Check out these novels before their movie adaptations hit theaters this year:
Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton – Describes the secret mission of a small band of U.S. soldiers who battled against Taliban forces on horseback and captured the Afghan city of Mazåar-i Sharåif, a critical location for further campaigns.
Adapted title: 12 Strong
Movie release date: January 19, 2018
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky, Michael Shannon
The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian – Recognizing that the final stage of their lives is upon them, John and Ella Robina, the former an Alzheimer’s patient, the latter succumbing to cancer, sneak away from their over-protective children and doctors to embark on an RV vacation along Route 66.
Movie release date: January 19, 2018
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Helen Mirren, Kirsty Mitchell
Ophelia by Lisa Klein – In this re-imagining of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Hamlet, it is Ophelia who takes center stage. A rowdy, motherless girl, she grows up at Elsinore Castle to become the queen’s most trusted lady-in-waiting.
Movie release date: January 22, 2018 (Sundance)
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Naomi Watts, Tom Felton
Maze Runner: The Death Cure by James Dashner – A conclusion to the best-selling trilogy that began with The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials finds Thomas placing the success of their mission into the hands of the Gladers, who must complete a blueprint for the cure to the Flare, an effort that is compromised by undisclosed memories.
Movie release date: January 26, 2018
Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Kaya Scodelario
Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. Grey – Even though Christian and Anastasia are now a proper couple, they still have many obstacles to overcome, including Christian’s past coming back to haunt Anastasia. This book is intended for mature audiences.
Movie release date: February 9, 2018
Starring: Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson, Arielle Kebbel
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter – Adventurous Peter Rabbit disobeys his mother and wanders into Mr. McGregor’s garden.
Adapted title: Peter Rabbit
Movie release date: February 9, 2018
Starring (voices): Rose Byrne, James Corden, Daisy Ridley
Black Panther by Marvel Comics – When a violent uprising is sparked in the land of Wakanda, a African nation famed for its incredible technology and proud warrior traditions, can its king, the Black Panther, save it from this fate?
Movie release date: February 16, 2018
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer – Describes the 12th expedition to “Area X,” a region cut off from the continent for decades, by a group of intrepid women scientists who try to ignore the high mortality rates of those on the previous 11 missions.
Movie release date: February 23, 2018
Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson
Every Day by David Levithan – Waking up in the body of a different person every day and struggling to pass through each experience without raising alarm, “A” endures a lonely existence before falling in love with a girl named Rhiannon, with whom he endeavors to reunite.
Movie release date: February 23, 2018
Starring: Angourie Rice, Debby Ryan, Owen Teague
The War With Grandpa by Robert Kimmel Smith – Upset that he has to give up the room he loves to his grandfather, Pete decides to declare war in an attempt to get it back.
Movie release date: February 23, 2018
Starring: Robert De Niro, Oakes Fegley, Uma Thurman
Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews – Drafted against her will to serve the regime of Vladimir Putin as an intelligence seductress, Dominika Egorova is assigned to operate against first-tour CIA officer Nathaniel Nash, with whom she engages in a charged effort of deception and tradecraft before a forbidden attraction threatens their careers and the security of America’s most valuable mole in Moscow.
Movie release date: March 2, 2018
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle – Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg’s father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.
Movie release date: March 9, 2018
Starring: Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli – When an email falls into the wrong hands, 16-year-old, not-so-openly gay Simon is blackmailed into playing wingman for a classmate or risk having his sexual identity revealed and the privacy of the boy he’s been emailing compromised.
Adapted title: Love, Simon
Movie release date: March 16, 2018
Starring: Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Logan Miller
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – Immersing himself in a mid-21st-century technological virtual utopia to escape an ugly real world of famine, poverty, and disease, Wade Watts joins an increasingly violent effort to solve a series of puzzles by the virtual world’s creator.
Movie release date: March 30, 2018
Starring: Olivia Cooke, Tye Sheridan, Simon Pegg
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Borrows – As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.
Adapted title: Guernsey
Movie release date: April 20, 2018
Starring: Lily James, Michiel Huisman, Jessica Brown Findlay
The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni – Homeschooled teenager Sebastian Prendergast is forced by his grandmother’s stroke to venture out of his geodesic dome habitat and befriends a chain-smoking teen who introduces him to pop culture through the punk band they form together.
Movie release date: April 20, 2018
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Alex Wolff, Nick Offerman
Disobedience by Naomi Alderman – Learning that her orthodox Jewish rabbi father has passed away, Manhattan single woman Ronit Krushka returns to the home she fled years earlier and reconnects with a beloved cousin and a forbidden childhood sweetheart, only to become a threat to her former community.
Movie release date: April 27, 2018
Starring: Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, Alessandro Nivola
Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple – When her notorious, hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled, and agoraphobic mother goes missing, teenage Bee begins a trip that takes her to the ends of the earth to find her.
Movie release date: May 11, 2018
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig, Troian Bellisario
Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten – Jonas Taylor, a paleontologist and ex-undersea submersible pilot, becomes a reluctant participant in a deep-water mission, an expedition that brings him face to face with the Megalodon, a prehistoric, massive predator and ancestor of the great white shark.
Adapted title: The Meg
Movie release date: August 10, 2018
Starring: Jason Statham, Ruby Rose, Robert Taylor
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan – Envisioning a summer vacation in the humble Singapore home of a boy she hopes to marry, Chinese American Rachel Chu is unexpectedly introduced to a rich and scheming clan that strongly opposes their son’s relationship with an American girl.
