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THE AUTHOR By The Author
You are about to read a semi-autobiographical novel by an unnamed A-list celebrity recounting his early years in Hollywood—and the dirty, deplorable exploits that catapulted him to fame.
THE AUTHOR is a dark absurdist take on the artist as a young man in a world damaged by social media, designer drugs, and the dark underbelly of Hollywood. The anonymous author of the saga peels back the curtain to reveal the inner life of a one-day superstar (or sociopath) desperate to become famous by any means necessary, who one day does, and pulls off one of the greatest public relations stunts in entertainment history.
Presented by Daniel Thomas Hind on behalf of The Author.
When Hollywood blacklisted this book and forced The Author into silence, Daniel Thomas Hind took on the challenge of representing him--risking his reputation to bring this story to the world.
THE AUTHOR is a dark absurdist take on the artist as a young man in a world damaged by social media, designer drugs, and the dark underbelly of Hollywood. The anonymous author of the saga peels back the curtain to reveal the inner life of a one-day superstar (or sociopath) desperate to become famous by any means necessary, who one day does, and pulls off one of the greatest public relations stunts in entertainment history.
Presented by Daniel Thomas Hind on behalf of The Author.
When Hollywood blacklisted this book and forced The Author into silence, Daniel Thomas Hind took on the challenge of representing him--risking his reputation to bring this story to the world.
- GenresFiction
402 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2025
38 people are currently reading
3259 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
February 14, 2025
Didn’t think I would ever read so many slurs in a book publishing in 2025. Feels like if you asked ChatGPT to write the memoir of a Hollywood star as a modern day classic filled with sex and drugs and it spit out this pretentious, egotistical, maniacal, and confusing mess. It’s racist and homophobic and misogynistic under the guise of “dark”. Should have heeded the warning more. 0.5 stars because the idea of it could have been good with the anonymous marketing. Hope it’s all satire, if so, 1 star.
February 25, 2025
I’m sorry but this was a bit ridiculous. I’m all here for remaining anonymous and changing details etc. but this comes off like a publicity stunt gone wrong. It comes out April 1, 2025 but still can’t find it on Goodreads to even post a review.
The book needs major editing to make it a cohesive book as it reads like a stream of consciousness and is all over the place. I’m sorry but this wasn’t for me.
I’m thankful for the eARC from the publisher.
The book needs major editing to make it a cohesive book as it reads like a stream of consciousness and is all over the place. I’m sorry but this wasn’t for me.
I’m thankful for the eARC from the publisher.
April 6, 2025
I am really at a loss for how to describe this book, and maybe that is the point. I could not finish it, but if you are in the market for a "Wait, what is going on? This was purposely written and approved to be a published book? Huh?" experience - a car crash you can't help but watch - this probably will be up your alley. I'm going to assume, based on what research I could find, this is a sort of social experiment. And if so, interesting overall intentions. Just not my cup of tea. My initial reaction is to go with one star, but I will give two if the above is true.
Thank you, Netgalley and Scribe Media, for the Advanced Reading Copy. All opinions are my own.
Thank you, Netgalley and Scribe Media, for the Advanced Reading Copy. All opinions are my own.
May 11, 2025
This book is terrible, but it is fun to think about which 35ish year old actor would write a book like this.
March 5, 2025
Interesting premise, poor execution.
Pretentious, misogynistic, homophobic, racist drivel. Usually I try to find one interesting or enjoyable aspect of a book when reviewing but this time around I have nothing. Utter trash.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scribe Media | Meta Lit for the ARC…..I think.
Pretentious, misogynistic, homophobic, racist drivel. Usually I try to find one interesting or enjoyable aspect of a book when reviewing but this time around I have nothing. Utter trash.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scribe Media | Meta Lit for the ARC…..I think.
March 19, 2025
Every now and then, a book comes along that makes you question whether the author is a genius or a lunatic—or in this case, both. The Author is exactly that kind of book. It doesn’t just toe the line between brilliance and madness—it obliterates it.
This is literary fiction at its most unfiltered, unhinged, and unapologetically raw—a novel that reads like if American Psycho and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had a bastard child raised on Adderall, Instagram, and the Hollywood machine. It’s obscene, hilarious, and so absurdly self-aware that it loops back around to being brutally honest.
