Her debut novel, which centers a friendship breakup, comes out next March. See the cover here!
Credit: Hachette Book Group; Jenny Anderson
NEED TO KNOW
- Eli Rallo’s debut novel I Hope Eden Reads This explores a friendship breakup through alternating timelines
- The book draws inspiration from women Rallo has known and highlights the emotional impact of losing a best friend
- Rallo says writing fiction allows her to embrace flawed characters without the pressure of personal perfection
Eli Rallo is making her fiction debut!
On Thursday, Aug. 20, the influencer and podcast host announced her upcoming novel I Hope Eden Reads This, out from Grand Central Publishing next spring.
Told in alternating timelines, the book follows Penelope Straker as she navigates a friendship breakup with Eden Willmington, her best friend since childhood. Since the two stopped talking, Penny’s been “self-sabotaging — missing meetings at work and convincing herself that all of her friends are hanging out without her.”
“She can’t eat, think, or sleep and is falling into bad habits, like ghosting her therapist and obsessively swiping on Hinge. This is worse than a breakup. Penny hasn’t just lost Eden … she’s lost her entire sense of self and understanding of her past,” an official synopsis reads.
Credit: Hachette Book Group
“I, my whole life, wanted to be a fiction writer. I think my first two books were the only first two books I ever could have written,” Rallo, who is also the author of 2023’s dating manual I Didn’t Know I Need This and 2025’s essay collection Does Anyone Else Feel This Way, told Today.com.
“But I would be lying if I said that this didn’t feel like the biggest homecoming for me,” she added.
Similarly, Rallo previously told PEOPLE that while writing “about yourself in essay format is so formulaic, and scientific, and intimate, and vulnerable,” she loves “the art of make-believe and storytelling, so it’s been really special to come back to that. I didn’t expect that I would get to do it so soon.”
“The internet creates this anxiety that I need to be perfect and so I’m so concerned with how I come off,” the New York Times bestselling author adds. “I love that I can just write an evil character in fiction and write someone flawed who sucks, and no one’s going to come for me.”
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The 27-year-old also noted to Today.com that “I feel like I’ve said all I needed to say about my own personal experience or my own advice,” and that she hasn’t gone through the same scenario as her characters in I Hope Eden Reads This.
Credit: Jenny Anderson
“I more so just wanted to put words to it to make people feel less alone about it,” she continues, adding that Eden and Penelope are a “patchwork quilt” of “every woman I’ve ever gotten to know or love.”
“It really felt like, at least to me, that everybody had an Eden. Whether they were 21 and an intern or 60 and a senior editor, everybody had an Eden story to share,” she told the outlet.
And though the book is about a friendship, it’s Penelope’s perspective — and hers alone — that readers experience.
“It really is Penelope’s story,” Rallo said. “I’ve already received so much feedback from beta readers that people want to know more about what Eden was thinking, and I would rather leave them with that desire and maybe revisit it.”
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I Hope Eden Reads This hits shelves on March 9, 2027 and is available for preorder now wherever books are sold.
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