Readers love finding the perfect book series to binge on. But sometimes you just don’t feel like plowing through multiple novels to get to the end of a story. Or maybe you just don’t have the time and energy for a long read.
Waiting for the next installment can also be torture. So what can you do in the meantime? Taking up standalone books is the answer. They contain all the elements of a series but are contained within a single volume.
Standalone Books
Below is an assortment of some of the best standalone books to read, ranging from horror and mystery to science fiction and fantasy.
1. The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern
Le Cirque des Rêves arrives with no warning and only opens at night. Within its canvas tents are wonders that defy physics and reality.
But behind its glamor is a duel that’s been building up for years. Celia and Marco—raised to fight each other with magic—stumble into an entirely different kind of magic: love. Now the circus, along with its performers and patrons, hangs in the balance.
2. Nerve by Jeanne Ryan
Vee enters NERVE, an online game of dares, and is paired up with Ian, another player. Both run through a gauntlet of increasingly dangerous but also lucrative dares.
But the game takes a sinister turn when they and five more players are directed to a secret location for the final round. With their lives suddenly on the line, they must choose whether to proceed with the game or lose forever.
3. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Hazel, a 16-year-old with thyroid cancer, attends a cancer patient support group and meets Augustus, a 17-year-old in remission. They bond over reading each other’s favorite novels, though Augustus is frustrated with Hazel’s book’s abrupt ending.
On a quest to track down the author, both are given a chance to fall in love even as they face their uncertain futures.
4. The Martian by Andy Weir
Mark Watney is one of the first people to ever walk on Mars. Now, it seems he’s also the very first person to die on it.
A hurried evacuation leaves him stranded on the planet and his crew thinks him dead. With little to no chance of rescue, Mark must find a way to survive the hostile environment, his supplies running out, and any other unforeseen disaster.
5. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
After a savage war, a powerful sorcerer erases all memory and history of Tigana from its people. Only those born before the war can hear, speak, and remember its name. Everyone else thinks of it only as an insignificant piece of land.
Years after its devastation, a group of rebels assemble to take back their homeland. But freedom is hard to claim as they must contend against, not one, but two sorcerers.
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
It is 1939 and Liesel Meminger has captivated Death. Though busy with his work, Death finds the time to observe the foster girl’s life—from learning how to read, stealing books meant for the fire, and surviving the horrors of war.
7. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Jason Dessen is abducted, knocked unconscious, and wakes up to a world he doesn’t know. In this world, his wife isn’t his wife, he has no child, and he’s suddenly a celebrated genius.
Both of these lives feel real. But which one is the truth? To find out, Jason must face his darkest self while confronting a seemingly unstoppable foe.
8. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Brother William of Baskerville’s investigations on heresy at an abbey is disrupted when a series of bizarre deaths begin happening. He is asked to find the killer, relying on his detective skills and logic to piece together evidence, decipher codes, and interrogate the abbey’s inhabitants to get to the truth.
9. Circe by Madeline Miller
In the House of Helios, a child is born. But Circe, unlike her father and mother, seems to hold no power at all. Banished to a deserted island by Zeus, Circe begins to learn who she truly is and what she is capable of.
10. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Just out of the psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker must travel all the way back to her tiny hometown to cover the murder of two preteen girls. To make it worse, she must deal with the demons she’s left behind there.
And in investigating the victims’ deaths, she finds herself identifying with them—maybe even too strongly. To help her unravel this grisly mystery, she must also solve the puzzle of her past.
11. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Hiro Protagonist is a pizza delivery guy and hacker for the Mafia. When he’s not delivering pizzas, he spends his time in the metaverse as one of its legendary characters.
But soon he hears of a weird new drug that affects its user in the metaverse and the real world. His investigation leads him all the way back to the birth of language itself. Realizing what’s at stake, Hiro races against time to stop a media magnate from world domination.
12. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world will end next Saturday. So Good and Evil amass their armies while humanity’s a sitting duck in between them.
But two particular beings—one angel, and one demon—aren’t that happy with the apocalypse. They’ve lived good lives and have grown rather fond of their current lifestyle. To complicate matters, someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist…
13. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
George, intelligent but uneducated, and Lenie, strong but mentally disabled, are migrant workers living a hand-to-mouth existence. Bound together by a shared dream, they take up work at a farm, where the dream might finally turn into reality.
But their hopes, while strong, easily crumble. When Lenie commits an irreversible accident, George must find the strength to make things right.
14. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
On his way home from school, 15-year-old Michael falls ill and is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. They soon become lovers but Hanna disappears just months into the relationship.
It is only years later does he see Hanna again. On trial for a hideous crime and refusing to defend her innocence, Michael realizes Hanna is hiding a secret—one she finds more shameful than anything else.
Reading Standalone Novels
We love pouring our time and energy into the series we love, no matter the length and the number of volumes it takes to get to the end. But like everything else, it’s hard to keep pace with their narratives or even commit to them from start to finish.
Series are the bread-and-butter of most genres. You’ll find stories that span years of writing and tens to hundreds of books. But standalones can be just as satisfying as these longer stories.
These books are a one-and-done deal, with none of the agonizing wait for the next installment. Think of them as complete packages wrapped up neatly into one, single volume.
What’s your favorite standalone book? Share it in the comments below!
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Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