If The Great Gatsby captured the glamour and excess of the Jazz Age, The Author captures the soulless, cocaine-dusted nihilism of the fame-hungry, clout-chasing, postmodern hellscape we live in today.
It’s one of the most deranged, exhilarating, and necessary books I’ve read in a long time.
And for those wondering—yes, the real story behind The Author makes it even better.
Read it before they find a way to cancel it.
This is literary fiction at its most unfiltered, unhinged, and unapologetically raw—a novel that reads like if American Psycho and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had a bastard child raised on Adderall, Instagram, and the Hollywood machine. It’s obscene, hilarious, and so absurdly self-aware that it loops back around to being brutally honest.
If The Great Gatsby captured the glamour and excess of the Jazz Age, The Author captures the soulless, cocaine-dusted nihilism of the fame-hungry, clout-chasing, postmodern hellscape we live in today.
It’s one of the most deranged, exhilarating, and necessary books I’ve read in a long time.
And for those wondering—yes, the real story behind The Author makes it even better.
Read it before they find a way to cancel it.
February 25, 2025
This book is pretentious and poorly written. It doesn’t deliver what it promised, and is not so well executed that I don’t care. It’s chaotic and lying and I can be disillusioned with life without this novel, thank you very much. Do not recommend.
May 27, 2025
Won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I was actually sort of into the first 20ish percent of it. It was very chaotic, which is what I’d expect from a drug-addled narrator recounting some pretty intense experiences. But it stopped being interesting after that point. Dude was so in his own head and it was just unintelligible at times.
March 17, 2025
THE AUTHOR by The Author is unlike anything you’ve ever read. A dark, satirical, and unsettling journey through the mind of a young artist clawing his way through Hollywood’s underbelly, it’s both a confession and a fever dream—blurring the line between reality and fiction so masterfully that you’ll spend half the book wondering: Is this real?
Told with razor-sharp wit and an unflinching eye, THE AUTHOR follows an unnamed aspiring actor, desperate to break into the industry but unsure if he wants to play the game or burn it all down. The prose is electric—raw, hypnotic, and laced with a creeping dread that builds as the story unfolds. Every page pulses with an undercurrent of existential terror, reflecting a world where success and self-destruction are indistinguishable.
What makes this novel so compelling isn’t just the writing (though it’s some of the best in years). It’s the context. The book’s publication itself is a mystery—banned by The Author’s own agents, suppressed by the industry, and ultimately released only because one man, Daniel Thomas Hind, refused to let it disappear. It’s a book that wasn’t supposed to be read. And that makes every sentence feel like a transgression.
Comparisons to Less Than Zero and Fight Club are inevitable, but THE AUTHOR stands on its own as a bold, brilliant, and completely original work. It’s not just a novel—it’s a statement. A warning. A beautifully nihilistic take on what it really means to chase fame, only to find nothing at the center of it.
Read it before they find a way to bury it!
Told with razor-sharp wit and an unflinching eye, THE AUTHOR follows an unnamed aspiring actor, desperate to break into the industry but unsure if he wants to play the game or burn it all down. The prose is electric—raw, hypnotic, and laced with a creeping dread that builds as the story unfolds. Every page pulses with an undercurrent of existential terror, reflecting a world where success and self-destruction are indistinguishable.
What makes this novel so compelling isn’t just the writing (though it’s some of the best in years). It’s the context. The book’s publication itself is a mystery—banned by The Author’s own agents, suppressed by the industry, and ultimately released only because one man, Daniel Thomas Hind, refused to let it disappear. It’s a book that wasn’t supposed to be read. And that makes every sentence feel like a transgression.
Comparisons to Less Than Zero and Fight Club are inevitable, but THE AUTHOR stands on its own as a bold, brilliant, and completely original work. It’s not just a novel—it’s a statement. A warning. A beautifully nihilistic take on what it really means to chase fame, only to find nothing at the center of it.
Read it before they find a way to bury it!
