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 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, Adult, Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy

320 pages, Hardcover

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

[Henk]

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

[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!

[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.

[Ruxandra Grrr]

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

[Bill Muganda]

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

[sam]

not a want but a NEED

[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?

[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.

[Amy Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I AM SAT!!!!!

[ayusha]

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

[Marika · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

*I read an advance copy and was not compensated

[Mieke]

hey siri, play party 4 u by charli xcx

[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!

[Robert Prather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, thank you to the publisher, Knopf, for providing an e-ARC for a non-biased review (via Edelweiss+, thanks to my being a Bookseller at Barnes & Noble).

Who doesn't fantasize about exiting this world, leaving its traumas behind? Would another world be better? Worse? Do we have freedom in our society? What does freedom look like in the contexts of these worlds? What elements of society are important? What is a family; how are they created; who qualifies to be a parent? If these questions intrigue you, Please read this book!

We can all identify with living in a crumbling, failing society. You can feel the creeping loss of basic, expected social support/security, and the personal impacts of those losses, in the pages of this book. It's a society that makes it difficult to live your values; that even leads to questioning of those values. As you can imagine, this is a most harrowing book, with intricate and emotional means of interrogating these questions.

I could not put it down. The character development and world building are excellent. The messages contained in the story are impeccable and timely. The style of writing supports the atmospheric quality / mood of such a book well.

Note: I recommend you seek out the content warnings if you are sensitive to descriptions of abuse.

[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.

[dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this ARC through the bookstore I work at; I didn't order it, but I did snatch it off our galley shelf around the time it arrived.

Had I known there was required [being facetious] material beforehand I would have probably read those first... but nonetheless I still felt this was a stunning display of Mandel's powers as a speculative writer. It's set in two alternate versions of the United States, one in which the country has been dissolved into a serious of smaller countries and states after the collapse of the government as we know it, and one where it has morphed into a single megastate with advanced authoritarian surveillance software. The premise is that one night, at a party in the first universe, two people emerge from the crowd who were not there before. They both look exactly alike to two respective people also at this party. Then, the host disappears. It's an amazing hook in my opinion, and got me drawn in from the start.

But this book is so much more than that. It's full of twists and turns, the elaboration of both worlds takes up much of the book, and yet the story unravels in a way that feels both fully formed and neat. The jumping perspectives is a Mandel classic yet it felt new and fresh in this book, because the jumps are so incredibly large but they're also always deliberate. Mandel is a master at showing us a seemingly random point in time that connects perfectly to something we've just read, or will read. Her grip over her universes is also tight and exact so each new detail about the book's more speculative elements feel realistic. She clearly thought a great deal about how it would actually feel to live in either world, perhaps the first more than the second. We see people trying to live normal lives, how major governments elsewhere react, what lengths people go to not only to survive but to grasp at having a normal life. The book's premise largely hangs on that; Kareem throws a party the first night the curfew lifts, while the continent is actively falling apart. He knows people need it. The novel also features a recurring theme of water, the ocean specifically, that was also wrapped up beautifully. The act of diving, succumbing to the dark coldness of the sea, floats in and out. It is a guiding force that initially I didn't quite catch but becomes increasingly clear towards the book's end. It exists in both worlds in its own way.

This book is also, in so many ways, a climate novel. It never names itself as such, but both universes are grappling with a late-stage version of the climate crisis. People travel by boat because winds are too high, solar fans are installed in major cities, some larger international cities have 'domes' that imitate weather patterns from decades prior. Yet those who cannot afford to live within these domes are effectively left to die, either from heatstroke or another way of exposure. Families without the funds to live within expensive city states like New York, the capital of the new Atlantic Republic, are likewise ignored. It feels like a perfect prediction of how the world will react to our impending extinction. Mandel's ability to make significant something mentioned in passing is so impressive. Each new drop of how populations have responded to the ongoing threat of fire and high winds and storms struck me, perhaps because of my own feelings of dread about the climate crisis. I thought her handling of it was excellent either way, especially how it showed up in both universes.

