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October 13, 2026

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we know people will be talking about this fall. Read more about it, and enter our Fall Reading Contest by Wednesday, October 14th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of THE BLUFF by Wade Rouse, which is now available. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

Lauren Willig, author of What Happens at Nightfall

Recently laid off and searching for purpose, Jess reluctantly joins her best friend on a supposedly fun nighttime cemetery tour. Separated from her group by accident, she discovers a bunch of terrified boys and a strange, ancient key. Both lead to Green-Wood Cemetery’s surprisingly handsome resident arborist, Adam Chervinsky. Still dealing with the loss of their mother, Adam’s children are acting strangely. A haunting is afoot, and Jess seems to know more than she’s letting on. Sparks fly between Jess and Adam --- and the unquiet spirits of Green-Wood rise from their century-long slumber. As Jess and Adam delve deeper into the cemetery’s haunted history, they uncover a Gilded Age curse, a ghostly socialite, and a demonic pact that stretches across generations.

Meg Mason, author of Sophie, Standing There

Sophie Pattison loves books. Along with a dream job at a local book festival, she has a husband she adores; a lifelong best friend, Emma; and a brother she’s always been close to. Which makes you wonder why since Christmas, Sophie has been living alone, estranged from Emma, avoiding her brother, and about to be fired. Now it feels like the only thing she has left is reading. When Sophie rediscovers an author she first read in her 20s, the words on the page reach her in a new way --- becoming both solace and company. Sophie devours every one of the author's novels and begins to dream of meeting her, but knows they never will. But what if she did? What if, by then, the author feels like a friend? What if, for Sophie, it feels almost like love?

John Green, author of Hollywood, Ending

For rising talents Kai Laramie and Juniper Castillo, being cast in the buzzy biopic Andy Warhol Never Gets Old is the opportunity they’ve both been waiting for. They’re on the verge of breaking out, and maybe even falling in love. Soon, the movie is blowing up, and so are their lives --- in exciting, but also terrifying, ways. John Green artfully blends a behind-the-scenes Hollywood love story with an unflinching examination of the insatiable attention economy. Told through dual points of view, the novel brilliantly juxtaposes the on-screen study of Warhol’s life at the dawn of celebrity culture with the intimate struggles of two young people figuring out who they are, both together and alone.

Stephen King, author of Other Worlds Than These: A Talisman Novel

This is Stephen King and Peter Straub’s long-awaited finale to the Talisman Trilogy and a wrapping up of the fate of the worlds in King’s iconic Dark Tower epic. OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE is the story of Jack Sawyer, whom readers first met in THE TALISMAN when he was 12, crossing America and “the territories” to save his mother’s life, and met again in BLACK HOUSE, where Jack faces a child killer and the Crimson King (among other evils). This time, Jack must stop a rampaging gang of infected teenagers from America-side, and the forces of the mysterious Gullet at the edge of Mid-World, before it destroys our world and all worlds. Jack is older now; his Ka-tet (echoing the world of Roland) is fraying; and his task is nearly impossible.

Barbara Kingsolver, author of Partita

Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and promise as an extraordinary pianist. His request to see her again stirs up ghosts she’s kept at bay for a lifetime. Shifting between past and present, Livia’s decision to meet or reject the reunion means confronting step by step, in memories framed as musical dances, the experiences of childhood loss, abandonment, self-immolating passion, and perilous attachment to a man who broke her belief in love and ruptured the course of her life.

Which of the following fiction titles releasing in October have you read or do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.

October 9, 2026, 525 voters

Editorial Content for The Witch

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

I had to smile when Freida McFadden wrote in her Acknowledgements at the end of her latest novel, “As many of you know, I am a prolific writer.” She noted that THE WITCH is her fourth release this year, and she talked about her two grandmothers as this essentially is a story about grandmas. Read More

Teaser

When Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, she has nowhere left to go but Pemberton, her family's sprawling 17th-century estate in rural Massachusetts. Officially, she's there to check in on her aging grandmother. Unofficially, she's hoping the old house will give her a place to disappear. Instead, Pemberton begins to unravel her. Every night, the grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41am. The lights flicker without warning. And a disembodied voice cries for help outside Julia's bedroom door. As Julia digs into the house's dark history, she uncovers the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692 --- and realizes the past may not be finished with Pemberton yet. 

Promo

When Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, she has nowhere left to go but Pemberton, her family's sprawling 17th-century estate in rural Massachusetts. Officially, she's there to check in on her aging grandmother. Unofficially, she's hoping the old house will give her a place to disappear. Instead, Pemberton begins to unravel her. Every night, the grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41am. The lights flicker without warning. And a disembodied voice cries for help outside Julia's bedroom door. As Julia digs into the house's dark history, she uncovers the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692 --- and realizes the past may not be finished with Pemberton yet. 