May 15, 2025
DNF - the marketing was so hype but this was a waste of the small amount of time I spent starting it
March 9, 2025
Real life events or total fiction? The world may never know.
An anonymous A- List celebrity writes a tell all memoir about his life before becoming a household name. At least, that is the idea, but the content of the memoir is so polarizing and explosive that nobody wants to touch it. Desperate to have his story told, he engages the help of an entrepreneur to release his brainchild out into the world and even he is dragged, threatened and bullied in an attempt to keep this book from seeing the light of day. The story of the actor known only as “The Author” chronicles the first year of his life in Hollywood as he struggles to find his way in a land of excess, drugs and wild parties. From the opening chapter, I knew this was going to be a wild ride. Starting out as an assistant to a talent agency he puts everything on the line, moving from New York to LA on a wing and a prayer and a massive lie to break into the business. But acting was only to be a means to an end as his ultimate goal is to become the next great novelist. Sound convoluted? It is.
I was turned on to The Author by the massively viral prerelease media blitz. The premise was completely new and immediately attention grabbing and I’ll even admit that I binge watched all available episodes of “The Author Show” in a single weekend. The show not only set the framework of this book but also tells a bit of the backstory of the mastermind behind this entire project, entrepreneur Daniel Thomas Hind. Naturally, with all the lore surrounding this mysterious and self-proclaimed forbidden memoir I was eager to get my hands on a copy. For me, the marketing strategy worked. I was hooked and ready to read.
Overall, the narrative is very disjointed, but still in a way coherent. There was a definite beginning and an end, but the situations and events in the chapters in between were unordered and rambling and while that may put many off, I chalked it up to what must have been the author’s drug-addled state of mind while many of the situations played out. With each chapter exploring another point in the history of The Author - anything from escapades as a youth to his drug induced days trying to make it big in Hollywood - the author does a great job of taking the reader into each scenario (memory) and immersing them to the point that when the narrator comes back into the present time it can be a bit jarring and disorienting. I feel this was probably done by design.
If you are not familiar with The Author Show or any of the other ads and hype preceding this book, basically providing the backbone or backstory of the overall narrative, this book will come off as extremely nonsensical, possibly pretentious, and hard to read. Truly after reading it myself I can say that this is a polarizing title and one that readers will either really like or vehemently hate. I really do not see an in between or a happy medium where the book is “just ok”. In the recent climate of knee jerk reactions to a theme, word, or idea in that respect this book will also offend those who have their feathers easily ruffled. Taking all of that into consideration, I find myself in the ‘really like’ category as I tend to gravitate more toward edgy and controversial content.
This book isn’t all just ramblings, however, there is also a human element if you take the time to look for it. In his quest to become famous and to ultimately write the next Great American Novel, the author makes several references to other legendary authors before him (this was also a huge theme in the Author Show). The way he goes about achieving this goal is where the humor lies. Throughout the 300+ pages of this book there are funny parts, as well as sad and serious parts. There is a lost love aspect with several mentions a person only as “you who I will not name”, which I feel is probably him pining for his girlfriend he left behind to come to LA. The recurring snake references peppered throughout also appears to be a metaphor for himself as he is searching for his place but destroying himself at the same time. Will he achieve his fame before he self-destructs is the big question.
After reading this title, I still have no idea if this “Author” is someone famous or just a product of the real author’s imagination. At this point, if the stories in this memoir are real I would rather not know who it is lest it shatter what could be a pristine image or serve to confirm all suspicions.
Thanks to MetaLit, Scribe Media and Netgalley for an ARC copy of this title. The reviews and opinions above were voluntarily provided. All opinions are my own. The Author is scheduled for an April 1, 2025 release
May 13, 2025
Book Review: The Author by The Author
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5)
Overview
The Author is a self-indulgent exercise in meta-fictional angst that mistakes cynicism for profundity. The novel follows a thinly veiled stand-in for the author—a self-destructive, substance-abusing artist—as they spiral through a series of vignettes that critique modern creativity while embodying its worst excesses. Though it gestures toward cultural commentary, the book is undermined by its pretentious prose, gratuitous shock tactics, and reliance on derogatory language as a substitute for genuine insight.
