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Whatever Happened to Aria Montgomery?
by Margot Busby
The New Yorker E-Magazine
March 7, 2027
Nearly a decade ago, Aria Montgomery burst onto the literary scene not with a whimper, but with a bang.
To understand her journey, we have to begin with the success of a different writer: Ezra Fitz, her former English teacher. In 2014, Ezra’s novel Ostinato captured critics and readers alike with its warm, relatable tale of a young man witnessing his family falling apart.
A few years later, Ezra’s second book, simply titled Nicole, was released by the very publishing house where Aria worked. Nicole was vastly different in tone from Ostinato: the gripping story of a man searching for his girlfriend lost on a Habitat for Humanity trip, Nicole confronted readers with our own senses of guilt and shame. A critical darling, Nicole received particular praise for the way Ezra was able to capture the female point of view. It appeared on many Top 10 lists, and was one of the best-selling books of 2018.
Three weeks into his sold-out book tour, disaster struck. Ezra suffered a complete mental breakdown on the road, and in an unforgettable interview, he revealed that not only had Aria ghostwritten the entirely of Nicole, but she and Ezra had also had an ongoing relationship, beginning when she was his underage student.
Since that fateful interview, Ezra has been completely blacklisted from the literary community. Investigations into his past proved that Aria had been his only teenage paramour, and the statute of limitations had expired as far as charges were concerned, but his public image was ruined. Rumors circulated about his whereabouts—some said he was homeless, others said that he’d retired to a cabin in Maine, still others darkly reported that he’d taken his own life.
As of now, about nine years after his breakdown, we can confirm that Ezra lives in a houseboat in Seattle. He has two restraining orders filed against him: one for his ex-girlfriend who lives in Seattle, and the other for her twenty-three-year-old son, who sources say Ezra once believed was his own.
But this article is not about the enigma that is Ezra Fitz. Abusive men are an unfortunately prevalent presence in our society, and sadly, this once-revered man of words turns out to be nothing more than a run-of-the-mill predator. The person who honestly benefitted from Nicole, however, was the subject of this piece: Ms. Montgomery herself.
After Ezra’s startling reveal, the world was captivated by the mysterious girl with the lyrical name. Aria’s introduction to the public eye was undoubtedly dramatic, but it was her talent that kept people talking. While Ostinato seemed, in retrospect, a bit pretentious and bloated, Nicole was a streamlined, edge-of-your-seat masterpiece, instantly transporting readers to the desolate jungle where the title character spent her final days.
Within weeks, Aria was signed for a four-book contract by the very publishing house her former mentor and lover had worked with. It took nearly two years, but Nicole’s follow-up was worth the wait: Tell Me I’m Sophisticated, Aria’s winking semi-autobiographical novel, was a smash-hit. The story of a young woman coming to terms with the predatory behavior of the men in her town was undoubtably a cathartic story for Aria to tell, but what truly amazed readers was her willingness to dig deep into ideas of agency and responsibility. Tell Me I’m Sophisticated forced readers to answer the question, if we tell a young woman who she can and can’t date, are we stunting her more than any interaction with an older man might? “Yes, there was some of myself in there,” Aria said at the time. “But I think the issues this book raises are really universal for young women in this day and age.”
Three years after the success of Tell Me I’m Sophisticated, Aria once more shocked and awed audiences with another semi-autobiographical novel, entitled You Know You Want to Kiss Me. This was also a young woman’s story, but instead of contemplating her relationship to men, our lead character, Delaney Allen, spends two years of her teenage life on the run from a mysterious presence. As the readers, we never know who the presence is, and by the end of the novel, we’ve come to believe that perhaps the entire thing is a figment of Delaney’s psychosis.
One can’t help but draw comparisons between this story and the case of Alison DiLaurentis, a dear friend of Aria’s who spent two years of her life in captivity after being kidnapped at fifteen. But Aria’s extrapolation of the concept of surveillance and abduction is fascinating, and largely metaphorical. “As a reader, we don’t ultimately want to know why Delaney’s afraid,” Aria once said about the novel. “We want to know how she’s going to survive.”
Both Tell Me I’m Sophisticated and You Know You Want to Kiss Me received rave reviews and enjoyed incredible financial success. We waited with baited breath for Aria’s next hit. A year passed. Then two. And then three.
You Know You Want to Kiss Me was published nearly four years ago. While there was significant press coverage alerting readers to both of Nicole’s follow-up installments, news of a new Aria Montgomery book has been virtually absent. Aria still lives in New York, though she’s reportedly been recently spending lots of time at her family’s home in Rosewood, Pennsylvania. Some sources say that she’s hard at work on her new novel, while others say she’s shifted her focus to journalism or photography.
We don’t care in what form it arrives, we just know that we’re ready for the next Aria Montgomery vehicle. I know that personally, I’d follow her wherever she goes. So once more I implore: whatever happened to Aria Montgomery?
Aria Montgomery and her publishing house, Westerville Publishers, both declined to comment on this story.