6 Perfect Books to Read If You Want to Escape Reality Right Now

This season’s books have outdone themselves. From a Stephen King thriller (that may be his best ever) to a new Taylor Jenkins Reid novel and another Elin Hilderbrand book, we can barely read fast enough to dig through our growing pile. 

While summer beach reads are a total vibe, doesn’t the back-to-school rush send everyone running to the bookstore as if we are all cracking open our trapper keepers and scanning our Scholastic Book Fair flyers stat? We may not be in school anymore, but the high of new beginnings definitely brings out the book lover in all of us.

Thankfully, all our favorite authors are here for us, and they’ve provided some really fantastic reads for those times when you simply want to escape reality. Our suggestions scan every genre for all sorts of readers. The one thing they have in common? They will whisk you away to another dimension.

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Yes, this is a story about video games. But you don’t need to know anything about video games (I’ve never played a video game in my life, aside from Nintendo’s Mario Bros.) to fall deeply in love with Zevin’s characters. Under the video game theme, this is really about a friendship spanning time, heartbreak, sickness and everything in between. 

Our favorite author (“Malibu Rising,” “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” and “Daisy Jones & The Six”) did it again. This time, the subject is tennis and our hero is Carrie. She’s a little tough to love, but aren’t we all?

Follow her journey from the time she’s a child until now, as she fights to redeem her title. The book is a little slow at the beginning, but it’ll grow on you until you find yourself reading this at 3 a.m., unable to stop until you learn whether or not Carrie is finally redeemed. 

If you’ve loved any of Hilderbrand’s books, then you’ll fall for this one too. If you haven’t read any of Hilderbrand’s books, then you’ve got some really fun work to do.

“The Hotel Nantucket” is very similar to all the rest of her Nantucket books, but we love it all the same. It follows the rebirth of a hotel, along with all of the hotel’s employees and their dramas and romances. 

This is a must-read for any human. It’s about a family and how they embrace and discover one of their children who was born a boy but wants to be a girl.

This is one of the most beautifully written, achingly emotional, surprisingly funny (at times) read. 

It’s the book that’s got people talking at the moment, and if you like thrillers, you’ll love it. In fact, you’ll more than love it. You won’t be able to complete your life until you finish this. It’s dark, twisted, shocking, and it sucks you in from the first page with flawed characters, a creepy romance, and victims that may be villains. 

Enter a portal to another world along with Charlie Reade, and you’ll be thrown into a parallel universe with suffering princesses and princes; plenty of dungeons; and a magical sundial that can take you back in time.

The king of horror is back, and yes, this may be his best book yet.