Famous: A Novel

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 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, 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 towards becoming James Jansen that will take him far closer to the star than even he had dreamed—and to far darker lengths than he could’ve possibly imagined.

Part thriller, part surreal horror tale, and part pitch-black comedy, Famous is a twisting and twisted tale as only Blake Crouch could deliver.