It’s the end of the year and you’re already wondering about those new book releases of 2024. You’ve come to the right place! In this blog post, I’m bringing you the books I’m most anxious to be published in the first semester of 2024.
Continue scrolling to find out the books that will certainly have a reserved seat in my 2024 TBR.
“The Storm We Made”, by Vanessa Chan
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Starting with the year’s first launch; right into the second day of the year! Wow!
“The Storm We Made” takes us back to Malaya in 1945, during the invasion of the Japanese forces during the Second World War.
Bored by her housewife lifestyle, Cecily makes a decision that will have a brutal impact ten years from it. Not only might it destroy her family, but it has simultaneously helped put the entire Malayan population through a brutal occupation.
Covering the perspectives of four characters, this highly anticipated book talks about the horrors of war, the relationships between the oppressed and the oppressor, and the vagueness of right or wrong during these times.
Expected: 2nd January 2024
“The Silence in Her Eyes”, by Armando Lucas Correa
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Moving to the second new book releases of 2024, “The Silence in Her Eyes” by Armando Lucas Correa.
Following our main character who suffers from motion blindness (or akinetopsia), Leah, who, even if appearing blind to many, sees a good deal through smell and hearing. Her life is quiet, with little social interaction, when a new neighbour arrives.
Realising her new neighbour might be in trouble with the abusive husband she’s trying to divorce. After hearing what sounded like a fight, Leah woke up to someone in her apartment.
The intruder’s scent keeps following her until she decides to test her courage, strength and, ultimately, her sanity.
A thriller that will certainly find its place in your 2024 TBR (at least it found in mines!).
Expected: 16th January 2024
“The Things We Didn’t Know”, by Elba Iris Pérez
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Elba’s debut novel explores the childhood of a young girl in the 1950s Puerto Rico and a small Massachusetts factory town.
It all begins when her mother rushes Andrea and her brother to family in the mountainside of Puerto Rico, promising to come back.
A few months back, the brothers are brought back to Woronoco, Massachussets, the only place they’ve known their entire life.
A powerful coming-of-age novel that explores family drama, cultural differences, and the heartache that is the journey to adulthood.
Expected: 6th February 2024
“Greta & Valdin”, by Rebecca K. Reilly
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Published in 2021, in her native New Zealand, Rebecca K. Reilly’s “Greta & Valdin” is brought to us in English on the 8th of February!
After spending over a year as a best-seller, I can’t wait to have the possibility to read Rebecca’s debut novel.
About two brothers who are roommates and make questionable decisions when it comes to love: “Greta & Valdin” approaches topics such as queerness and multiracial identity. I was promised laughs and tears but what I am looking for is a copy of this new book releases of 2024!
Expected: 8th February 2024
“Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story”, by Leslie Jamison
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Compared to Joan Didion and Susan Sontag, the author who needs no presentation: Leslie Jamison. Bringing us the 5th new book releases of 2024 on this list.
“Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story” brings us an examination of what it means for a woman to be so many different things at once: a mother, an artist, a teacher, and a lover.
In this must-read for 2024, Leslie joins the magic and the mundane of the most common reality of motherhood. Going through difficult reflections regarding happiness in times of loss and hope in times of harm.
Expected: 20th February 2024
“The Other Valley”, by Scott Alexander Howard
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
“The Other Valley” made its way into my 2024 TBR because of the similarities I find with the trope of “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” (which you can read more about in this blog post).
A novel about an isolated town neighboured by its past and future, separated in time by twenty years.
Our protagonist, Odile, has a seat on the town’s Conseil, where she decides who can cross the borders between these timelines.
When she recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes a hard truth. However, she shouldn’t act as she swore to secrecy to protect the timeline of her town. Aren’t you curious about how this one develops? Because I for sure am!
Expected: 27th February 2024
“Anita de Monte Laughs Last: A Novel”, by Xóchitl González
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
A rising Cuban American art world star, Anita de Monte, sees her work blocked by her relationship with an older, well-known, white male artist. As she tragically dies, her work stays unknown.
In 1998, a decade later, Raquel, a Nuyorican student at an elite New England college, falls into a similar trap. Discovering Anita’s story, Raquel understands how distressed the art world can be for young women of colour.
As the two storylines intertwine, the concepts of power, love and art are deeply explored. This novel dares to ask who gets to be remembered in the rarefied world of the elites and who gets to be left behind.
And it is why this new book releases of 2024 is one of those I’m highly anticipating for the new year!
Expected: 5th March 2024
“The Divorcées”, by Rowan Beaird
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Even though “Lessons in Chemistry” wasn’t a favourite of mine this year; I liked its set, back in the fifties. Which is the exact environment of “The Divorcées”.
Rowan goes back in time to a period when society doesn’t look very well into divorce and unhappiness doesn’t provide the best grounds for it. For the small exception of the city of Reno, in Nevada.
Lois, our main character, is forced to move there and live with other women in the same situation for six weeks – to ensure the state’s only requirement for divorce.
