Castle (2026)

When Jon Ronson receives a series of disturbing texts from his son Joel, who has been lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England late one night, Ronson sets off on an investigation into an underworld of unmoored and disaffected men. As he investigates the castle and the wider “man crisis”, in which some men feel adrift amid conflicting ideas of what it means to be a man, urgent questions emerge. What exactly is “Princessing”? Why did a lawn-care influencer dress as a baby in front of billions of online viewers, with catastrophic results? And why are two recently released murderers on their way to visit Jon? From the death of utopian factory towns to the false promise of YouTube influencer culture, Jon Ronson examines a rapidly changing world and the men caught in the middle: a world drained of purpose, with collapsing institutions and a new era of disinhibited behaviour taking hold online and in everyday life. As the mystery of the castle develops into a cat-and-mouse story, will Jon discover its terrifying secret? This darkly comic work of narrative non-fiction explores the masculinity crisis with insight, intensity and a fast-moving story.