Check out these novels before their television adaptations begin airing this year:
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket – After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune.
Network: Netflix
Premiere date: January 13, 2017
Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Malina Weissman, Louis Hynes
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty – Follows three mothers, each at a crossroads, and their potential involvement in a riot at a school trivia night that leaves one parent dead in what appears to be a tragic accident, but which evidence shows might have been premeditated.
Network: HBO
Premiere date: February 19, 2017
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley
Time After Time by Karl Alexander – Speculates what might have happened if H. G. Wells had built a real time machine to travel to the 1870s in search of Jack the Ripper.
Network: ABC
Premiere date: March 5, 2017
Starring: Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Ferrin, Josh Bowman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman – Just released from prison, Shadow encounters Mr. Wednesday, an enigmatic stranger who seems to know a lot about him, and when Mr. Wednesday offers him a job as his bodyguard, Shadow accepts and is plunged into a dark and perilous world.
Network: Starz
Premiere date: April 2017
Starring: Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning
Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle – When Paige Townsen gets plucked from high school obscurity to star in the movie adaptation of a blockbuster book series, her life changes practically overnight. Now she must adjust to a crazy new life without the daily support of her friends and family, while figuring out who she is, and who she wants, as the whole world watches.
Network: Freeform
Premiere date: April 18, 2017
Starring: Bella Thorne, Carter Jenkins, Keith Powers
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – A chilling look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.
Network: Hulu
Premiere date: April 26, 2017
Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Samira Wiley, Joseph Fiennes
Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris – The first book in a new trilogy describes what happens in Midnight, Texas, a dried-up, one traffic light town, when a mysterious new resident, Manfred Bernardo, moves in.
Adapted into: Midnight, Texas
Network: NBC
Premiere date: April 30, 2017
Starring: Francois Arnaud, Arielle Kebbel, Jason Lewis
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood – Takes readers into the life and mind of Grace Marks, one of the most notorious women of the 1840s, who is serving a life sentence for murders she claims she cannot remember.
Network: Netflix
Premiere date: TBD 2017
Starring: Sarah Gadon, Edward Holcroft, Anna Paquin
Still Star-Crossed by Melinda Taub – Struggling to maintain the peace between the rivaling Montagues and Capulets after the suicides of Romeo and Juliet, Prince Escalus of Verona arranges a marriage between Romeo’s best friend, Benvolio, and Juliet’s cousin, Rosaline, whose unwilling match forges unexpected bonds.
Network: ABC
Premiere date: TBD 2017
Starring: Ebonee Noel, Lashana Lynch, Wade Briggs
The Terror by Dan Simmons – Captain Crozier must find a way for his crew to survive the deadly attacks of a mysterious and insatiable sea monster, in a novel loosely based on the mid-nineteenth-century Arctic expedition originally led by Sir John Franklin.
Network: AMC
Premiere date: TBD 2017
Starring: Jared Harris, Ciaran Hinds, Edward Ashley