2026 Historical Fiction Books To Request At Your Local Library

Release date: January 27, 2026

Burn Down Master’s House is a powerful story of resistance inspired by the brave people who risked everything to fight back against their own enslavement. Told through the eyes of a cast of characters—freed, enslaved, and enslaver—as they face a reckoning in the final days of one of the darkest eras of American history.

Release date: February 3, 2026

A father trying to help his sons find musical stardom as a boy band comes across the ghost of a lonely orphan from a minstrel show, desperate for family. The boy, Christmas, is haunted by his horrific past, but finds peace with the Johnsons. It’s not long before the brothers’ talent is noticed. But just as their star starts to rise, Christmas commits a violent act that rips the family apart.

Release date: February 10, 2026

A “vampire-slaying” con woman and a teenage girl team up to create a monster capable of terrifying the town and helping orphaned Anka escape the fate that awaits her at the hands of the village Captain. It’s not so much more complicated than any of the “curses” or “miracles” that Yana has manufactured across Bulgaria so far. But the plan soon takes on a life of its own, promising far more devastating consequences than Anka and Yana ever intended.

Release date: May 5, 2026

Described as an “anti-Western,” Treat Them as Buffalo follows Niko as he comes of age in the 1880s, playing buffalo hunter long after the last buffalo was seen by his tribe. But when teen boys begin to go missing, including beloved Cousin, Niko and others look to a shotgun slinging rancher and her coalition of women freedom fighters when the Mounted Police refuse to investigate.

Release date: August 4, 2026

In a novel inspired by LaCour’s Creole family history, cousins Odette and Delphine couldn’t be closer as they come of age in 1940s New Orleans. Delphine is the only person Odette trusts with the knowledge that she’s in love with a woman, and Delphine knows Odette won’t judge for taking a white man as a lover. But only five years later, their lives have shifted in ways they never could’ve foreseen. Odette is a widowed mother, and Delphine is passing as white. It may be up to Odette to hold her fractured family together, but doing so might also be the worst decision she ever makes.