2026 Booker Prize Longlist: The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley

Next up for our panel is The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley which brings us almost to the halfway point in our longlist endeavors. Here are our reviews.

Gwendoline Riley is a British novelist known for her slim, sharply observed books about complicated families, difficult relationships, and the strange ways people reveal themselves through conversation. Her novels include First Love and My Phantoms, both of which earned considerable critical acclaim, and she received the 2026 Windham-Campbell Prize for her body of work.

Book Synopsis from Booker website: Laura Miller and Edmund Putnam have been friends for a long time. Theirs is a happy meeting of minds, with long evenings spent huddled in an ancient pub by the Thames, where they share office gossip, reflect on their teenage passions, and lament the state of the world.

Recently, though, Putnam has been harder to reach: he has lost his father, and the magazine to which he has dedicated his life has been hijacked by an insufferable new editor, Simon ‘call me Shove’ Halfpenny.

Laura has her own problems: with a prickly mother and a tricky past, and in a beautiful and indifferent city, her day-to-day life is precarious. But as Putnam starts to sink into despondency, she must try to bring him back.

Jen’s Thoughts: Such a strong departure from the stylistically bold and often experimental narratives of the other longlist books I’ve just read. This was a solid 3-star book for me. It didn’t stand out and, ultimately, felt pretty bland. While I didn’t hate it, it didn’t really elicit any strong emotion from me, nor did it make me reflect on much of anything.

Perhaps I would have found greater enjoyment if I were English and knew more of the references—it is a very English book. The writing was strong, though, and the author has a real talent for capturing the mundane, day-to-day lives of ordinary people. There’s certainly skill in making those small moments feel authentic; I just wish they had added up to something that felt more meaningful to me.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality: 2.5/5
Character development: 3/4
Plot development: 2/4
Overall enjoyment: 1/2
Total: 12.5/20

Tracy’s Thoughts: I liked this. It was pleasant, easy to read, and a nice book. It is, honestly, pretty forgettable- I may have missed the point of some things here- I feel like it’s one of those “you had to be there” kind of books. But the descriptions and the main character were well done.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality: 3/5
Character development: 3/4
Plot development: 2/4
Overall enjoyment: 1/2
Total: 13/20

Nicole’s Thoughts: 

This book is like a person you meet a party. You like them, they are nice and interesting and you have a great (albeit brief) conversation and the you go on with your life and forget all about them. You might see them at another party in future years, point at each other, awkwardly smile out of some sort of unknown recognition and try to avoid each other the rest of the party because you have no idea where you know them from.

My numeric rating below isn’t really indicative of how I felt about the book. There was no time for character or plot development, but enjoyed my time with it. 3.75/5 in a normal rating situation.

Long list is going to be interesting this year. My son says in the next 10-years Booker books will be 80 pages. He may not be wrong.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality: 2/5
Character development: 2/4
Plot development: 2/4
Overall enjoyment: 2/2
Total: 12/20

Lisa’s Thoughts:  I don’t really have a lot of thoughts. The plot meandered through the lives of narrator and their friend Putnam, without really having a discernible direction. There were subsections that followed a coherent if predictable arc (e.g., narrator and her friend start following a celebrity) but I just did not see why the author put the different pieces together in one novel. I’m not sure what this book is supposed to be about.

Writing quality: 3/5
Originality: 2/5
Character development: 2/4
Plot development: 1/4
Overall enjoyment: 1/2
Total: 9/20

Rankings

1. John of John: 16.83/20

2. May We Feed the King: 16.63/20

3. The Things We Never Say: 15.3/20

4. The Vivesectors: 14.38/20

5. Palm House: 11.63

6. Helen of Nowhere: 8.9/20

Have you read it?  What do you think? Want to try it for yourself? You can pre-order your copy here: The Palm House