The Midlife Plot Twist
by Lindsay Goldwert and Gabrielle Moss
The Midlife Plot Twist
It’s not a midlife crisis—it’s a midlife plot twist!
Packed with honest, insightful, and deeply relatable advice for anyone who has reached that middle point of life, this humorous and practical guide rejects the outdated cliché of the midlife crisis, instead offering a fresh, empowering vision for any woman in her 40s or 50s looking for reinvention, courage, and clarity.
Welcome to midlife—where your body is totally unpredictable, your career is ever-evolving, and your search history now includes, “Can I pull off bangs at 45?” This is not another menopause book; this is also not a book about how to “manifest,” “visualize,” or “self-actualize” your way into a better life. This book is for those of us who burst into our 20s with only a Cosmopolitan magazine education about how to be a grown-up and have now reached that middle stage of life and are wondering what’s next.
The Midlife Plot Twist is for women who are truly ready to figure out what they want that second chapter of their life to look like. This is a smart, funny guidebook for women trying to navigate every part of their life with humor, honesty, and heart. From forgotten passwords to rediscovering passions, it’s a laugh-out-loud reminder that the middle years aren’t something to survive—they’re something to celebrate. Using expert advice, exercises, and analysis to help readers figure out how they landed where they are now, authors and editors Lindsay Goldwert and Gabrielle Moss offer practical information and guidance about values and goals as it pertains to love and sex, money and career, and friends and family.
Part pep talk, part permission slip, and 100 percent relatable, readers will laugh, nod, and feel seen. Because if midlife has taught us anything, it’s that the only way forward is with grace—and a great sense of humor.
“The Midlife Plot Twist’s cracking wit leapt off the page and chased me around the room. I laughed, I cried, and I know it is not the hormones. I’m buying two copies, one for each eye.”
-Karen Duffy, former MTV DJ and bestselling author of WISE UP: IRREVERENT ENLIGHTENMENT FROM A MOTHER WHO'S BEEN THROUGH IT
“This one is for all the women using gummies and gratitude journals to try to make sense of the last four decades of their lives. The Midlife Plot Twist is a funny, compassionate, and unapologetic reality check.”
- Samantha Cole, author of HOW SEX CHANGED THE INTERNET AND THE INTERNET CHANGED SEX: AN UNEXPECTED HISTORY
“Finally, some real empathy for our just-trying-to-figure-it-out younger selves! This funny, heartfelt book will help freaked-out older millennials and burned-out Gen Xers realize that it’s not too late to be the brave, weird, and independent person you always wanted to be.”
- Catey Hill, senior managing editor of MARKETWATCH; author of SHOO, JIMMY CHOO! and THE 30-MINUTE MONEY PLAN FOR MOMS
About the Authors
Lindsay Goldwert has worked as an editorial director, writer and podcaster, and is the author of Bow Down: Lessons from Dominatrixes on How to Be a Boss in Life, Love and Work, a Glamour Magazine Best Book. She’s written about everything from relationships to midlife adventures, personal finance to power dynamics, for publications like the New York Times, New York Magazine, Refinery29, Fast Company, Marketwatch, and many others. As part of her own mid-life plot twist, she will soon be certified as a sex educator and coach through the Sexual Health Alliance.
Gabrielle Moss is the author of Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, GQ, Slate, BuzzFeed, Bustle, Refinery29, The Daily Beast, Time, and more. She has appeared on NPR, the CBC, and Canadian national morning TV show The Social, and was an on-screen commentator in the 2023 documentary Judy Blume Forever.