(eARC) The Simp: A Novel Without a Hero Roshan Sethi

Thank you Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the eARC! :)
Pub Date: July 7 2026

Synopsis: Raj Ladlani is one of thousands in an unemployable actor. He has reasons to believe he is spectacularly talented (his beloved acting coach Anthony says so), a legend in every way but for the success.

His anonymous life working at Yogurtland, obsessively reading Vanity Fair, and fantasizing about stardom, comes to an end when he answers a job ad detailing a relentless, laughable parade of menial responsibilities for a 'Hollywood Family'. So begins the astonishing decline and fall of Raj Ladlani.

The Simp tells the story of Raj's momentous employment and the destruction that follows in the wake of his time with the with the H Jim, a macho director determined to prove himself as an artist; and Anna, his much younger wife who has ambitions of her own.

And when the job reveals itself to be an absurdist walk through affluent domestic chaos and misguided engagements with identity politics, Raj might be about to lose it - on a very public stage.

Review: A slow-moving, uncomfortably funny, and agonizing psychological train wreck (in a good way!). Following the classic "novel without a hero" tradition, The Simp delivers a fascinating look at shifting power dynamics. I loved the duality of Raj! He is a character harboring his own deep secrets and motives, yet he is thrown into an environment where he is entirely at the mercy of a volatile Hollywood family.

While the narrative is written with a straightforward clarity, the pacing did drag a bit in the middle due to some repetitive loops. Ultimately, reading this felt like sitting in a theater.. We are quite literally watching a movie play out in front of us, left to make our own observations from the audience. That aspect was fun!

I'm actually unfamiliar with the life of Hollywood (crazy, I know) so this book put me in the challenge to search up all these moments because it sprinkled them a lot throughout. It didn't completely ruin the experience for me but this could be a little more enjoyable for those who are already familiar with the Hollywood scene.