Don’t Buy the Hype: Read This Not That 2026

Are you tired of reading overrated bestsellers? Do you wish someone would tell you to read this not that? Find out which books are worth the hype and which to skip.

Wow! It’s been eight years since I launched what would eventually become Booklist Queen.

If you don’t know my story, I started as a lifestyle blogger with my sister. We wrote about motherhood, work, and travel. On a whim, I also wanted to write about books because I’m a big reader.

My very first post after our launch was entitled “Read This Not That.” I went through my prior year’s reading and picked 7 overrated bestsellers and paired them with books I recommended you read instead.

Thus, a tradition was born. (Also, it became very apparent very fast that readers did not care about my boring life but craved my book lists.)

It’s been a few years since I’ve done it, but every spring, I look through my previous year’s reading and pick 7 bestsellers that I don’t think are worth the hype. Then I try to find seven books to recommend instead. I used to only pick the “Read This” books from my last year’s reading. I still try to, but I figure it’s better to pick a perfect pair, even if I read it a few years ago.

Obviously, it’s all a matter of opinion. You might not agree with me. The funny thing is, plenty of readers go and read the “Not That” books specifically to see if they agree or not. But in my opinion, these are the overrated bestsellers you should not waste your time on.

In a last-ditch effort to save Earth from an extinction-level event, a group of astronauts is sent on a desperate mission in a cobbled-together spacecraft. But when Ryland Grace wakes up, he has no memory of his mission or why the rest of the crew is dead. The sole survivor, he must take on an impossible task with no margin for failure.

Project Hail Mary is another brilliant novel from Andy Weir, maintaining the incredibly realistic feel in an entirely new context. This time, it’s not one man they’re saving; it’s the entire human race. This is a story of science, yes, but it is also one of friendship and dealing with loss. All of these themes are blended and preserved beautifully using flashbacks to Grace’s time on Earth as he slowly regains his memories after his long sleep.

His Rating:
Publication Date: 4 May 2021
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Mickey7 is an Expendable, a disposable human sent to perform jobs too dangerous for normal humans. If he dies, they can just replicate a new body and upload his last mind scan. When he is prematurely declared dead, Mickey7 finds himself prematurely replaced by his clone, Mickey8. Now Mickey7 and Mickey8 must hide that there are two of them all while Mickey7 realizes he might be the only one who can stop the native creatures from destroying the colony.

Edward Ashton’s Mickey7 is the epitome of a book that wasted its potential. All good science fiction stories start with a great “what if” and Ashton nails it with his fabulous premise of Expendables. Mickey7 is a wisecracking narrator whose easy-going nature make him extremely likable as he floats through life while making some idiotic decisions. Although Mickey7’s shenanigans and backstory are interesting, I spent the whole time waiting for the story to really take off. Unfortunately, Ashton skimped on the larger world-building action, rushed the ending, and never even tried to touch on deeper themes. 

My Rating:
Publication Date: 15 February 2022
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Soon after her son’s birth, Cora and her young daughter Maia set out to officially register the baby’s name. Gordon expects that Cora will name the baby after him like generations of his family have done. Yet, Cora is tempted to name the baby Julian and Maia wants to name her brother Bear. The Names is a thoughtful story that showcases how each potential name – and the abusive father’s reaction to each name – changes the family’s trajectory.

Florence Knapp’s The Names is extremely original and I loved watching the parallel storylines unfold. Knapp cleverly doesn’t make one possibility the best and one the worst. Instead, each story has ups and downs shaped by his personality, his choices, and the randomness of life. The larger message of The Names is the legacy of domestic abuse and the lasting trauma it casts over generations.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 6 May 2025
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The women of the Novak are each given a special gift at birth: they have a ticket that can turn back time just once in their life. At fifteen, Lauren learns about this special ability when her dad is killed in a car accident. From then on, Lauren’s feels caught between her mom who lives in constant fear and her carefree adventurous grandmother. When her husband spends the summer in New York, Lauren moves home to Malibu. After running into her ex, Lauren begins to wonder about the path she chose.