Themes and Content
The novel attempts to explore:
-The Death of Authentic Artistry: A well-worn theme, rendered here with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
-Digital Alienation: Endless rants about social media and performative identity, delivered with the nuance of a late-night Twitter thread.
-Self-Destruction as Performance: The protagonist’s descent into drugs and despair is less tragic than tiresome—a clichéd trope in contemporary “edgy” fiction.
-Meta-Fictional Gimmickry: The recursive “author writing about the author” device feels less like innovation and more like a crutch to avoid substantive storytelling.
Writing Style and Structure
The prose oscillates between overwrought melodrama (“I am the wound and the knife!”) and juvenile provocation, with slurs and derogatory terms deployed liberally but without meaningful purpose. The shock value wears off quickly, revealing a hollow core—these linguistic choices seem designed to elicit gasps rather than to deepen critique. The fragmented structure, likely intended to mirror mental disintegration, instead reads as an excuse for disjointed, underdeveloped musings.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths (Few and Far Between):
-Occasional Sharp Observations: A handful of passages effectively skewer the emptiness of online culture.
-Unapologetic Voice: The book’s refusal to cater to polite sensibilities is, at times, refreshing.
Weaknesses (Overwhelming):
-Gratuitous Offensiveness: The frequent use of slurs—particularly those targeting marginalized groups—feels less like satire and more like lazy attempts at transgression.
-Lack of Nuance: The protagonist’s nihilism is so relentless that it becomes monotonous, stripping the narrative of tension or depth.
-Pretentious Execution: The meta-fictional framing comes across as a veneer to disguise shallow ideas rather than a meaningful exploration of authorship.
Section Scoring Breakdown (0–5)
-Thematic Depth: 2/5 – Rehashes tired ideas without adding anything new.
-Narrative Craft: 1.5/5 – Sloppy, self-satisfied, and structurally incoherent.
-Originality: 3/5 – Borrows heavily from better works (e.g., Infinite Jest’s despair, Palahniuk’s shock tactics).
-Reader Engagement: 2/5 – Exhausting rather than illuminating.
-Emotional Impact: 1/5 – Fails to evoke anything beyond irritation.
Final Verdict
The Author is a frustrating read—one that mistakes provocation for substance and wallows in its own contrived misery. While it occasionally stumbles into moments of sharp cultural critique, these are drowned out by the novel’s relentless edginess, derivative style, and reliance on offensive language as a cheap substitute for depth.
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5) – A tiresome slog through faux-transgressive navel-gazing.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5)
Overview
The Author is a self-indulgent exercise in meta-fictional angst that mistakes cynicism for profundity. The novel follows a thinly veiled stand-in for the author—a self-destructive, substance-abusing artist—as they spiral through a series of vignettes that critique modern creativity while embodying its worst excesses. Though it gestures toward cultural commentary, the book is undermined by its pretentious prose, gratuitous shock tactics, and reliance on derogatory language as a substitute for genuine insight.
Themes and Content
The novel attempts to explore:
-The Death of Authentic Artistry: A well-worn theme, rendered here with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
-Digital Alienation: Endless rants about social media and performative identity, delivered with the nuance of a late-night Twitter thread.
-Self-Destruction as Performance: The protagonist’s descent into drugs and despair is less tragic than tiresome—a clichéd trope in contemporary “edgy” fiction.
-Meta-Fictional Gimmickry: The recursive “author writing about the author” device feels less like innovation and more like a crutch to avoid substantive storytelling.
Writing Style and Structure
The prose oscillates between overwrought melodrama (“I am the wound and the knife!”) and juvenile provocation, with slurs and derogatory terms deployed liberally but without meaningful purpose. The shock value wears off quickly, revealing a hollow core—these linguistic choices seem designed to elicit gasps rather than to deepen critique. The fragmented structure, likely intended to mirror mental disintegration, instead reads as an excuse for disjointed, underdeveloped musings.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths (Few and Far Between):
-Occasional Sharp Observations: A handful of passages effectively skewer the emptiness of online culture.
-Unapologetic Voice: The book’s refusal to cater to polite sensibilities is, at times, refreshing.
