Bookwild · Kate Hergott, Bookwild Collective

First Quarter Favorite Reads of 2026 with Gare and Steph

March 27, 2026·1 hr 8 min·4 clips

Gare says Ours Is a Tale of Murder sent readers mental health check-in stickers because the twist at page 247 is so devastating — and he lost sleep because he couldn't stop after finishing Part One.

1. Bookwild hosts Gare, Steph, and Kate reunite for their first-quarter 2026 favorite reads episode. 2. The episode opens with an icebreaker from Gare: Sarah Michelle Gellar named The Secret History by Donna Tartt as a favorite specifically because it has never been adapted — every mental image of the characters and setting exists only in her own mind. 3. The hosts debate whether some books should never be adapted, focusing on novels where a key reveal depends on the reader not being able to see a character: Big Little Lies, Tell Me Lies, I Know What You Did Last Summer. 4. They discuss the 2026 reunion of the Big Little Lies cast for a third season, and the structural relationship between Liane Moriarty's second book and the second season of the show. 5. Steph's first pick is Queen of Faces by Petra Lord — a dark fantasy about a girl at a cutthroat magical academy who must become an assassin or watch her body decay, set in a world where rich people buy replacement bodies and poor people share body types. 6. The hosts debate whether ACOTAR functions as a gateway fantasy — comparable to how Twilight brought readers to vampire fiction — because it attracts thriller readers who don't typically read fantasy. 7. Gare's first pick is The Secret Lives of Murder Wives by Elizabeth Arnott — his most addictive read of 2026 so far — following Beverly, Elsie, and Margo, three women married to convicted serial killers in 1966 California who form an unlikely friendship and hunt a new murderer using skills developed living with their husbands. 8. Steph comp'd The Secret Lives of Murder Wives to Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark for true-crime intensity and Taylor Jenkins Reed for immersive period atmosphere, calling it 'really fucking good.' 9. Gare notes that 1966 California without DNA forensics or GPS tracking makes the women's psychological methods of identifying killers more central — and that pre-internet life meant women had no resource to confirm suspicions about a husband who came home two hours late. 10. Steph picks We Used to Live Here by Marcus Clyvner, noting she read it for book club not expecting to love it; she describes being unable to put it down despite not fully understanding what happened. 11. Steph says having some spoilers in advance actually helped her enjoy We Used to Live Here more, and offers to give spoilers to any listener who is worried about understanding the book. 12. Steph's second pick is Yesteryear by Carol Claire Burke — a debut where a tradwife influencer selling raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to millions of followers wakes up in 1805, surrounded by her family who believe this is normal reality. 13. Steph calls Yesteryear 'one of the best anti-Christian nationalism tradwife novels I've ever read' and warns the protagonist is intentionally deeply unlikable — 'she is terrible, and so is the system she is a part of.' 14. Gare's second pick is The Stranger in the Villa by Robin Harding — a couple repairs their marriage in a remote Spanish villa after an affair, two Australian travelers arrive claiming their van broke down, and dark secrets emerge; Gare describes each of the book's four sections ending on a cliffhanger that completely reorients the story. 15. Steph picks The Act of Disappearing by Nathan Gower — a bartender is approached by a famous photographer who wants her to research a photograph of a woman jumping off a bridge with a baby; alternating timelines between present research and the historical woman in the photo. 16. Steph picks She Drinks the Light by Yasmin Ongo — a YA supernatural debut comp'd to the film Sinners, about a teen uncovering deadly family secrets on an island to save her best friend. 17. Gare describes Ours Is a Tale of Murder by Nora Murphy as a multiple-POV thriller — a man convinced he wants to marry a reluctant woman, a woman haunted by a past tragedy, a recently laid-off man who watches the neighborhood too closely — and says the publisher shipped mental health check-in stickers for page 247 because the midpoint twist is so devastating. 18. Gare says he lost sleep over Ours Is a Tale of Murder: he planned to stop after Part One, failed, and spent the next day distracted while running errands because he couldn't stop thinking about the book. 19. The episode closes with a brief mention of Mad Mabel by Sally Halfworth — suburban chaos featuring a senior citizen woman as a killer — as another quarter favorite. 20. Regular Bookwild listeners following Gare and Steph's taste in psychological thrillers and dark fiction will get the most out of this episode's recommendation density.

As heard by us

A loose, conversational first-quarter favorites roundup that keeps coming back to what makes each book work.

The episode circles through the hosts' first-quarter favorites and opens with a Sarah Michelle Gellar tangent that naturally lands on The Secret History.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Quarterly book picks and a Secret History detour, with a claustrophobic villa story.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Bookwild