Every year, British publishers release 149,800 new books. They are beaten only by the outputs of the USA and China. These countries each have at least five times the number of people than the UK, but they publish less than twice the number of books. That means, per capita, Britain publishes more books than any other country on the planet. It’s therefore safe to say the British population is mad for new books.
Because reading is a bit of a national obsession, we’ve decided to see what the big books of the New Year are going to be. Below are five of those nearly 150,000 new books that we think you’re going to be reading in the New Year.
Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover
This book from the New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover breaks away from her two popular series: the Hopeless series and the Slammed series. Instead, in this novel she looks at the healing power of music – and mysterious neighbours.
Sydney Blake is a 22-year-old with her whole life ahead of her: she’s in college, she’s in work and she’s in love. But that all comes crumbling down when she discovers her boyfriend and room mate’s affair. As she struggles to pick up the pieces, she becomes captivated with her neighbour Ridge Lawson. In him, she finds music that seems to speak to her very soul. In her, he seems to have found his muse. They soon learn how much they really need each other when they finally come together.
Colleen Hoover has a large and dedicated fan base who love her humour and unique point of view. As with her other novels, readers can expect to look at things a bit differently after thoroughly enjoying themselves in her immersive world.
City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg
City on Fire is not a holiday read, and it’s not something you just dip in and out of during a weekend. It is a commitment, but it will pay off. After all, there’s a reason it’s generating so much excitement, and it’s not just its 900-page length. His debut novel, Garth Risk Hallberg signed a nearly $2 million deal with publisher Knopf, and the novel is already generating comparisons to Dickens and Thomas Pynchon.
The tale is a complex, layered one, set in New York City of the 1970s. The city allowed people to be completely themselves, no matter how horrible they were, with little consequence, and that is the focus of the novel. The wide and varied cast, including two Long Island punks, a gay teacher from the Deep South, a revolutionary cell and the detective who is trying to figure out what connects them and many others, wanders around the city, exposing its racial and class divisions and the ugliness that underpinned everyone who lived there.
To call it ambitious is an understatement, but from all the reports, missing out on reading it is unthinkable.
The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
This is the first novel of a new series, called the Murder Complex series. The story is a futuristic thriller, full of action and gore, so it is not exactly for the faint of heart. Still, it’s being compared to ‘La Femme Nikita’, the Dust Lands series and the film ‘Hanna’ – not bad for a debut.
Set in a world where the murder rate has surpassed the birth rate, the novel follows Meadow Woodson, a 15-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to survive any situation. She lives on a houseboat with her family in Florida, which is now controlled by the merciless Murder Complex. Meadow soon meets Zephyr James, one of the Complex’s brainwashed assassins. They must uncover the circumstances behind their coincidental meeting to see if it is indeed more than mere chance that they found each other. At the same time, Zephyr is tasked with keeping Meadow’s family history a secret from her. If these mysteries are revealed, it could lead to some very serious consequences.
City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
This is the sixth and final instalment of the Mortal Instruments series. If you don’t know the series, it is set in a world where Shadowhunters, or Nephilim, and demons are at war, and humans are often caught in the crossfire. Clary Fray soon learns that although she thought she was just a human, she is in fact a Shadowhunter. She soon becomes one of the best Shadowhunters, defeating evil alongside her boyfriend, Jace, and his two Shadowhunter partners, Alec and Isabelle. The Mortal Instruments series has been going from strength to strength since its debut in 2007. It has been translated into several languages, and the first book has been adapted into a film.
In the final book, Clary and her friends must fight the strongest evil the Shadowhunters have ever faced. Unfortunately, this evil is her own brother. His power seems impenetrable, but they must find a way to prevail, even if it means journeying to another world, losing their lives or sacrificing their love for each other.
Cassandra Clare’s ability to blend modern humour and popular fantasy characters from other series into her fully realised world has drawn in fans from all over the world. In short, if you know the series, you don’t need us to tell you that you’ll read it as soon as it comes out. For everyone else, this is your last chance to see what everyone’s talking about.
Panic by Lauren Oliver
Have you ever lived in a town so small and boring that you had to invented a high-stakes game just to keep things interesting? In the town of Carp, the kids leaving school do just that. They play a game that is dangerous and full of things to fear, but with an amazing payoff – for the survivors. Amongst the players is Heather, a girl who never thought she could be fearless and survive this ordeal. Still, she finds the strength to make it through when she finds someone worth fighting for. Dodge always felt sure he’d dominate in Panic. After all, he’s had a secret that he knows will get him through the worst of it. What he doesn’t realise is that he isn’t the only one with something to play for.
In the course of the game, Dodge and Heather form alliances, find their first loves and discover secrets But the biggest mystery still remains: will either of them make it through?
This novel isn’t the first time Lauren Oliver has been published: she’s the author of the bestselling Delirium trilogy, as well as ‘Before I Fall’. It is a completely stand-alone effort, however, exploring the nature of fear, how it drives us and how we might just need it more than we’d like to admit.
These are our predictions for five books you’re going to read in the New Year. But tell us, which books are you looking forward to next year?
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