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Table of Contents
About The Book
For fans of Dolly Alderton and HBO’s Hacks, a whip-smart, laugh-out-loud funny debut novel about faking it (and “making it”) as a writer in Hollywood.
TV writer Caroline Neumann is thirty-four and mired in professional envy and self-hatred. Even Harry, her usually supportive therapist husband, thinks it’s time for her to press pause on her career ambitions and focus on getting pregnant, despite Caroline’s serious ambivalence about having children.
When Caroline accidentally stumbles on Harry’s patient session notes and offhandedly mentions what she finds in a meeting with a producer, the momentum of Hollywood takes over. Before she knows it—and unbeknownst to Harry—Caroline finds herself pitching a TV show about the deepest, darkest secrets of her husband’s favorite patient, a woman known to Caroline only as the Teacher.
Amid the indignities of the Hollywood development process, Caroline must balance her burning desire for professional validation against her own morality and the health of her marriage. And when Caroline forms a real-life relationship with Teacher herself, the lines between art and life begin to blur further, shaking up Caroline’s understanding of what it means to be the “likeable female protagonist” of her own life.
TV writer Caroline Neumann is thirty-four and mired in professional envy and self-hatred. Even Harry, her usually supportive therapist husband, thinks it’s time for her to press pause on her career ambitions and focus on getting pregnant, despite Caroline’s serious ambivalence about having children.
When Caroline accidentally stumbles on Harry’s patient session notes and offhandedly mentions what she finds in a meeting with a producer, the momentum of Hollywood takes over. Before she knows it—and unbeknownst to Harry—Caroline finds herself pitching a TV show about the deepest, darkest secrets of her husband’s favorite patient, a woman known to Caroline only as the Teacher.
Amid the indignities of the Hollywood development process, Caroline must balance her burning desire for professional validation against her own morality and the health of her marriage. And when Caroline forms a real-life relationship with Teacher herself, the lines between art and life begin to blur further, shaking up Caroline’s understanding of what it means to be the “likeable female protagonist” of her own life.
About The Author
Hallie Cantor
Hallie Cantor is an Emmy-nominated television writer for shows including Arrested Development, Lady Dynamite!, Dollface, and Inside Amy Schumer. Her work has been published in The New Yorker’s Shouts & Murmurs, New York magazine, NPR’s This American Life, and the humor anthology Notes From the Bathroom Line. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, who is—yes—a therapist. Like This, But Funnier is her debut novel.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (April 7, 2026)
- Length: 304 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668088586
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Raves and Reviews
"A page-turner about ambition and trust."—People, Best Books of April 2026
"An uproarious romp. We’re all faking it, and Cantor bites into that with a comedic lens. The book is one of the most fun times I’ve had reading in a long time."—Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
"A hilarious, piercing look at the harsh realities of pursuing a career in the arts that also limns the struggles women with careers face when deciding whether to start a family. Frank, smart, and relatable, this is a winner.—Booklist
"Achingly funny...This hilarious book also delivers moving insight into the things insecurity can make women think and do."—Kirkus (starred review)
"[A] hilarious and propulsive debut...it's comedic gold."—Publishers Weekly
"Cantor, a television script writer herself (Arrested Development; Inside Amy Schumer), paints a realistic picture of the business, from pitch to story development to writers’ rooms. Her compulsively readable novel shifts from funny to cringe-worthy as it sheds a light on insider Hollywood."—Library Journal
“Hallie is one of the funniest, most original voices I've ever encountered, and this book gripped me page one through the end."—Amy Schumer
"This book is every bit as delightful and hilariously self-revealing as the author herself. Which, come to think of it, is what makes them both so hard to put down. Hallie captures something so funny about the shame and envy common to the truly gifted that I’m ashamed to admit makes me envious. I hope that doesn’t sound like I’m bragging."—Mitchell Hurwitz, creator of Arrested Development
"A transfixing story about the perils of storytelling...Like This, But Funnier couldn’t be any funnier, but what makes it so unforgettable is its merciless evisceration of the lazy narcissism of Hollywood and the deeply bewildering and unnervingly private choices women face as they navigate adulthood."—Heather Havrilesky, Ask Polly columnist and author of Foreverland and How to Be a Person in the World
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