Emily St John Mandel is back with her first novel in four years, EXIT PARTY. The story follows Ari, a woman recently released from prison, as she tries to navigate the fractured United States following a civil war. Landing in Los Angeles, Ari moves in with Gloria, a woman suffering from PTSD after being present during a suicide bombing some years earlier. The two are guests at a party to celebrate the lifting of a curfew when things take a turn for the bizarre as doubles of attendees begin arriving seemingly out of thin air.

EXIT PARTY was such an unexpected read for me. I didn’t know where this was heading or really what it was about. I essentially requested an advanced copy from the publisher for the sole reason that it is a new Emily St. John Mandel novel. I should have known given that her bread and butter is speculative fiction. I sort of wish I had known that this had connections to both THE GLASS HOTEL and THE SINGER’S GUN prior to reading it, but I’m not sure it would have made a huge difference given that this can very much be read as a standalone.

As it always goes with Mandel’s work, the world building here is top notch and the reader, while presented with some heavy science, is well taken care of by the author in laying things out in laymen’s terms. I never felt lost throughout any of it, which is impressive given that the story is told in a non-linear fashion with several overlapping timelines and first person narration from a handful of characters. It’s frankly impressive what is accomplished here within such a low page count.

Emily takes a story that is deeply entrenched in genre and plot but never lets you forget about the backbone of the story: the characters. Like much of her past work, she presents her story with a fully realized cast and I truly cared about everything that happened to these people; good and bad. I would love to read more about the world Emily created here, which is completely possible given that she seems to set her work within the same universe cherry-picking which characters will reappear down the road.

I expect this to land on several 2026 best of lists when it’s released next month, most of all mine. It already has starred reviews both from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly. Look for it September 15th.