Romance, Thrillers, and Dragons: The Most Anticipated Book Adaptations Coming Soon

This episode of the Fully-Booked: Literary Podcast kicked off, as always, with what’s on our nightstands. Shirin had her hands on Phantasma, a book that had been hyped all over, but halfway through, she was feeling let down. The Southern Gothic mood is solid, but the story lacks that punch. The tasks and trials within it are underwhelming, and she doesn’t really care much about the characters. It’s supposed to have demons, ghouls, and Hunger Games-style drama, but right now, it’s all feeling kind of flat.

Meaghan tried to make her feel better and pointed out that hype can do that. Sometimes a book gets treated like it’s the second coming, and when we finally read it, it’s just... fine. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing revolutionary either. Not all weird, sexy, haunted house books with blood dripping from the ceiling are for everyone.

On the upside, Meaghan read Home Fires Burn by Canadian author Anthony Bidulka. It’s the third book in a mystery series starring Mary Bell, a trans private investigator who returns to rural Saskatchewan after years away.

Meaghan loved the local setting and the fact that it wasn’t just another Toronto-centric story. The mystery held up, the character work was sharp, and it made her want to read the first two books in the series. Big points for regional Canadian representation and thoughtful, layered characters.

Adaptations Galore: What’s Coming to Screen (and Fast)

The main theme of this episode was all about book-to-screen adaptations. what’s coming soon, what’s in production, and what we’re dying to see. We decided to trade picks one by one and see who could out-excite the other.

Shirin went first with My Oxford Year, a romance novel about an American woman at Oxford who gets swept up in an English romance. She loves the academia + England combo, so this one’s basically catnip for her. Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest (from Queen Charlotte) are starring, and it drops August 1, just in time for her birthday. Perfect.

Meaghan followed with the upcoming Carrie TV series. It’s being produced by Mike Flanagan, and we are both expecting big things. The hope is that turning it into a series will really let the Carrie-and-mother dynamic breathe and make the emotional breakdowns all the more brutal. Whether it’s set in the 70s or modernized, we don’t care, we’re watching.

Then came The Long Walk by Stephen King, which has Shereen’s husband buzzing. It’s about boys forced to walk endlessly under dystopian conditions, and it's being directed by someone from the Hunger Games world. Sounds like an anxiety attack in movie form, which is exactly the vibe it’s going for.

Next up was People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, due January 9 on Amazon. Meaghan has a thing for Henry’s style. Her romances toe the line between heartfelt and funny, and while Meaghan usually likes her romance a bit darker or weirder, she makes an exception here. Shereen, meanwhile, owns three Henry books and has read none of them. We’ve all been there.

Colleen Hoover Chaos, Creepy Thrillers, and Twisted Cruises

Then came the Colleen Hoover dump. Shirin bundled three upcoming adaptations into one shoutout: Regretting You, Reminders of Him, and Verity. The last of which stars Anne Hathaway. Meaghan and Shirin are mostly excited because they love making fun of Hoover’s chaotic plots and characters. Verity, they agree, is actually pretty decent. It veers into thriller territory and avoids some of Hoover’s more problematic tropes. Bring on the drama.

Meaghan had another creepy pick: The Whisper M