Exit Party is a 2026 dystopian novel by author Emily St. John Mandel, inspired by a shelved adaptation of one of her books The Glass Hotel (2020). The novel takes place in Los Angeles and Paris in the aftermath of the collapse of the United States. The novel includes characters from other books by Mandel, including The Singer's Gun and The Glass Hotel.
Premise
In the year 2031 of the first spring, after the collapse of the United States, Ari Walker and her roommate entered a party before a shift causes the host of the party, Kareem, to vanish into thin air. As Walker unravels the mystery, she'll journey through a future splintered by a new civil war from the seaside cliffs of Greece and the domed city of Paris to a colony on the Moon in a price of safety, a face of cataclysmic change, and the perils from the surveillance state of a requiem for a world not unlike our own.
Reception
The New York Times rave Exit Party a good review. Publishers Weekly gave a starred review about the book as a bracing commentary on the dangers of divisiveness and surveillance, and the propulsive plot is fueled by the unfolding mystery of the initiating party scene. Kirkus Reviews states the book as a thrilling read and a virtuoso demonstration of the moral and philosophical possibilities of speculative fiction. Booklist and BookPage awarded it starred reviews while both The Book Reporter and The Arts Desk also raved about the novel.
Television adaptation
In October 2025, a bidding war for the novel, before release in September 2026, was offered to many companies with WandaVision writer Jac Schaeffer attached to showrun with author Emily St. John Mandel. In March 2026, Portland animation company Laika Studios, under its live-action division LAIKA Live-Action, purchased the television rights with Emma Stone and Dave McCary's company Fruit Tree executive producing.
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