As Netflix has established itself as the most popular streaming service out there, the studio has been earning the rights to numerous best selling books to adapt them into Netflix movies and TV shows. And between big hits from Bridgerton to Bird Box, the streaming platform has found particular success with book adaptations. Don’t worry, there’s a ton more to come too.
If you love to read books before their adaptations come out, this is the reading list for you. Check out these books now before they became Netflix’s next popular titles:
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between - Jennifer E. Smith
What The Book Is About: This contemporary YA romance novel is about a high school couple as they must figure out whether they will stay together or break up before leaving for college. Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between takes place over the course of twelve hours as they retrace the steps of their relationship and make the tough decision.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: A movie adaptation is planned for release on July 6, 2022. It will star Jordan Fisher and Talia Ryder as the story’s couple Aidan and Clare.
Get the Hello, Goodbye, And Everything in Between book on Amazon.
The Gray Man - Mark Greaney
What The Book Is About: This fast-paced thriller is about a freelance assassin and former CIA operative named Court Gentry, aka The Gray Man. It is the first of a continued book series that has spawned eleven books. In Mark Greaney’s debut novel, Gentry’s mission is to rescue his handler from former CIA officer Lloyd Hansen, who wants Gentry dead.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: The Gray Man stars Ryan Gosling as the titular assassin and Chris Evans as its villain, Lloyd Hansen, alongside Ana de Armas and Regé-Jean Page among the cast. It was directed by the Russo brothers and is set for release on July 15, 2022.
Get The Gray Man book on Amazon.
Persuasion - Jane Austen
What The Book Is About: Jane Austen’s final novel is about a 27-year-old Englishwoman named Anne Elliott, whose family is on the brink of bankruptcy. When they move homes, Anne reunites with the one who got away, Navy Captain Frederick Wentworth. They were previously engaged before her family and friends “persuaded” her to break it off. Seven years later, they are both single.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: Dakota Johnson, Henry Golding and Cosmo Jarvis lead Carrie Cracknell’s movie adaptation of Persuasion from a script from newcomer screenwriters Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow. It has been described as a “modern, witty” approach to the material first published in 1817. Set for release July 15, 2022.
Get the Persuasion book on Amazon.
Luckiest Girl Alive - Jessica Knoll
What The Book Is About: This bestselling mystery novel centers on 28-year-old Ani, an editor at a women’s magazine, who has a loving fiancé and family. But over the course of the novel, her dark past begins to catch up with her.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: The author of Luckiest Girl Alive wrote the screenplay for the Netflix film adaptation set to star Mila Kunis as Ani. The movie set for release sometime in 2022 also stars Connie Britton and Finn Wittrock and it is helmed by Handmaid’s Tale director Mike Barker.
Get the Luckiest Girl Alive book on Amazon.
Sandman Vol 1: Preludes & Nocturnes - Neil Gaiman
What The Book Is About: In the first of Neil Gaiman’s best-selling graphic novel series, an occultist attempts to capture Death to bargain for eternal life, but instead traps her younger brother Dream instead. Dream then goes on a quest for his lost objects of power.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: Neil Gaiman, David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg created a Netflix series called The Sandman starring Tom Sturridge as Dream, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine and Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death. The series is expected to drop in 2022.
Get Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes on Amazon.
The School For Good and Evil - Soman Chainani
What The Book Is About: The YA fantasy series is about two schools, one for “Good” and one for “Evil” that past characters from fairytales have attended. Two students Sophie and Agatha find themselves in schools reversed to what feels like the natural fit to them.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: Bridesmaids director Paul Feig has adapted the book into a movie with a star-studded cast, including the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Ben Kingsley, Rachel Bloom among many others. The movie is set to be released in 2022.
Get The School For Good and Evil book on Amazon.
Blonde - Joyce Carol Oates
What The Book Is About: Joyce Carol Oates’ work of historical fiction, spanning over 700 pages, imagines the inner life of Marilyn Monroe in an intimate, yet epic way. The 2000 novel was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in her imagining of the Hollywood legend’s life.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: Ana de Armas will star as Marilyn Monroe in the Netflix adaptation from Andrew Dominik, in a movie that will be the service’s first NC-17 movie. Blonde has been a decade-long passion project for Dominik. Oates saw an early cut of the film and called it “brilliant,” “very disturbing” and “utterly feminist,” per Twitter.
Get the Blonde book on Amazon.
