Emily St. John Mandel’s books are always startling and practically impossible to describe. They have to be experienced; there’s a sense of wonder that comes with seeing her stories unfold on the page. Exit Party is another fine example of her strange, lyrical storytelling.

In 2031, the United States is no more. After a coup d’état, the country has fractured into a myriad of territories and republics and city-states. As the story opens, war has ended — at least for the moment — in Los Angeles, and people are ready to celebrate. The main character is Ari, recently released after an eighteen-year prison sentence, who lives in LA with her roommate Gloria. Gloria had intended to bring Ari to a friend’s party, but has a hard time leaving the apartment; Ari — after a lifetime of premonitions that come true — feels strongly that they need to attend.

The party is fun at first, but odd things happen. A woman Ari’s never met calls her by the name on her birth certificate — a name she never uses — and then seems to appear in a completely different outfit moments later. Another woman looks almost exactly like Gloria, and Ari sees more things that she can’t explain. Later, the party’s host disappears, and is never heard from again.

Following the party, Ari’s life goes on, as she move from place to place, in and out of danger, finding new ways to survive and making new connections, navigating a world of militias and checkpoints and violence. The mysteries surrounding that party never really leave her mind, and we see how the ripple effects follow her across decades.

All this is in the “A-Side” section of Exit Party; the book’s second half is “B-Side”, and without going into too much detail, it provides a look at a very different version of the world. In “B-Side”, there’s no longer a United States — instead, there’s the State, a surveillance based country in which life is supposedly safe, because it’s absolutely controlled. There’s no war, because the Service knows and sees everything and stops problems before they start. There’s a connection to Ari’s story; let’s leave it at that.

Exit Party is astounding in all the right ways. The parallels between the halves of the book are a joy to discover, a puzzle to unravel and muse over. Characters weave in and out of both halves, some fully fleshed out and alive, some who make brief but memorable appearances before disappearing again. Both halves show worlds that seems awful in their own ways, yet it’s intriguing to see how events play out in both, and scarily possible to imagine a path from our own world to these other versions.

My one minor quibble with this book is that despite how much I loved the writing and was fascinated by the complex storytelling, I often felt emotionally disengaged. I was interested in the characters, but not actually connected to them on a deeper level. The plot threads are woven together beautiful and I was intrigued by the characters’ lives and experiences; I just didn’t feel that I was in the story alongside them, if that makes any sense.

Despite that, I was very absorbed throughout my time with Exit Party. The author’s writing casts a spell, and the book as a whole is a fascinating journey. Highly recommended for fans of the author as well as for readers new to her work.

Interested in this author? Check out my review of more books by Emily St. John Mandel:
Station Eleven
The Glass Hotel
Sea of Tranquility