Royal Family
The #3 book in the country is King’s Cage, third in a projected four-book YA fantasy series by Victoria Aveyard. The first two installments, 2015’s Red Queen and 2016’s Glass Sword, have sold a combined 394K copies in hardcover; the trade paper edition of Red Queen is at #20 in Children’s Frontlist Fiction, up two positions from the week before. Also up: first-week print unit sales of each book in the series.
First-Week Print Unit Sales for the Red Queen Series
Red Queen | 6,184 |
Glass Sword | 14,920 |
King’s Cage | 23,551 |
(See all of this week's bestselling books.)
Page to Screen
As media tie-in editions of two books—Hidden Figures and A Dog’s Purpose—hold the #5 and #10 spots in the country overall, two new tie-ins debut on our lists.
In Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, #11 in Children’s Frontlist Fiction, a popular teen lives the last day of her life seven times, Groundhog Day style. Conventional editions of the novel, which originally pubbed in 2010, have sold 131K copies in hardcover, 249K copies in trade paper. The movie opens March 3.
Big Little Lies, based on Liane Moriarty’s 2014 novel, is #24 in Mass Market. The HBO series debuted February 19 and stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Shailene Woodley. The trade paper tie-in missed that list by just a couple of spots, but the 2015 conventional trade paperback outsold them both. Taking the three editions together, the title sold 14K print copies in the week.
Back for More
Swedish author Fredrik Backman sells respectably in hardcover, but he’s become a mainstay on our lists since the 2015 trade paper publication of his first novel, A Man Called Ove. He’s since published two more novels, the most recent of which just made its trade paper debut.
Week ended Feb. 12
#6 Overall | A Man Called Ove | 19,953 print copies |
#5 Trade Paper | My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry | 9,111 print copies |
#6 Trade Paper | Britt-Marie Was Here | 9,030 print copies |
New & Notable
Neil Gaiman
#1 Hardcover Fiction, #1 overall
In this retelling of the tales of Odin, Thor, Loki, and others, “Gaiman has great fun in bringing these gods down to a human level,” our review said.
John Darnielle
#8 Hardcover Fiction
Our starred review called musician Darnielle’s second novel “a slow-burn mystery/thriller whose characters are drawn together by an eerie discovery.”
Min Jin Lee
#22 Hardcover Fiction
Lee mines the immigrant experience in what our review called “an exquisite meditation on the generational nature of truly forging a home.”
Listen to PW Radio’s interview with Lee.
Top 10 Overall
Rank | Title | Author | Imprint | Units |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Norse Mythology | Neil Gaiman | Norton | 42,914 |
2 | Echoes in Death | J.D. Robb | St. Martin’s | 34,450 |
3 | King’s Cage | Victoria Aveyard | HarperTeen | 23,551 |
4 | 1984 | George Orwell | Signet Classics | 22,133 |
5 | Hidden Figures (movie tie-in) | Margot Lee Shetterly | Morrow | 20,806 |
6 | A Man Called Ove | Fredrik Backman | Washington Square | 19,953 |
7 | Love from the Very Hungry Caterpillar | Eric Carle | Grosset & Dunlap | 19,206 |
8 | Hillbilly Elegy | J.D. Vance | Harper | 17,710 |
9 | The Cellulite Myth | Ashley Black | Post Hill | 17,295 |
10 | A Dog’s Purpose (movie tie-in) | W. Bruce Cameron | Forge | 16,607 |
All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.