🍿 Schrödinger's adaptation

Fourth Wing is headed to series, but it's still going to be a while.

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May 14, 2026 | View Online | Join All Access | Listen

🧐 Is being well-read a thing? What does it mean, and how do you pursue it? Spoiler: we think it is, even if our editors can’t agree on a single shared definition. Jeff and Rebecca popped over to the Compendium podcast this week to discuss the bookish internet’s favorite controversial take, gateway books, and tools for expanding your literary horizons. You can also hear their recent appearance on WORT’s Radio Literature.

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THE HEADLINE

Fan favorites take flight

Call it Schrödinger’s adaptation. Rebecca Yarros’s blockbuster romantasy Fourth Wing, which has been in development since late-2023, has moved one step closer to your TV, but there’s still a while to wait.

Michael B. Jordan, who is executive-producing the adaptation through his company Outlier Society, announced this week that the series has been ordered to Prime Video.

Lisa Joy, whose recent credits include Westworld and Fallout, has signed on as co-executive producer and will direct the first episode.

Showrunner Meredith Averill is no stranger to adaptations, having worked on Locke & Key and The Haunting of Hill House, among others.

Casting is TBD, as is the timeline. This is a big production that will require signficant special effects. Smart money says we won’t see it before mid-late 2028 at the earliest.

Fans of Matt Haig’s 2020 hit novel The Midnight Library know something about waiting to see their fave on screen.

Studiocanal and Blueprint Pictures picked up adaptation rights shortly after the book landed on bestseller lists in 2020.

The production is finally in motion with Florence Pugh attached to star.

Garth Davis is set to direct a screenplay written by Laura Wade and Nick Payne.

Production will begin in early 2027. Feels factory-made for feel-good holiday viewing, so maybe a chance it hits theaters at the end of next year?

🍿 In other adaptation news: Netflix’s Remarkably Bright Creatures is a hit; Good Omens is coming back for one last episode without Neil Gaiman; and a filmed version of Giant starring John Lithgow as Roald Dahl is coming this fall. —RJS

BEST OF THE CENTURY

The best comics and graphic novels of the century so far

Our year-long project to highlight the best books of the century so far continues with the best comics and graphic novels.

Illustration is one of the oldest forms of storytelling, and in this modern era of illustrative storytelling, comics explore every aspect of our lives.

American superhero comics reflect our politics and have shaped pop culture immensely.

Nonfiction comics have pushed the boundaries of the art form to showcase real life.

Manga has exploded internationally, sharing Japan’s unique storytelling structures with the world.

From a coming-of-age nonfiction comic set during the Iranian Revolution to a fabulist tale that explores a queer kid’s coming out, to an alchemical manga that will have you ugly crying, our picks for the Best Comic Books of the Century So Far highlight the best the art form has to offer.

TOGETHER WITH HYPERION

Prom night is about to get bloody.

From Codie Crowley, author of Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch, comes Body Count, a sharp, queer literary slasher packed with Jersey Shore chaos, prom drama, revenge, and monsters. Sundae and rocker girl Lia might have chemistry, but surviving the night is another matter entirely.

With echoes of Jennifer’s Body, Fear Street, and classic ’80s slashers, Body Count blends horror, humor, and LGBTQ romance into one wildly entertaining ride. Three wishes. One prom queen. And a killer determined to make everyone pay.

CLUB CULTURE

What the big book clubs are reading in May

May always brings a bounty of interesting new books. Here are what some notable book clubs are picking this month:

Oprah’s Book Club: John of John by Douglas Stuart: "Set in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, the story follows John-Calum Macleod, a struggling art school graduate who finds himself back in his small hometown to support his elderly grandmother and father, a minister in the Presbyterian church. With Cal’s identity at odds with the religion he was brought up in, he must come to terms with the life he wants for himself while navigating his relationship with his father, who has secrets of his own hiding underneath the surface."

Reese’s Book Club: The Fine Art of Lying by Alexandra Andrews: "This book feels like a secret I’m not supposed to share...but it’s too good not to! Set in New York’s art world, full of lies, money, and very messy choices, our May Reese’s Book Club pick is The Fine Art of Lying by Alexandra Andrews."

The Stacks Book Club: Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu: "A debut novel about friendship, the 1990’s, and NYC’s art world? That’s right, our May book club pick is Stephanie Wambugu’s Lonely Crowds. This novel is polarizing, and brings up issues of ambition, intimacy, and the evolution of our connections."

❗️If you are looking for one of the best (and most award-winning) books of the last few years, this blockbuster from a modern master* is a book club favorite.

Browse a longer list of May book club selections r ight here. —JC

*A message from our sponsor

GIFT RECS

Books to gift moms, dads, and grads

The gift-giving gauntlet of Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and graduation season is here. Lucky for you, no recommendation request is too specific or idiosyncratic for us.