Perhaps what I am most struck with, though, is Kareem and Gloria/Kareem and Nico. The first Kareem we are introduced to is the one hosting a party while the country collapses. He and Gloria have slept together and he is the father of her unborn child. By all accounts he is a nice guy, liked by many, and he's incredibly excited to be a father. The second Kareem, married to Nico and father of her two toddlers, is a self-absorbed pompous arse. I hated his character, and it was clear that was how we were supposed to approach him. He blatantly neglects his kids and, despite the fact that Nico and he work the same job within the same hours for the same pay, he believes his work more important. Nico (now in another world) is only thinking about her children, and made Ibari promise that if anything happened to her Ibari would keep her kids safe. When Ibari interrogates Kareem no 2, he explains the situation like his neglect is a tragedy that just happened to Nico rather than his own actions. Ugh. When the first Kareem is transported to the other universe when the second's experiment fails, he is transported to a work camp because no one really knows what to do with him. Ibari, sensing an opportunity, gets him out and asks if he can take care of Kareem's kids, Marlowe and Samir. The second Kareem is then prompted to leave, becoming a ghost and member of the resistance, never with any consideration for the children he brought into the world. Perhaps out of guilt or embarrassment, or perhaps because he simply doesn't care. But then Kareem no 1, the father of a child he will never see, raises Nico's children. The details of this are revealed towards the end of the book, when almost the entire time we've been left to wonder who is looking after her kids. And to know that not only are they safe but a version of Kareem exists who is an excellent father and loves being a dad and whose greatest happiness are the kids of his wife in another universe... oh my god. It's so heartbreaking that Nico will never know, that she never has complete confirmation that her babies are in the right hands. I was totally gripped by their storyline and was so happy with the way it played out.

I would have liked more of an insight into the second world's power system, personally. Who is commanding this ship? How is the surveillance being maintained? When cracks begin to show how do the higher-ups respond? There were a few things left unanswered, but I also have to recognise that if all questions had been addressed the book might have been twice as long. I just felt there wasn't quite enough of the stakes laid out with regard to the second universe. Of course the surveillance itself is a stake, but I wanted to see a bit more of the consequences involved in this system. I do also think there's some degree of explanation in the obscurity. For example, one of Irabi's colleagues is arrested towards the book's end and the last we hear about him is her supervisor saying 'he's out of my hands now'. Some part of me thinks this is explicit enough, that he is made into a ghost of the state, but I also don't know for sure, and another part of me would have liked to see the consequences materialised a little more. Aside from my lingering questions which may have been answered by reading The Singer's Gun, I thought this was incredibly strong.

[Hayle Chen]

THANK GOD she’s back

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received the ARC from the publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What I admire most about this novel is how unsettling it feels in a way that lingers. Mandel has always been good at atmosphere, but here the world building feels especially sharp and uncomfortably plausible. The split between a universe in which the US federal government has fallen and another in which the government remains intact but closely surveils its citizens is not just speculative fiction. It feels like a thought experiment that is only a few turns away from present reality. In the surveilled world, no negative words can be said about the government. Black vehicles move quietly through neighborhoods, “disappearing” people. That detail alone stayed with me.

Living in Minnesota, in the Twin Cities, with all of the visible ICE activity lately, those elements were more than abstract. They were anxiety inducing. The book never lectures, but it does not have to. The proximity to real life does the work. The tension hums under the surface, and it makes even ordinary scenes feel fragile.

Beyond the political undercurrent, the emotional texture is what elevates the novel. Mandel’s writing is luminous and controlled. She captures small human moments amid large scale instability in a way that feels intimate rather than epic. The characters are layered and believable, and the narrative structure rewards patience. There is a quiet confidence in how the story unfolds, trusting the reader to follow threads that only gradually reveal how they connect.

My only real hesitation is that it took me a little while to get into the story. Not because it was slow, but because it asks you to orient yourself carefully. Once I settled into its rhythm, though, I was fully in. I did not share many of the common criticisms I have seen. For me, the complexity was part of the appeal.

Overall, this is a thoughtful, beautifully written novel that blends speculative elements with emotional depth. It is unsettling in the best way, especially if you are reading it from a place that already feels politically charged. The book is not quite perfect, but it is powerful, timely, and very much worth reading.

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I told a friend of mine recently that I would read copy on a box of soup if it was written by Emily St. John Mandel, so when my copy of Exit Party arrived on my doorstep, I knew I wouldn't be able to wait until September to read it. Now, I'm at that weird empty feeling when you've devoured a book by a beloved author and you have to wait years for the next one to come out.

It's a good thing I have Mandel's backlist, which I'm definitely going to read because like many of the books she's written in the past, Exit Party continues to exist in that weird post-dystopian universe she created. But this time, there's two. Science fiction in this book felt like it was more a plot device than the central part of the story. Mandel's known for her complex character development and the windy path she puts her characters on. This is no different and what I absolutely adore about her writing.

Splitting the world between two universes, somewhat the same but still very different, Mandel's intrepid characters run the gamut of life in a world where the country is split into warring nations or it's been unified to become one giant nanny state. Either way, her characters are conformed to the worlds that they exist in until the moment when their worlds collide. I mean, wouldn't your world shift in its entirety if you found out another you existed in another universe?

And so you follow along with her characters across time and space to different worlds, neither of them good, and see their lives play out in their highly defined moments. I absolutely love it. It's like putting someone in a maze and then just watching to see how they cope, how they react, how they pull themselves out of the mess they find themselves in. I loved this one and will definitely filling the void of finishing this book by checking out her back list.

[Suzanne Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m so disappointed. I was sure this was going to be my favorite book of the year. I celebrated when I received the ARC from Netgalley! Maybe it’s just me. I hope it’s just me. I love the writing of Emily St John Mandel. I have read the majority of what she has written. Station Eleven and The Sea of Tranquility are two of my favorite books.

If you told me that Emily St John Mandel did not write the first half, I would believe you. For me, the writing felt “dry”, and at times the time line and characters were confusing. I was hoping to get to know Ari better after reading The Singer’s Gun. Kareem and Nico were the only characters I was most interested in. Kareem has a very small part in the first half. I had to force myself to read the first half of this book.

The second half of this book was much more enjoyable and engaging for me. I felt that I got to know the characters better and cared about them and their story line. As a Californian, I enjoyed the LA setting and knew many of the places suggested in this novel.

I would recommend this book for Emily St John Mandel fans and hope that they love it. Readers who enjoy time travel and multiverse themes would enjoy this book. I was reading Detour by Jeff Rake at the same time as Exit Party and would bundle these two books together. They had similar ideas about multiverses.

[Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I may have been overhyped for a new Mandel book and came away vaguely disappointed. There are many excellent signature pieces of the book, including callbacks to previous books, an examination of the weirdness of twinning, and jumps through time. I also like Mandel's character work and these characters are dealing with a lot of oddness. I believe my qualms come from the setting: the breakup of the United States. I don't think it adds much to the novel and has been done better in books like The Biography of X. This is still an interesting addition to the Mandel-verse, but the first of her novels that I can't go all-in for.

[idiomatic · Rating 4 out of 5]

emily is back and nature is healing!! very funny to go station eleven —> glass hotel —> iteration on station eleven —> iteration on glass hotel, but this at least lives up to the quality of glass hotel (sea of tranquility did not do that with SE) minus some pieces where the dialogue is unusually clunky for her. apparently also a bridge with an earlier novel! ok damn i will read the early stuff, esjm!

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the creativity of this book more in retrospect than I did while I was reading it. I was not in the mood to read a sort of post-apocalyptic book, so this was definitely not the best book for me to be reading at the time. Emily St. John Mandel is an excellent writer and I'm sure many people will be enthralled with this book, though I don't think it reaches the heights of Station Eleven. I just didn't particularly enjoy it while I was reading it.

[LRN · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world(s) is over. Emily St. John Mandel's Exit Party is exquisite. Prophetic, personal, and anchored with the right amount of wish fulfillment to explore what it means to live in the world today, without a wallpapered sheen. The characters pop. The prose cut deep. And the worldbuilding is executed with precision and personality. I love this book. I love how this book has stayed with me. St. John Mandel has created a living piece - one I will be in dialogue with for years to come.

[Sharon Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another strong novel from Mandel! She does a fantastic job of "literary sci-fi" where she focuses on the humanity happening within some crazy science fiction scenarios. Exit Party was a fascinating exploration of characters and two different futures offered. I didn't know much going into this besides "parallel worlds" and I think that's how most people should approach it--just know that it has a strong connection to Mandel's earlier works (namely "The Singer's Gun")

[Melissa Boles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so blessed to be able to read this early. It’s beautifully written (no surprise there) and it’s one I will be thinking about for a long time to come. The characters are complex, the story is both relevant and deeply imaginative, and while I still have many questions, I found the ending satisfying. This book is exceptional.