Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Silver Linings Playbook | 2008 | Matthew Quick | Buy |
| 2 | Sorta Like a Rock Star | 2010 | Matthew Quick | Buy |
| 3 | Boy21 | 2012 | Matthew Quick | Buy |
| 4 | Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock | 2013 | Matthew Quick | Buy |
| 5 | The Good Luck of Right Now | 2014 | Matthew Quick | Buy |
| 6 | Love May Fail | 2015 | Matthew Quick | Buy |
| 7 | Every Exquisite Thing | 2016 | Matthew Quick | Buy |
| 8 | The Reason You’re Alive | 2017 | Matthew Quick | Buy |
| 9 | We Are the Light | 2022 | Matthew Quick | Buy |
Matthew Quick’s standalone novels range from adult literary fiction to young adult, but they share a common thread: characters on the margins who are trying to figure out how to live in a world that doesn’t always make room for them. His debut, The Silver Linings Playbook, brought him wide recognition when it was adapted into the Oscar-winning film, though the book has a rawer, more internal quality than the movie.
His YA novels are among his strongest work. Sorta Like a Rock Star, Boy21, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, and Every Exquisite Thing each take on different corners of teenage life, from homelessness to grief to radicalization, all filtered through Quick’s ability to write young voices that feel genuine rather than performed. His adult novels tend to favor unusual narrators and offbeat premises. The Good Luck of Right Now uses letters to Richard Gere as its framing device, while The Reason You’re Alive is narrated by an opinionated Vietnam vet who is both funny and infuriating.
We Are the Light (2022) marked Quick’s return after a five-year gap and is arguably his most ambitious book, taking on the aftermath of a mass shooting through a community of grief and unlikely healing. Across all nine novels, Quick writes with a mix of humor and emotional honesty that has earned him a loyal readership.