Screen adaptations are wildly popular. It’s exciting to see a beloved story presented in a whole new format: Did the creators imagine the characters and setting the way you did? How faithful is this version to the original? And if you haven’t read the book yet, watching a film or TV version often sparks enough interest to pick it up. What makes a book a good candidate for an adaptation? A compelling and action-filled plot, visual interest, and intriguing character growth feel like essentials—and each of these new titles offers all that and more. Read them now, so if they do end up on film, you’ll be ahead of the game.

Thrillers are cinema staples, and these two deserve to join their ranks:

It Lurks in the Night by Sarah Dass (Rick Riordan Presents/Disney, Jan. 27): In her latest, Dass returns readers to a lush, folklore-infused Caribbean setting. Four best friends on a boat trip spend the night on an uninhabited island. An attack by a soucouyant claims one girl’s life—but in an unsettling twist, her body goes missing, and she later mysteriously returns home, seemingly unharmed.

We Could Be Anyone by Anna-Marie McLemore (Feiwel & Friends, May 26): Con artist siblings Lola and Lisandro pull their latest scam at a glamorous Golden Age Hollywood mansion belonging to tycoon Bixby Fairfax and his movie star mistress, Blythe Bell. But this latest job brings new challenges as they move among the elite guests, staging a haunting and selling a cure.

These next two books are delightful romances set against arresting backdrops:

Love Makes Mochi by Stefany Valentine (Joy Revolution, Jan. 27): Aspiring fashion designer Lilyn Jeong spends a summer in Tokyo interning with the legendary (and intimidating) Hana Matsumoto—and falling for her daughter, Yua. The girls explore iconic destinations like Harajuku, and Lilyn works on designing a collection that merges her goth aesthetic with the inspiration she finds in Japan.

My Roman Summer by Bruna De Luca (Chicken House/Scholastic, June 2): When her nonna is hospitalized, Livia leaves Scotland and heads to Italy with her mother. Livia, who feels caught between cultures, tries to help out with the family business, where she meets cute employee Giulio. Her initial resentment blossoms into romance as they zip around Rome on his Vespa.

Wilderness settings translate brilliantly to film, and these two books beg to be seen on large screens:

Three Sisters by David Macinnis Gill (Greenwillow Books, March 10): A grieving father and his three daughters set off to hike in Oregon’s Three Sisters range. The emotionally battered family plans to scatter the girls’ mother’s ashes and descend the same day, but a volcanic eruption turns their poignant mission into a desperate fight to survive numerous life-threatening obstacles.

Seyoon and Dean, Unscripted by Sujin Witherspoon (Union Square & Co., April 7): When the titular characters compete in a wilderness reality show set in Mount Rainier National Park, they’re following in the footsteps of their parents, who appeared decades earlier. Their complementary strengths make them a formidable pair—even if they’re prone to bickering—and their alliance sparks something beyond the contest.

Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.