John Green returns to fiction after 9 years away. What we know about 'Hollywood, Ending'
John Green returns to fiction after 9 years away. What we know about 'Hollywood, Ending'
Clare Mulroy, USA TODAYTue, March 31, 2026 at 4:22 PM UTC
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John Green is poised to reenter the fiction world.
The bestselling “The Fault in Our Stars” author announced on his YouTube channel March 31 that his first novel in almost 10 years will publish this fall. “Hollywood, Ending” will also be Green’s first novel for adults.
Adapted from a story he read on “a series of semi-secret livestreams” during the early days of the pandemic, “Hollywood, Ending” follows the rise of two young actors, Kai and Juniper, on the verge of a breakout. But as their buzzy biopic “Andy Warhol Never Gets Old” blows up, they’re also falling in love. Now, they must confront celebrity and “the private cost of a public life.”
“Hollywood, Ending” publishes Sept. 22 from Dutton Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
John Green’s first novel for adults will publish in 2026
In a video posted to the account he shares with his brother, Hank Green, Green said he’s been working on this novel since he finished his 2017 book, “Turtles All the Way Down.” He also said that, “partly for personal reasons,” he was unsure if he would ever publish this book.
“Turtles,” adapted into a movie starring Isabela Merced in 2024, was Green’s last fiction title. His recent ventures have skewed nonfiction, including last year’s bestseller “Everything Is Tuberculosis.” His book of essays, “The Anthropocene Reviewed,” came out in 2021.
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Bestselling author John Green announced his first fiction title for adults, out this September.
Now, in “Hollywood, Ending,” Green will interrogate the tension between personal and public lives.
“It used to be that the business of trading in one’s frailties in exchange for public attention was mostly an issue for movie stars, but these days all of us who participate in the social internet are engaged in a really complex exchange of our experiences and our traumas and what used to be called our personal lives,” Green said in the video. “It’s also about love and how we find it and it's about celebrity and the machinations of the fame machine, all of which I’ve seen up close over the last decade.”
In a press release, Penguin Random House promised readers an “unflinching examination of celebrity and the insatiable attention economy” told in dual perspectives.
“Whether it’s a bench beside an Amsterdam canal or a thin-mooned night in Alabama, John has brought readers to immersive, emotional worlds for more than two decades,” Julie Strauss-Gabel, Green’s longtime editor, said in a statement. “I can’t wait for readers to meet Kai and Juniper, and step into their Hollywood, a world unlike any other. In his extraordinary return to fiction, John has crafted a layers-deep story about two young actors trying to survive in an industry determined to flatten them into two dimensions.”
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: John Green announces first novel for adults, 'Hollywood, Ending'
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
