Number 1 Book In The World Novels & Stories

The room went quiet as if the five hundred people present had stopped breathing at the same time. "—for the number one top Bestseller of 2026 in the United States—" Khole's hand found my arm.

"Your lens is... forgiving. You wrote the fear out of me." Elion sat next to him. Their shoulders touched. He reached into the box and picked up another copy. It felt cold and smooth. "It's already a bestseller," Elion whispered. Cale blinked. "How do you know?" "The publisher emailed me this morning. Pre-orders. It's number one on A****n. In Fantasy, Romance, and... weirdly, Philosophy." "Number one," Cale repeated. "That is a high ranking. Statistically significant." "It means people are reading it. Right now. Thousands of people. Strangers."

I slapped my hand over my mouth but it was too late, the scream was already out there in the world, bouncing off the thin walls of my tiny apartment. Number one. My book was number one. The top of the New York Times bestseller list. The little gold icon next to the title, the one that meant I had beaten everyone else, every other writer in the whole country, and was sitting at the very top like a queen on a throne made of paper and ink.

We have reached the point where it is acceptable for us to be hurt because the people we love the most are the ones who hurt us the most, right? However, "we" is not everyone. We are not the same; the world population is about 7.6 billion and more up to date, meaning that there are seven billion different people out there. We do not all perceive life the same way; the way Jean sees an elephant is not the same way Anna sees an elephant. Lara may see it as what it is - an animal, while Maya may see it as tension.