Movie release date: August 17, 2018
Starring: Henry Golding, Constance Wu, Gemma Chan
Three Seconds by Roslund & Hellström – Ex-convict Piet Hoffman–a family man, a rising member of Stockholm’s Polish mafia, and an undercover police informant–is sent to a maximum security prison to make himself the boss of the amphetamine trade so the police can shut it down.
Movie release date: August 17, 2018
Starring: Ana de Armas, Rosamund Pike, Clive Owen
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters – After being summoned to treat a patient at dilapidated Hundreds Hall, Dr. Faraday finds himself becoming entangled in the lives of the owners, the Ayres family, and the supernatural presences in the house.
Movie release date: August 31, 2018
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken – Sixteen-year-old Ruby breaks out of a government-run “rehabilitation camp” for teens who acquired dangerous powers after surviving a virus that wiped out most American children.
Movie release date: September 14, 2018
Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Gwendoline Christie, Mandy Moore
The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs – A boy goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion that has a clock hidden in the walls which is ticking off the minutes until doomsday.
Movie release date: September 21, 2018
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Jack Black, Kyle MacLachlan
Boy Erased by Garrard Conley – A survivor of a church-supported sexual orientation conversion therapy facility that claimed to “cure” homosexuality describes its institutionalized, intense Bible study program and the daily threats of his abandonment by family, friends, and God.
Movie release date: September 28, 2018
Starring: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe
First Man by James R. Hansen – An authorized portrait of Neil A. Armstrong, the first astronaut to set foot on the moon, sheds light on other aspects of his career, from the honors he received as a naval aviator to the price he and his family paid for his professional dedication.
Movie release date: October 12, 2018
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jon Bernthal
The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz – After receiving a call from a trusted source claiming to have vital information to the United States, journalist Mikael Blomkvist turns to hacker Lisbeth for help.
Movie release date: October 19, 2018
Starring: Claire Foy, Sverrir Gudnason, Sylvia Hoeks
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling – Presents the adventures of Mowgli, a boy reared by a pack of wolves, and the wild animals of the jungle.
Movie release date: October 19, 2018
Starring: Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss – The Grinch tries to stop Christmas from arriving by stealing all the presents and food from the village of Who-ville, but much to his surprise, it comes anyway.
Adapted title: The Grinch
Movie release date: November 9, 2018
Starring (voice): Benedict Cumberbatch
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve – In the distant future, when cities move about and consume smaller towns, a 15-year-old apprentice is pushed out of London by the man he most admires and must seek answers in the perilous Out-Country, aided by one girl and the memory of another.
Movie release date: December 14, 2018
Starring: Leila George D’Onofrio, Stephen Lang, Hugo Weaving
Adaptations Slated for 2018, but Release Date TBD
The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook – Assigned to oversee the reconstruction of Hamburg in the tumultuous year following World War II, Colonel Lewis Morgan grieves the loss of his son while living with his family in the home of a German widower, an arrangement that forces both families to confront their passions and true selves.
Starring: Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgård, Jason Clarke
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven – Meeting on the ledge of their school’s bell tower, misfit Theodore Finch and suicidal Violet Markey find acceptance and healing that are overshadowed by Finch’s fears about Violet’s growing social world.
Starring: Elle Fanning
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett – When terrorists seize hostages at an embassy party, an unlikely assortment of people is thrown together, including American opera star Roxane Coss, and Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese CEO and her biggest fan.
Starring: Julianne Moore, Christopher Lambert, Ken Watanabe
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – Esther Greenwood, a talented and successful writer, finally begins to succumb to madness when the world around her begins to falter.
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Jesse Plemons, Patricia Arquette
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys – In 1941, Lina and her family are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers.
Adapted title: Ashes in the Snow
Starring: Sophie Cookson, Peter Franzén, Bel Powley
Break My Heart 1000 Times by Daniel Waters – In the aftermath of the Event, which made seeing the dead a part of life, Veronica and her friend Kirk investigate why the ghosts seem to be gaining power and stumble upon the sinister plot of a teacher who is seeking a replacement for his dead daughter.
Starring: Bella Thorne, Dermot Mulroney, Richard Harmon
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy – Questioning her plus-sized body for the first time when an athletic boy appears to return her affections, 16-year-old Willowdean enters her city’s beauty pageant and uses her sassy styles and talents to compete against thinner contestants.
Starring: Danielle Macdonald, Jennifer Aniston, Luke Benward
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas – After witnessing her friend’s death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter’s life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.
Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Common, Regina Hall
The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles – After Elle kisses Noah during her school’s Spring Carnival, the two wind up in a flawed relationship and Elle wonders whether or not she will get her “happily-ever-after.”
Starring: Joey King, Molly Ringwald, Joel Courtney
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in mid-19th-century New England.
Starring: Lea Thompson, Ian Bohen, Bart Johnson
Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell – Margo Crane, a beautiful and uncanny markswoman, takes to the Stark River after being complicit in the death of her father and embarks on an odyssey in search of her vanished mother.
Starring: Kenadi DelaCerna, John Ashton, Tatanka Means
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester – Describes how more than ten thousand definitions were submitted for the first Oxford English Dictionary from Dr. W. C. Minor, an American Civil War criminal whose life of genius and insanity make this true story both fascinating and unique.
Starring: Mel Gibson, Natalie Dormer, Sean Penn
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han – Keeping private love letters written to five secret crushes she has had, Lara Jean Song finds her personal life going from imaginary to out of control when the letters are unexpectedly mailed.
Starring: Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson – A deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.
Starring: Taissa Farmiga, Alexandra Daddario, Sebastian Stan