September 2, 2026:

Our summer reads, from one-star books to underrated gems.

Summer is winding down, and the Rewire staff has had a full season of beach reads, plane reads, staycation reads—you name it. 

But not all books are written equal. 

In our quest to find the best reads, we’ve suffered through some truly terrible novels. We wanted to give you a peek into our Goodreads and StoryGraph accounts, from our one-star reads to underrated gems we’ve uncovered. 

Here’s what we think you should read before the leaves turn—and what you can safely put back on your local bookstore’s shelves. 

One-star reads

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang 

BookTok elevated a bad teen novel inspired by the Nanjing Massacre—with no trigger warnings or any other context. R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War is a story about a wandering young apprentice who halfway through the book stumbles upon genocide—which motivates her to become a vengeful phoenix who… condones more genocide? I could barely stomach the first book in the trilogy. I read Poppy over five years ago and still hate it. –Diana Fraser, Head of Operations

Two-star reads 

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

As a romance novel connoisseur, I can put up with a lot of silliness in a book. But It Happened One Summer’s two-dimensional characters, flimsy tropes, and stale clichés zap the fun out of this rom-com. I wish I could recommend it as a breezy beach read, but I can’t do that to you, dear reader. -Natasha Roy, Staff Editor

Three-star reads 

Murder on Sex Island by Jo Firestone

I described this in my Goodreads review as “funny (complimentary) and goofy (derogatory).” Murder on Sex Island follows down-on-her-luck personal investigator Luella van Horn—whose main claim to fame is finding Staten Island’s lost dogs—as she gets hired to solve the disappearance of a cast member on the fictional dating show Sex Island (a thinly veiled play on ITV America’s Love Island). I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The setting offers plenty of entertaining comedic relief throughout, but it’s not quite enough to make up for the slow start and clumsy ending. -N.R.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

A trusted local bookseller recommended this mystery to me as a spring break read earlier this year. My criteria for him: Easy, plot-driven, and compelling enough to keep me engaged even if I have to put it down for weeks at a time. It also needed to be well-written—I’m an editor and a former English major; my prose expectations are high. The Thursday Murder Club checked off all those boxes, and was good enough that I watched the Netflix series based on it (starring silver fox Pierce Brosnan). It’s not a great book, but it’s a solid romp. -Catesby Holmes, Editorial Director

Four-star reads 

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

This novel follows a Hudson Valley woman named Greta, who falls in love with the client of a local sex therapist whose sessions she transcribes. The book plays with themes of obsession, deceit, and trauma. Despite the ethically-hairy themes, the characters’ sapphic and psychological self discoveries make it a worthwhile read. And the vivid, somewhat contagious depictions of yearning got me through the book in just a handful of days. -Cameron Oakes, Staff Editor

You Deserve to Know by Aggie Blum Thompson

The only thing I love more than a whodunnit is a gossipy little tale, and You Deserve to Know delivers both. Thompson introduces us to three mothers all living in the same neighborhood, whose seemingly charming friendship—bolstered by playdates and gatherings with their husbands and children—has seething jealousy and tension bubbling under the surface. When one of their husbands is found dead shortly after a three-family dinner, the women unravel and discover years of secret history. The ending is fairly controversial among readers, but not a deal-breaker. -N.R.

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian

This piece of 1950s queer historical fiction is a treasure—and the other shoe never drops. It’s a slow burn romance about the big and little things: love, friendship, family, and living a life that is wholly and unapologetically yours. -D.F.

The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton

I’m a sucker for historical fiction novels that interweave several character stories together, and Chanel Cleeton never disappoints—she also tends to write about Florida, Cuba, and all the people who make those places feel like home to her. Last Train is about hope, survival, love, how our country cares for veterans , and how strangers become neighbors. I read its jam-packed, zippy 293 pages in 24 hours. -D.F.

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

When it comes to a good book, I’ve found family is kind of my sweet spot. Give me a heartwarming, yet drama-filled tale of people coming together over shared life experiences or trauma, and I will read it cover-to-cover in one week or less. That is exactly what I discovered with last year’s The Wilderness, a novel that follows Black female friends during the “wilderness years” of adulthood from their early 20s through their early 40s, as they navigate the social upheaval of the mid-2000s through the present day and beyond. -Mallory Johns, President

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

What happens when two Ph.D. students decide to travel to hell and back to rescue their faculty advisor so they can secure their degrees? A thrilling romp that combines the best of dark academia, fantasy, and mythology. Getting lost in new fantasy worlds is one of the reasons I started reading in the first place, and with Katabasis, I found myself completely immersed, challenged, and questioning everything I was reading. -M.J. 