If I hadn’t picked up an advanced review copy, Once and Again would have been a guaranteed dnf for me. The novel was so poorly written I only made it a quarter way through before I started skimming. This is my fifth Rebecca Serle book so I know she can write but I could not handle the tedious overly descriptive storytelling that completely lacked any flow. Every little thing was laid out in mind-numbing detail: a paragraph about the restaurant decor, another about the meal, another about her absent husband’s favorite coffee order. To make it worse, the point-of-view shifts were jarring and hard to follow, Lauren’s choices were infuriating, and I really felt no emotional connection to any of the characters. Overall, the good premise could not be saved be the distractingly poor writing.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 10 March 2026
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When Phoebe Stone turns up at the grand Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, everyone just assumes she is another wedding guest. Yet, Phoebe just happened to book the long-anticipated trip she always dreamed of taking with her husband, which now she plans to use to commit suicide after her divorce. Quickly, the entire bridal party finds themselves confiding in Phoebe, helping Phoebe see her own life in a different light.

The Wedding People is a great read full of thought-provoking messages about how often we lie to ourselves and how people pleasing and wishful thinking can destroy our lives. Phoebe’s candor was refreshing and her relationship with the bride was intriguing. I loved how Phoebe connected with each character, transforming them from a one-dimensional caricature (e.g, drunk mother, cheating sister-in-law, immature groomsman) to a fully fleshed out individual.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 30 July 2024
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For the first time in three years, Frank Szatowski receives a call from his estranged daughter Maggie inviting him to her wedding. Maggie fails to mention she is marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a tech billionaire, at a swanky private estate. As Frank tries to reconnect with Maggie he becomes alarmed at the local hostility toward Aidan’s family. Can Frank discover the truth without driving Maggie away forever?

After the success of Rekulak’s Hidden Pictures, I was disappointed to find his latest thriller lackluster with no likeable characters. Every character felt undeveloped and one-dimensional and there was no one you want to root for (or against). Although The Last One at the Wedding was an easy read, the plot didn’t have enough good twists and the main twist was easy to spot a mile away. 

My Rating:
Publication Date: 8 October 2024
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After writing about recovering a marriage rocked by infidelity in Love Warrior, Glennon Doyle has a new memoir admitting that she forced herself to live a lie to achieve the fairy-tale ending of Love Warrior. In her newest memoir, Doyle explains the freedom of realizing that her true power comes from within. She divorced her husband and fell in love with US soccer star Abby Wambach and built a life that was true to herself.

I appreciated the courage it took Doyle to admit to the world that her marriage was over after writing so publicly about saving it. Doyle makes some great points about understanding our true beliefs and examining what we believe versus what we have been trained to believe. The first half of the book was excellent, but the second half lost its cohesive message. Yet if you want a memoir by a woman who ruins her marriage that was at the center of her last memoir, Untamed beats All the Way to the River hands down.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 10 March 2020
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Author of the bestselling memoirs Eat, Pray Love and Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert returns with a new memoir about finding freedom. In 2000, Gilbert met Rayya and soon the two friends became inseparable. After a tragedy, they both realized they were in love. But the pair of addicts fed off each other, sending them both toward disaster. Gilbert tells her story of passion and craving and the yearning for freedom from addiction.

From the moment I read the letter from dead Rayya in the introduction, I knew I should have gone with my gut instinct and skipped this book. All the Way to the River feels like Gilbert’s attempt to assuage her guilt and justify her horrible decisions. I get that addiction is beyond awful and Gilbert had some good perspective on this issues. But Gilbert and Rayya’s self-justifications were unconscionable. Rayya convinces herself she is sober while drinking every day. Gilbert actively plans to murder cancer-stricken Rayya. Simply put, All the Way to the River is a story of the disturbing codependent life between two women – one who dies of cancer though not as quickly as the other would like.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 9 September 2025
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Music executive Theo is tasked with reviving the Future Saints, a pop band that has been tanking ever since the death of Ginny, the band manager and the lead singer’s sister. When lead singer Hannah channels her grief into a new rock sound, Theo uses it to create a new tour and a new album. But Hannah’s increasing volatility seem to be sabotaging all of Theo’s efforts as grief and fame don’t seem to mix in this story of sisterhood and the ghost that haunts us.

The Future Saints shines with a memorizing story of grief spiraling into addiction and a mental breakdown. You can’t help but root for devil-may-care Hannah as her desperation to keep her sister’s memory alive results in creativity and growing fame yet also drives her to the breaking point. With a thought-provoking look at the exploitation of the music industry, Theo’s kindness serves as a compassionate counterbalance to Hannah’s volatility and their slow burn love story hits perfectly. The Future Saints is an unputdownable tale that showcases the messiness of humanity in all its highs and lows.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 20 January 2026
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Effervescent and ambitious Zoe and shy musical prodigy Cassie could not be more different even though they are sisters. Catapulted to fame as a pop duo sensation, the sisters spent a whirlwind year in the early 2000s touring the nation until they abruptly broke up. Now twenty years later, Zoe’s teenage daughter Cherry also wants to be a star and runs away to try out for a reality singing show. To up her chances of winning, Cherry is determined to reunite The Griffin Sisters if she can find her Aunt Cassie.

