The Unknown

New out August 4, 2026

The Unknown

Riley Sager

First published 2026

7.47.4 / 10
Score out of 1035 ratingsEarly score · confidence 19%
  • NYT bestseller · 2 weeks on the list, peaked at #5

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About the book

She’s even more surprised when she learns that the role requires a weeklong research trip to that very spot. Because New Avalon isn’t your ordinary island. A century ago, it was a commune for spiritual mediums—until they all vanished in 1926. The only trace of them was five dresses hanging from the branches of an old oak tree in the middle of the island, one for each missing woman. Some locals say they simply left. Others think they were murdered. But the prevailing opinion, thanks to a diary left behind by one of the vanished, a young woman named Daisy Rue, is that a séance gone wrong conjured something supernatural that took them all one by one. Not long after arriving, Marin and her castmates, including legendary actress Violet Wright and white-hot director Ronan Peters, begin to realize all is not right with New Avalon. They hear strange noises in the night and notice mysterious symbols left behind by the island's previous occupants. And after a sudden health emergency leaves Marin, Ronan, and the other actors stranded on the island, the disappearances begin again. Is it the work of someone trying to derail the movie? Or is the island’s alleged supernatural past catching up with the present? As fear and suspicion mount, Marin turns to Daisy’s diary, hoping it holds the key to figuring out what really happened to the women of New Avalon—and how to keep the island’s terrible history from repeating itself.

Description: publisher’s blurb via Hardcover

Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.2 across 35 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 19% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Rankings average of 7.8. That is how 7.4 comes out.

SourceAverageRatingsWeight
Hardcover7.235 100%

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