Helpless

'Addictive' (Lisa Jewell) The SCORCHING new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and Bright Young Women

By Jessica Knoll

About The Book

From the New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and Bright Young Women comes a smouldering psychological thriller with a singular, mind-bending last page.

It’s been twelve years since Faye Heron broke Henry Spalding’s heart. Henry was her college boyfriend, her first intense love, but Faye was in danger of being subsumed by him.

Now, Faye is one half of a power-producing duo with her Hollywood husband. Henry is a married father running the family business. Both of their lives have essentially gone to plan.

When a former and beloved college professor suddenly passes away, Faye and Henry find themselves back on campus for the funeral, circling something old and dangerous. Something, if Faye is honest with herself, she has been trying to duplicate for years. But Henry is one of a kind.

The kind who delivers a hypnotic apology for the way things ended.
The kind who suggests they go back to the hotel for a drink.
The kind who drugs and kidnaps her.

When Faye comes to in Henry’s remote mountain cabin, she’s beside herself. Has Henry brought her here to punish her? She did, after all, write and star in a lauded episode of television based on their indelicate appetites and vicious breakup. As her week of captivity unfolds, Henry’s wanton demands intensify, and a sprawling, years-old mystery begins to take shape—one that will rewrite history as Faye remembers it and reveal an astounding, cataclysmic truth.
 

About The Author

Sabrina Lantos
Jessica Knoll

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.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (July 14, 2026)
  • Length: 352 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781398558731

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Raves and Reviews

‘Dark, twisty, and wildly addictive. Helpless is Jessica Knoll at her boldest and most unsettling’ JENEVA ROSE, #1 New York Times bestselling author

‘A dark, twisty and addictive read that you will struggle to put down’ LISA JEWELL, multi-million copy bestselling author 

‘If Jessica Knoll writes it, I'll read it. The pages of her books seem to crackle with electricity and she's an utterly fearless writer. Perhaps never more so than in HELPLESS, a dark, daring, sexy tension-fest with head-spinning twists, which roars Knoll's refusal to ever write the same book twice’ CATHERINE RYAN HOWARD, no.1 bestselling thriller author of 56 Days

'I will read anything Jessica Knoll writes – her voice is inimitable, propulsive, and utterly addictive' LOUISE O'NEILL, bestselling author of Only Ever Yours and Asking For It

‘Few writers are able to capture human nature as well as Jessica Knoll. In Helpless, she crafts a razor-sharp thriller with a riveting cast of characters. Dark, daring and deliciously sexy, it takes an unflinching look at power and privilege, and the ways in which we efface ourselves for those in control’ KIA ABDULLAH, bestselling author of Those People Next Door

'Jessica Knoll is one of my favorite writers and Helpless is her at her best. A fearless, powerful and completely original thriller' LAURA DAVE, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
 

'Slick, sexy and dripping in delicious suspense. This is Jessica Knoll at the very top of her game' KATY BRENT, bestselling author of How to Kill Men and Get Away With It

‘Jessica Knoll is one of my favourite authors. Every new book is a treasure to be hoarded’ LOUISE CANDLISH, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Neighbour's Guide to Murder and Our House

'True to form, [Knoll] absolutely goes there in this novel, offering a nuanced and unapologetic portrait of an unconventional relationship without judgment. Puts the "erotic" back in "erotic thriller"' KIRKUS
 
'A sexy new thriller' NEW YORK POST

'Jessica Knoll has made a specialty of dark, compulsively readable stories about women trapped in other people’s narratives. Helpless sharpens that obsession into a relationship thriller with teeth' OPRAH DAILY, '31 Most Anticipated Books of 2026'

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Helpless

'Addictive' (Lisa Jewell) The SCORCHING new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive and Bright Young Women

By Jessica Knoll
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