Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Other Four-Letter Words

by Michael Ausiello

Overview

Now a major motion picture starring Jim Parsons! A “heartbreaking but surprisingly hilarious memoir” (People) about the lessons, love, and laughter of the fourteen years a respected TV columnist shared with his late husband before he succumbed to cancer.

For over a decade, TV fans have counted upon Michael Ausiello’s insider knowledge to get the scoop on their favorite shows and stars. From his time at Soaps In Depth and Entertainment Tonight to his influential stints at TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly to his current role as cofounder of the wildly popular website TVLine, Michael has established himself as the go-to expert when it comes to our most popular form of entertainment.

What many of his fans don’t know, however, is that while his professional life was in full swing, Michael had to endure the greatest of personal tragedies: his longtime boyfriend, Kit Cowan, was diagnosed with a rare and very aggressive form of neuroendocrine cancer. Over the course of eleven months, Kit and Michael did their best to combat the deadly disease, but Kit succumbed to his illness in 2015.

In this heartbreaking and darkly hilarious memoir, Michael tells the story of his harrowing and challenging last year with Kit while revisiting the thirteen years that preceded it, and how the undeniably powerful bond between him and Kit carried them through all manner of difficulties—always with laughter front and center in their relationship.

“Engrossing, poignant, tragic, and hilarious” (Jenny Lawson, #1 New York Times bestselling author), Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies is “a story about love and loss, joy and heartbreak. And in the midst of personal turmoil, we learn that bravery comes in many forms” (The Washington Post).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501134975
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	09/18/2018
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	24,224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.38(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Michael Ausiello is the founder and editor-in-chief of TVLine, a television entertainment website owned by Penske Media that launched in 2010. Ausiello began his publishing career in 1997 at Soaps In Depth before moving on to TV Guide in 2000, where he debuted his signature, spoiler-tinged “Ask Ausiello” column and established himself as a major player in the world of TV journalism. In 2008, he jumped to Entertainment Weekly, where he penned a column in the magazine as well as an award-winning blog. He currently splits his time between New York City and Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

The ending is given away in the title, but the experience of reading it is something wholly unexpected . . . . a humorous, enlightening, and sometimes even sensual look at gay life in New York City...and a swoon-inducing romance that pulls no punches about how just how much work goes into staying with the love of your life until the end of his life . . . .The beauty of the book, however, is that the details don’t have to mirror a reader’s own life so eerily for the story to feel so personally powerful.

The Daily Beast - Kevin Fallon

"A poignant memoir."

Entertainment Weekly

Sexy and sweet, charming and funny, Michael Ausiello somehow manages to turn a story of loss into a hopeful tale that shines with warmth and wit.

Lauren Graham

10/23/2017
In this glib yet moving memoir, magazine editor Ausiello describes his husband’s grueling battle with a rare form of neuroendocrine cancer. Ausiello closely chronicles the 11 months of hope, terror, and intimacy that followed the diagnosis, also reflecting on their 14-year relationship, his mother’s death from cancer, and the way a fat, bullied, gay kid from New Jersey transformed a love of daytime soaps into a remarkable career. While the vibrant life the couple led is peculiar to 21st-century New York City, to many their struggles with illness will be familiar. Ausiello is a quirky character; even as he’s waiting for news that will determine his husband’s future, he can’t help but enumerate the offerings at a medical center snack bar. While Ausiello’s frothy style (Smurfs are frequently mentioned) brings welcome lightness to what is, inevitably, a grim chronicle, at times the narrative can feel too airy. That said, Ausiello’s story remains an honest declaration of true love and terrible loss. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Engrossing, poignant, tragic, and hilarious – I couldn't put it down. Read this book. You are welcome.

Jenny Lawson

Spoiler Alert is both tender and raw. It almost feels inappropriate to be invited into such a deeply personal chapter of someone’s life. It’s a story about love and loss, joy and heartbreak. And in the midst of personal turmoil, we learn that bravery comes in many forms."

The Washington Post

Heartbreaking but surprisingly hilarious.

PEOPLE

"Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies is a haunting and profoundly sad story, but it's brightened by witty writing, comedic interludes and the two charismatic, endearing and appealing heroes at the book's center."

Shelf Awareness

"Like some of Michael's favorite TV shows, his book is heartfelt, smart, funny, insightful, and packs an enormous emotional punch. I can't recommend it more."

Greg Berlanti

"What Ausiello has done is made certain that Cowan’s one special life will never be forgotten. The hero died, but the spirit lives."

Lambda Literary Review

When a journalist as talented as Ausiello turns their focus inward, something special is bound to occur. Such is the case with Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies. A more heartbreaking, honest, funny, and insightful book on the subject of loss can be found nowhere.

J.J. Abrams

"As hate threatens to strangle our country, take a look at what love looks like."

Newark Star-Ledger

★ 2017-07-12
A veteran entertainment journalist shares the bittersweet story of his relationship with his husband and his tragic death from cancer.In 2001, Ausiello, founder of TVLine.com, met and instantly gelled with handsome Christopher "Kit" Cowan. A hilariously described "aggressive form of CPR" between the two men sealed the romantic deal, and they became inseparable. Both would endure the navigation of sexual and bodily insecurities and some peculiar quirks like Kit's assortment of sex toys and the author's penchant for wine and an ever blossoming Smurf collection. Rough interpersonal waters would lead to a mutual "soft breakup" and to couples therapy before their world would be spun upside down by an unforeseen scare. The tone of the memoir changes when Kit discovers an abnormality in his colon, which brought up the same cancer fears Ausiello experienced in his youth when his mother and father both passed away by the time he was 22. Kit was diagnosed with a rare aggressive neuroendocrine tumor, which carried a hopeful if precarious prognosis. Faced with the possibility of his time with Kit ending, the author proposed marriage, and Ausiello describes the event in tear-jerking details and blubbering adoration. He intersperses the narrative with anecdotes from their evolution as a couple, sweetened by love and affection yet easily bruised by infidelity, personal differences, and petty bickering. As chemotherapy took its toll on Kit and the prospect of remission dimmed, the author remained a strong, dedicated husband. Kit succumbed to the cancer just 11 months later, leaving Ausiello feeling like "a chunk of me had broken off and attached itself to Kit as he drifted away." Though he was left to deal with the expansive void left in Kit's wake, the memoir's conclusion is leavened with hope, healing, and enduring devotion. Tender, profoundly poignant, and cleverly written with equal parts wit and integrity, the book is grounded in the realities of modern relationships and the grim fate of mortality. A heartbreaking memoir infused with dark humor and composed with true love.

Kirkus Reviews