The Booker Prize longlist was announced in late July, and although it’s taken me a while to get copies of most of the books on the list, I’ve managed to read four and am working on two more. Here’s the run-down of my progress:
Black Bag by Luke Kennard
The premise of this novel is based on a 1967 experiment at Oregon State University in which a student attended classes for a semester dressed entirely in a black bag and proved the “mere exposure effect.” In his novel, Kennard updates the experiment and gives readers the perspective of the student inside the black bag. It drags a bit towards the middle, but for most of the book, I was giddy with the weirdness and the incisiveness of the social commentary, and weeks later, I continue to think about it.
Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman
In the first section of this novel, I thought I had stumbled into something awesome. The viewpoint we’re offered is that of a professor who’s been forced out of his profession for reasons we’re not fully made aware of because he’s in denial about them himself. Goodman’s portrayal of his lack of self awareness, his self pity, and his overall sliminess is really compelling in the first part of the novel. Then it goes a little sideways, then a little more, until it ends in a place that I suspect is meant to be cleverer than it reads to me.
Switzy by Emma Cline
I’ve read one other novel by Emma Cline (The Guest), which I didn’t really click with, but I very much enjoyed this one. Switzy immerses us in the perspective of David, a man in his 70s who is experiencing progressive dementia, which leaves gaps in his experience of the present but allows him to experience the past to a degree that it seems he didn’t when the events were actually happening. I love the way this novel plays with memory, time, regret, mortality, and the role that story and connection play in our lives.
The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
Usually I’m not bothered by books where nothing happens, but in this one, really nothing happens. Friendships just kind of keep happening, people sometimes die, jobs come and go, and nothing really seems to make a ripple. No one seems to face anything head on, and no one seems to grow or evolve in any satisfying way. And while I think this feels true to life, it’s kind of squirmy for me to read. That said, the writing is beautiful, and I loved being in the story, it just feels like the first third of a longer book that I long to read. Ugh, even that feels like an accurate summary of life. And now I’m having an existential crisis.
I’m currently reading The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams on my Kobo and The Disappearers by Marlon James on audiobook, which I have discovered I can’t listen to while driving unless I’m driving by myself, keep the windows up, and pause the audio at red lights (if the e-book hold comes in soon, I’ll probably switch to that format, but I do like the narration so far).
And that’s where I am with the longlist at the moment. I have three more in the queue on Libro.fm (All Them Dogs by Djamel White, The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout, and John of John by Douglas Stuart), but the library holds for the rest are very unlikely to come in before the shortlist is announced next week, particularly The End of Everything by M. John Harrison, The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis, and May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry, which aren’t coming out in the United States until after the shortlist is announced (on 22 September). I might have a chance with The Renovation by Kenan Orhan, though, if the library hold stars align and if I ignore all other responsibilities to focus on reading. One of these is more likely than the other, I suspect.
It’s been a few years since I attempted anything close to all of the Booker longlist, and I’m not sure what possessed me to tackle the list this year, but here we are.
Featured image: Birds at the zoo, presumably discussing what they’re reading, September 2026.
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