10 Exciting New Books Coming Up In 2020

Now that January is here, all us book nerds are probably in the midst of setting for ourselves book reading challenges, or desperately trying to finish books we promised we would get to last year. Goodreads keeps reminding me to set my goal, and I am happily ignoring the reminders because I refuse to think about book reading as a quantitative experience. It’s not about the number of books but the feelings experienced while submerged in a really good read. So relax, you don’t have to get to all these books in 2020, though I highly recommend you take a stab at a few before 2021 comes our way.

 

1. Hitting A Straight Lick With A Crooked Stick (January 14, 2020)

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of my absolute favourite books. It was recommended reading for my American Ethnic Literature class, as was Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and having the privilege to read books like this is a reminder of why literature is so important. Because of Hurston’s book, I was able to gain insight to a world and culture I otherwise would not be privy to. So now, to hear that they are releasing a new short story collection of works from her that we haven’t read before, just sounds like a wonderful gift. These short stories capture the essence of the African American life at the time, and offer a glimpse into how she became one of the more influential writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

 

2. Interior Chinatown (January 28, 2020)

Every book list should have at least one satire, and Charles Yu’s Interior Chinatown is that book. He explores the formulaic storytelling that exists in pop culture and the stereotypes that pigeon-hole Asian characters while pretending to highlight diversity. His protagonist Willis Wu is a Generic Asian Guy who dreams of becoming Kung Fu Guy, thinking that is the ceiling of what he can aspire to, until things change when he is suddenly launched into the spotlight. He finds himself discovering the secrets of Chinatown as well as the buried legacy of his own family. If you are into books like Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, Interior Chinatown is the book for you.

 

3. The Other People (January 28, 2020)

The Other People by C.J Tudor sounds like the 2019 movie Fractured, starring Sam Worthington. Both are about fathers whose daughters go missing, with the people around them scoffing at their stories and believing that they are responsible. While Fractured is a faster film with everything taking place in one day, The Other People has Gabe still searching for his daughter 3 years later. Gabe’s storyline is somehow connected to Katie, a waitress whose father was murdered, and Fran, who is on the run with her daughter Alice, trying to put some distance between them and the people who wish to hurt them. It is an ambitious novel, possessing thrills that will surely have you reading late into the night.

 

4. Darling Rose Gold (March 17, 2020)

Darling Rose Gold is the debut novel of writer Stephanie Wrobel, and it sounds like she hit a home run with this one. For the first 18 years of her life, protagonist Rose Gold Watts believed she was sick. She wasn’t, her mother just convinced her she was.

This is of course a case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental illness where a parent (usually the mother) creates fake symptoms or causes real symptoms in order to convince themselves that their child is sick. The last book I read with this in play was Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything. While the protagonist in that book separates herself from her mum, Rose Gold invites her mum to come live with her after she is released from prison, to get her back for the 18 years she stole from her.

 

5. The Herd (March 24, 2020)

Andrea Batz blew me away with her debut novel, The Lost Night, last year. She dazzles with her prose and served up a worthy thriller, so you can imagine my excitement when I found out that her sophomore novel would be out this year. The Herd sounds absolutely delicious, a female-driven narrative set in a female work environment, exploring female relationships and how the world sometimes views powerful women.

Katie Bradley, returning to New York after a failed book research stint, finds a possible new subject in The Herd’s found Eleanor Walsh. Things take a turn when Eleanor vanishes on the night of a Herd news conference, and the possible culprits could be anyone – even Eleanor’s closest friends. Katie and her sister Hana work hard to put the pieces together, but with that comes the ugly revelations that hide beneath.

 

6. Chosen Ones (April 7, 2020)

This is the first book that Veronica Roth has written for adults. Her previous efforts include the Divergent and Carve the Mark series, which are both written for YA audiences. A decade ago, 5 teenagers were brought together because of a prophecy that one of them would be the chosen one, one that would save the world from the Dark One’s reign. Together they defeat the Dark One, but now, one of their own is dead, and when they gather for the funeral, they realise the Dark One’s reign is far from over.

The premise sounds a bit like Harry Potter, no? We have a prophecy, a chosen one, an evil otherworldly enemy. Still, Roth has shown skill in her crafting of new worlds, so we will see how the leap from YA to adult fiction will serve her.

 

7. All Adults Here (May 5, 2020)

Emma Straub is great at character-driven novels. Don’t go into one of her books expecting thrills and spills. Her works feel awfully close to real life, exploring the lives of Astrid Strick’s family, using them as a means to flesh out current social issues and concerns. We have ageing parents, their adult children and grandchildren, the relationships between them and a charting of the things we carry with us into our adult lives.

 

8. Someday in Paris (May 14, 2020)

I wouldn’t be faithful to my roots if I didn’t include a romance novel anywhere on this list. Lucky for me, Olivia Lara’s Someday in Paris sounds like the slow burn type of romance that I need. Zara and Leon meet in a French museum in 1954, and at the time of their meeting, the power is out. Even though they spent a wonderful hour conversing in the dark about their love for art, they never find out what the other looks like, and wonder if they will ever get to cross paths again. Well, of course they do, and this goes on for 30 years. It sounds similar to books like Love, Rosie and One Day, where the love takes years to finally find its footing and some tangibility. It also sounds like a wonderful book to pick up in 2020.

 

9. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (May 19, 2020)

Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games franchise was quite the ride. I read all three books, got my brother to read them as well, and we made sure to make the long trek to the cinema for each of the four movies, so yes, I have given a lot of my money to Collins. And now, you tell me that there’s a prequel? If I had a wig, it would be snatched.

There isn’t much information about the book, other than the fact that we are revisiting events 64 years before the world of The Hunger Games, on the morning of the reaping of the 10th Hunger Games. My younger self is quaking and shook, and my older self can’t wait to get her hands on it.

 

10. Behind The Red Door: A Novel (August 4, 2020)

Megan Collins’ debut novel The Winter Sister was a wonderfully crafted book. Oftentimes, some thrillers are just mere sticks of plot, their characters paper-like and flimsy, building itself around plot twists rather than good writing. Collins’ novel was not one of those. The prose in The Winter Sister was beautiful to read, with themes and imagery so intricately layered that they float within your mind long after you are done. It’s been a year since I read The Winter Sister, yet I can still remember the book so clearly. Now that her second novel is here, I can’t wait to dive in.

Fern Douglas is positive that she knows Astrid Sullivan, a woman who was kidnapped and managed to return after. When Sullivan goes missing again after her memoir is released, Fern buys the book and visits the places and the people in them, desperate to fill the gaps in her memory and put the pieces together before it is too late.

READ NEXT: 15 Best Horror Books You Should Read (If You Dare)