About the Book

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden comes THE WITCH, a chilling, twist-filled thriller about secrets --- those we inherit, those we bury, and those people will burn to keep silent.

Some secrets don't die --- they wait.

When Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, she has nowhere left to go but Pemberton, her family's sprawling 17th-century estate in rural Massachusetts. Officially, she's there to check in on her aging grandmother. Unofficially, she's hoping the old house will give her a place to disappear.

Instead, Pemberton begins to unravel her.

Every night, the grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41 a.m. The lights flicker without warning. And a disembodied voice cries for help outside Julia's bedroom door.

As Julia digs into the house's dark history, she uncovers the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692 --- and realizes the past may not be finished with Pemberton yet. When decades of family lies begin to surface, Julia must confront a terrifying truth: Pemberton may be haunted by women whose voices refuse to stay silent.

Audiobook available, read by Saskia Maarleveld and Marin Ireland 

Editorial Content for One Split Second

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Kate Ayers

I got something Buzz will want to hear.
 
These are the words that send outgoing Sheriff Jenny Almond racing to a disturbed veteran’s home one dark, stormy night. Jenny would like nothing more than to tuck in with her husband and children. But that call from Anthony Alvarez came to her home phone. She knows Alvarez to be a war veteran with PTSD, a man her father --- once the sheriff himself --- tried desperately to help.  Read More

Teaser

Detective Tracy Crosswhite is assigned to defend an old friend. Sheriff Jenny Almond has been charged with first-degree murder for shooting an unarmed veteran on a stormy night of confusion, paranoia and split-second choices. Tracy is certain there’s more to the story of Anthony Alvarez’s killing --- and her investigation draws her back to a cold case that still haunts the community. More than 40 years ago, Alvarez was the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a teenage babysitter. The lead investigator, Jenny’s late father Buzz Almond, always believed Alvarez had been framed. Decades later, his suspicions of a conspiracy are driving Tracy to find answers.

Promo

Detective Tracy Crosswhite is assigned to defend an old friend. Sheriff Jenny Almond has been charged with first-degree murder for shooting an unarmed veteran on a stormy night of confusion, paranoia and split-second choices. Tracy is certain there’s more to the story of Anthony Alvarez’s killing --- and her investigation draws her back to a cold case that still haunts the community. More than 40 years ago, Alvarez was the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a teenage babysitter. The lead investigator, Jenny’s late father Buzz Almond, always believed Alvarez had been framed. Decades later, his suspicions of a conspiracy are driving Tracy to find answers.

About the Book

A girl’s unsolved disappearance. A tragic shooting. Two crimes, 45 years apart, with a blood-chilling connection in a gripping new Tracy Crosswhite novel by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Detective Tracy Crosswhite is assigned to defend an old friend. Sheriff Jenny Almond has been charged with first-degree murder for shooting an unarmed veteran on a stormy night of confusion, paranoia and split-second choices. Tracy is certain there’s more to the story of Anthony Alvarez’s killing --- and her investigation draws her back to a cold case that still haunts the community.

More than 40 years ago, Alvarez was the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a teenage babysitter. The lead investigator, Jenny’s late father Buzz Almond, always believed Alvarez had been framed. Decades later, his suspicions of a conspiracy are driving Tracy to find answers. Digging deeper into both the past and the present, she discovers a complex web of sinister motives and long-buried secrets, unearthing them one by one.

As a decades-old mystery casts its dark shadow on a small town, only the truth will finally set the innocent free.

Audiobook available, read by Emily Sutton-Smith

Editorial Content for Ply

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sam Johnson

Hernan Diaz’s third novel wields post-apocalyptic fantasy as a prescient weapon of forewarning and a torch of hope in the human collective. If it had been published in years past, it would be on the growing lists of banned books that endanger prejudiced systems of power.  Read More

Teaser

Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.

Promo

Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.

About the Book

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of TRUST turns to the future with a novel that examines the place of technology in the American imagination.

Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.

After rewriting America’s past with his two previous novels, Hernan Diaz defies expectations with his third and gives us a breathtaking glimpse into the future. A major achievement from a major contemporary writer, PLY questions the place of technology in the American experiment with a plot that grabs both heart and mind. It is a novel of ideas built from a story of people. Combining Dickensian odyssey, family drama and scientific thriller, PLY poignantly charts the tenuous boundaries of selfhood and the distance that inevitably stands between us and those we love.

Audiobook available, read by Imani Jade Powers