Weaknesses (Overwhelming):
-Gratuitous Offensiveness: The frequent use of slurs—particularly those targeting marginalized groups—feels less like satire and more like lazy attempts at transgression.
-Lack of Nuance: The protagonist’s nihilism is so relentless that it becomes monotonous, stripping the narrative of tension or depth.
-Pretentious Execution: The meta-fictional framing comes across as a veneer to disguise shallow ideas rather than a meaningful exploration of authorship.
Section Scoring Breakdown (0–5)
-Thematic Depth: 2/5 – Rehashes tired ideas without adding anything new.
-Narrative Craft: 1.5/5 – Sloppy, self-satisfied, and structurally incoherent.
-Originality: 3/5 – Borrows heavily from better works (e.g., Infinite Jest’s despair, Palahniuk’s shock tactics).
-Reader Engagement: 2/5 – Exhausting rather than illuminating.
-Emotional Impact: 1/5 – Fails to evoke anything beyond irritation.
Final Verdict
The Author is a frustrating read—one that mistakes provocation for substance and wallows in its own contrived misery. While it occasionally stumbles into moments of sharp cultural critique, these are drowned out by the novel’s relentless edginess, derivative style, and reliance on offensive language as a cheap substitute for depth.
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5) – A tiresome slog through faux-transgressive navel-gazing.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 21, 2025
The kindest thing I can say is that this reads like a freshman comp project by an edgelord.
The end acknowledges that The Author is trying to ape practiced writers without fully understanding why they wrote as they did. This is a fantastic exercise for a newbie writer, but it should never be mistaken for a final draft and definitely not a full book.
The Author should have met (and generously paid) The Editor to pare this down. Slice out the "I'm dangerous because I use slurs" nonsense and most of the "If I steal from a real writer, that makes me an author" pap, and there is a story here worth exploring. You could even make it nonlinear, if that makes you happy. An actual writer doesn't need to be homophobic and sexist to shock the reader. It's the height of immaturity (and utterly condescending) that The Author thought otherwise. Likewise, listening to other people's drug experiences has all the weight and interest of a dream, and we do not want to read pages of it at a time. No one cares how many uppers you take. That's not street cred. All "exciting" philosophy in this comes off as a Gen-Z with Boomer energy shaking their fist at those damned kids.
Honestly, it lost a star because you can see the tatters of the book it could have been.
Let there be no threatened second book.
I received a free copy from Netgalley for my honest review.
The end acknowledges that The Author is trying to ape practiced writers without fully understanding why they wrote as they did. This is a fantastic exercise for a newbie writer, but it should never be mistaken for a final draft and definitely not a full book.
The Author should have met (and generously paid) The Editor to pare this down. Slice out the "I'm dangerous because I use slurs" nonsense and most of the "If I steal from a real writer, that makes me an author" pap, and there is a story here worth exploring. You could even make it nonlinear, if that makes you happy. An actual writer doesn't need to be homophobic and sexist to shock the reader. It's the height of immaturity (and utterly condescending) that The Author thought otherwise. Likewise, listening to other people's drug experiences has all the weight and interest of a dream, and we do not want to read pages of it at a time. No one cares how many uppers you take. That's not street cred. All "exciting" philosophy in this comes off as a Gen-Z with Boomer energy shaking their fist at those damned kids.
Honestly, it lost a star because you can see the tatters of the book it could have been.
Let there be no threatened second book.
I received a free copy from Netgalley for my honest review.
April 28, 2025
I don’t even know where to start with this book, or what to think. I don’t know if it was incredibly clever, a piece of art, or just the ramblings on of some insane drug trips, and escapades in LA. The way that it is written, breaking the fourth wall, trying the being the author to life I found a cool concept. There was a lot of introspection by the author and a lot of just rambling poetic thoughts. I dont like that I don’t know what is real or fake, or if this is even truly written by a famous actor or just someone who really just had this creative idea and really wanted to mess with the reader. It was published on April fools day so maybe this is all just one big joke. Honestly I just want to know who wrote it… any guesses?
