Exit Party

by Emily St. John Mandel

The award-winning, bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility returns with a breathtaking novel of doubles, shadow worlds, and fractured timelines as a man disappears from a glittering Los Angeles party, and a woman—a gunrunner, an art collector, an operative of the State—searches for answers.

Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party’s host, vanishes into thin air.

As Ari Waker unravels the mystery of this inexplicable night, Emily St. John Mandel unfurls a story that takes us from a future America splintered by civil war to the seaside cliffs of Greece where weapons dealers hide in an elegant resort, and from the domed city of Paris to a colony on the moon. An unforgettable literary feat, Exit Party is a novel about the price of safety, the perils of the surveillance state, a requiem for a world not unlike our own, and a breathtaking story of resilience in the face of cataclysmic change.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy, Adult

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication September 15, 2026

About the author

Emily St. John Mandel was born and raised on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. She studied contemporary dance at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and lived briefly in Montreal before relocating to New York.

She is the author of five novels, including The Glass Hotel (spring 2020) and Station Eleven (2014.) Station Eleven was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, won the Morning News Tournament of Books, and has been translated into 34 languages. She lives in NYC with her husband and daughter.

Reviews

[Maxwell]

I have read the new Emily St. John Mandel!

I'll write a full review closer to publication date in September, but for now I will strongly urge you to read her 2nd novel The Singer's Gun before you read this one!!!!

It's not a requirement to enjoy/understand this book. However, Exit Party will spoil The Singer's Gun for you, so if you care about not being spoiled (which you should because TSG is great and worth reading), then go read it first.

Plus, it makes reading her later books more fun because you can make all the connections between the characters from previous ones. Also I guess while we're at it, you should probably read The Glass Hotel first too, though that one isn't as strongly connected.

What the heck, just read all 6 of her backlist anyway because they are great and then you will be ready for EP in September!!!

[emma]

this is my new favorite book and i haven't even read it yet

[Chad Alexander Guarino da Verona]

INJECT THIS INTO MY VEINS NOW

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is unlike anything that I’ve ever read, but it’s my first reading of this author’s who has bestsellers as Station ll, The Glass Hotel, and others.
This story starts off at a party in 2031 to celebrate the departure of troops from Los Angeles and the lift of the city-wide curfew.
This was a post collapse of America that had happened.
The party is at a man named Kareem’s apartment and something ends up being VERY wrong. As Kareem is greeting friends and acquaintances, he starts seeing doppelgängers of many of them, but they are dressed differently and have different names from each other. He is so distressed that he leaves his own party.
We are then taken into two near future worlds running parallel to each other.. with the same characters living different lives in each world.
We are in the USA, Greece and Paris(which is under a dome)
Surveillance is everywhere.
It was very good but more sci-fi than I would ever pick up.
I believe anyone who likes this genre will really love this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the free ebook in exchange for my honest review.

[Liz Hein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exit Party opens in 2031. America is in a civil war, it has broken into territories owned by militias, but there’s finally some good news. The Republic of California is established and curfew is lifted in LA. The natural response is to throw a party, and that’s where we open with Ari, a 48 year old that just spent some time in prison, and she’s ready for her first party. The reader quickly releases all is not well. Reality doesn’t feel…like reality. We the jump in time and space to Paris and Ari is there, but things are…different. I think I need to leave the plot there.

If this book had no author, readers would still know it’s ESJM. We’re plopped into a strange world that feels a little like our own, but not quite. And we’re there *after* the Big Event that made our world a little stranger. We’re here, reading, not to understand what happened, but to understand the inner workings of our characters and how they’re affected by the Big Event. It’s about art and love and authenticity and family and the dangers of surveillance and puts the idea of linear time into question.

I really enjoyed this. Is my new favorite of hers? Probably not, but I could not put this down and oh did it make me miss my dad. Don’t read this for answers, don’t read this for thrills despite the somewhat thrilling premise, read this to be left a bit haunted by what makes you…you. I also recommend reading this when you can pay attention. It’s not difficult to figure out the jumps in time and the sort of multiverse she’s created *if* your locked in. I took some notes and felt a bit like Charlie in the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia man…I imagine I looked a bit crazed yet ready to talk your ear off. More to come closer to pub date!

[Henk]

This sounds so good, I am here for the new Emily St. John Mandel and literary takes on time travel and humanity!

[Gregg Rosenthal]

If you love St. John Mandel like I do, this is very much in her wheelhouse. I'm going to go read the Singer's Gun soon. Wish I did before, but the novel works either way.

[Melanie (meltotheany)]

♡ signed b&n copies (available as of may 21st)

♡ Station Eleven ★★★★★
♡ The Glass Hotel ★★
♡ Sea of Tranquility ★★★★

[Ruxandra Grrr]

I don't know what the world will be like in September, but my schedule is cancelled for this book.

[Colin Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world is ending, and Emily St. John Mandel is inviting us to the party!!!

No one captures the beauty of ordinary moments on the brink of catastrophe like Mandel. The hush before the collapse, the shimmer of illusions breaking, the slow realization that history has already shifted under your feet.

