The Best Fiction Books By Celebs (Yes, Stars Can Have More Than One Talent)

Celebrity-penned adult fiction has experienced a remarkable ascent in recent years, now a legitimate force in publishing. In fact, Nielsen BookScan data found that, in 2018, the presence of famous names in the fiction charts was little more than an anomaly (via The Guardian). By 2023, they were dominating. That year, eight of the top 100 bestselling paperback novels — and five in the top 20 — were written by stars, proving that the literary world is no longer an exclusive club for career novelists.

Some of these stars have always flirted with storytelling, their narratives unfolding in character performances and screenplays. Others have taken an entirely unexpected detour, swapping arenas for their quiet discipline of the written word.

If you've only known these figures through their public personas, their foray into fiction might come as a surprise. These books may vary in ambition, execution, and critical reception, but they challenge the assumption that creative talent is bound to a single medium. For those who grew up watching these figures on screen, let their presence on bookshelves add another dimension to their artistry.

Would you give your phone number to the guy who had just pumped your stomach? Suzanne Vale would. That's how Carrie Fisher opened "Postcards from the Edge" — a novel that took addiction, Hollywood absurdity and personal collapse and spun them into something so honest, so incisive, and so darkly funny that it stunned fans and critics alike.

It is with this comedy and candor that she carried the novel forward, telling the tumultuous tale of Suzanne Vale — an actress whose overdose lands her in rehab and forces her to reckon with her addictions and the hollow spectacle of her own existence. Suzanne is whip-smart and self-sabotaging, caught between the expectations of stardom and the reality of living as a deeply flawed human being. Looming in the background is Suzanne's mother, a larger-than-life screen legend whose shadow stretches long.

Told through diary entires and epistolary exchanges, Fisher satirizes the grotesque machinery of Hollywood to expose the stars that unspool. Her humor is relentless, and her honesty almost confrontational. To miss this cult favorite would be to miss a singular voice at its most fabulously unfiltered. 

Krysten Ritter's "Bonfire" generated plenty of buzz when it hit shelves. In part, because of the fanbase she had already built from her roles in "Jessica Jones," "Breaking Bad," and "Don't Trust the B– in Apartment 23," but also because the novel's premise was genuinely gripping. A slow-burn psychological thriller book steeped in small-town rot, corporate corruption, and the ghosts of high school past, "Bonfire" proved that Ritter had more than one creative muscle to flex.

Abby Williams, a determined environmental lawyer in Chicago, never wanted to set foot in Barrens, Indiana, again. But when a case against the town's corporate benefactor forces her return, she finds herself entangled in more than just legal battles. Officially, she's investigating potential water contamination. Unofficially, she's confronting a past she'd rather keep buried: the disappearance of her former best friend, and the insidious influence of a classmate clique that ruled high school halls.

As she digs into the chemical company that keeps Barrens afloat, Abby quickly realizes that some toxins run deeper than the water supply, and some contamination isn't just environmental. Soon, a corporate probe spirals into something far more personal, threatening to unearth shocking truths that would prefer to stay undiscovered. Ritter's world-building is strong. Small-town Indiana is rendered with a claustrophobic precision. Abby's voice, caustic but pleasing, slices through the novel's brooding atmosphere. "Bonfire" doesn't reinvent the thriller genre, but it plays within its confines skilfully, and Ritter wields its tropes well.

Guinness World Records once declared Sherlock Holmes the most portrayed human literary character of all time, with more than 70 actors embodying him across hundreds of TV shows and movies. But as every generation finds a new way to reimagine the Baker Street detective, his equally brilliant brother, the elusive Mycroft Holmes, has rarely been granted the same attention. NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar set records of his own on the court before pivoting to an impressive writing career, turning his attention to fiction and crafting an intriguing take on the power broker in the shadows.

With a Cambridge degree under his belt and already entrenched in the workings of the British government, Mycroft Holmes appears to be a man with a steady path ahead. But when his best friend, Cyrus Douglas, receives disturbing reports from his home in Trinidad — whispers of missing children, unexplained footprints, and eerie tales of spirits — Mycroft's carefully ordered world is shaken. The news becomes even more urgent when his fiancée, Georgiana Sutton, abruptly leaves for the island, sending Mycroft and Douglas in pursuit. What they find is a mystery far more sinister than superstition and supernatural fears, and it pulls them into a dangerous web of secrets and Colonial tensions.

Co-written with screenwriter Anna Waterhouse, "Mycroft Holmes" fleshes out the elder Holmes brother in a way no stories have before. And if this case intrigues you, rest assured — two more instalments of the series await you afterwards: "Mycroft and Sherlock," and "Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage."

Steve Martin packs a lot into this short, compulsively readable novella. Mirabelle Buttersfield is a 28-year-old artist who rarely makes art, spending her days selling gloves at Nieman's in LA. Her nights are suspended in solitude, and her life moves without ever quite gaining momentum. She is not actively searching for love, but when two men — opposite in age, means, and intent — drift into her world, she finds herself caught in affairs that never fully become what she hopes they might be.

Jeremy, a directionless 20-something manchild with the emotional intelligence of a houseplant, fumbles through their connection with self-absorption and casual neglect. Ray, on the other hand, a millionaire in his fifties, offers something more structured, but his affection comes with quiet limitations that keep true intimacy in their hypergamous relationship just out of reach.

Martin unravels and reassembles relationships in ways that feel at once inevitable and surprising. Wry wit flickers at the edges of the emotional asymmetry, but beneath it lies an acute dissection of how people misread and mishandle each other. In 2005, the comedian-actor adapted "Shopgirl" into a film starring Claire Danes, Jason Schwartzman, and himself as Ray. The adaptation captures much of the work's melancholy, with the same understated poignancy that makes the book so compelling.

Like the fast-talking, coffee-fueled Lorelai Gilmore before her, Lauren Graham infuses "Someday, Someday, Maybe" with the same restless energy of someone racing against their own thought process. This is New York City in 1995, and Franny Banks has drawn a hard line in the sand: three years to break into acting. But with just six months left, her greatest screen credit is an uninspiring Christmas commercial. She's got little more than a stack of rejections and a dwindling bank account to show for it.

Waiting tables, she stumbles through auditions where she is either too much or not enough. She memorizes monologues and wonders, between shifts and callbacks and crushing self-doubt, if it's time to admit that the dream is slipping away. There's an impossibly handsome actor dangling just enough attention to keep her guessing, a best friend who reminds her why she started in the first place, and a father back home gently suggesting that plan B isn't such a bad idea.

Graham's prose is as charming as the woman we fell in love with on-screen, which makes it the perfect light read for those willing to invest time into its authentic, evocative pages. 

Not all celebrity novels are created equal, and this list isn't simply about famous names dabbling in fiction on a whim. These are books that genuinely deliver. Each of these novels is written by someone who built their reputation outside of the literary world, but whose storytelling holds up on shelves. Beyond their strong writing, these books were chosen for their themes and emotional resonance. They are also works we believe will resonate with Women readers in their stories, themes, ambition, and identities. Clearly, sometimes the most enjoyable fiction comes from the people you least expect.