Women in literature are getting messier, thanks to the boundary-pushing authors who are writing them into existence.
From the party scene in Brooklyn during the early 2000s to rural Wyoming in the late 1980s and the Dutch Resistance of World War II, these books take us into twisted, inventive worlds and touch on themes from class and identity to sisterhood and friendship — all while featuring complicated female characters.
With new titles to look forward to in 2026 by authors such as Xochitl Gonzalez and Jennette McCurdy, there’s something in here for everyone who’s looking for an escape.
The Star Society by Gabriella Saab (Jan. 6)
This historical novel inspired by “the spirit of Audrey Hepburn” tells the tale of two sisters who worked in the Dutch Resistance during World War II and land in Hollywood years later during the height of the Red Scare. As they shed their old identities and reinvent themselves in a new country, the sisters are on their own missions to exact revenge on their political enemies. But as they swap resisting Nazis for hunting Communists, a dark secret they share threatens to spill out into the open.
Woman Down by Colleen Hoover (Jan. 13)
In the bestselling author’s latest, a frustrated writer is forced into retreat after backlash over her latest film adaptation goes viral. Broke and branded a fraud, she tries to save her career by holing up in a secluded lakeside cabin, where she works on a new suspense novel she hopes will be the ticket to her redemption. But when a detective turns up at her cabin with disturbing news, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur.
How to Commit A Postcolonial Murder by Nina McConigley (Jan 20)
In this debut novel, two sisters welcome their newly arrived relatives from India into their home in rural Wyoming – but their uncle turns out to be a rapist, and the sisters decide he needs to die. Praised for her “razor-sharp wit,” McConigley takes a story about what it means to be Indian American and flips it on its head, dealing with issues of British colonialism, generational abuse, and life out West during the 1980s.
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy (Jan. 20)
McCurdy lit up the literary scene with her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, and now she’s back with her debut novel about a 17-year-old girl who is obsessed with her creative writing teacher. What sounds on its face like a clichéd narrative is “startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny and keenly poignant” in McCurdy’s hands as she takes readers through her heroine’s drastic efforts and desire to be seen by the only person she thinks understands her.
Hemlock by Melissa Faliveno (Jan. 20)
In this surreal debut novel, a Brooklyn woman returns to the Wisconsin Northwoods where her mother vanished. As she faces sinister events from her past and wrestles with what it means to reject her inheritance, her body begins to take on a strange new shape. This queer Gothic survival story is in the mold of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, with a dash of Black Swan for good measure.
The Better Mother by Jennifer van der Kleut (Feb. 10)
In this suspenseful thriller, a woman who discovers she’s pregnant after a casual fling gets into an increasingly strange relationship with the father’s ex, whom he starts dating again after the fling. Rather than being upset by the news of the pregnancy, the new girlfriend becomes overly invested in the protagonist’s wellbeing and starts coming over uninvited, demanding she change her lifestyle. Cue echoes of Fatal Attraction.
Last Night In Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez (April 21)
Gonzalez broke out with her 2022 debut, Olga Dies Dreaming. Now the bestselling author is back with a new novel about class and identity told through the perspective of a 26-year-old woman who lives with her mother and ventures out in her Brooklyn neighborhood one night, where she finds herself drawn to a more creative, hard-partying crowd. Gonzalez describes it as a modern-day retelling of The Great Gatsby, with lots of party scenes.
Take What You Can by Naima Coster (July 7)
This sweeping novel about female friendship and new motherhood follows Val and Milly, who bonded as the only Black students on a study-abroad trip to France. Fast-forward to when they’re in their thirties – each is married and has a baby girl on the way, and they decide to raise their kids side by side in New York. But their relationship may have changed since their study-abroad days, when an older woman became a mother figure to both of them and lavished them with money, love and attention. Without that figure in their lives anymore, their relationship might not be the same.