Marginalia: March 2026 Book News

Last updated by Daisy on 5 May 2026. (First published 3 March 2026.)

Marginalia: March 2026 Book News

Magic, Moving Castles, and Hail Mary

I'm bringing back my bimonthly newsletter where I wander through book news, collector updates and beautiful editions coming soon. This is it!

Jump to: Literary News • Advance Notice • Shelf Life • Site Updates

📖 Literary News

Highlights

Ace announced a new deluxe collector's edition of Dungeon Crawler Carl, with decorated endpapers, a fully illustrated case with a solvable maze, inside jacket illustrations, stencilled edges and extra material. Check out the guide to this series if you're a role playing nerd.

Leigh Bardugo is returning to Ketterdam with Six of Crows: A Darker Shore: Letters from Ketterdam announced as a found-document Grishaverse story set after Crooked Kingdom. Sounds great – letters, posters, in-world extras, original art and a mystery to piece together.

Cassandra Clare's The Last King of Faerie was announced as the first book in The Wicked Powers, the final Shadowhunters trilogy.

James Islington announced the release of Scion, a short cyberpunk thriller. It is a change of lane from The Will of the Many, but the “genetically enhanced assassin in a future where the ultra-rich can live forever” premise sounds like it should be fun.

Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Trade of Blood (Amazon US↗ | Amazon UK↗) has moved onto the 2026 radar. This third book in the excellent dark fantasy crime series Shadow of the Leviathan brings back detective Ana Dolabra and assistant Din to investigate a murder accusation that could push two powerful families toward civil war.

Other interesting news

TJ Klune had a major deal announcement, including Murmuration, Into This River I Drown, How to Be a Normal Person, The Immemorial Year and four untitled queer novels. That is a lot of Klune for future shelves!
Folio Society revealed a limited edition (500 copies) of Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (Folio Society ↗), with new artwork by the ever talented Marie-Alice Harel, a first-ever map of Ingary, and and a new foreword by the author’s son. The standard FS edition which I have is absolutely stunning so this LE is truly special, but phew, the price is insane.
Publishers Weekly’s Jan/Feb deal reports added some non-fantasy items to watch, including a new work from Ibram X. Kendi, a new novel from Room author Emma Donoghue, a Morgan Jerkins nonfiction project on masks and race, and a debut Hamptons-set novel from Tyler McCall. These haven't been specified to be special collector editions, but I'm trying to keep the publishing-news radar report from becoming 100% dragons and fae courts…
For children’s book collectors, the ALA awards are always worth noting because Newbery, Caldecott, Printz and related award winners often become long-term “modern classic” titles. This year’s winners included poignant novel All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson (Amazon ↗) for the Newbery Medal and the pretty picture book Fireworks, illustrated by Cátia Chien and written by Matthew Burgess (Amazon ↗), for the Caldecott Medal.

In adaptation

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir was an excellent read, so I'm looking forward to the film adaptation releasing this month.
Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet (Amazon ↗) was in cinemas in January, interesting for readers who like literary fiction with adaptation buzz.
Season 4 of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton adaptation arrived on Netflix.

🔥 Advance Notice

✨ Special editions

Some of the most popular books on the March and April special editions watchlist include:

Romantasy

This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me — Ilona Andrews. A new Ilona Andrews series starter, which is enough to make it an auto-buy for me. It has the usual Andrews appeal: fast-moving plotting, sharp banter and magical politics.
Bloodsinger — Juliette Cross. Magical power, danger and emotional intensity.
Rites of the Starling — Devney Perry. A Devney Perry release to flag for romance readers crossing into fantasy-adjacent packaging and collector editions.
Mayhem and the Mortal — Shanora Williams. A fantasy-romance / dark romantic fantasy title with the sort of dramatic premise that tends to travel well on BookTok.
Divine Rivals — Rebecca Ross. A special edition of the first Letters of Enchantment book, beloved for its wartime letters, rival journalists and romantic ache.
Dire Bound — Sable Sorensen. The first Wolves of Ruin book, useful to mention here because Fury Bound follows soon after. This is for readers who want direwolves, war, magical bonds and romantasy stakes.
To Snap a Silver Stem — Sarah A. Parker. A Crystal Bloom series edition for readers already following Parker’s dark, lush, dramatic fantasy-romance world.

Fantasy, SciFi & Horror

The Library of Amorlin — Kalyn Josephson. Fantasy about books, libraries and magical creatures is very much my weakness, and this one sounds like it should appeal to readers who want bookish magic with a big adventure shape.
Piper at the Gates of Dusk — Patrick Ness. A Patrick Ness release is usually worth watching for readers who like strange, emotionally sharp speculative fiction.
Strange Buildings — Uketsu. A Japanese mystery-horror title for readers who like eerie puzzles, unsettling houses and stories that feel part novel, part case file.
Starside — Alex Aster. An Alex Aster release to watch for readers following her high-profile YA fantasy worlds and special editions.
Divergent — Veronica Roth. A collector edition of the YA dystopian blockbuster, useful both for nostalgia readers and anyone watching Roth’s renewed collector-news moment.

