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At the End of Every Day

A Novel

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About The Book

This haunting debut novel—perfect for fans of Mona Awad, Karin Tidbeck, and Julia Armfield—is a “wild genre-and-mind-bending ride” (Laura Sims, author of Looker) about a loyal employee at a collapsing theme park questioning the recent death of a celebrity visitor, the arrival of strange new guests, her boyfriend’s erratic behavior, and ultimately her own sanity.

Delphi has spent years working at a vast and iconic theme park in California after fleeing a trauma in her rural hometown. But following the disturbing death of a beloved Hollywood starlet on the park grounds, Delphi is tasked with shuttering it for good.

Meanwhile, two siblings with ties to the park exchange letters, trying to understand why people who work there have been disappearing. Before long, they learn that there’s a reason no one is meant to see behind its carefully guarded curtain…

What happens when the park empties out? And what happens when Delphi, who seems remarkably at one with it, is finally forced to leave?

Simultaneously “a smart and surprising escape room of a novel” (Matt Bell, author of Appleseed) about the uncanny valley, death cults, optical illusions, and the enduring power of fantasy, Reiche’s debut is a mind-bending teacup ride through an eerily familiar landscape, where the key to it all is what happens at the end of every day.

About The Author

Photograph by Helen Mercer
Arianna Reiche

Arianna Reiche is a Bay Area-born writer living in east London. Her award-winning fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Ambit magazine, Joyland, and Popshot, and her features have been published by New Scientist, USA TODAY, VICE, The Wall Street Journal, and Vogue. She researches metafiction and lectures in interactive media at City, University of London.

Why We Love It

“I say this with love: At the End of Every Day was weirdest submission that I received in 2021. This debut is a wonderfully strange journey through a dark, unsettling theme park that’s closing down—mostly because it doesn’t get many visitors and also because an actress, after seeing something during one of the rides, lights herself on fire at the entrance. This novel calls to mind Meredith Westgate, John Darnielle, Iain Reid, Alexandra Kleeman, and Samanta Schweblin—all of whom write the strangest, psychologically probing concoctions that can’t properly be summed up. You just have to read it.”

—Loan L., Editor, on At the End of Every Day

Product Details

  • Publisher: Atria Books (July 4, 2023)
  • Length: 272 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781668007969

Raves and Reviews

“Arianna Reiche’s At the End of Every Day takes us deep inside a dying—and sometimes deadly— theme park. Filled with richly detailed descriptions of the world her possibly unreliable protagonist, Delphi, knows best, Reiche’s unique take on the epic quest—featuring creepy bots, a death cult, subterranean realms, and more—compels you to hang on for the wild genre-and-mind-bending ride.” Laura Sims, author of Looker and How Can I Help You

“Arianna Reiche’s At the End of Every Day is a smart and surprising escape room of a novel, transforming America’s theme park urban legends and pop culture mythologies into something darker, stranger, weirder—or else only making clear what dark and strange and weird holds such amusements have always had on us.” —Matt Bell, author of Appleseed

“An extraordinary creative reach.”New York Times Book Review

"A dreamlike, unsettling narrative that frequently slides into the uncanny valley. Readers are in for an eerie, psychological roller-coaster ride."—Publishers Weekly

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