I have a feeling Exit Party is going to be haunting, dazzling, and impossible to put down. Who else is ready for Mandel’s next masterpiece?

[Bill Muganda]

WE HAVE A COVER!!!!!! Wake me up in September!

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never felt as lucky as I did the day this book arrived in the mail. That may be a a slight exaggeration, but getting to read this ARC of Emily St. John Mandel's newest novel will probably be a highlight of all of 2026 for me!
This is a hard book to talk about without spoiling anything. Just know that ESJM has you in good hands here. One of the main reasons I love her books is because it's obvious that she deeply trusts her readers. Starting on page 1, she isn't gonna spoon-feed you a bit of information or connect any dots for your. She trusts that you, the reader, can do it if you give her time, and my fellow readers, I beg you to trust her back because the pay off is worthwhile.
Exit Party is smart, rich in nuanced characters, and a beautiful look at what it means to live despite the horrors around us. This book releases on September 15, 2026. If you've loved her other works, you will no doubt enjoy this one too!

[sam]

not a want but a NEED

[Santiago Nocera · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Emily St . John Mandel’s books when I crave page-turning plots, expansive worlds, complex humans, and images that sear into my mind. Exit Party has all of that in spades.

The daisychain that Mandel has created with her novels continues, with Exit Party linking all the way back to The Singer’s Gun, and picking up pieces from The Glass Hotel. I love these connection points, Easter eggs for completionists, but the novel is a perfect standalone read as well.

Exit Party is a novel of doppelgängers and alternate worlds within societal collapse. It’s all too real reading in our present moment. As usual, even with the sci-fi and speculative elements, Mandel is holding up a cracked mirror to our fractured world.

But Exit Party is also hopeful and a reminder of what makes life worth living, even when an ending is in view. The glamorous, flower-filled gathering from the opening scene says it all: at the end of the world, gather your closest, and throw a party.

[Rebecca]

Note to self: Source The Singer's Gun first.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending of this was not as devastating or heart breaking as I wanted it to be.

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my most anticipated read of 2026. Thank you so much for the eARC @harpercollinsca and @netgalley ❤️

I love Emily St John Mandel’s writing. I always leave feeling amazed at what she is able to accomplish over the course of the work. She captures humanity perfectly, layering in themes of loneliness, belonging, and family.

With ties to previous novels, we are immersed in a world where the USA has fractured, and different gangs vie for power over the resulting borders. But in another USA, the fracture never occurred and everything is under surveillance. The line between these two worlds is liminal and that is where we meet the characters and the point the story unfolds from.

Beautiful and haunting I am already planning out my reread after I take some time for the novel to wash over me.

5⭐️

[claire]

thank you knopf for the arc! i’ll return with a full review closer to the pub date

between now and then i will be rereading all esjm books and putting together a full conspiracy board so i gotta stock up on some red string

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who are you?

Really think about it. What makes you you? Now imagine that the world you lived in was entirely different, that what it took to survive was different. Who would you be then?

There are a couple of different worlds in this thought experiment of a novel. They intersect. There’s a party in Los Angeles in the world where the United States has broken up into city states and regional states, full of militias and violence. And there’s a lab in a world of one United State that is tightly controlled and surveilled by a shadowy government intelligence agency, think the Stasi in East Germany, but with better technology. For a very little while, the wall between these two worlds is permeable. “There’s something wrong with this party,” says its host, who feels like he’s losing his mind.

The main character in this weird and well-constructed novel never travels between worlds, but versions of her exist in both of them. In one, she’s a criminal. In the other, she’s an intelligence agent.

This novel is thoughtful and interesting, and I liked it. Not as much as this author’s best work, Station Eleven, but it’s good.

[Grace Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandel is always clever and subtle with her character/story crossover throughout her work, but this was another level; ambitious, but it works. Not simply because of the callbacks to Singer’s Gun, this felt like much of her early/backlist work—the noir influence, cunning prose, characters with ambiguous morals but so fleshed out they exist in your mind like people you know personally. It cannot be overstated how much I’d like to live in Mandel’s novels, surveillance state and all, and I’m probably going to have to read this again before pub in September just to catch all the clever things that inevitably sailed past me on first read.

[Millicent · Rating 5 out of 5]

“For a long time now, possibly her entire life, she’d been training herself to recognize endings, and she has a sense that morning of having slipped into a new life.”

Beginning in LA in 2031, the night of a party to celebrate the newly lifted curfew, we’re dropped into a post-collapse America with Ari and her roommate Gloria. This party is a precipice, and Mandel does a magnificent job of dangling us over the edge, feeling with every page that these characters are watching the shimmer of illusions fading before their eyes.

It’s both an intimate and sprawling exploration of resilience, and the resilience of relationships. With timely themes of rising republics and state surveillance, Mandel expertly keeps humanity the humming heart of it all. The final third of the novel brought me to tears… it made me really, REALLY miss my dad.

I devoured the 300 pages (very small font, mind you!) in just a few days. I finished it past midnight and wasn’t able to sleep for wishing so badly to rewind time, wipe my memory, and read it again.

