BookBrowse Reviews American Fantasy by Emma Straub

BookBrowse:

Emma Straub's latest novel takes readers out to sea for a joyful, lovingly crafted exploration of tween crushes, existential dread, and post-menopausal reinvention.

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A polder, from Clute and Grant's Encyclopedia of Fantasy, is the term for an enclave of "toughened reality," separated from the outside world by carefully maintained borders. A liminal threshold must be passed to enter a polder, whether it's Avalon, Tom Bombadil's cottage, or the members-only Costco food court. In Emma Straub's American Fantasy, that liminal threshold is the metal ramp of a cruise ship. Aboard the American Fantasy—the ship provides both the setting and title—Straub's three POV characters, supporting cast of boy band burnouts, and thousands of screaming, middle-aged women find an escape from the outside world and space to create their own fantasy.

The novel is structured like a cruise itinerary, with each act divided by daily activity listings and chapters introduced with The Pitt-esque timestamps. We open Thursday, 8:25 AM, on Deck 9, with beleaguered crew manager Sarah, who's busy handling the turnaround from one themed voyage to another (see Beyond the Book). Sarah's worked her way up the JackRabbit Productions ladder, from Broadway getaways to floating reggae festivals. She's more than used to handling the "Talkers" cruise, during which over two thousand adoring fans pour aboard to worship at the altar of 1990s tween sensation Boy Talk, reunited to launch annual fan cruises from 2009 on. Each year, the band and the fans return; each year, the crew moves mountains of props and party supplies. Sarah's set to run this show like the Navy—and distract herself from being freshly dumped by her long-term girlfriend.

By 9 AM, Boy Talk lead vocalist Keith is ready to board the Fantasy alongside his brother, whose enthusiasm for fan interactions and this cruise drive them both to return to their rabid fans each year. Emma Straub does not waste time in making their one-sided relationship devastatingly clear: "Keith looked at his brother, and Shawn looked at his phone, texting quickly with his thumb." Between their dismissive interactions and Keith's roiling self-worth issues, it's clear that trouble's ahead for the aging boy band.

When Annie crosses the threshold onto the ship at 12:45 PM, it's not exactly her choice. Her mega-fan sister, Katherine, bought them two tickets to celebrate her birthday and Annie's divorce, respectively. Katherine is laid up in Arizona with a broken leg, however, leaving her sister to a boatful of strangers in handmade t-shirts. Annie is immediately intimidated by the Talkers' boundless enthusiasm, encyclopedic band knowledge, and total lack of shame—something she struggled with even before her divorce and a badly timed job demotion. As the trip progresses, and her longtime-Talker roommate shows her the ways of the ship, Annie starts to let go of her hesitance and shame to embrace the slightly unhinged experience of a Boy Talk cruise.

The novel rotates among those three perspectives as the four-day trip progresses. Sarah showcases the nuts and bolts of the cruise industry, all the unappealing hard work and herding of cats that's necessary to make a fantasy real, and to keep the outside world at bay. Keith is one of the saddest male leads I've had the delight of reading in a while, with as much depression and loneliness as he has fans obsessed with him. Annie is the beating heart of the novel, with her personal growth driving the narrative forward. She begins the voyage ashamed of her teenage infatuation with Boy Talk—"Shame was the blanket feeling… Annie felt deranged, like she was on an ice floe, floating away from civilization on purpose."—but as she sheds her self-consciousness and grows confident, the story takes flight. "There was no point trying to resist… Annie was having more fun than she'd had in years—so many years that it would depress her to do the math."

This isn't a story limited to diehard boy band fans—far from it. Rather, American Fantasy uses a hilarious premise to explore complex, existential questions of aging, community, and femininity. Boy bands are, some argue, the rare men who can relate to some of the stress of being a woman. From overbearing managers to creepy fans, pop idols are from an early age subject to constant scrutiny and public comment on their style, their bodies, and their romantic prospects. While the Fantasy is an island of escape for these women from that pressure, it's the crucible of it for these rapidly aging men.

Themes of physical and personal change are central to the novel. What does it mean to face a dramatic change in the middle of your life? What do you do after you finish the career, raise the kids, and end the marriage—where do you go? For some, the answer may be a cruise. For others, it's to an inspiring, witty, and deeply relatable page-turner like American Fantasy.

This review first ran in the April 8, 2026 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.