7 of the Best New Book Releases Out September 15, 2026
If she were still alive, Agatha Christie would be 136 years old today. Her legacy is so enduring that a character pair of hers who first appeared in 1922—detective couple Tommy and Tuppence Beresford—have gotten an adaptation that airs today. There’s also a manga published by Viz Media, And Then There Were None, Vol. 1, that adapts one of Christie’s most popular stories.
When it comes to the other new releases, there are even more of the most anticipated books by the biggest authors coming out this week. There’s also a bevy of celebrity-written memoirs, from Tisha Campbell’s The A Word: A Mother’s Journey Through Autism and Love to Ke Huy Quan’s Never Say Die, to Colin Kaepernick’s The Perilous Fight by Colin Kaepernick. It’s not a memoir, but Gillian Anderson (yes, Scully) also has a new book, More.
As for the books featured below, there’s the latest by Emily St. John Mandel and Elizabeth Acevedo, Leigh Bardugo’s highly anticipated dark academia trilogy conclusion, and more. We are eating well this month.
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New Books
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Mentioned in Our Monthly Roundup
Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel
From the author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility comes a time-skipping dystopian centered around a missing person. It’s 2031 in L.A. after the United States collapsed. The curfew has lifted, the troops withdrew from the city, and it’s time to party. The function gunrunner Ari Waker and her roommate go to, once they get past the bomb-sniffing dogs and ravaged towns, has an electrifying energy. Too bad everything changes on a dime: a doppelganger appears and makes their way through the crowd, and then Kareem, the host of the party, disappears. To find out just what happened that night, readers go on a journey that goes from weapons dealers in Greece to a domed city of Paris, and beyond. —Erica Ezeifedi
Dead Beat (Ninth House Series, 3) by Leigh Bardugo
This one comes with a bit of a note. It’s the third and final book in the Ninth House Trilogy, one of my favorite dark academia series ever. Because it does require reading the first two books, and book clubs don’t typically read entire trilogies, I’ve decided to include it as a bonus since it is out this fall. Also, because of spoilery reasons, I will only share details of the first book, Ninth House, where we meet Alex Stern, who is the only survivor of an unsolved multiple homicide, and who gets a sort of second chance at life once she’s offered a full-ride scholarship to an Ivy League college. She doesn’t really know why she, of all people, has been awarded this opportunity, but once she arrives in New Haven, she’s assigned to keep an eye on Yale’s secret societies, which have way more nefarious goings-on than she could have imagined. —Erica Ezeifedi
Terrestrial by Cristina Rivera Garza
Cristina Rivera Garza is a pro at the genre-bending game, as evidenced by her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Liliana’s Invincible Summer. She’s back with this collection of stories about young women’s travels on the fringes of Mexico and the United States. Described as a combination of “journalism, novelistic writing, and themes of female freedom, gore capitalism, and class struggle,” this has the potential to scratch the same places in my brain that Liliana did, and that is an exciting prospect. —Vanessa Diaz
More New Books Out This Week
Anger Is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo
She’s back! After a several-year hiatus, Acevedo returns to YA, and it’s a good one.
Lil always seeks freedom, and she’s not afraid to admit to being a little rebellious. Currently on probation through a DC juvenile detention facility and wearing an ankle monitor, Lil feels the weight of other people’s opinions on her–just as much as she feels guilt and worry over the one person in her life who she thinks could understand her: Aldwin, her older brother.
Away at college, Aldwin has felt distant, and his behavior has felt erratic to Lil. She knows the risks of breaking her probation agreement–and the importance of an upcoming court date–but Lil has to find out what’s going on with her big brother. Does she follow the rules or does she break them, knowing her brother’s life might be on the line? —Kelly Jensen
Bodies of Magic by Freya Marske
Here’s a new novel from the Hugo-nominated author of the Last Binding series. Five scholars mastering their skills at the Academie of the Grand Duchy of Sieuxerr have five days to solve a murder, after a body turns up on the first day of a five-day exam that will determine their future. —Liberty Hardy
Fallow by Sarah Anderson
Natalie is suffering from the effects of capital C Capitalism—she has no health insurance, no skills, and student loans out the wazoo—but then she comes across a bit of an odd job. It’s with The Company, and it involves becoming a surrogate for a new, experimental program. Turns out, she’s a perfect fit, and for years, she’s perfectly provided for. But then, just as her contract is about to be fulfilled, she gets caught up in another social experiment that is so wonky, it has her questioning her place in the world. —Erica Ezeifedi
Rooted by Leopoldo Gout
If you like horror that explores the violent legacy of colonization, or ever wondered whether the word “piñata” could send chills up your spine, allow me to introduce you to Leopoldo Goût! His latest is a “bloody reckoning” about an art lawyer who returns to Mexico City to celebrate the repatriation of several stolen artifacts, including a statue of an Aztec god called The Flayed One. I don’t have to tell you anything else, do I? We all know things are gonna get weird. —Vanessa Diaz
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:
- All the Books, our weekly new book releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about the books out this week we’re most excited about.
- The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz.
- Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by genre, age category, and even LGBTQ new releases!
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