{"id":325894,"date":"2025-10-23T07:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T07:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/325894\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T07:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T07:22:10","slug":"reese-witherspoon-surpassed-by-surprising-author-on-new-york-times-bestsellers-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/325894\/","title":{"rendered":"Reese Witherspoon Surpassed by Surprising Author on \u2018New York Times\u2019 Bestsellers List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reese Witherspoon\u2019s<\/strong> first novel, Gone Before Goodbye, seemed like a lock for the top spot of every New York Times bestsellers list after its release, but another highly anticipated book stood in its way.<\/p>\n

Gone Before Goodbye<\/a> \u2014 which Witherspoon, 49, wrote with thriller author Harlan Coben<\/strong> \u2014 debuted at No. 2 on the hardcover fiction list<\/a>, falling behind Nicholas Sparks<\/strong> and M. Night Shyamalan\u2019s<\/strong>Remain<\/a> at No. 1.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the rankings were reversed on the combined print and e-book fiction list<\/a>, with Gone Before Goodbye achieving the No. 1 spot and Remain following at No. 2.<\/p>\n

Witherspoon celebrated the achievement after the lists were revealed on Wednesday, October 22, writing via her Instagram Story, \u201cGone Before Goodbye is officially a #1 New York Times Best Seller for print and e-book fiction!!! Thank you to everyone who picked up the book, listened to the audiobook and shared your love for this story!\u201d<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfac <\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfac<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gone Before Goodbye and Remain were both released on October 14 and marked first-time collaborations for Witherspoon and Coben, 63, and Sparks, 59, and Shyamalan, 55, respectively.<\/p>\n

Witherspoon and Coben\u2019s book, Gone Before Goodbye, is described as \u201can unforgettable suspense novel\u201d that follows \u201ca woman trapped in a deadly conspiracy \u2014 where uncovering the truth could cost her everything,\u201d according to its synopsis.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, \u00a0Sparks and Shyamalan\u2019s novel, Remain, \u201cgrapples with the supernatural mysteries of life, death and human connection.\u201d The collaboration promises the best of both worlds since Sparks is known for his romances such as The Notebook and A Walk to Remember, while Shyamalan is famous for twist-filled films such as The Sixth Sense.<\/p>\n

A Remain movie written, directed and produced by Shyamalan is also in the works, with a projected release date in October 2026.<\/p>\n

Witherspoon was the one to approach Coben with her idea for Gone Before Goodbye, telling CBS Mornings<\/a> earlier this month, \u201cIn my mind, he is the greatest thriller writer<\/a> there is right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coben was instantly intrigued. \u201cImmediately, I had a yellow legal pad out,\u201d he recalled. \u201cWe started going back and forth with ideas for three hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the pair\u2019s intentions for the novel, Coben added: \u201cWe really wanted this to be the book you take to bed at 11 o\u2019clock and be like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll read for 10 minutes,\u2019 and the next thing you know, it\u2019s four in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Sparks and Shyamalan, the two worked together to create a story that could be turned into a novel and a feature film.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t really an adaptation. It wasn\u2019t a novelization,\u201d Sparks explained to The Hollywood Reporter<\/a> earlier this month. \u201cIt was both of us taking that original story we first conceived at the very first meeting, and then he worked in his medium, and I worked in mine. I gave him a real long leash on his medium, and he gave me a real long leash on mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Oct 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reese Witherspoon\u2019s first novel, Gone Before Goodbye, seemed like a lock for the top spot of every New…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":325895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,155396,96731,81554,81553,30940,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-325894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-harlan-coben","11":"tag-highly-anticipated","12":"tag-m-night-shyamalan","13":"tag-nicholas-sparks","14":"tag-reese-witherspoon","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115422281558420182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}