Check out these novels before their television adaptations begin airing this year:
The Alienist by Caleb Carr – In 1896 New York, psychologist (or in period terminology, an alienist) Laszlo Kreizler joins forces with journalist John Schuyler Moore to track a vicious serial killer.
Network: TNT
Premiere date: January 22, 2018
Starring: Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans, Dakota Fanning
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan – In a twenty-fifth century world in which death is nearly obsolete, former UN envoy Takeshi Kovacs, re-sleeved into a new body after a brutal death, finds himself caught in the middle of a deadly far-reaching conspiracy.
Network: Netflix
Premiere date: February 2, 2018
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Renée Elise Goldsberry, James Purefoy
The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright – Explores both the American and Arab sides of the September 11th terrorist attacks in an account of the people, ideas, events, and intelligence failures that led to the attacks.
Network: Hulu
Premiere date: February 28, 2018
Starring: Sullivan Jones, Kelly P. Williams, Katie Flahive
Murder Games by James Patterson – Searching for a serial killer who leaves playing cards at the scenes of his crimes, police officer Elizabeth Needham teams up with brilliant professor Dylan Reinhart, whose book has been connected to the murders.
Adapted title: Instinct
Network: CBS
Premiere date: March 11, 2018
Starring: Alan Cumming, Bojana Novakovic, Daniel Ings
Drama High by Michael Sokolove – Describes the astounding success of the theater program at Harry S Truman High School in Levittown, Pennsylvania, under the direction of gifted teacher Lou Volpe.
Adapted title: Rise
Network: NBC
Premiere date: March 13, 2018
Starring: Josh Radnor, Rosie Perez, Damon J. Gillespie
The Terror by Dan Simmons – Captain Crozier must find a way for his crew to survive the deadly attacks of a sea monster, in a novel loosely based on the mid-nineteenth-century Arctic expedition originally led by Sir John Franklin.
Network: AMC
Premiere date: March 26, 2018
Starring: Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, Ciarán Hinds
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn – Reluctantly returning to her hometown after an eight-year absence to investigate the murders of two girls, reporter Camille Preaker is reunited with her neurotic mother and enigmatic, 13-year-old half-sister as she works to uncover the truth about the killings.
Network: HBO
Premiere date: Summer 2018
Starring: Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson, Eliza Scanlen
Adaptations Slated for 2018, but Premiere Date TBD
Castle Rock – Many of Stephen King’s stories and characters are being adapted into a television series named after the fictitious town of Castle Rock. This includes: It, Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, Salem’s Lot, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Dreamcatcher, Night Shift, The Green Mile, Misery, Hearts in Atlantis, The Shining, Four Past Midnight, Different Seasons, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, and more.
Network: Hulu
Starring: Melanie Lynskey, André Holland, Sissy Spacek
The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn & Hal Iggulden – A guide for males of any age provides instructions for engaging in a wide range of classic boyhood projects and activities, from building go-carts and constructing treehouses to identifying insects and flying the most effective paper airplanes.
Network: Amazon
Starring: Gabriel Bateman, Drew Powell, Kyan Zielinski
Dietland by Sarai Walker – Biding her time alone until she can have weight-loss surgery, Plum joins an underground community of empowered women and agrees to a series of challenges, including work with a group that stages anti-misogyny terrorist acts.
Network: AMC
Starring: Joy Nash, Julianna Margulies, Adam Rothenberg
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – A totalitarian regime in a dystopian future has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners, Guy Montag, suddenly realizes their merit.
Network: HBO (TV movie)
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Michael Shannon, Sofia Boutella
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – When four seekers arrive at a notorious old mansion, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena, but Hill House is gathering its powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own.
Network: Netflix
Starring: Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Mckenna Grace, Annabeth Gish
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler – A year in the life of a beguiling young woman in the wild world of a famous downtown New York restaurant follows her burning effort to become someone of importance through a backwaiter job that enables her indulgences in culinary and intellectual interests.
Network: Starz
Starring: Eden Epstein, Jimmie Saito, Paul Sparks
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray – No one is better equipped in the struggle for wealth and worldly success than the alluring and ruthless Becky Sharp, who defies her impoverished background to clamber up the class ladder.
Network: Amazon
Starring: Olivia Cooke, Michael Palin, Tom Bateman
Watership Down by Richard Adams – Chronicles the adventures of a group of rabbits searching for a safe place to establish a new warren where they can live in peace.
Network: Netflix
Starring: James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, John Boyega
You by Caroline Kepnes – Meeting at an East Village bookstore, aspiring writer Guinevere Beck and store employee Joe embark on an intimate relationship, only to suffer deadly consequences when their passion spirals out of control.
Network: Lifetime
Starring: Penn Badgley, Elizabeth Lail, Shay Mitchell