Covering topics such as sorority and female friendship (a trope I just can’t get enough of!), freedom and desire; “The Divorcées” sets the perfect background for a 2024 first semester read.
Expected: 19th March 2024
“Memory Piece”, by Lisa Ko
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Another coming of age! What a surprise! This new book release of 2024 tells of three friends growing up in the early 1980s.
“Memory Piece” follows these three characters as they grow into the 1990s, with the techno subcultures, and leads them into, what I’ve read to be, a “dystopian (but realistic) future” in the 2040s.
Counting with a futuristic element that I’ve loved in previous readings, “Memory Piece” tells the audacious story of these three friends as they grow into a world that is radically different from the one they were promised.
Expected: 19th March 2024
“Worry”, by Alexandra Tanner
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Alexandra Tanner presents us with two siblings in their late twenties who turn roommates after great changes happen in both their lives.
One dumped by her soon-to-be husband and the other one year after a suicide attempt, these two sisters are obsessed with the internet and social media.
After adopting a dog and a visit home to see their family, the sisters are confronted with the tough doubt of what their futures should look like and if they are each other’s best companions for what’s to come.
Expected: 26th March 2024
“A Better World”, by Sarah Langan
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
A dystopian thriller that brings a deconstruction of American suburbia, dissecting wealth, power, and privilege, in a self-destructive world.
“A Better World” follows the Farmer-Bowens family as they visit Plymouth Valley, which seems to be the perfect exclusive place to live. After the hiring of Linda’s husband, the family moves and takes the unmissable opportunity.
Fitting in seems to be difficult and the family starts drifting away. Linda starts to ask questions no one seems interested in replying, and she doubts if they should be fighting to stay or to leave.
Just the new book release of 2024 to give you the chills!
Expected: 9th April 2024
“The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality”, by Amanda Montell
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
The author of “Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism”, Amanda Montell brings “The Age of Magical Overthinking”, blending cultural criticism with a personal narrative.
It approaches very contemporary topics, deconstructing them as they are: if we want and think of something badly, everything will be all right.
Looking back to how the “halo effect” creates fan (or hater) legions after celebrities that gain a dimension bigger than life; to the “Sunk Cost Fallacy” and how it makes us stay in relationships that don’t add to us longer than we should.
This new book release of 2024 is an attempt to make sense of the senseless and it for sure aroused my curiosity!
Expected: 9th April 2024
“Funny Story”, by Emily Henry
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
If Emily Henry has a new book release that isn’t in my TBR – someone call the police, because I’ve been abducted, and someone is faking my identity!
“Funny Story”, the fifth novel of the author, presents Daphne, a woman who’s to be married to her fiancé, Peter. The two live the perfect romance up until the moment Peter confesses his feelings for his childhood best friend, Petra.
Trapped in a small town, with her dream job (that barely pays her bills), Daphne sees herself in need of a roommate and that can only be Petra’s ex, Miles.
Being an Emily stan for so long, I just know this is the type of book I’ll devour in a weekend in 2024 and which release I’m highly anticipating.
Expected: 23th April 2024
“Blue Sisters”, by Coco Mellors
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
In case you couldn’t tell, there are two things I can’t get enough of: familiar drama and Coco Mellors’ fabulous writing.
The author of “Cleopatra & Frankenstein” (stay tuned for the blog post about my best readings of 2023), tells the story of three very different sisters who see themselves obligated to return to New York City to attend the funeral of their fourth sister.
Coming from Paris, London, and Los Angeles, they reunite as they attempt to cope with the loss, navigating through addiction, grief and ambition and trying to fall in love with life again.
Expected: 25th April 2024
“Real Americans”, by Rachel Khong
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
I’ve never seen myself as a Y2K fan but, after reading “Other People’s Clothes” by Calla Henkel this year, I must say I might be into it.
That’s why I decided to add “Real Americans” to this list of new book releases of 2024.
This novel tells of a multigenerational Asian-American family. Beginning in the Y2K era, moving to 2021.
Approaching topics such as family and inheritance, class and striving, race and visibility; it is really about trust, forgiveness and finally going home. And I really can’t wait to read this one!
Expected: 30th April 2024
“Margot’s Got Money Troubles”, by Rufi Thorpe
(Goodreads | Storygraph)
Margo is the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler who always had to make it on her own.
After enrolling in junior college and wondering how she’d be able to make a living; during an affair, she gets pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, Margo keeps the baby.
Alone, without a job and almost losing her apartment, Margo decides to give her father a home and he moves in, in exchange for help with the baby. She creates an OnlyFans as an experiment and, following advice from her father on how to be loved by an audience, she becomes a success.
Expected: 11th June 2024
I don’t know if what I’ve told you so far convinces you, but it gave this book a direct place right into my 2024 TBR!
As this blog post is coming to an end, I hope I’ve helped you add a few of these new book releases of 2024 into your next year’s TBR!
Share with me in the comment section which ones you’ll be reading in 2024!