Here’s just a sample of the gift recs we’ve helped listeners with on two recent episodes of the Book Riot Podcast:

🎁 A literary level-up for the mom who devoured Colleen Hoover and loves a "popcorn read": Go Gentle by Maria Semple

🎁 For the single 40-something woman who wants to explore solo travel: The Women I Think About at Night by Mia Kankimäki

🎁 A modern read for a classics major who loves ancient Greece: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

🎁 An encouraging and affirming read for a combo-graduation and 18th birthday gift: Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi

🎁 Under-the-radar upmarket genre fiction for a reader with eclectic taste: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

🎧 You can hear all of our recommendations on part 1 and part 2 wherever you listen to podcasts.

TOGETHER WITH UNDERLINED

The kind of book that keeps you up too late.

Now in paperback, Rory Power’s Kill Creatures is the kind of thriller you devour in a single sitting. Featuring an unreliable narrator, two razor-sharp antiheroine main characters, and a tense cat-and-mouse dynamic, this New York Times bestseller digs into friendship, jealousy, obsession, and revenge. And just when you think you know what’s happening, the story detonates with a twist that turns everything upside down.

Kill Creatures is a dark, layered crossover thriller for teen and adult readers alike. Find it wherever books are sold.

AUDIOBOOKS

New AAPI audiobooks at Spotify

May is Asian & Pacific American Heritage Month, so we’re highlighting three new AAPI audiobooks you can check out on Spotify right now, included with your Spotify Premium membership.

The Midnight Taxi by Yosha Gunasekera - A debut mystery about a Sri Lankan American taxi driver trying to clear her name—and catch a killer—when a body is found in her back seat

A Killer in the Family by Amin Ahmad - When a Mumbai party-boy enters an arranged marriage with the daughter of a New York real estate tycoon, he quickly realizes this family has secrets...and they might be of the deadly variety.

Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu - When she’s rejected from Harvard Law School and her roommate gets in, a Columbia student becomes obsessed with figuring out what makes the roommate so special, and she’ll stop at nothing to take her place.

AUTHOR RECOMMENDATIONS

Where horror meets romantasy

Danai Christopoulou is the author of Vile Lady Villains , a sapphic horromantasy that brings Klytemnestra together with Lady Macbeth, out in the U.S. on May 12th from Union Square & Co. Below, they talk about three horromantasies they loved reading this year:

Horror and romance dance well together. The realms of the beautifully grotesque and the deliciously macabre have given birth to stories that, though we didn’t always call “horromantasies,” we did relish their melange of lust and repulsion.

This mix is one I tried to keep in mind while I was drafting Vile Lady Villains , and one I keep yearning for in the books I read. And while some of the three titles mentioned below tilt the balance toward one end or the other, all deliver impeccable settings and characters that you can’t help falling in love with — and being terrified by.

Bury Our Bones In the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab: I will read everything V. E. Schwab writes, but these toxic lesbian vampires felt like they were created specifically for me. Spanning from 16th-century Spain to present-day Boston, Bury Our Bones In the Midnight Soil is a hypnotic contemplation of the consequences of immortality and the fine line between love and obsession.

The Forest Bleeds by Rachel Kitch (out October 13): One of the 2026 debuts I’m most excited about, Kitsch’s The Forest Bleeds is as complex as it is atmospheric, with horror moments that hit hard and with the Appalachian background being a protagonist in itself. Come for the unique magic systems, hot villains, and, ahem, complicated relationship dynamics, stay for the frank discussions of intergenerational trauma, mental health, and diasporic identities.

Lethal Kiss by Taylor Grothe (out October 20): Another unputdownable debut that moves in the dark academia realm, but this time with an infusion of Norse lore, Grothe’s Lethal Kiss manages to delight and disgust in equal measure (often in the same scene). If you enjoyed Megan Fox’s character in Jennifer’s Body, you’re going to love every second of the blood-soaked menace that is Marcella, the draugr main character. I did!

TOGETHER WITH THRIFTBOOKS

ThriftBooks 500 Billion Page Challenge ~ #GetYourPagesIn
A decade ago, Americans read nearly 500 billion pages a year. Then something shifted. We’re now reading 200 billion fewer pages. ThriftBooks is here to change that. Join the challenge today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Mikhail Bulgakov, born May 15, 1891

Did you know? Bulgakov’s masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, was published 27 years after his death by an unlikely press: The YMCA.

CRITICAL LINKING

You are now free to roam about the internet

🪐 You’re never too old for these superb SF/F middle grade series.

🏆 Quibble with The Guardian’s list of the 100 best novels of all time.

💝 Swoon over sweet, closed-door romances.

❗️Get excited for new Camp Half-Blood novels coming this fall.

📫 Browse all of Book Riot’s newsletters, from Literary Activism to Kissing Books and so much more.

END NOTES

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Jeff O’Neal, Vanessa Diaz, Erica Ezeifedi, Jamie Canavés, and Danika Ellis. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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