I’m always on the lookout for novels with Hollywood ties and I recently devoured two. Justin Halpern’s “Get Lost” and Roshan Sethi’s “The Simp” are both comedic fiction debuts from established screenwriters. Otherwise, they vary tremendously in scope and intent; each has much to recommend it.
I’ll start with “Get Lost” because I read it first. Halpern, an executive producer and co-showrunner of “Abbott Elementary,” spins a heartfelt yarn about a bristly baseball scout forced to team up with her deadbeat dad to find her missing mother in California’s Central Valley. Complicating matters: this isn’t the first time Lila’s mom has disappeared, and cops suspect her father Dix, long split from Mattie, killed her.
Halpern, whose name might ring a bell as the author of @ShitMyDadSays Twitter posts way back when, has fun unpacking Lila’s rocky relationship with her fun-loving father, a former baseball player who’s treated like a local hero despite past jail time. Much as she hates to admit it, Lila needs Dix’s charm to open doors as they trace her mom’s recent activities and the origins of a mysterious deposit in her bank account. Their sleuthing leads them into the big bucks world of almond farming in the Central Valley and shady charitable activities by Russian siblings. The reader learns about Mattie’s mental health struggles and affinity for collecting miniature lighthouses; Lila’s experiences in foster care facilities are also woven into the tale.
Inside baseball
“Get Lost” benefits from the author’s intimate familiarity with baseball and appreciation for irrepressible father figures. A college player before an injury crushed his dreams of going pro, Halpern parlayed his early social media success into a 2010 non-fiction book and TV series starring William Shatner. Befitting his professional experience — he has credits on “Harley Quinn” in addition to the Peabody Award-winning “Abbott Elementary” — Halpern knows how to deliver comedic beats and keep the plot moving. “Get Lost” unfolds at a brisk pace.
His description of the Central Valley and the ag business that fuels so many towns there is an added treat for anyone familiar with the region, as I happen to be thanks to in-laws residing there. “Get Lost” starts in Valencia, home to sprawling production studios north of Hollywood proper, but quickly moves north to the land of almond orchards and so many other crops.
Picket line inspiration
Halpern began “Get Lost” while sidelined from screenwriting during the 2023 WGA strike, and recently told Variety’s Mike Schneider he had completed “about a third or maybe even half of it” by the time it ended. Much work on “Abbott Elementary” with fellow showrunners Patrick Schumacker and creator-star Quinta Brunson later, he finished his July 7 book. He and Schumacker are also taking another stab at adapting his 2012 nonfiction book “I Suck at Girls,” this time with Netflix on board.
Halpern’s goal with “Get Lost”: to deliver laugh-out-loud moments and more emotion than you might expect from a thriller beach read. “It’s really a character piece,” he told Schneider, “about a father daughter relationship and how can you move past a parent who has let you down at every step of the way.”
Lest you’re wondering, Halpern heaps praise on his mother before thanking his dad, wife and well-known Hollywood scribes in the book’s acknowledgements. Note to self: it really has been that long since I covered digital media and Twitter began turning aspiring writers into professional ones.
“Get Lost” by Justin Halpern, Cardinal, available now. More on “The Simp” here.
This post was originally published on my Lititude substack.