---
title: Helpless
description: Jessica Knoll's fourth novel opens not with a body but with a funeral, and asks who owns a story once two people have lived it
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-07-07T18:00:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-07T19:39:38.040Z
canonical: https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/helpless
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/helpless-just-arrived (3).png
categories: Thrillers
content_type: Book Review
publication: Rich Books
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

Some thrillers begin with a corpse. This one begins with a funeral, a hotel minibar, and the very particular dread of being seen by someone who knew you before you became who you are now. Helpless, the fourth novel from Jessica Knoll, is out today, and it is already one of the most anticipated books of the summer, named a most anticipated title by the New York Times, Oprah Daily and a long list of others.

The premise is a slow trap. Faye Heron is a Hollywood writer, director and actress whose life looks flawless from the outside. Twelve years ago she left Henry Spalding, her college boyfriend and first ruinous love. Less forgivably, she turned their breakup into an award-winning episode of prestige television that cast him as the villain. When a beloved former professor dies, Faye and Henry find themselves back on campus for the funeral, circling something old and dangerous, something Faye, if she is honest, has been trying to recreate for years. What follows moves to a remote mountain cabin, a week that reads like a countdown, and a decades-old mystery that begins to rewrite everything Faye believed about her own past.

The critics have reached for one comparison again and again, and it is a good one. This is Misery, they keep saying, but with your ex. The difference is that the tormentor here is not a stranger with a sledgehammer. He is the person who once knew Faye better than anyone, and the book keeps the balance of power shifting page by page, so you are never quite sure who is holding the leash. The reviews promise an ending built for arguments, the kind of final turn that splits a dinner table down the middle.

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