All Quiet On The Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
What The Book Is About: All Quiet On The Western Front is a novel written by an actual German veteran of World War I. It describes the soldiers’ extreme physical and mental stresses during the war.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: German director Edward Berger is adapting the novel for one of the biggest budget productions to come out of Germany (it will also be a German language film). Captain America: Civil War’s Daniel Bruhl is set to lead and produce the film. Expected to arrive sometime in 2022, Berger told Variety that he’s excited to tell the “anti-war” story from his country’s perspective for the first time.
Get the All Quiet On The Western Front book on Amazon.
Devil in Ohio - Daria Polatin
What The Book Is About: Inspired by a true story, Devil In Ohio, centers on 15-year-old Jules and her psychiatrist mother, who brings home Mae, one of her patients for a few days. As Mae begins to take over Jules’ life, she learns that she is a survivor of a strange cult that is looking for Mae.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: The novel will be adapted into an eight-part limited series starring Bones’ Emily Deschanel as Jules’ mother. The book’s author is Devil in Ohio’s showrunner and executive producer on the show coming sometime in 2022.
Get the Devil In Ohio book on Amazon.
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D.H. Lawrence
What The Book Is About: The 1928 English novel is about a young, married and titular woman who gets into an affair with her upper-class home’s gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. The book was the subject of a 1960 watershed obscenity trial (which it won) and for its notoriously explicit language when describing sex.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: The Crown’s Emma Corrin will play Lady Chatterley and Jack O’Connell will play her lover in a Netflix/Sony movie. The screenplay was written by Life Of Pi’s David Magee, began filming in late 2021 and is expected for 2022.
Get the Lady Chatterly’s Lover book on Amazon.
The Midnight Club - Christopher Pike
What The Book Is About: In a hospice for teens with terminal illnesses, five of them become friends and form the ‘Midnight Club,’ where they meet every night and share scary stories to one another – some of which are true and others are fiction. They also make a pact that whoever dies first will try to contact the club from the other side of death.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: Mike Flanagan of The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Mass series is adapting the Christopher Pike novel into a limited series starring many familiar faces from his previous shows, including Zach Gilford. Though no premiere date has been announced yet, we're hoping to see The Midnight Club adaptation arrive in 2022.
Get The Midnight Club book on Amazon.
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone (From If It Bleeds) - Stephen King
What The Book Is About: “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” is one of four short stories from Stephen King’s collection of four novellas in If It Bleeds. The first short story in the collection is about a teen named Craig who befriends older, reclusive billionaire Mr. Harrigan. But when he dies, Craig finds out he’s able to communicate with him from beyond the grave.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: The King story is being adapted into a Netflix film starring Donald Sutherland as Mr. Harrigan and IT’s Jaeden Martell as Craig. The movie has been adapted by John Lee Hancock, who previously wrote/directed The Blind Side and The Little Things. The movie is expected for a 2022 release.
Get the If It Bleeds book on Amazon.
Spaceman of Bohemia - Jaroslav Kalfar
What The Book Is About: A Czech astronaut goes on a dangerous solo mission to Venus. While alone in deep space, he finds a (possibly imaginary) giant alien spider, who becomes an unlikely companion as he deals with roadblocks of the mission.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: Titled simply Spaceman, Netflix is adapting the book with Adam Sandler playing the lead role and Paul Dano and Carey Mulligan among the cast. The movie was directed by Chernobyl’s Johan Renck and is expected for 2022.
Get the Spaceman of Bohemia book on Amazon.
The Pale Blue Eye - Louis Bayard
What The Book Is About: This historical fiction book follows a NYC police detective Augustus Landor in the year 1830 as he is called in to discreetly investigate a case. During which, he finds an ally in the beloved poet Edgar Allan Poe.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: Crazy Heart and Antlers director Scott Cooper has adapted the novel into a Netflix film starring his frequent collaborator Christian Bale as Augustus. Harry Potter’s Harry Melling will portray Edgar Allan Poe along with Lucy Boynton and Gillian Anderson being part of the cast of another upcoming 2022 release.
Get The Pale Blue Eye book on Amazon.
White Noise - Don DeLilo
What The Book Is About: This postmodern satire follows Jack Gladney, a teacher of Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in middle America. The book follows a year in his life, a chemical spill ensues, he faces struggles in his marriage and obsesses over the concept of death.
The Netflix Adaptation Plans: White Noise is being adapted into a movie by Noah Baumbach of Marriage Story and will star his frequent collaborator Adam Driver as the main character. Baumbach’s partner Greta Gerwig will play Jack’s wife and Jodie Turner-Smith, Don Cheadle and André 3000 are among the cast. The movie is expected for 2022.
Is your must-read list full yet? We’ll keep you updated on these Netflix releases as we learn more about them. You can always check back on the 2022 Netflix movie schedule.
