For our November meeting, my sci-fi book club read Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel. This novel was published in 2026 and is a near-future dystopian story that explores dual realities, opposing timelines that never truly meet but, nevertheless, shift and intersect in creative and thoughtful ways.
The story intricately weaves its characters, plot twists, and paintings (there’s a lot about the art world here) between two different versions of 2031 Los Angeles, neither of which are terribly appealing. (Hello, autocrats, fascists, and anarchists, take a bow.) There are also some pretty inventive futuristic chapters set in Paris for the Francophiles among you.
The group mostly agreed on what we liked and disliked about the book. We all found the protagonist — “Ari” in one reality and “Ibari” in the other — a fascinating and fully realized character capable of carrying the weight of Mandel’s complex and multilayered labyrinth of a plot. That said, the middle story lagged for us a bit, and whenever Ari and Ibari were offstage, the novel lost momentum and, in some cases, lost us altogether.
But these criticisms didn’t stop me from enjoying the forceful and wonderous work of art Mandel produced. The book left me thinking about the power of human connection, free will, and how the core of our personalities can be shaped by historical events beyond our control. Some of the group preferred Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility to this book. Reader’s choice.
Next up for us in December is Hyperion, a classic from the 1980s, by Dan Simmons. I hope you’re reading along with us.
See the other books we’ve read at My Sci-Fi Book Club.
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