Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet
One of Town & Country’s Best Ghost Books That Will Keep You Up All Night • One of Book Riot’s 2024 Books to Add to Your TBR
It’s the gig of a lifetime for this ghostwriter, except there’s a catch: the client, a closeted A-list actor finally ready to come out in his memoir, is an actual ghost.
ISBN
9781638931539
Language
English
Page count
304
Edition
Paperback
Sale date
December 3, 2024
Dimensions
8.3 x 5.5
About the Book
Adam Gallagher has knocked on thousands of doors. An ex-Mormon and almost-famous memoirist, he is used to sharing his life story with strangers. But this day, this house, is different. For it belongs to none other than Roland Rogers: Hollywood Hunk, and soon to be author. Roland has a story to tell, a decades-old secret to spill, and he’s decided that Adam is just the guy to help him do it.
Except there’s a problem. Roland Rogers is dead. Not in the metaphysical realm—if he focuses, he can summon enough energy to communicate via the kitchen speaker—but certainly in the physical, and he needs Adam to pen his story before his body is found frozen beneath the avalanche of snow that squashed it. That means one month, a hundred thousand words, no breaks.
Ghostwriting is hard enough, let alone when you’re dealing with a real ghost, and so it isn’t long before Roland’s idea of what his book should be clashes with Adam’s vision for what it could be.But the clock is ticking, the ice melting. And as more truths are told, both men soon discover that this experience is less of a coming out, and more of a coming home . . .
The sophomore novel from the beloved author of Patricia Wants to Cuddle, Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet is a witty and electric new rom-com for fans of Ashley Poston and Casey McQuiston.
Reviews
One of Town & Country’s Best Ghost Books That Will Keep You Up All Night and A Must-Read Book of Winter 2025 • One of Book Riot’s 2024 Books to Add to Your TBR • A Nerd Daily and LGBTQ Reads Most Anticipated Release • An Autostraddle and People Most Anticipated Release of December 2024
“Eccentric, funny, and pleasantly peculiar . . . Allen offers readers an unlikely romance, sprinkled with lust, regret, humor, and even paranormal activity, and somehow it absolutely works. A wacky yet touching tale about love, truth, and acceptance.”
“A haunting love story that is both sweet and weird in the best way . . . Allen’s character development only gets stronger with each book, and she’s able to make even the most outlandish plots feel compelling and real. Perfect for fans of Casey McQuiston or TJ Klune.”
“Surprising, funny, and downright weird in the absolute best way, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this one. An unlikely romance for the ages that reminds us it’s never too late to form connections—and that we’re never alone.”
“Allen’s (Patricia Wants To Cuddle) unconventional novel about reputation, success, identity, and living authentically will appeal to readers looking for a unique take on a love story.”
“Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet is at once delightfully bonkers and painfully poignant, an exploration of desire and the boxes we’re held in that will stay with me for a long time. One of the most entertaining and moving things I’ve ever read—I couldn’t put it down.”
“A bizarre and ultimately gratifying tale of an unlikely duo who find common ground . . . For those who share Allen’s fixation on celebrity culture, there’s plenty of fun to be had.”
“Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet is a wild romp through the graveyard of a writer’s dwindling career and a ghost’s hidden past. Only Samantha Allen could a write a book like this, one that is deeply moving, romantic, hilarious, and, at times, a little gross. Most of all, this book is FUN, so fun I couldn’t put it down. It made me want to come out all over again. It made me want to eat cheeseburgers in front of a lover. It made want to call everyone I admire. Readers will no doubt love this incredibly moving story that reminds us some secrets haunt us even after we’re dead.”
“A supernatural rom-com unlike anything else you’ve ever read.”
“Samantha Allen has done it again. Charming, funny, and endlessly inventive, Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet is the most fun I’ve ever had reading about a ghost. It’s everything I want in a queer romance: witty, vulnerable, and horny as hell. I wish it was 1,000 pages longer just so I could spend more time with these delightful characters. Long live Roland Rogers.”
“In this new novel about a ghostwriter who falls in love with a ghost, Allen shows a knack for setting up hooky plot premises that open up space to dream. And to wander, and observe, and, yes, meditate . . . It’s sharp, often witheringly funny stuff . . . At its best, Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet really is a series of powerful meditations on love, death, queerness, and ambition—not to mention Hollywood and Mormonism and other repressive systems. And all of it more or less smuggled into a sweet, clear Hallmark love story, if Hallmark love stories featured ghostly Mr. Darcys who haunt anal vibrators for their partner’s pleasure.”
“Delightfully original.”
“Funny, gripping, and uniquely devastating, Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet serves as a culturally poignant and romantic reminder that truth is powerful, love is timeless, and life is a boundless story just waiting to be written.”
Samantha Allen
Samantha Allen is the author of Patricia Wants to Cuddle and the Lambda Literary Award finalist Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States. A GLAAD Award-winning journalist, her writing has been published by the New York Times, Rolling Stone, CNN.com, and more.
