We’re Culture Editors, so of course we love books – and there are some cracking ones coming up this year. Read on to find out which books we’re looking forward to in 2024!

Ilina

There are some great releases lined up for this year, and a non-fiction read I’m particularly intrigued about is Salman Rushdie’s Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. You can probably guess from the title that this book is to do with the attack on Rushdie’s life back in August 2022, when he was stabbed several times while delivering a public lecture in New York. Reading Rushdie’s own memories and reflections on this incident is sure to be poignant and thought-provoking.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s lost novel Until August is also finally going to be published this year. The story follows a married woman who, on one day every year, takes a new lover. We also have the next exciting release from Coco Mellors, who made a splash with her debut novel Cleopatra and Frankenstein in 2022. Her new book, Blue Sisters, is about three sisters who return home to New York in the wake of their fourth sister’s death, and explores themes of addiction, ambition, and grief.

But, of course, it’s not just established authors who have got some highly-anticipated books coming up. I’m particularly excited by the upcoming debut novel Sweetness in the Skin. Written by Ishi Robinson, this novel follows a young teenager who wishes to escape her home in Kingston due to the rampant poverty and colourism. Robinson has stated that remembering her childhood growing up in Jamaica inspired her to write the novel: ‘I was nostalgic for the Jamaica of my youth […] and, for the first time, seeing a lot of disparity I hadn’t noticed when I was actually living 

Ash

2024 marks a great year for new books from all of my favourite authors. The one I am anticipating the most by a landslide being Holly Jackson’s The Reappearance of Rachel Price. Another thriller by the queen of murder mystery, follows 18 year old Bel, an actress’s daughter who’s mother mysteriously vanished and just as mysteriously reappeared in time for the family to start a true crime documentary about the disappearance. The book releases in April, and following Jackson’s success with murder mystery, most namely the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy, I think this will be just the book to pull me from my Greek mythology phase for a while.

I think a good year is marked by a fluffy romance book read on a foreign beach. This year, Emily Henry releases her fifth Rom-Com and so far, it is everything I need for my June week in Gran Canaria. This one, titled Funny Story, explores Daphne and Miles as they fake a relationship for their ex-fiancés-now-also-engaged after becoming roommates. Like all of Henry’s books, the lies and falsehoods are bound to turn into something a little bit too real. But the predictability and the ease of the read is what makes it perfect for a couple of days listening to the sea lap on the sand.

I don’t think it will be long before I fall straight back into that Greek mythology phase, because September brings the release of the 7th Percy Jackson and the Olympians book: Percy Jackson and the Wrath of the Triple Goddess. Rick Riordan’s teen fantasy series became the staple of my tweens, and I have never really let go since. This book marks the second in an add-on trilogy of the original 5-part series, and while it is so nostalgic to have the trio of characters I fell in love with first back again, I am starting to wonder if these releases are just a ploy for the newly adapted TV show to run for longer. Regardless, and no matter that I have fallen behind in the franchise, more additions to this series will always and have always been welcomed incredibly enthusiastically with the widest of open arms. 

Vidhi

As someone who’s 2024 started with an enormous reading slump, I am really looking forward to getting back into the fiction world and trying new genres so that hopefully by the end of this year I have a very flexible (and of course, long) TBR list.  Barely surfacing with first year’s recommended reading, I have placed my bets on Lucy Foly’s The Midnight Feast to help me cope with my dose of serial killers. Celebrations in ‘The Manor’ are extravagant, but so are its secrets. This feast clearly brings more to the table than fancy food. To top it off, Alex Michaelides’ The Fury will be a perfect combination of plot twists and hidden truths that seems to be just enough to change your genre to something light. Fourteen Days, co-penned by Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Dave Eggers and John Grisham, looks like the right I-saw-this-coming fiction. Navigating through the interactions of neighbouring strangers during the pandemic, this is a story about bonding over grief. 

Just when my mind cannot take the real world anymore, I know I’ll end up skipping all sorts of socialising for my favourite old Bollywood playlist and a fantasy novel to keep me company for the night. Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen appears as promising as it could, with its hidden identity and unrooting a murder trope. Lastly, Holly Black’s The Prisoner’s Throne is eagerly awaited by The Folk of the Air audience (more for closure, if anything else). Prince Oak must make big decisions and choose either his family or his love, or the entire kingdom of Elfhame perishes before his eyes. No doubt, 2024 is going to be one hell of a ride.

These are the books we’re looking forward to reading in 2024. But over to you! Which books are you excited for this year?

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