The Bestseller Test • Are bestsellers worth the hype? • Episode #186

Feb 1, 2026

01:09:48

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Episode notes

What makes a bestseller? Is it the quality of the writing, or just the right book at the right time? This week Kate is joined by co-host Laura Potter and returning guest Phil Chaffee to find out.

Between us we've tackled six of the biggest bestsellers out there – Dan Brown's The Secret of Secrets, Freida McFadden's The Housemaid, Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary, Matt Dinnerman's Dungeon Crawler Carl, SenLinYu's Alchemised, and Sarah Adams' In Your Dreams – and we have some opinions.

We're sharing our honest experiences of each one: what worked, what didn't, and whether these books truly earned their place on the bestseller lists. But this isn't just a round of verdicts. We're also pooling our recommendations for the bestsellers we genuinely think are worth your time, like The Correspondant by Virginia Evans – because there are some real gems out there among the hype.

And as always, we round off with our current and upcoming reads.

Press play to find out which bestsellers passed the test – and which ones didn't.

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Booklist

You can also find all the books mentioned in The Book Club Review bookshop on Bookshop.org, the online bookstore that supports independent bookshops.

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

In Your Dreams by Sarah Adams

Alchemized by SenLinYu

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir