The Simp: A Novel Without a Hero

by Roshan Sethi

A novel without a hero. Hellscape with an infinity pool.

Raj Ladlani is one of thousands in an unemployable actor. He has reasons to believe he is spectacularly talented (his beloved acting coach Anthony says so), a legend in every way but for the success.

His anonymous life working at Yogurtland, obsessively reading Vanity Fair, and fantasizing about stardom, comes to an end when he answers a job ad detailing a relentless, laughable parade of menial responsibilities for a 'Hollywood Family'. So begins the astonishing decline and fall of Raj Ladlani.

The Simp tells the story of Raj's momentous employment and the destruction that follows in the wake of his time with the with the H Jim, a macho director determined to prove himself as an artist; and Anna, his much younger wife who has ambitions of her own.

And when the job reveals itself to be an absurdist walk through affluent domestic chaos and misguided engagements with identity politics, Raj might be about to lose it - on a very public stage.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, Satire, Humor, LGBT

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 7, 2026

About the author

Roshan Sethi is a writer, director, and practicing oncologist. He is the cocreator of The Resident, which ran for six seasons on Fox. His directorial debut, 7 Days, won the Independent Spirit Award for best first feature. He subsequently directed World’s Best for Disney+ and cowrote the abortion drama Call Jane, which premiered at Sundance in 2022. His third film as a director, A Nice Indian Boy, recently premiered at SXSW to rave reviews. His next film, The Surgeon, starring Michelle Yeoh and Martin Freeman, is forthcoming. The Simp is his debut novel

Reviews

[ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite not caring much about Hollywood or acting, I really enjoyed this book. It’s focuses on hard things (race, grief, class) but it’s also really funny. I love a good absurd, satirical novel & this one delivered. I really enjoyed Raj as a main character. I particularly loved his relationship with Anthony. Funny, deep, & entertaining. & now I feel like I should read Vanity Fair.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC.

[alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE SIMP a riot of a book. incisive and acerbic, this is a brutal reckoning with celebrity culture and the West Coast film industry studded with themes of desperate proximity to power and modern race relations in a post-2020 United States

our main character, so deeply embedded in his own lies, is pitiful, complex, and nigh unredeemable. Sethi is utterly damning of his characters but every time he softens just enough to let the sympathy pierce through. no character escaped this treatment and i gleefully hated one character then another, before finishing the book with a sigh — privilege is privilege. this is a very funny book but it’s also really quite depressing!

THE SIMP is an upturned Vanity Fair for the Instagram activism generation. highly enjoyed!

thank you to Sceptre and NetGalley for the arc <3

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

An aspiring actor who may (or may not) have real talent, gets a job as the all-purpose executive assistant for a husband-and-wife Hollywood power couple who are despicable. Condescending, bullying, lying, mercurial -- and that's not the worst of it, it will turn out. (The novel gets its title from the nickname the husband uses for his new, all-purpose assistant.) But our hero in, as novelist Roshan Sethi calls his tale, "a novel without a hero," endures it all because of his proximity to power and (yes) celebrity. The idea of going as a "plus-one" to the Oscars has never been such a motivating force in literature, though I fear it is all too common in La-La Land. Sethi deftly juggles humor and very bad behavior (on all sides) in this portrait of a house in the Hollywood hills.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did we need another cynical book about how horrible LA and the film industry are? No one forces these folks to do this work. This also committed the worst sin of the entertainment business, not being entertaining.

[Stroop · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hilarious story of a wannabe actor and adept liar who finagles his way into a job assisting a famous director and his younger wife. This is a fun read that is full of delusional characters and unreliable narration. If you are in the mood for a sharp satire of celebrity culture, give this a read.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

[jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Simp” follows Raj, a gay, Indian-American, failed actor who is still desperate to break into the upper echelons of Hollywood. Raj, harboring a deep-seated anger and secrets from his past, stumbles upon a job posting: an assistant to a wealthy, powerful director-writer couple. Despite the egregious expectations of the position paired with the poor salary, Raj’s desire to immerse himself amongst the Hollywood upper class pushes him to get the job by any means. Raj’s desperation and eagerness to please earns him the titular nickname “The Simp” by his employers, but as Raj becomes more involved in the affairs of the affluent family, his anger begins to rear its head.

This novel does an exceptional job of analyzing power dynamics, racial identity, and political activism in the entertainment industry in the midst of our cancel culture generation. It is also a scathing critique on the continued lack of diversity in Hollywood and media, despite the uproar for more equity and inclusion post-2020. The novel’s tagline “A Novel Without a Hero” boils down to every character being complex and multifaceted. Each character, even our protagonist Raj, has moments of poor judgment and flawed behavior that allow us to view them critically, even if we feel empathy for them.

Funny and absurd, yet critical and insightful, “The Simp” is such a great read! I devoured it in 3 days because it’s so easily bingeable and hard to put down! Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the advance eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fine premise; an initially engaging tone that gets tiresome; promised plot never materializes.

Just shows - AGAIN - that it’s difficult to write a novel about the Way We Live Now, because the main “action” is checking email, posting on social media, scrolling, leaving voicemails, and making phone calls. BORING. So boring!

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’ve heard of weird girl lit, well he’s some weird boy lit!!! The Simp is definitely strange & unusual while tackling race & wealth disparities in LA. The main character is a gay, Indian man who immigrated to the U.S. in his 20’s for college. He’s both an aspiring actor & pathological, compulsive liar. He’s incredibly unlikable but also incredibly sympathetic. I also love how it almost reads like a narrations of a screenplay (which I’m sure was intentional)

[kassbookreviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

the mindset of this book is ‘sometimes offensive things are said and done but it’s okay because it’s satire.’ when looking at it from this perspective, it makes the book even better

[Janesh Rahlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny and searing commentary on Hollywood and people’s relation with power

[Caitlin Bronson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and clever, with a compulsively readable protagonist. 4.5 stars.

[Brian Pham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tore through this novel. It’s brilliant, it’s a train wreck you can’t take your eyes off of (in the best way possible), and I need it to release sooner so I can convince everyone I know to read this.

[Remi]

i see absurdism, so i choose to stay

*thank you to Simon & Schuster for the ARC*

[Angie Miale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t expecting this review to end with a higher rating than when I started writing it…but here we are. The more I sat with The Simp, the more I realized just how much Roshan Sethi accomplished. 4 stars.

Raj is an unemployed actor in Los Angeles who is convinced his big break is just around the corner while working part-time at a frozen yogurt shop. When he comes across a posting for a celebrity personal assistant, he lies his way through the application process, inventing references and carefully crafting the version of himself he thinks his prospective employers want to see.

The job itself is almost comically terrible. For just $45,000 a year in one of the country’s most expensive cities, Raj is expected to be available around the clock. His employers, Jim and Anna, barely seem to need an assistant at all. Jim is an exhausting embodiment of macho Hollywood “bro” culture, while Anna, his much younger wife, quietly dreams of becoming a screenwriter herself. Raj spends most of his time completing pointless errands, constantly saying yes, and making himself smaller in order to please them. It’s uncomfortable, frustrating, surprisingly funny, and often downright bizarre.

What starts as an offbeat character study gradually reveals itself to be something much sharper: a commentary on race, cultural power, and the entertainment industry’s performative commitment to diversity. Sethi explores what happened after the optimism of 2020 faded, questioning how much actually changed behind the scenes in Hollywood and who still controls which stories get told.

My favorite passage perfectly captures the novel’s central argument:

“White people have always held onto their power in the arts with clenched fists… When I say the arts, I’m talking about publishing, ballet, theater, movies, chapbooks, poetry… If you want to participate in the arts, you have to play by their rules. You have to perform your ethnicity as if it’s a part in a play.”

That quote gets to the heart of what The Simp is really examining. Raj is an insecure gay man in his early thirties who left India—and much of his family—behind to chase a career in acting. His desperate need to be accepted makes him endlessly compliant, until years of humiliation and compromise finally begin to boil over. Watching that slow transformation is both painful and fascinating.

I also loved the novel’s subtitle, A Novel Without a Hero. The more I thought about it, the more accurate it felt. There isn’t really a hero here—but I’d argue there isn’t a true villain either. Every character is flawed, compromised, selfish, vulnerable, and occasionally capable of surprising warmth. Sethi refuses to make anyone easy to root for, and that complexity is one of the book’s greatest strengths.

The prose is intentionally straightforward, and at times I wished it were a little more stylistically ambitious. But the ideas are incredibly smart, and the novel quietly works its way under your skin. It’s the kind of literary fiction that becomes richer after you’ve finished it.

If you enjoy offbeat, character-driven literary fiction like The Sellout, Close Relationships with Strangers, or Interesting Facts About Space, I’d absolutely recommend picking this one up.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and the #SimonBooksBuddy program for the complimentary finished copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly funny and relevant satire of Hollywood, celebrity culture and race. Loved it.

“ There was such a pervasive atmosphere of falsity, like the smog that spread itself across the sky in a thin film. Nobody expected the truth. Everyone moved through the same haze”.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think what this book does really well is depict the concept of desperately wanting *something* but not knowing exactly what it is you want, and going to extreme lengths to achieve that while losing yourself along the way. it reflects most in the main character, Raj, who i think is the strongest part of the novel. he’s a mixture of shame, desire, helplessness, and ambition, and the way he ingratiates himself into this family with no discernible goal or respect for himself is really funny (this book has some great humor) but also very tragic.

i think the weakest part is actually the social satire - a lot of the “hollyweird”-type observations felt either very surface level or done 1000 times before. (even the racial commentary ngl - maybe this is just bc nothing in this was that new to me re:diversity or lack thereof in hollywood but i didnt find anything that compelling or new that was said 🫣)

anyways, now i lowkey want to read vanity fair?

[Resh (The Book Satchel)]

Pick this up if you are in the mood for a satire often bordering on comedy that lands a punch. Raj, is an aspiring actor stuck in Yogurtland. He is trying to land himself some good roles in Hollywood with little success. That's when he chances upon a job opp to assist (more like a PA. Also with very mysterious and secretive set of duties) a famous director and his much younger life. But instead of something that'll help his professional life, Raj is entrusted with personal tasks, like making ready the dog's meal, and listening to the director's mean pokes (that he calls 'jokes').

Raj is very much a manipulator and an unreliable narrator. To land the job, Raj forms his narrative as a poor man in India trying to live the American dream and be a meek, good immigrant. In reality, he is from an influential rich family in India and migrated to America for better opportunities. There's some thought provoking stuff in here about narratives spun out by chronically online people, public image, the immigrant experience in Hollywood, the accent problem, micro aggressions, celebrity culture and more. It also makes you wonder where you fall on the ladder depending on your location and circumstances.

For all its merits, I also found the characters to be very much on-the-page. So I didn't particularly feel big emotions.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC. All opinions are my own.
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[marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

gdyby ta ksiazka miala byc czlowiekiem to by byla 13 letnim chlopcem ktory po dniu w szkole pisze kolezance ktora mu sie podoba „chcialem cie dzisiaj na przerwie po pszyrce wziac za reke ale sie spietralem” a wiec jest to satyra ktora boi sie przekroczenia bezpieczenstwa i praktycznie nie ryzykuje naruszenia obrazu zadnej ze stron a wiec jest to satyra libkowa… ale czytalo sie dobrze i bylo nawet smieszno

[Bonnie M.]

An only mildly potent social satire, largely because it leans too heavily on the reader’s (unlikely) intimacy with [the novel] Vanity Fair and an undercooked “Hollywood’s racial reckoning” motif, which is admittedly hard to mine for any real treasure at this point. The irony, however, is that what this story might have really benefited from is a stricter adherence to Thackeray’s essential serial form, for it feels awfully thin on characters and plot (especially for the setting of LA, which abounds with so many species of the celebrity and wealth-addled that would make for extremely rich text) — and true response to the classic novel’s themes versus this scant inventory of them.

[Sam Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun one, and riddled with upsettingly accurate virtue signaling towards BIPOC communities from the white perspective, writing this as a fully self-aware white woman who is disgusted with society's artificial sympathies towards people of color.

I am so thankful to Simon Books, Roshan Sethi, and NetGalley for advanced access to this page-turner, before it hits shelves on July 7, 2026.

Raj Ladlani wants to make it big in Hollywood as an actor. That's all he's ever wanted, yet he finds himself unemployable due to his race, even though everyone LOVEEEEEEEES Slumdog Millionaire... sheesh. And he finds that with any given connection, he's either left on read or taken advantage of with some white savior-mentality.

When a personal assistant job role is listed for an A-list directing family, he jumps at the bait only to find this to be the most demeaning title, practically fulfilling grocery orders and whipping up meals for their dog, and definitely not opening any connecting doors for the future of Raj's acting desires.

Yet, Raj is witty and chronically online enough to know he can finagle some promise out of this rock bottom job, perhaps making what's to follow his best performance yet!

Super quick and razor sharp, Roshan Sethi knows how to write a novel (without a hero) -- yet I was really rooting for Raj.

[Chelsea (gofetchabook)]

This reads like a weird memoir of an unlikable person that I don’t care to know anything about.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75⭐️

This was such a strange book. This is about a gay man from India, who wants to desperately become an actor. Instead, he lies and manipulates his way into the lives of a Hollywood-elite couple as an assistant where he continues to lie and manipulate things, depending on how he’s feeling in the moment with the hope that he will somehow get his shot. Over and over again he finds himself in situations where he is surrounded by mostly white people and as uncomfortable as it makes him feel at times, he desires to be among them.

When I first picked up this book, I picked it up because I thought the name was interesting and I liked the cover. I had no idea who the author was. As I was reading this book, it did become apparent to me that this was somewhat based on real experiences or semi autobiographical. There was just a lot of information that seemed like it came from somebody who had inside information and who had experienced similar situations. When I finished reading the book, I decided to do some research on the author and found that although it wasn’t necessarily his experiences (even though it would not surprise me if he also experienced some of these situations), a lot of what he wrote about he says was based off of his husband‘s experiences. That shed a lot of light on the book.

The prose in the novel is easy to read and follow along. I found that each of the characters had very distinct voices. I also very much enjoyed the relationship that was developing between Raj and Peter. It was very heartwarming and probably my favorite part of the whole book. I wish Raj’s background was explored more because I also found that very interesting.

That being said, I did not care for a lot of the story. I felt that a majority of the time the author was repetitive and instead of showing me, told me. I also felt like the main character was overall awful. In fact he’s pretty insufferable. Anytime you even begin to feel remotely sorry for him or to even empathize with him, he does something truly awful. He was really hard to connect to. In fact, there aren’t any characters in this book that are really likable. I don’t mind there being an unlikable narrator or an unlikable main character. I do prefer to have at least one character in the book that is at least relatable. I don’t feel like that is in this book. It did seem like this character had a great background story, but it wasn’t explored enough for me to care or latch onto. The main character was almost as awful as the people who were being awful to him. He was mistrustful, sneaky, manipulative, and inconsistent. Just when I thought he had a redeeming characteristic, he would turn around and do something else that was awful.

This book has a lot to say I just don’t think it did it very well. I don’t think it followed through with the points it was trying to make. There’s a lot that could’ve been explored that was only touched on in a surface level way which was disappointing.

But this was a debut novel for this author and I think he has a lot of potential to write a great book so I would probably read from this author again.


***Thank you NetGalley, Roshan Sethi, and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.***

[Lauren D'Souza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised by how much I loved this. It felt like Barry + the Instagram account @assistantsvsagents + Yellowface, all written with an intricately developed main character, face-melting cringe, and a good dose of Hollywood DEI doublespeak.

THE SIMP follows Raj Ladlani, an gay Indian man in his late twenties; an aspiring actor who believes he holds immense, unrecognized talent; and a pathological liar. Raj sees an advertisement issued by a "Hollywood family" - very similar to a real ad Sethi saw for an "unnamed art family" - seeking an assistant to "make life easier for the couple in every way possible" by handling schedules, dog care, childcare, groceries, email communication, and so much more, all for the very reasonable salary of $45,000. Raj senses that this is his dream job, and he will do whatever he can to become this wealthy entertainment family's peon.

Raj is an incredible character. I felt oddly connected to him, despite all of his unlikability and poor decision-making. (This is perhaps due to Sethi's "day job" as an oncologist, with Sethi stating that his profession requires him to have empathy for everyone and see them as much more than their worst moments.) The plot moves along excellently, and I didn't see the climax of the story coming at all. It's such an excellent character study not just of Raj, but of the husband and wife in the "entertainment family" as well, producing almost this tightly wound, tense pas de trois between the three of them. Literary mastery.

The only thing that really knocks this down a star for me is the ending. After such excellent buildup, the ending felt atonal, with Raj making some off character choices to finish out the story.

[Ritu Bhathal · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish this book, and I usually tear through my reading...
The story of Raj, a wannabe Hollywood actor of Indian descent who lies to get a job as a personal assistant with a famous Hollywood family, didn't quite hit it for me.
There is dry humour, satire, and many issues covered, with a thread of Vanity Fair running through, but I didn't gel with it, unfortunately.

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This book very accurately and honestly wrestles with issues of race in a capitalistic society, specifically the entertainment industry. It was enjoyable, funny, and also at times hard to read bc of how triggering it was in its honesty. I’m glad I read it but don’t think I’d read it again haha

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Pamela Klurfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

What did I think of the book? That it was aptly named. Raj is a pathetic weasel. I didn’t find it amazing or insightful about Hollywood. Frankly it was just blah. Two stars is generous.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitle accurately describes this novel. Insufferable and unappealing characters. Well written. It's a homage to the classic Vanity Fair. I have no desire to read Thackeray's classic. Life imitating art? A failed actor in the role of a lifetime? Who is betraying who?

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Simp surprised me. I honestly didn’t like Raj at the beginning. He self-sabotages every time life gives him something good, and watching him make the same destructive choices over and over was frustrating. But somewhere along the way he completely grew on me. He became my antihero — messy, insecure, selfish at times, but also painfully human.

What really worked for me was the way the couple Raj worked for slowly changed throughout the story. At first they seem polished, successful, and almost generous in the way they pull Raj into their world. But as the plot unfolds, the cracks start showing. Their manipulation, entitlement, and the way they use Raj for their own emotional needs slowly turns them into the real villains of the book. That shift was one of the strongest parts of the story for me because it happened gradually instead of all at once.

The novel does a great job showing power imbalances, loneliness, and the way people can lose themselves trying to belong somewhere they were never truly accepted. Raj keeps making mistakes, but by the end I understood him far more than I expected to.

A messy, uncomfortable, and surprisingly emotional story with one of those flawed main characters that stays in your head afterward. This book will sit with me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC

[Skip Ferderber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A “simp,” more or less is described as “someone with excessive sympathy and attention toward another person, typically to someone who does not reciprocate the same feelings, in pursuit of affection or a sexual relationship.” In other words, meet Raj, the anti-hero star of this remarkable novel, “The Simp,” who takes on Hollywood while crawling from his belly, a gay man from an upper middle class home in India who migrates to Hollywood in hopes of finding a career as an actor.

Such is not his fate after years of chasing roles even as Hollywood begins pivoting to a more race-conscious stance in its productions. Alas. Raj’s obsequious approach to life produces no roles, no creditability, a “career” at a yogurt stand, until he reads what must be the most demanding resume ever published for a personal assistant to serve a cinematic family. It requires a devotion beyond belief, a near-groveling sense of servitude to the family and their many, over-the-top needs. In other words, something that fits Raj’s personality exactly.

He may sweat a great deal, but he is not stupid. He carries on a lengthy campaign to work his way into the plush home and even more plush life of actor/director Jim L_, his wife Anna, who lives uncomfortably in the great man’s (nervous) shadow. Then there’s Peter, their child who seems closer to Raj yhan his own parents. Without the resume required for this job, paying $45,000 a year, Raj lies, makes phony dorsement phone calls to the highly suspicious woman who runs the household. Finally, he has his way. He is hired.

We see this family through Raj’s eye. It’s not a pretty picture. The amount of detail an assistant must handle is mind-boggling including custom food for the family dog that the family’s chef cooks- food that cost more than Raj’s salary. But he is up to the task, constantly smiling, constantly praising, constantly obsequious beyond even the family’s tolerance for that behavior.

And yet, they begin to depend on him. When they take meetings, he is there, but sits in the lobby, waiting like a faithful dog. When they have emotional panic about being invited to the Oscars and where they will be placed, Raj is there to comfort them. And when they get accepted, Raj is invited to go with them, if even to sit in a balcony but not with them.

What they don’t know is that the job description that got Raj his job is a ticking time bomb, especially when Raj becomes upset about his treatment. He is competent enough to make sure the document gets into the right social media hands with a little added gossip about what family it refers to.

Through all of this, Raj has one friend, an actor named Anthony and his wife who genuinely care for him and believe he has the talent to become a great actor. When he dies, unheralded, unknown, something changes in Raj which leads to an explosive final act that none of them could have imagined.

This is a remarkable novel on many fronts. It is about an unusual protagonist with a unique trajectory in Hollywood. It’s also literate as Raj compares his life through the lens of the 19th Century novel “Vanity Fair,” understanding through his reading of it his own complicity in Hollywood’s enduring focus on white privilege, and finally understand what he must do to challenge just his small role in it.

One final note: in the author’s acknowledgements, he credits someone, presumably his life partner “[who has] given me everything including his life story, which I have ripped off to compose this novel.” Let the gossip begin, even as the bids roll in to make a terrific movie of this most Hollywood of stories.