
I read around 120 books a year and must say not one of these is (or will be) on my reading list for this year!
HOW is The Hidden Palace (Golem and the Jinni #2) by Helene Wecker NOT on this list???? I am super confuz.
This list is not true: Where is:The Iron Raven, A Court of Silver Flames, Chain of Iron, Rules of Wolves, Gilded by Marssia Meyer, The Black Volume of the Dead, A Tale of Sorcery, and Crescent City #2
I am really looking forward to 'Dead Head' (Sweetpea #3) by C.J. Skuse - out 18th Feb. :)
I look forward to Haruki Murakami's 'First Person Singular'
