Cover by Arsh Raziuddin
PRAISE
“Eerie and unsettling and believable.”
—Gillian Flynn
“Like picking up a downed power line, so full of rage and want and, well, electricity, that I couldn’t put it down.”
—Ann Patchett
“Jennette McCurdy takes what could have been a simple morality tale and turns it into something more complicated and infinitely more interesting—a riveting examination of lust and self-delusion, and a sly reminder that our worst mistakes can sometimes lead us stumbling toward the light. McCurdy is a fearless and darkly funny writer with an unerring eye for the perfect mortifying detail.”
—Tom Perrotta
“[She] writes sentences that glimmer and cut like razors. With Half His Age, she delivers a deeply felt and humorous tale about the dangers of youth and desire—this novel is uncomfortable, unpredictable, and unputdownable.”
—Aria Aber
“A bold and unapologetic novel for edge-seekers, doom-scrollers, latchkey kids, horn-dogs, and all those who love hard.”
—Brittany Newell, The New York Times Book Review
“Proves her memoir was anything but a one-hit wonder. Brimming with teenage angst and McCurdy’s signature dark humor.”
—USA Today
“You’ve never met a character quite like Waldo. An explicit, provocative, and sometimes uncomfortable read . . . an unapologetically bare and intimate portrait of the psyche of a girl on the brink of womanhood and a meditation on the generational cycles that shape us. Seventeen-year-old Waldo is simultaneously fascinating and frustrating, naive and nuanced. Maybe you're ashamed of her or embarrassed by her—or maybe you're rooting for her to come out the other side. . . bold and brash . . . A vivid picture of all that we dismiss when it comes to the complexity of a young woman’s desire. . . . With each of her books, McCurdy continues to lean into the uncomfortable conversations that end up leading the discourse.”
—Harper’s Bazaar
“A bleak, often hilarious and uncomfortable triumph.”
—The Guardian
“McCurdy’s furious writing—her dystopian rendering of a culture squandering its dreams and desires on the crack high of cheap stuff—is hard to tear yourself away from.”
—The Atlantic
“[A] a connoisseur of the ugly detail . . . Assured, provocative, and cements [McCurdy’s] standing as a talented writer . . . articulates the vulnerability of girlhood with guts, humor and just the slightest whisper of warmth.”
—The New York Times
“Hilarious, gross, disturbing, poignant.”
—The Washington Post
“A writer able to capture some of the darkest parts of human nature with unflinching honesty and devastating humor.”
—NPR
“As unapologetic and undeniable as its young protagonist . . . McCurdy treats Waldo’s want with an almost reverent seriousness.”
—Elle
“McCurdy’s furious writing—her dystopian rendering of a culture squandering its dreams and desires on the crack high of cheap stuff—is hard to tear yourself away from.”
—The Atlantic
“[A] revenge story, one where McCurdy excavates emotions she herself had at seventeen. And if it makes you angry, about feminism or rampant consumerism or the power dynamics in age-gap relationships, even better—McCurdy still is, too.”
—Rolling Stone
“Share[s] plenty with her memoir: smarts, style . . . Here, 17-year-old Waldo finds herself desperately, foolishly, hopelessly in love with a teacher, a predicament that allows McCurdy to stretch her muscles exploring power and desire in our modern moment.”
—Town & Country
“Haunting, hilarious, and heart-rending . . . A coming-of-age story that refuses easy answers—the kind McCurdy tells best.”
—Bustle
HALF HIS AGE
JENNETTE MCCURDY
Intoxicating.
Inappropriate. Inevitable.
The New York Times bestselling blockbuster from the author of I’m Glad My Mom Died
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of I’m Glad My Mom Died comes a sad, funny, thrilling novel about sex, consumerism, class, desire, loneliness, the internet, rage, intimacy, power, and the (oftentimes misguided) lengths we’ll go to in order to get what we want.
Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all: Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films and things that she doesn’t? Or is it purer than that, rooted in their unlikely connection, their kindred spirits, the similar filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.
Startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant, Half His Age is a rich character study of a yearning seventeen-year-old who disregards all obstacles—or attempts to overcome them—in her effort to be seen, to be desired, to be loved.
Jennette McCurdy is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of I’m Glad My Mom Died, winner of the 2023 American Library Association Alex Award. The book has been published in more than thirty countries and has sold more than three million copies. Half His Age is her debut novel.
PRAISE
“Chong’s endearing novel about second chances is a tender look at the power of redemption.”
—The Washington Post
“Wise and poignant [with] mouthwatering descriptions of food . . . about finding—or rediscovering—the people who make hardship worth enduring.”
—Bobby Finger, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
“I Leave It Up to You is funny and tender, with characters whose lives are satisfyingly messy. Jinwoo Chong is a writer for those of us who exist between cultures and identities.”
—Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
“Alive and boisterous and entirely profound . . . a riot and a tender exploration of (re)discovering your place in the world.”
—Bryan Washington, author of Palavar
“A remarkable portrait of an American family . . . compassionate and beautifully told.”
—Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author of Portrait of a Thief
“You won’t forget this big-hearted, beautifully written book.”
—BookPage
“Jinwoo Chong is a master storyteller. A novel about second chances, the many threads of love that tie people together in the face of loss, and the maddening complexities of family devotion, this is a spectacular book.”
—Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me
“Sweet and satisfying without sacrificing bite, I Leave It Up to You achieves that which we cherish in our most favorite works: an unvarnished reflection of reality.”
—Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author of Black Buck
“Funny and wickedly observant with a cast of characters so endearing I laughed out loud and was moved to tears, I Leave It Up to You is a delicious meal of a book, with courses of drama, tragedy, and comedy. Jack Jr.’s efforts to separate himself from his raucous, loving, over-reaching Korean American immigrant family are rendered with brilliant finesse and beauty.”
—Jimin Han, author of The Apology
“Alive and boisterous and entirely profound . . . a riot and a tender exploration of (re)discovering your place in the world.”
—Bryan Washington, author of Palavar
“By the end of I Leave It Up to You, Chong managed to pull off the impossible: He made me fall in love with New Jersey. His prose is funny, exuberant, and moving, and his characters are packed full of life in all of its spectacular dysfunction.”
—Grant Ginder, author of So Old, So Young
“A spirited and deeply affecting story about love in all its forms, the chaos and complications of family, and how to pick yourself back up in the wake of loss . . . as pleasurable as a good conversation over an excellent meal.”
—Gina Chung, author of Sea Change
“I Leave It Up to You explores what it means to be healthy, to love, to rebuild a family in the aftermath of a bewildering tragedy. A tender novel of rebirth and repair . . . a delicious read.”
—Isle McElroy, author of People Collide
“Captures precisely that tragicomic feeling of suspended animation . . . [a] funny and big-hearted novel.”
—Rafael Frumkin, author of Confidence
“Versatile wunderkind Chong . . . deftly, poignantly, gloriously transforms family dysfunction into universal life lessons about how independence and autonomy don’t have to mean giving up unconditional love, underscored with a ringing reminder to never take it for granted.”
—Booklist, starred review
I LEAVE IT UP TO YOU
JINWOO CHONG
Love.
Family.
The art of sushi.
What if you could go back—wiser than before—and do it all again?
From the award-winning author of Flux comes “an endearing novel about second chances” (The Washington Post), with wise insights into love, family, and sushi.
A coma can change a man, but the world Jack Jr. awakens to is one he barely recognizes. His advertising job is history, his Manhattan apartment is gone, and the love of his life has left him behind. He’s been asleep for two years; with no one to turn to, he realizes it’s been ten years since he last saw his family.
Lost and disoriented, he makes a reluctant homecoming back to the bustling Korean American enclave of Fort Lee, New Jersey; back into the waiting arms of his parents, who are operating under the illusion that he never left; and back to Joja, their ever-struggling sushi restaurant that he was set to inherit before he ran away from it all. As he steps back into the life he abandoned—learning his Appa’s life lessons over crates of tuna on bleary-eyed 4 a.m. fish runs, doling out amberjack behind the omakase counter while his Umma tallies the night’s pitiful number of customers, and sparring with his recovering alcoholic brother, James—he embraces new roles, too: that of romantic interest to the nurse who took care of him, and that of sage (but underqualified) uncle to his gangly teenage nephew.
There is value in the joyous rhythms of this once-abandoned life. But second chances are an even messier business than running a restaurant, and the lure of a self-determined path might, once again, prove too hard to resist.
Jinwoo Chong is the author of the novels I Leave It Up to You and Flux, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. His work has appeared in Guernica, The Southern Review, The Rumpus, LitHub, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Electric Literature, and received recognition from the 2025 Best American Short Stories anthology and a special mention from the 2022 Pushcart Prizes. His third novel, Club Nine Tails is forthcoming. He lives in New Jersey with his husband and cat.
“Smart, funny, fast, and a little bit furious . . . a highly entertaining novel filled with surprising scenes and unforgettable characters. Jinwoo Chong is at the top of his game.”
—Patrick Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of Buckeye
“Sharp and insightful, wild and heartbreaking . . . You will love this comic and often precarious journey in a Nissan Cube. This one is a real winner.” —Annie Hartnett, bestselling author of The Road to Tender Hearts
PRAISE
“Soooo good . . . TikTok hype house gothic-literary drama.”
—The Cut
“Here you’ll find that gothic horror, so often lurking in the dingy dark, can manifest also in the fluorescent world of the terminally online. . . . Stein knows more about the internet than I do. (Probably more than you too, dear reader, but I don’t want to presume.) Makes sense, then, that the versatile writer has found the gothic possibilities in a house full of social media influencers.”
—NPR
“Leigh Stein [has] cemented herself as a satirist of Our Present Moment. Turns out nothing is scarier than the influence machine.”
—Literary Hub
“Stein’s novel has much to say about Hollywood, social media, and the creator economy; at its heart is a gothic horror story wrapped up in a mystery with satirical undertones.”
—Los Angeles Times
“For anyone who has felt fate intervening on their TikTok feed.”
—USA Today
“[An] incisive social satire . . . a funny, dark look at the new creator economy in a way only Leigh Stein can.”
—Town & Country, “The Must-Read Books of the Summer”
“Leigh Stein’s wildly entertaining and whip-smart new novel is about a bunch of aspiring influencers in a hype house—except that house is an old mansion that may have some ghosts of its own. This fun twist on a Gothic mystery offers insightful commentary into influencer culture and the way we consume internet content.”—Katie Couric Media
“Leigh Stein’s work provokes you like the most unsettling clip you’ve ever seen on a screen—and you won’t be able to look away.”
—Julia Phillips, author of Bear
“This is a smart, funny, and incisive novel about fading relevance, digital reinvention, and the people addicted to making content even as it consumes them.”
—Andrew Boryga, author of Victim
“A masterpiece and laugh-out-loud funny . . . the first novel about TikTok that takes it seriously, in all its hideousness and brain rot . . . I’m obsessed with the fusion of Gothic creeping dread and the seductive allure of the algorithm. I loved this!”—Josh Lora (attellthebeees)
“There’s no better setting to explore the changing world of media than a Los Angeles influencer’s mansion. . . . Rife with poignant observations about what drives a person to a content-creation career (trauma, grit, destiny) and how the lines between media and retail have all but disappeared, Stein’s latest . . . is a super-fun read with amazing depth.”
—Booklist
IF YOU’RE SEEING THIS, IT’S MEANT FOR YOU
LEIGH STEIN
Remember when you thought the internet couldn’t get any crazier?
The bestselling satire about a haunted hype house, getting older, and the strange permutations of modern life.
After her boyfriend dumps her in a Reddit post, unemployed thirty-nine-year-old Dayna accepts an unusual opportunity from a man she stopped speaking to twenty years ago: If Dayna can help Craig transform his crumbling mansion into a successful hype house of influencers, he can restore his birthright to its former glory, and she can bring her career back from the dead.
But missing from the mansion is Becca, an enigmatic tarot card reader who built a rabid fandom with her cryptic, soul-touching videos . . . and then vanished. With nineteen-year-old Olivia, the newest member of the hype house (and one of Becca’s biggest fans), Dayna begins to build a social media campaign around Becca’s disappearance that will catapult the creators to new heights of success. Too bad Craig forbids Dayna from pursuing the mystery at its heart.
As Olivia searches for traces of Becca in a labyrinthine house that seems intent on hiding its secrets, and Dayna becomes entangled with both Craig and Jake, the resident heartthrob and the last person to see Becca, the two women make a shocking discovery that will upend everything.
Leigh Stein makes fun of what the internet is doing to us. She is the bestselling author of six books, including the critically acclaimed satirical novel Self Care. She has written culture pieces and personal essays for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker online, Airmail, Allure, ELLE, BuzzFeed, The Cut, Salon, and Slate.
PRAISE
SEEN ON LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS
"Bless Jo Firestone's quiet, mad genius . . . Hilarious and completely brilliant, [a] bloodstained love-letter to reality-dating television."
—Vulture
“I’m so sad Sex Island isn’t a real TV show, because I’d make a fantastic host.”
—Stephen Colbert
“A genius and my hero—there is truly nothing Jo Firestone cannot do.”
—Taylor Tomlinson
“Once again the incomparable (and unhinged) Jo Firestone proves that she is damn funny.”
—Ziwe
“A triumph of genre fuckery. The kind of book that makes you laugh out loud on the subway, unashamed to be reading a book with both SEX and MURDER on the cover in huge print . . . Jo Firestone once again proves that not only is she an expert comedian, but she can spin a genuine mystery tale that has you completely unsure of what is going to happen next, in the best way possible.”
—Ana Gasteyer
“A delightful, sidesplitting satire of the reality TV industry as seen from the perspective of Luella van Horn, the crime-solving alter ego of a Staten Island social worker named Marie Jones. The sequel, Sex on Murder Island, brings Luella back a few months after her first sleuthing triumph . . . Let’s just say I’ve never read a more wholesome novel involving multiple sex parties. She’ll catch the killer, but the book shines brightest in its depiction of a lonely woman searching for real friends.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“For readers who prefer to cackle wickedly, Jo Firestone’s Sex on Murder Island could be just the ticket. A sequel to the comedian’s Murder on Sex Island, the new book promises a similar blend of sex, murder, and completely inappropriate humor.”
—The Boston Globe
“Fast-paced fun that will appeal to fans of Elle Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan and Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Meddelin Chan.”
—Library Journal, starred review
“Wild, wacky . . . somehow even funnier than her first book [and] perfectly over-the-top. Let’s hope there’s a third Luella adventure coming soon. . . . A wonderfully weird mystery.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Hilarious . . . Sexy waiters, spooky butlers, and a kinky boat pilot named Betsy all support Luella’s madcap murder investigation. For sheer laughs, this beats the previous book, and readers will hope to encounter the colorful cast of sidekicks in future installments. It’s a riot.”
—Publishers Weekly
MURDER ON SEX
ISLAND
SEX ON MURDER ISLAND
JO FIRESTONE
A sexy reality show.
A missing contestant.
A one-of-a-kind detective.
The side-splitting and acclaimed mystery series starring Luella van Horn, private eye.
When a cast member goes missing from the hit reality show Sex Island, producers hire detective Luella van Horn to go undercover as a contestant and solve the case. What the producers don’t know is that the enigmatic Luella van Horn is actually a woman named Marie Jones, a divorced ex–social worker from Staten Island attempting to lead a double life as a private eye. The local press couldn’t get enough of Luella . . . until she horribly bungled her last case and a murderer went free.
Unable to resist the opportunity to be a part of her favorite trashy TV show, travel to a remote island, and embark on a journey for redemption, Marie-as-Luella takes the case. But the more she learns about Sex Island’s dark underbelly, the harder it gets to make it out alive. She encounters shady producers, sleazy directors, contestants willing to do whatever it takes to win the $100,000 grand prize—and the dead body of the show’s missing fan-favorite in her bathtub.
Will she find the killer? Will she find herself? Will she find love? Find out now, on Sex Island’s most dramatic season yet.
Jo Firestone is a comedian and television writer known for her work on After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson, ZIWE, and Joe Pera Talks With You. Her most recent comedy special, Good Timing, received a Critics Choice nomination and is available on Peacock.
PRAISE
“Soooo good . . . TikTok hype house gothic-literary drama.”
—The Cut
“Here you’ll find that gothic horror, so often lurking in the dingy dark, can manifest also in the fluorescent world of the terminally online. . . . Stein knows more about the internet than I do. (Probably more than you too, dear reader, but I don’t want to presume.) Makes sense, then, that the versatile writer has found the gothic possibilities in a house full of social media influencers.”
—NPR
“Leigh Stein [has] cemented herself as a satirist of Our Present Moment. Turns out nothing is scarier than the influence machine.”
—Literary Hub
“Stein’s novel has much to say about Hollywood, social media, and the creator economy; at its heart is a gothic horror story wrapped up in a mystery with satirical undertones.”
—Los Angeles Times
“For anyone who has felt fate intervening on their TikTok feed.”
—USA Today
“[An] incisive social satire . . . a funny, dark look at the new creator economy in a way only Leigh Stein can.”
—Town & Country, “The Must-Read Books of the Summer”
“Leigh Stein’s wildly entertaining and whip-smart new novel is about a bunch of aspiring influencers in a hype house—except that house is an old mansion that may have some ghosts of its own. This fun twist on a Gothic mystery offers insightful commentary into influencer culture and the way we consume internet content.”—Katie Couric Media
“Leigh Stein’s work provokes you like the most unsettling clip you’ve ever seen on a screen—and you won’t be able to look away.”
—Julia Phillips, author of Bear
“This is a smart, funny, and incisive novel about fading relevance, digital reinvention, and the people addicted to making content even as it consumes them.”
—Andrew Boryga, author of Victim
“A masterpiece and laugh-out-loud funny . . . the first novel about TikTok that takes it seriously, in all its hideousness and brain rot . . . I’m obsessed with the fusion of Gothic creeping dread and the seductive allure of the algorithm. I loved this!”—Josh Lora (attellthebeees)
“There’s no better setting to explore the changing world of media than a Los Angeles influencer’s mansion. . . . Rife with poignant observations about what drives a person to a content-creation career (trauma, grit, destiny) and how the lines between media and retail have all but disappeared, Stein’s latest . . . is a super-fun read with amazing depth.”
—Booklist
SIRENS & MUSES
ANTONIA ANGRESS
Remember when you thought the internet couldn’t get any crazier?
The bestselling satire about a haunted hype house.
After her boyfriend dumps her in a Reddit post, unemployed thirty-nine-year-old Dayna accepts an unusual opportunity from a man she stopped speaking to twenty years ago: If Dayna can help Craig transform his crumbling mansion into a successful hype house of influencers, he can restore his birthright to its former glory, and she can bring her career back from the dead.
But missing from the mansion is Becca, an enigmatic tarot card reader who built a rabid fandom with her cryptic, soul-touching videos . . . and then vanished. With nineteen-year-old Olivia, the newest member of the hype house (and one of Becca’s biggest fans), Dayna begins to build a social media campaign around Becca’s disappearance that will catapult the creators to new heights of success. Too bad Craig forbids Dayna from pursuing the mystery at its heart.
As Olivia searches for traces of Becca in a labyrinthine house that seems intent on hiding its secrets, and Dayna becomes entangled with both Craig and Jake, the resident heartthrob and the last person to see Becca, the two women make a shocking discovery that will upend everything.
Leigh Stein makes fun of what the internet is doing to us. She is the bestselling author of six books, including the critically acclaimed satirical novel Self Care. She has written culture pieces and personal essays for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker online, Airmail, Allure, ELLE, BuzzFeed, The Cut, Salon, and Slate.