Mystery, thriller and suspense

The Escape Game — Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss. A YA escape-room murder mystery, which is a very easy sell: puzzles, pressure, secrets and the possibility that no one is getting out cleanly.
The Ending Writes Itself — Evelyn Clarke. A Barnes & Noble exclusive for readers who like books about stories, endings, secrets and possibly dangerous narrative games.

Illustrated classics, children and Young-at-heart

A Wonder Book: The Illuminated Edition — Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrated by Das Pastoras. Beehive’s Illuminated Editions are basically art objects, and this one is especially appealing because Hawthorne’s children’s Greek mythology retellings are a little less overused than the usual deluxe-classic suspects.
Tales of the Fae — Lou Benesch / Chronicle Tales. A beautifully illustrated folklore collection, and a nice break from all the romantasy edges. This is the sort of book that works as both a reader’s gift and a collector’s shelf piece.
Wizardology 20th Anniversary Edition — Dugald Steer. A nostalgia-heavy interactive fantasy title for readers who grew up with the Ologies books, or who collect children’s books with maps, flaps, letters and faux-scholarly magic.
Puffin in Bloom Deluxe: Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austen, illustrated by Anna Bond. A giftable Jane Austen edition that crosses over between classics readers, Puffin in Bloom collectors and younger readers being introduced to Austen.
Little Puffin Clothbound Classics — various authors. A set-builder’s note for children’s classics collectors. These are exactly the kind of small, giftable editions that look very appealing together on a shelf.

🛍️ Preorder incentives

March and April’s preorder incentives include art overlays, signed bookplates, character tarot cards, bookmarks, stickers, recipe cards, a leather bookmark and even a tote bag. (The complete list is on the preorder offers page, including region notes and deadline details.)

Note: preorder offers are time-limited so I haven't linked them directly, just check out the preorder page.

A selection of the most popular offers:

Innamorata – Ava Reid: a dark gothic fantasy with a physical art print plus digital extras, including inspiration for the book, an annotated playlist and a mini guidebook to the language of moths.
These Shattered Spires – Cassidy Ellis Salter: a character tarot-card mini set and signed bookplate, with availability across the US, Canada and UK.
Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line – Elle Cosimano: an unusual campaign offering the chance to be a character in the next novel.
Frozen by Stardust – Elizabeth Helen: art print and signed bookplate for Beasts of the Briar readers.
West of Wicked – Nikki St. Crowe: a dark Oz retelling offer with art print and signed bookplate.
Extremely Accurate Birds – Tommy Siegel: a parody backyard-bird guide with a tote bag, which adds a welcome non-fantasy option.

💌 Shelf Life

[Affiliate Amazon links included below to help you find things I've mentioned, should your TBR pile be feeling dangerously manageable…]

January and February were a busy summer blur here: hot weather, garden jobs, too much weeding, and the usual optimistic belief that I can absolutely finish seventeen separate website projects while also keeping plants alive. (Reader, the plants and I are oth still negotiating terms of survival.)

Book-wise, I enjoyed Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy (charming and bantery – hopefully the start of a new series), Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett (cosy-magical-cat-rescue energy as you would expect from the name); There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, which is deeply odd and very clever – it did take rather more effort than a usual summer read, but was worth it; and The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (a strong mix of intrigue, politics and magical murder mystery).

On TV, I’ve been rewatching Bones. Despite its dependable episodic formula (dead body, banter, lab montage, emotional growth, repeat), I still love the opposites-attract Booth and Brennan chemistry, along with the warm found-family squint-squad dynamics. I’ve previously read most of Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan forensic anthropology novels, which inspired the show, and they're still going strong btw – Evil Bones came out just a few months ago. The books are very different from the TV version – sadly, no Booth, although you do get Detective Andy instead! But they're enjoyable escapist thrillers, and they contain significantly more accurate science than the show, in case your pipette hand starts twitching while watching (as an ex-lab scientist, I relate).

In site news, I'm still working on my ergodic books guide. It's taking much longer than I anticipated (free time has been too thin on the ground), but it's been fun to pull a bunch of beloved titles from my shelves for a quick re-read (it's also a useful reminder that “make a quick video on this” is apparently a phrase I regularly use to trick myself about how much time I have available). I've also had a couple of requests for esoteric book recommendations, so I plan to share a few of my favourite collections in this genre shortly. I'm hoping to add a few more classics collections too, but let's see how I go…

Much bookish love,

Marginalia: March 2026 Book News