Five-star reads

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

In 1969, four siblings visit a psychic to find out the day they’ll die—changing the trajectory of their lives forever. The Immortalists follows the siblings over the following 50 years as they probe whether their lives are fated or whether all the decisions they’ve ever made led to their death date. This is a stunning novel exploring family, freedom, and the question of destiny. -N.R.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

This might be my favorite Kate Quinn book yet! It took me just days to read, but I’ve been thinking about this deeply-researched historical fiction about three fierce, clever women’s lives at Bletchley Park in post-World War II era-England ever since. Always a master puzzle builder herself, Quinn kept me glued to all 658 pages. The expert blending of overlapping stories anchor on friendship, betrayal, romance, tragedy, duty, and intelligence—each play a key role in this book’s unravelling and ultimate success. The afterword and historical notes are just as good. Buy this book and clear your weekend. -D.F.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I read Atmosphere on vacation in 2025 and clutched the book to my chest for ten minutes afterward. This book is heartwrenching, a little stressful (with great payoff), and syrupy in the best way. It is decidedly not The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo 2.0, which I adored, but it does have a similar soul that I loved equally and in different ways. Joan, Vanessa, and Frances will be important to me on this earth and in the stars for a long, long time. -D.F.

Flesh by David Szalay 

The 2025 Booker Prize winner, by the Canadian-Hungarian novelist David Szalay, is eminently readable. Flesh is a page turner from the start, a spare, expressive tale of one taciturn Hungarian making his way across Europe and through life, lust, luxury, and loss. That last bit—the tragic elements—makes Flesh a tougher read than I’d generally choose for summer. But still worth everyone’s while. -C.H.

Highly lauded, can’t recommend

Happy Place by Emily Henry

As someone who greatly enjoys Emily Henry’s novels, I had to throw Happy Place across the room. The plot: A couple breaks up. Their friends pretend not to know and surreptitiously make them spend a week together with no warning. It’s a literal nightmare. My list of complaints is long, but my primary issues stem from the core friend group, which is made up of extremely toxic, surface-level characters—each of whom desperately needs to see a therapist. The book’s inclusion of diverse characters with little to no backstory or development made me cringe. And, while the last 75 pages trick you into believing it might be a romance, the only fairy-tale element is that it’s overly simplistic. I deeply hope this was an outlier. -D.F.

Underrated books

Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang

At the start of this fairly unhinged novel, we meet the titular Julie Chan, a grocery store cashier who was separated from her twin sister, Chloe, a famous influencer, at a young age. They don’t have a relationship, so when Julie suddenly gets a mysterious call from Chloe, she travels to New York—only to find Chloe dead in her apartment. Instead of reporting her death to the police, Julie takes on her sister’s life, thrusting herself into Chloe’s glitzy influencer world and sinister, exclusive inner circle. I wish I could read Julie Chan Is Dead for the first time over and over again. Make this into a movie, cowards! -N.R.

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley

It is very hard to write an excellent sequel, but Steven Rowley did just that in bringing the beloved The Guncle characters back in all their wonderful, messy ways. The book is a quick-witted emotional rollercoaster with just enough tension to bring you to the finish line. The sibling representation and its nuances are so carefully done, and encompass my own memories of siblinghood. Grief operates as a palpable other character in this book, which adeptly captures what it means to love those who are gone, and continue to grow without them. Chosen family and the family we make together—within the queer community and outside of it—is an underrated topic and a profoundly meaningful anchor in our communities. -D.F.

Mate by Ali Hazelwood

Ali Hazelwood is better known for her Rey/Kylo Ren fanfic-inspired novel The Love Hypothesis, but I recently picked up Bride and the companion novel Mate. Both were hilarious (and very spicy!) reads. If you’re a fan of True Blood’s interconnected world of vampires, humans, and werewolves in the modern day, and can handle the sarcasm of Daria, you will love both books. To me, Mate is the far superior read to Bride, but both are a fun ride! -M.J.

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