Exit Party by Emily St John Mandel Book Review

 Exit Party 

By Emily St John Mandel 

Published Year: 2026 

Page Count: 320 pages

Medium Used: Mobile Phone, Moon Reader 

Genre: Science Fiction, Multiverse, Multiple Worlds, Suspense, Detectives, 2026-read.

Rating: 5/5 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎 

Beautiful narration. Beautiful writing. What a book!! Sensational. It is a complex subject,  describing and habituating two completely opposite parallel worlds but the author has made it so simple and delivered a fulfilling, compelling read! There are a bunch of characters who are present on the both sides of the spectrum but no where do we get confused as to who is doing what, who is experiencing what! 

Through an errant physics teleportation experiment, two women get transported from side B to side A. A man from side A is also switched to side B. Because they cannot replicate the experiment, these people are stuck in their alternate universes and have to make do however they can till something happens and they are, touch wood, flipped back. But do they really want to go back? Someone who has always known complete authoritarian rule, do they yearn for anarchy and chaos? Someone who has always known only chaos, do they want to belong to order and harmony at the cost of personal privacy? I find both ends hard to digest. I question why can't there be other universes which are more middle ground, to where they got flipped during that damned experiment? 

Ari belongs to Side A where the United States has collapsed into multiple independent state nations and different militias are fighting over which would control which territory. There is a constant threat to their life and complete chaos. Ari has been drawn to a criminal life since her childhood and spends nearly eighteen years in prison. Shortly after release, she goes to a party hosted by Kareem Fayad in LA, with her roommate Gloria. There something miraculous happens and strangely two Glorias (Gloria, Nico) appear, two Sarayas appear and Kareem vanishes forever. This party is the inflection point for the whole plot. Ari later moves to Ohio, Texas and Paris holding some illegal jobs with her husbands of the time. Later she dies of a head injury which she gets chasing a painting from the twentieth century which was dear to both Gloria/Nico and Kareem. It might also have played a significant role in this universe hopping experiment. 

Ibari is from Side B and she has been part of the government all her life. The government heavily monitors and surveils the people through face recognition, drone cameras and voice recognition, planted bugs in their homes and public spaces. This is the peak of complete order and no tolerance for dissidence. People rat on each other and those who commit even simple crimes are vanished to not reappear. Enter into this fray, Kareem from side A and how does he fit into the mould here? What role does Ibari play in his acclimatizing to the harshness and how do they bring down the state together and do they succeed? Interesting read. 

Having a background in computer science, I enjoyed the applications of machine learning mentioned in the story .. like face recognition, voice recording and driverless cars. Reading the first person narrative of Ari/Ibari, I cannot imagine her as an attractive woman. I picture her to be a mature, stocky personality with a detective's nose for sniffing lies/deception. I liked how both the women have special talent for premonitions. I like how many of the experiences and proclivities of both the women match even if they are worlds apart .. literally. Makes me wonder if my doppelganger from another world, shares my traits too?! Must read for all sci-fi fans. Cheers 🥂🥂🥂 I loved the way the story unfolded. The author lets it be known what happens and then goes back in time to explain how it came about. Sometimes she flips back and forth in time, goes all over the space time continuum without confusing,  which is really attractive in a writer.