Here's the Next Great Book You Should Read Based on Your Favorite TV Show

Both Killing Eve and The Maidens feature female protagonists who are hell-bent on catching a criminal. In Eve, the titular character pursues an assassin named Villanelle to the detriment of all other relationships. In Alex Michaelides’s latest thriller, Mariana Andros knows in her bones that Greek tragedy professor Edward Fosca has murdered one of his students — and she’ll do whatever it takes to prove his guilt. Both the show and the book are perfect for fans of darkly intelligent thrill rides that don’t let you go until the very end.

HBO’s The Outsider is based on Stephen King’s 2018 horror thriller of the same name, so it goes without saying that the show delivers the chills. And just like the show, Alex North’s The Whisper Man grips you with a small-town murder mystery of nightmarish proportions. The bestselling novel is set in Featherbank, where newly arrived resident Tom Kennedy hopes to make a fresh start with his son after the sudden death of his wife. But evil lingers on the periphery. Twenty years ago, a serial killer prowled the streets of Featherbank, luring victims to their doom by whispering at their windows at night. When a young boy goes missing, rumors swirl that the Whisper Man is back. Then Tom’s own son starts hearing whispers at the window....

Losing Alice, a buzzy Israeli psychological thriller currently streaming on Apple TV+, has much in common with Jean Hanff Korelitz’s bestselling novel The Plot. Both are rich with twists and suspense, and they explore the blurry line between honesty and deceit, drawing on themes of egotism, ambition, and authorship. Alice follows a 48-year-old film director whose career is on a downswing until she meets a beguiling young screenwriter and becomes obsessed with her work. In The Plot, a washed-up college professor named Jacob Finch Bonner decides to steal his dead student’s unfinished novel in a desperate attempt at finding success. While Bonner’s new work of fiction is a smash hit, someone knows his secret.

If you like to go behind the scenes at a restaurant or peek into the life of a chef — like on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, for example — you’re sure to love Erin French’s memoir, Finding Freedom. In her bestselling book, French discusses her trials and triumphs, including struggles with addiction and anxiety, the highs and lows of motherhood, and her hugely successful restaurant The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine. And if after finishing French’s memoir you’re still hungry for more, you’ll be happy to hear that the author just launched her own show! The Lost Kitchen is broadcast on the Magnolia Network and is available on Discovery+.

If you watched HBO’s engrossing true-crime docuseries I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, you’ve likely already read the true-crime book on which it’s based: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, by the late Michelle McNamara. In a similar vein to I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Elon Green’s Last Call tracks a vicious killer who evaded justice for years. Green’s powerful work centers on the Last Call Killer, a man who preyed on gay men in New York City at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Both offer harrowing insights into true crime and the depths of human brutality.

The Flight Attendant was one of the buzziest shows of 2020, earning multiple award nominations for its portrayal of a boozing flight attendant who becomes embroiled in a murder mystery. The show is based on a book of the same name written by Chris Bohjalian. Bohjalian’s follow-up novel, Red Lotus, is a must-read for all fans. In Red Lotus, Bohjalian weaves a thrilling tale packed with twists and turns — this time the story focuses on a man who goes missing in rural Vietnam and that man’s ER doctor girlfriend who’s determined to find him.

If you’re a fan of Netflix’s The Circle, wherein participants compete in a popularity contest without ever actually meeting in person, chances are good that you’re fascinated by social media, selfie culture, and technology’s impact on human interaction. No Filter by Sarah Frier is a fantastic companion to the show, as it unpacks how Instagram came to define a generation of Internet users. A key element of the book is Frier’s quest to illustrate just how much Instagram has changed things. Hey, if The Circle’s existence is not example enough, we don’t know what is.

Both Netflix’s Never Have I Ever and Adib Khorram’s Darius the Great Is Not Okay are heartfelt YA narratives about teenagers trying to find their place in the world. Yet they’re also stories about family, race, and identity. Never Have I Ever has been heralded for its nuanced portrayal of an Indian American teenager dealing with the death of her dad. In Darius the Great Is Not Okay, a half-Persian boy is forever changed by a profound friendship on his first visit to Iran.

If Netflix’s Bling Empire reminded you of Crazy Rich Asians, you’re not alone. Various reviews noted the comparison, so it makes sense to recommend another of Kevin Kwan’s books for fans of the glitzy reality show. Rich People Problems is the final novel in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, and it has similar themes of love, family, status, and jealousy. And yes, it boasts the same level of glamour and affluence that fans of Bling Empire and Crazy Rich Asians love

Big Sky and The Searcher are both evocative mysteries that place tremendous emphasis on setting. Big Sky takes us to a sparsely populated stretch of Montana where the open skies and snowcapped mountains play as large a role as the mysteries at the heart of the show. Similarly, Tana French’s The Searcher is an atmospheric crime novel about a child’s disappearance, set in a picture-perfect Irish village with secrets to hide.