A love letter to pop music, American Spirits charts an icon’s fall—and an obsessive fangirl’s rise.

Thirty-eight-year-old Blue Velour has finally achieved the critical acclaim she’s long been chasing. Over the last decade, she’s released six studio albums to mixed reviews, landing her somewhere between performance artist and niche legend. But her latest album, Blue’s Beard—a cheeky reference to the subreddit fanatically dedicated to her suspected secret relationship with longtime producer Sasha Harlow—has rocket-launched her reputation. Blue hires nerdy superfan Rose Lutz as her assistant to handle the pressures of the upcoming tour.

When the pandemic shuts down the tour, however, Blue decides to hole up in the redwoods with Sasha to make another album. An aspiring singer herself, Rose is frothing at the mouth to be isolated in a cabin with these two legends, but what begins as a creative retreat spirals into a flurry of chaos and betrayal—culminating in a tragic act that changes their lives forever.

Smart, entertaining, and edgy, American Spirits is a compelling exploration of the dark side of fame.

Anna Dorn is the author of the novels Perfume and Pain, Exalted, Vagablonde, and American Spirits. She was a Lambda Literary Fellow and Exalted was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She lives in Los Angeles.

Melissa Broder is the author of the novels Death Valley, Milk Fed, and The Pisces, and the forthcoming Empty and Marvelous from Scribner, the essay collection So Sad Today, and five poetry collections, including Superdoom. Her books are translated in over twelve languages.

Catie Disabato‘s romance debut, Rooting Interest, was released by 831 Stories in January 2026. Her second novel, U Up? was named one of the best mystery novels of 2021 by The New York Times. Her first novel, The Ghost Network, was published in 2015 and was called a “smart and thorny debut,” by The New York Times Book Review. Disabato has written essays and criticism for outlets including the LAist, Buzzfeed, and LA Weekly. She lives in Los Angeles. 

Nada Alic is the author of Bad Thoughts, a New York Times Editors’ Choice Pick and finalist for the Danuta Gleed award. Her novel is forthcoming from Knopf. 

Aiden Arata is the bestselling author of You Have a New Memory.