March 25, 2025
this was just.... not fun to read. in most books, i would look for and be able to state a redeeming element. the prose? the characters? the concept? the plot? maybe the concept, which isn't an awful idea. but it throws together styles to create a jumble that never really feels clear. the writing is filled with homophobia, misogyny, and racism for "shock value", which feels more dull, uninspired, and insulting than it ever does shocking. the characters never feel real, instead feeling like if you stuck a few hundred characters of a certain trope into an ai and asked it to churn out a new one. missed the mark entirely. if there was editing, cleaning, and some updates to the chars, it would maybe work, but for now... 1 star.
book received as an ARC.
book received as an ARC.
July 27, 2025
This book sounded so interesting to me as I love books that are told from a different perspective or have a different concept - in this case it is the story of "The Author" who is an anonymous actor who is telling his story of arriving in Hollywood in the early 2010s - his identity is hidden to protect those who would have otherwise been referenced in his book. When I finished the book I had to ask myself what did I just read. If you don't mind an unreliable narrator and you want to read a story about someone taking a lot of drugs and telling the story of how amazing they are this may be the book for you. It was not a book for me.
July 25, 2025
One-star reviews are very rare for me. This just wasn’t something I could get through. I have a difficult time reading about drug-fueled adventures and this whole thing, from what I got through, was one adventure away from an overdose. I realize that this is supposed to be about Hollywood’s underbelly but I thought there would be more substance to this, maybe a message that hard work can get you somewhere, but that wasn’t the case at all. This really wasn’t for me.
I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.
I received a copy from #NetGalley for an honest review.
April 11, 2025
Im convinced this is a publicity stunt of Daniels. There is no celebrity. Just someone who grew up in the 80s/90s in the drug capital of the world-LA. Nothing about this was fascinating or worth your time. He likes to pretend hes an actor, put his dick in strange things and do drugs. So totally cool bruh. Whatever.
Want to read
April 28, 2025I read the first 2 chapters and I think that's where I'll be leaving it.
1) I don't buy into the "A-list actor tell all that they're trying to cancel" marketing storyline.
2) The R-word is used 1 too many times for my liking in the first 2 chapters. 1 time is too many; the repeated use in a single chapter is just disgusting.
1) I don't buy into the "A-list actor tell all that they're trying to cancel" marketing storyline.
2) The R-word is used 1 too many times for my liking in the first 2 chapters. 1 time is too many; the repeated use in a single chapter is just disgusting.
May 13, 2025
I had to stop reading it because I wasn't in the right frame of mind for it. I imagine most actors are this egocentric so I never had an incline of who it could be.
The marketing was clever... The writing was amateur but I did enjoy it to a degree. I bet it would be better as an audiobook...
3.5 stars
The marketing was clever... The writing was amateur but I did enjoy it to a degree. I bet it would be better as an audiobook...
3.5 stars
April 25, 2025
Firstly thank you for NetGalley for the advanced reader copy as it's appreciated
However, this was an absolute NO. I think it's satire and as I can't believe anyone is this careless, reckless and damn rude. I couldnt recommend even if my life depended on it.
However, this was an absolute NO. I think it's satire and as I can't believe anyone is this careless, reckless and damn rude. I couldnt recommend even if my life depended on it.
April 10, 2025
Just not for me. Poor writing and just a basic waste of my time. Maybe I will pick it up again sometime, but probably not. They hype for the book was intriguing, but I just can’t stick with it.
April 14, 2025
Thanks to #NetGalley for the arc. This book was a convoluted piece of trash. Don't waste your time.
April 22, 2025
I couldn’t get through this book. The writing was just too all over the place for me.
April 23, 2025
Complete and utter garbage. Can’t believe this was published.
April 27, 2025
DNF at chapter 2
May 26, 2025
This is the kind of book that if I met someone who loved it I’d immediately walk away.
I know there’s an audience for this type of story just never me.
I know there’s an audience for this type of story just never me.
June 7, 2025
I have no idea what I just read other than a bunch of drug-infused chaos that made zero sense. I’m not even sure what this was supposed to even be about. 1 star.
June 28, 2025
I got a little more than half way through and couldn’t listen to the nonsensical rambling anymore.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews