Exit Party
by Emily St. John Mandel
Los Angeles, 2031: the first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate step into a city finding out what comes next.
Best for: Readers who like literary near-future fiction.
Exit Party is #19 on BookWard's Rising chart for October 2026: the hottest new books published in the past two years.
What Exit Party is about
The United States has collapsed, and in Los Angeles in the spring of 2031 the peacekeeping troops are leaving and the curfew has lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate walk across Silverlake to a party, glad to be out at night again. Then something strange happens: a bewildered twin, an uncanny double, stumbles through the crowd, and the host, Kareem, vanishes into thin air. Ari sets about unravelling the mystery of the night.
The story widens well beyond that party, taking in a civil-war-splintered America, a Greek seaside resort where weapons dealers hide, the domed city of Paris and a colony on the moon. Some characters will be familiar to readers of Emily St. John Mandel's earlier books, including The Singer's Gun and The Glass Hotel. It asks what safety costs, what living under surveillance does to people, and how they cope when the familiar world is gone.
Why Exit Party is on the Rising chart
Its Wikipedia page had 7,996 views last month, up 100% on the two months before. The Rising score blends six public signals, each scored from 0 to 100 against the other new books and weighted as shown.
| Signal | This book | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reader pace | 17 | 28% |
| Buzz | 64 | 24% |
| Growth | 100 | 18% |
| Being read right now | 43 | 12% |
| Reader love | 38 | 10% |
| Newness | 100 | 8% |
Rising Wikipedia attention is up 25% or more on the two months before.
The numbers behind it
- Wikipedia: 7,996 page views last month, against an average of 0 in the two months before (up 100%). Read the article.
- Open Library readers: 1 want to read, 0 reading now, 0 have read it.
Exit Party on the Rising chart: history
First on the chart this month. The history grows with every monthly update.
| Month | Rank | Score |
|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | #19 | 55 |
Questions about Exit Party
Is Exit Party a new book?
Yes. Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel was first published in 2026, and BookWard's Rising chart only includes books published in the past two years.
Why is Exit Party on the Rising chart?
Its Wikipedia page had 7,996 views last month, up 100% on the two months before.
More new books readers are finding
- The End of Everything M. John Harrison
- Operation Bounce House Matt Dinniman
Prefer proven favorites? See the Top 100, or all Rising books.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views. The description is paraphrased from real source text (Open Library or Wikipedia). A book is on the Rising chart only if it was published in 2025 or 2026 and its readers are active and its interest is not falling. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales. Read the full methodology.
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