Book Review: Exit Party

From Exit Party, by Emily St. John Mandel

Amazon

"In the first spring after the collapse of the United States, the blossoming of the jacaranda trees felt to Ari like grace. The trees bloomed in the same week that international peacekeeping troops withdrew from Los Angeles, and the convergence of flowers with the absence of foreign soldiers brought a delirious kind of hope. Everyone in the spring of 2031 knew the city was one terrorist attack away from disaster, but that peril made the season more vivid, not less."

---

Grade: A-

2031: The collapse of the United States leads to the rise of various militias ruling a collection of mini-states with ever-shifting borders. The newly declared Republic of California establishes control over its own territory. The withdrawal of peacekeeping forces from L.A. and the lifting of the city's curfew lead Kareem to throw a party. It turns out to be the strangest party of his life. One guest appears to be in two rooms simultaneously, wearing different clothes in each. Then another guest's confused doppelganger appears. Then Kareem disappears from his own party as suddenly and mysteriously as the two doppelgangers appeared.

Exit Party, by Emily St. John Mandel, is a sci-fi novel with a mystery at its heart. What's going on at this party? Everyone notices the strange appearances of extra guests and the disappearance of the host, but no one can explain it. Spoiler: it turns out to be a story of alternate universes that intersect one fateful night. Quantum entanglement is mentioned as being possibly involved, somehow, but the underlying mechanics of how these universes intersect remain mysterious. Don't let that stop you from picking up this book. St. John Mandel isn't primarily interested in the science. She's interested in the people affected by these events. What makes her novels so compelling, especially in science fiction, is her ability to tell universal human stories.

The central character is Ari, who has just been released from prison after serving 18 years for hiring someone to kill her cousin. She is eager to move on with her life and celebrates at Kareem's party. That's in the Side A universe anyway. In the Side B universe, there's Ari's doppelganger Ibari, a career detective for a totalitarian state called simply the United State (singular, not plural). The separate stories of Ari and Ibari are told in parallel sections labeled Side A and Side B, with frequent jumps in time and place. Slowly but inevitably, the whole story is told, explaining what happens at the party. It also explains the backgrounds of key characters and what becomes of them in this strange multiverse.

Exit Party is not a sequel or prequel to any previous novel by Emily St. John Mandel, but it has connections to her earlier works. Exit Party includes characters who appeared in her earlier novels, but familiarity with her other novels is not necessary to enjoy this one. If you read Exit Party and like it, you'll find several more Mandel novels waiting for you, each with its own pleasures.

---

You can read The Wheel's reviews of Mandel's other novels here:

2014: Station Eleven
2020: The Glass Hote
2022: Sea of Tranquility