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Looking for an addicting summer read?
Jessica Knoll is here to help. Not only is the Bright Young Women author back with her first novel in three years, Helpless, but she’s treating E! News readers to an exclusive look at her new book before it hits shelves July 7.
As for what fans can expect from her latest twisty thriller? Let her tease it herself.
“In my new novel Helpless, Hollywood producer Faye Heron sees her college boyfriend, Henry Spalding, for the first time in over a decade at the funeral of their beloved professor,” Knoll explained to E!. “Henry was her first love and first dangerously all-consuming relationship, one she’s never been able to shake.”
She continued, “This exclusive excerpt opens in Faye’s hotel room after the funeral, as she lets Henry in for a drink, and things take a dark turn.”
Exactly how dark is that turn? Well, just read and find out.
For Knoll, however, setting a story within the greater Hollywood landscape makes sense. After all, though she cut her teeth editing at Cosmopolitan and Self before turning to writing novels full-time, the 43-year-old—like her protagonist Faye—has dabbled in writing for the screen.
Instagram/Jessica Knoll
Specifically, she took the reins for the Netflix adaptation of her 2015 novel Luckiest Girl Alive starring Mila Kunis—advocating to be the person who brought her book to life in the 2022 film. And she learned a lot about herself during that process.
"Once I sat down to write it, I was like, 'This is actually hard. Can I do this?'" Knoll recalled to E! News in 2023. "But I did do it and it was a good lesson for me to learn about myself because I had those same thoughts when I was working on this book. I think knowing that I've challenged myself before and pulled it off was really key to remind myself, 'I can do this.'"
As for what won’t be a challenge is taking a look at her newest book, Helpless, before it hits bookstores. Keep reading for E!'s exclusive excerpt:
New York Times bestselling author Jessica Knoll returns with a new novel. She traces a Hollywood couple's return to the college campus where they met and the old emotions that arise in this sexy thriller you won't be able to put down.
A flare of fear, somewhere deep within the wilderness of me, barely seen, barely felt. I am aware enough to still know I should be afraid, even if I cannot access the feeling. I expected Henry to be angry. I expected that to convert into something tawdry and memorable between us. But Henry is not angry, I’m realizing. Henry is humiliated. A humiliated man is sometimes the last thing a woman sees. How had I failed to discern the difference before I let him in here, before I allowed him to mix me a drink? There is so much I could say to defend myself, if only Henry hadn't so obviously drugged me.
"That is what happened," I manage. But when I try to remember the details of it all, I find I cannot.
"You have no idea what you're talking about," Henry says, and for some inexplicable reason, his voice is choked with emotion.
It is an effort to focus on him. My left eyelid feels heavier than my right. There are surgeries to fix that, I think. "Why apologize to me, then?" Henry purses his perfect lips in victory. "How else was I going to get you to let me in here?"
Sabrina Lantos
A warm, hazy feeling overtakes me. I could fall asleep, right here, listening to Henry tell me what a terrible person I am. The delicious dreams I would have. I'd never want to wake up. "You put something in my drink," I say, but it comes out rearranged and all wrong. Put my drink in your something. Or something. Something...
"I didn't think it would be this easy." Henry exhales, almost disappointed. "I didn't think you would make it this easy for me."
I put my lips together and try very hard to produce a word, any word. Henry props his elbow on the back of the couch, and with his thumb he strokes his rosy bottom lip, watching me begin to nod off with clinical fascination. My phone is balanced in the seam of the couch cushions, tipped up slightly, so that when it begins to rattle, I can see it's my assistant, texting that she got my message and she will cancel my week for me, no problem.
“Are you going to write her back?” Henry asks, He’s sincerely asking. He does not do anything to impede my efforts, but the problem is I am not making any. Just before the screen darkens, Henry taps the message. And then he's in my phone, my world, my life that he so flagrantly despises.
"Let's see," Henry says to himself, trampling through my beautiful digital gardens with his big bully thumbs. At last I muster up the strength to make a grab for what's mine, but Henry catches my hand and places it in my lap and gives the top of it a kindly little pat. Valiant effort, Faye. My left eyelid seals completely shut.
Scribner
"That's not very pretty," Henry says. He uses his thumb to drag my other eyelid down to match. I think of what I must look like, sitting there with my eyes closed and fish lips smacking, and I realize that must not look very pretty either, and despite what's happening-what is happening? —I still want to look pretty for Henry. I rest my cheek on the back of the couch, and my body sinks, expands, forgets its own solidness.
"I've waited a long time for this," Henry says from somewhere in the dark. His hand moves to cover my mouth, like I am screaming. But why would I be screaming? I've been waiting a long time for this too.
A minute or maybe the rest of my life passes, and then a prick of consciousness. There is knocking at the door, and Henry has gone to answer it. He is speaking to someone in an easy way, telling them that everything is fine and, no, we don't need anything and, yes, have a nice evening too. I'm picturing the manager with the teased hair, maybe the young guy in the cargo pants who carried my bags up the stairs when I first arrived.
Help, I cannot say.
Excerpted from Helpless: A Novel by Jessica Knoll. Copyright © 2026 by Jessica Knoll. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC.
Jessica Knoll is the New York Times bestselling author of Bright Young Women, The Favorite Sister and Luckiest Girl Alive—now a major motion picture from Netflix starring Mila Kunis. She has been a senior editor at Cosmopolitan and the articles editor at Self. She lives in New York City with her family.
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