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American Fantasy book cover
American Fantasy
A Novel
2026
First Published
3.70
Average Rating
304
Number of Pages

From New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow, an irresistible story about what happens when your teenage fantasy comes true after you’re already an adult. When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous 1990s boyband, and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped them for thirty years. Newly divorced and with an empty nest, Annie is on board as a lark to appease her sister. Once a diehard fan of the band as a teen, her tastes have matured, and she feels out of place amid the sea of bedazzled, air-brushed t-shirts bearing the singers’ faces. Yet when the lights come up and the idols of her youth begin to sing before her, something is unlocked. “Maybe that was nostalgia after all, the music a direct vein to her childhood, the least complicated part of her life. A short cut to happiness.” Between the slushy alcoholic drinks, the music of her youth, and the thousands of middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself. By the time she befriends one of the band members—not just a celebrity but someone also in need of a friend—she feels like anything is possible. But a lot can go wrong on a ship ruled by hormones and hope, frustration and fantasy. Packed with wisdom, heart, and laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, youth, nostalgia, marriage, and middle age, Emma Straub delivers a richly textured, uplifting story about the magic of revisiting youthful feelings, and the even greater magic of starting anew.

Avg Rating
3.70
Number of Ratings
247
5 STARS
15%
4 STARS
46%
3 STARS
33%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads

Author

Emma Straub
Emma Straub
Author · 12 books
Emma Straub is the New York Times‒bestselling author of the novels All Adults Here, Modern Lovers, The Vacationers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. Straub's work has been published in twenty countries, and she and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.
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American Fantasy