Exit Party is a complex, bewildering, metaphysical masterpiece. I will be counting down the days to meet Mandel at the Southbank Centre in October and hear her discuss the book (hopefully I’ll get to ask one of my many questions!)

EXIT PARTY is out in the UK September 17 📅
Thank you to Picador books for the advanced proof copy.

[Marika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunned...in a good way. Review to come

*I read an advance copy and was not compensated

[Amy Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I AM SAT!!!!!

[ayusha]

Emily St. John Mandel coming back after four years, let's go!!

[Nick Eisengruber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely phenomenal. I'm going to keep the review as vague as possible, because it's important to come in to this book with little to no idea on the story beats. With that being said, St. John Mandel crafts a beautiful tale that constantly asks the reader; how would your life be different if a moment, a thought, an idea went differently? Not only your own life, but your family, your city, your country. St. John Mandel asks these questions to Ari, to Nico, to Sebastian, & all the other characters in the near future (2031 & beyond). It also deliberately dismantles the fascist surveillance state adage, 'if you have nothing to fear, you have nothing to hide,' with lived experiences in that kind of world with the constant eye of the state on you. Unable to trust your neighbors, your family, your friends, all in the name of 'harmony' & 'security.'

What was really fun with this book is that the author doesn't hold your hand; she allows you to figure out what's happening before she spells it out on the page.

I think this is just a book that needs to be read, certainly on par with St. John Mandel's other works. While I wish it were longer, it certainly was a full story from beginning to end.

Also, apparently there are some characters that return from her earlier work, 'The Singer's Gun.' You do not have to have read that book to enjoy this one.

*Thank you so much to Edelweiss & the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars if I could!

I love Emily St. John Mandel’s writing!! Similar to other novels by her, this story is set in a complex, unique, and fascinating world that I could read a whole novel about on its own. Beyond her ability to construct such a dynamic setting, I’m always amazed by her ability to move the plot and evolve the characters through a slow trickle of information.

The plot of this novel didn’t grab me quite as much as others that I’ve read of hers but it almost doesn’t matter because the story is so engaging and unlike anything else I’ve read. It’s not often you read a novel about something as fun as fractured timelines but find yourself more engaged and interested in the characters interacting with it.

Thank you Knopf and NetGalley for the ARC! :)

[tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

thank you to netgalley and pan macmillan uk for the ARC / every emily st. john mandel makes me feel the same way as when years ago i picked up a copy of station eleven knowing nothing and then opened it and did not move for 24 hours until i had finished reading it / googled "emily st. john mandel fire and hemlock" and came up empty, emily st. john mandel if you read goodreads reviews, which you shouldn't, please could you let me know if you have read fire and hemlock by diana wynne jones

[aveclesfilles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.


This book had me hooked. I finished it at 4 in the morning under the covers. The book is about a woman named Ari and a party she attends in California that changes her life and a few of the attendees. I honestly cannot say much more without spoilers. I was not familiar with Emily St. John Mandel outside of watching Station Eleven. But this book follows that same storyline in that there is a post apocalyptic setting but the focus is on how people adapt and survive. I loved this book and have not been able to stop thinking about it.

[Jada Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Knopf and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I am SO lucky to be one of the very first people to get to read this! Only, I didn’t so much read it as I DEVOURED it. I read it faster than Ive ever read any book. Carried it everywhere with me over 2 and a half days and pulled it out during the most inappropriate times. 😂

WOW. ESJM does it again! This book has all of the classic elements that fans of St. John Mandel will immediately recognize. Events that feel eerily timely (and possible or even likely). A story that begins AFTER the event, an intimate study on resilience and relationships and how communities are shaped, and how when all else has failed, art is what remains and is revered. There is also the usual small seemingly insignificant connection to a previous book, except in Exit Party is actually significant. You don’t need to have read the Singer’s Gun to get it, but it helps add even more layers to the already exceptionally layered character Ari/Aria/Ibari

It’s hard to describe this book without spoilers, so I won’t. Just know that just when you think the twists have been revealed, there are more. The way that SJM consistently connects characters across stories, across centuries, and even across alternate timelines is absolutely genius. I can’t think of another author who does this so seamlessly and so subtly.

This is now the 5th book that I have read by Emily St. John Mandel and I have loved them all. Prior to Exit Party, my favorite was Sea of Tranquility followed closely by Station Eleven of course. Exit Party has shot to the top of the list and SJM has shot to the top of my favorite authors list (my criteria is reading and loving at least 5 books by the author for them to be considered for the title hahah). #Bookloverproblems

In short, when this book is released in September RUN don’t walk to your local bookstore or library!

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

The United States has collapsed and in Los Angeles, the curfew has finally lifted. Ari, newly released from prison, and her roommate Gloria celebrate by going to a party thrown by Gloria's friend Kareem. The party goes well, until it doesn't. There are people who don't belong and one of their friends disappears.

Ari remains haunted by that unusual and unsettling night for years to come as she travels across continents and moves between spouses.

Intricately plotted, completely unique, beautifully written; Exit Party is not to be missed.