Jennifer Weiner’s latest novel has a great premise but struggles in the execution of the characters. I loved the idea of the backstory of Zoe and Cassie. Unfortunately, Weiner heavily lies on extremes for each character, failing to add nuance and layers. You can choose between the selfish talentless mean girl Zoe (who is obviously thin and beautiful) or the utterly fat-shamed shy Cassie with all the musical talent. To make it worse, the rest of the characters are as unlikable; Cherry was a selfish teen with no thought for others and the main love interest was completely spineless.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 8 April 2025
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When her father unexpectedly dies, seven-year-old Ellie and her mother are thrust from the 1950s upper class in Tehran to live in a tiny home downtown. Ellie soon befriends Homa and the two girls are inseparable, sharing dreams of becoming “lion women” someday. After her family fortunes change, Ellie rejoins the wealthy ranks of society, becoming the most popular girl at her elite high school. Just as Iran is reaching a political breaking point, politically active Homa reappears in Ellie’s life causing a disruption that will change them both forever.

Marjan Kamali paints a story of fierce female friendship set against three decades of the women’s movement in Iran. From the start, you are swept up in Homa and Ellie’s coming-of-age story in Iran. With rich characters and a fascinating setting, The Lion Women of Tehran ponders the cost of standing up for what you believe and the fierceness from within not to let anyone break you.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 2 July 2024
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Based on a true story, in the sixteenth century, Marguerite seems destined for a life of ease until she becomes orphaned. Soon her guardian has spent her fortune, forcing her into poorer and poorer circumstances until he insists she accompany him to New France. When Marguerite falls in love with her guardian’s servant, her guardian abandons them on a remote Canadian island with only her faith to help them through. 

Reese Witherspoon picked Isola for her February book club pick and I have to admit, I was unimpressed. Although the real life tale of Marguerite’s life is fascinating, Goodman’s fictionalized telling fell flat for me. Goodman spends most of the novel focusing on Marguerite’s inner thoughts which were boring to read because Marguerite was so complacent. I wish she had more fire. The entire book is rather depressing, though how women were treated back in the day is depressing.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 4 February 2025
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In a Florida already wracked by climate change, Frida gives birth to baby Wanda amid a deadly hurricane. As the world continues to disintegrate, Wanda grows and adapts to an ever-changing world. Living in a community abandoned by society, Wanda seeks adventure, community, and love in a place remade by nature.

You would expect nothing less than gorgeous writing from Lilly Brooks-Dalton, author of Good Morning, Midnight. Her lyrical prose gives an added force to climate fiction, painting the end of the world with such beauty you can’t look away. The Light Pirate starts with a compelling section about the hurricane surrounding Wanda’s birth, and you are immediately drawn into the family’s struggles. As Wanda grows, you are drawing in as the world that we know vanishes, replaced by a wild future.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 6 December 2022
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Dominic Salt and his three children live together on Shearwater, a remote island near Antarctica. Shearwater used to be full of researchers but now the Salts are the sole caretakers of the world’s largest seed bank. During a fierce storm, a woman washes ashore. As the Salts nurse Rowan back to health, they feel revitalized. Except Rowan is hiding the truth about her journey to Shearwater but the Salts have their own secrets to hide. McConaghy has made a name for herself with her climate fiction books, so I’m curious to see what she has in store with her March release.

McConaghy has made a name for herself in climate fiction and you can viscerally feel the bleakness in Wild Dark Shore. With sea levels rising and massive wildfires, the climate disaster looms over the story especially in Rowan’s pessimism. While McConaghy’s writing shines when focused on climate change, Wild Dark Shore is essentially a poorly done mystery. The enveloping setting can’t overcome the poor character development and lackluster mystery writing.

My Rating:
Publication Date: 4 March 2025
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What are the Most Overrated Books You Read This Year?

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my Read This Not That list? What overrated books would you add and which bestsellers do you think I judged too harshly? As always, let me know in the comments!

More Read This Not That Posts:

• Read This Not That 2024
• Read This Not That  2023
• Read This Not That 2022
• The Most Overrated Books: Read This Not That 2021
• Overrated Bestsellers: Read This Not That 2020
• Read This Not That 2019: What Books Deserve the Hype?
• Don’t Buy the Hype: Read This Not That

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