Fiction Book Reviews

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

4.8

Becky Albertalli's debut young adult novel follows Simon Spier, a closeted gay sixteen-year-old whose secret email correspondence with a classmate named Blue is weaponized against him by a blackmailer — a premise that earned the book the American Library Association's William C. Morris Award, a place on the National Book Award Longlist, and a celebrated film adaptation. Kirkus Reviews called it "funny, moving and emotionally wise," and the novel stands as one of the most decorated YA debuts of the past decade.

Feb 21, 2026

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Where the Crawdads Sing is Delia Owens's debut novel — a coming-of-age murder mystery set in the marshes of North Carolina that has sold over 18 million copies since its original publication by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 2018, powered by lyrical nature writing, an emotionally gripping protagonist, and a closing twist that Kirkus Reviews called the novel's "most memorable oddity."

Feb 25, 2026

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Bridge to Terabithia is a Newbery Medal-winning children's novel by Katherine Paterson, originally published in 1977, that follows fifth-grader Jesse Aarons and his new neighbor Leslie Burke as they forge a transformative friendship and build an imaginary kingdom called Terabithia — before a sudden tragedy reshapes everything Jesse understands about courage, grief, and growing up.

Feb 23, 2026

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

R. J. Palacio's Wonder is a contemporary children's novel published on February 14, 2012, by Knopf Books for Young Readers, following ten-year-old August "Auggie" Pullman — a boy with Treacher Collins syndrome — as he navigates his first year at Beecher Prep after years of homeschooling. A New York Times bestseller that has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and been published in more than fifty languages, it received strong critical praise from outlets including Entertainment Weekly and Common Sense Media, and its message inspired the Choose Kind movement. The multi-perspective structure, which gives voice not only to Auggie but to his sister Via and classmates, is one of its most discussed structural choices; readers who prefer a single narrator may find the shifting viewpoints an adjustment, though many critics consider them a strength. It is designed for readers aged roughly 9–11 and remains one of the most widely assigned middle-grade novels of the past decade.

Feb 23, 2026

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

V.E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a New York Times bestseller published by Tor Books on October 6, 2020, following a young French woman who trades her freedom for immortality only to be cursed so that no one who meets her can ever remember her — a premise that drives a centuries-spanning fantasy novel about legacy, erasure, and the stubborn human will to leave a mark on the world.

Feb 23, 2026

Hemingway Boxed Set by Ernest Hemingway

Published by Simon & Schuster in 2021 and timed to coincide with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's PBS documentary, the Hemingway Boxed Set gathers four of Ernest Hemingway's most celebrated novels — The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea — into a single trade paperback collection, offering both longtime admirers and new readers a definitive entry point into the work of a Nobel Prize–winning author whose spare, economical prose reshaped the course of American literature.

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

4.6

Adam Silvera's third novel — originally published September 5, 2017, by HarperTeen — is a young adult romance that follows two teenage boys, Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio, through the single day they have left to live after receiving calls from Death-Cast, a company that predicts its clients' imminent deaths. A #BookTok phenomenon that returned to The New York Times Best Seller list in 2020, the novel earned four starred reviews and a wide sweep of year-end honors, cementing its place as one of the defining YA novels of its era.

Feb 21, 2026

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

4.6

Stephen Chbosky's debut young adult novel, originally published in 1999, follows fifteen-year-old Charlie through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb, told entirely through letters he addresses to an anonymous "Dear Friend." The novel covers Charlie's friendships with seniors Patrick and Sam, his grief over the suicide of his only middle-school friend and the death of his aunt Helen, and his navigation of sexuality, mental health, substance abuse, and first love — all filtered through an introspective, philosophically inclined voice. The book reached the New York Times Best Seller list following the release of Chbosky's own 2012 film adaptation, and has become one of the most discussed and frequently challenged young adult novels in American schools.

An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley

4.6

An Inspector Calls is a three-act modern morality play by J.B. Priestley, considered one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre, in which Inspector Goole's interrogation of the prosperous Birling family lays bare their collective responsibility for the suicide of a working-class woman named Eva Smith — a drama whose political charge has only sharpened with time.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories by Raymond Carver

4.3

Raymond Carver's short story collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is widely regarded as one of the most significant works in American short fiction, a spare and unsparing examination of love, loss, and the quiet devastation of ordinary life — the collection that, as Wikipedia's reception summary notes, turned Carver into a household name in the publishing industry.

Feb 24, 2026

The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway

Published by Modern Library, The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway gathers the core of a writer whose spare, revolutionary prose reshaped English-language fiction in the twentieth century — essential reading for anyone serious about the American short story.