8 Books You'll Regret Not Reading This Year

In an era saturated with fleeting content and endless distractions, choosing which books truly deserve your time can be overwhelming. Yet, some stories rise above the noise—books that captivate, challenge, and transform us long after we turn the final page. Below is a list of 8 books you'll regret not reading this year.

1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

A sensation in the fantasy world, Fourth Wing delivers high-octane storytelling set in a brutal dragon-riding military academy. Violet Sorrengail, a frail but fierce cadet, must survive trials, politics, and assassins at Basgiath War College. Rebecca Yarros combines visceral action, a slow-burn romance, and an immersive magical system to create a novel that’s both gripping and emotionally satisfying. What sets Fourth Wing apart is its emphasis on vulnerability, agency, and resilience, making it appealing to both fantasy veterans and newcomers. With its cinematic scope and rich world-building, this book cements its place as a must-read phenomenon in modern fantasy.

2. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead is a bold, modern retelling of David Copperfield, recast in the heart of Appalachia. The novel chronicles the life of Demon, a boy born into poverty, neglect, and addiction, navigating a broken foster care system and the opioid epidemic. Kingsolver’s masterful voice brings authenticity to his inner world and the hardships he faces, while also offering biting social commentary. Demon is a character who will stay with readers long after the last page. Brutal yet beautiful, tragic yet full of spirit, this is a searing work of fiction that demands attention and compassion in equal measure.

3. The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House expands the universe of her Pulitzer-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, creating a dazzling, interconnected web of characters navigating a not-so-distant digital future. At the novel’s core is “Own Your Unconscious,” a technology allowing people to externalize and share their memories. Through fragmented perspectives and inventive structure, Egan explores privacy, authenticity, and the hunger for connection. It’s a daring literary experiment packed with pathos and philosophical insight.

4. Trust by Hernan Diaz

Trust is a stunning intellectual puzzle that reshapes how we understand history, finance, and narrative itself. Set in 1920s Wall Street, the story initially unfolds through a fictional novel chronicling a mysterious financier’s rise. But this is only the beginning. Diaz deconstructs the story through alternate manuscripts, journal entries, and memoirs, exposing the lies behind public legacy. The novel’s genius lies in its layered storytelling and examination of power, gender, and truth. With each version of the truth more slippery than the last, Trust is a literary feat—a masterclass in structure, voice, and the manipulation of perception.

5. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful is a deeply moving family saga that pays homage to Little Women while carving its own path. The story follows William Waters, a man with a painful past who finds warmth in the Padavano sisters’ close-knit world. But when trauma resurfaces, it fractures their seemingly unbreakable bond. Through decades of change, reconciliation, and forgiveness, Napolitano crafts a tender portrait of love’s enduring complexity. With lush prose and emotional depth, this novel explores how we’re shaped by family, and how healing is possible even after deep fractures.

6. Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood is a literary eco-thriller where ideology clashes with ambition. The novel follows a guerilla gardening collective that secretly plants crops on unused land. When they cross paths with an enigmatic billionaire interested in “sustainable development,” uneasy alliances form. As the story unfolds, idealism collides with capitalism in chilling ways. Catton, a Booker Prize winner, constructs a propulsive and cerebral narrative full of moral ambiguity and sharp satire. This is a novel that refuses simple answers, instead probing the depths of surveillance, ecological anxiety, and the corruptibility of noble causes. It’s an intellectual page-turner that rewards patience and reflection.

7. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Claire Keegan’s novella is a precise, emotionally devastating gem. Set during Christmas in 1985 in a small Irish town, it follows Bill Furlong, a coal merchant who uncovers disturbing truths about the local convent and the treatment of women within it. Quiet and contemplative, the story focuses on the moment a good man must decide between complicity and conscience. With lyrical, spare prose, Keegan explores themes of morality, silence, and systemic abuse.

8. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface is a razor-sharp satire of the publishing industry, cultural appropriation, and performative allyship. After the sudden death of Asian American author Athena Liu, her white peer June Hayward steals Athena’s manuscript and rebrands it as her own, launching into literary stardom. What follows is a brutal unraveling of privilege, guilt, and public perception. Written in first person, the novel forces readers into the unreliable mind of a narrator who justifies every theft, every lie. With biting humor and fierce intelligence, Yellowface skewers systemic racism while remaining compulsively readable—a brilliantly executed commentary on authorship and authenticity.

Conclusion

You only get so many chances in a year to read something unforgettable. These eight books will define your reading year, offer invaluable perspectives, and spark conversations you’ll return to again and again. Don’t wait until the best-of lists come out at the end of the year. Read them now, and let them change you.