Famous
A Novel
Published on 23. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
979-8-217-09156-0 (ISBN)
Description
A man goes to terrifying extremes to adopt his celebrity doppelganger's life in this darkly comedic psychological suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Upgrade.
The basis for the upcoming A24 film Famous, starring Zac Efron.
“My name is Lancelot Blue Dunkquist, and the best thing about me is, when you doll me up right, I look just like the movie star James Jansen.”
Meet Lance. Thirty-eight years old. Works a meaningless job. Still lives above his parents’ garage. By all accounts, a world-class loser. Save for one glaring exception: He has a million-dollar face.
Lance has been mistaken eighty-seven times for the Oscar-winning movie star James Jansen, and for the last ten years, he’s saved his money and studied Jansen’s films, his moves, his idiosyncrasies—even the way he speaks. Now, after an unceremonious termination from his job, Lance has decided that the time has come to go after his dream of truly becoming Jansen.
From New York’s avant-garde, off-off Broadway scene to the glitter of Los Angeles, Lance embarks on a journey toward becoming James Jansen that will take him closer to the star than even he had dreamed—and to darker lengths than he could’ve possibly imagined.
Shot through with dark humor and building to a truly shocking conclusion, Famous is a scary, surprising, genre-blending thrill ride as only Blake Crouch can deliver.
The basis for the upcoming A24 film Famous, starring Zac Efron.
“My name is Lancelot Blue Dunkquist, and the best thing about me is, when you doll me up right, I look just like the movie star James Jansen.”
Meet Lance. Thirty-eight years old. Works a meaningless job. Still lives above his parents’ garage. By all accounts, a world-class loser. Save for one glaring exception: He has a million-dollar face.
Lance has been mistaken eighty-seven times for the Oscar-winning movie star James Jansen, and for the last ten years, he’s saved his money and studied Jansen’s films, his moves, his idiosyncrasies—even the way he speaks. Now, after an unceremonious termination from his job, Lance has decided that the time has come to go after his dream of truly becoming Jansen.
From New York’s avant-garde, off-off Broadway scene to the glitter of Los Angeles, Lance embarks on a journey toward becoming James Jansen that will take him closer to the star than even he had dreamed—and to darker lengths than he could’ve possibly imagined.
Shot through with dark humor and building to a truly shocking conclusion, Famous is a scary, surprising, genre-blending thrill ride as only Blake Crouch can deliver.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Random House USA Inc
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 199 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
238 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-217-09156-0 (9798217091560)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Blake Crouch is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. His novels include Upgrade, Recursion, Dark Matter, and the Wayward Pines trilogy. His Pines trilogy was adapted into a television series for FOX, and he also co-created the TNT show Good Behavior, based on his Letty Dobesh novellas. He currently acts as head writer and showrunner for the hit Apple TV+ adaptation of Dark Matter, starring Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly. He lives in Colorado.