Overview
A Cancellation is a novel by Cairo Smith about Amanda Bannington, a Los Angeles YouTuber whose public persona, relationships, and legal position collapse as old abuse, creator-world rivalry, fan exploitation, and violent retaliation converge around her.
The story is framed by Harold Kim, who writes retrospectively after helping Nam Hae-jin produce a true-crime series about Amanda. It follows Amanda through her two public brands, AmandaHere and Susie Sparkles, her engagement to Andy Field, her dependence on assistant Kale Flores, and her fraught family history with her twin sister Katherine Bannington.
A Cancellation is available for pre-order through New Ritual Press.
Plot
Amanda begins the novel as a thirty-four-year-old Los Angeles YouTuber trying to protect her fame after years of AmandaHere videos and Susie Sparkles comedy. She rents a soundstage for a polished theme-song video, searches for new camera help, and hires Hae-jin as a production worker while a gloved man in a black sports car surveils her house at 1387 John L. Vega Road. After a humiliating lunch with younger creators, Amanda resolves to regain status through live performance, acting, sponsorships, and a higher tier of creator friendships. She also accepts a message request from Michael Senesky, a high-school sophomore fan whose attention quickly becomes part of her private life.
Amanda’s family history enters the public story after Hae-jin attends the Bannington family Fourth of July gathering and sees the wealth, old resentments, and self-protective habits around Amanda. Maya Wright, a former Amanda fan, secretly records Katherine discussing childhood harm, addiction, and the old Kat and Panda Show. Maya turns the recording into a viral video that forces Amanda to manage Katherine as a liability rather than acknowledge the family history in public. Amanda and Hae-jin then produce a counter-video that temporarily restores Amanda’s momentum.
Amanda tries to convert creator-world tragedy into career opportunity after Heather Mayfield’s murder makes a vigil into an influencer gathering. She flatters Zeke Nakhla there, later strengthens her live act with a successful Susie-centered show, and is offered a possible Netflix role. At the same time, Henry Owens, calling himself the Phantom, begins sending letters, photographs, and gifts that Amanda treats with a mixture of fear, vanity, and usefulness. Her private exchanges with Michael continue, including a sexualized fan exchange after he buys her red swimsuit from a clothing sale.
Amanda’s domestic life deteriorates as her comeback appears to improve. She begins an affair with Brad Miller, leaves Hae-jin more dependent on her job after Hae-jin loses family financial support, and injures Andy during a fight after their joint stage show. When Andy later catches Amanda with Brad, the engagement breaks apart. Amanda pivots toward the A to Z tour with Zeke, continues using Brad, and has Brad threaten Andy after Andy posts publicly about the breakup.
At CreatorCon, Amanda encounters industry gossip around Sugar Chibi, Sapphire Van Ness, and rumors about Andy’s disappearance. A new Phantom letter offers retaliation against one of Amanda’s enemies, and Amanda uses a coded public post to direct him toward Sugar Chibi. The result is Sugar Chibi’s Dubai leak, a nonconsensual-image leak that Amanda allows to spread and then sends to Michael. As Hae-jin’s tuition crisis worsens, Zeke’s own public breakdown destroys the A to Z tour, Amanda begins a solo-tour pivot, and Kale gives notice.
Sapphire’s Surviving Amanda Bannington series turns Amanda’s scandals into a sustained public case, drawing on interviews with Susan Cairn, Andy, and Michael. Michael’s interview makes Amanda’s messages to a high-school sophomore a public and legal crisis, and Amanda’s drunken apology video worsens the reaction after her Brooklyn show collapses. Ken Lang cancels the tour, drops Amanda, and tells her she is brand poison. After Amanda returns to Los Angeles, Henry reveals himself as the Phantom and offers to kill Michael or Andy; Amanda instead names Sapphire as the person responsible for her ruin, setting up Henry Owens’s plot against Scoop.
Amanda starts but abandons a police report about Henry, then calls Brad to guard her house. When FBI agents arrive to question or search her, Amanda tells Brad there is an armed man outside; Brad takes his shotgun to the door and is shot dead by an agent without firing. The aftermath becomes Amanda Bannington’s criminal case. Amanda beats the most serious charges and retreats offline to Northern California, while Hae-jin becomes HeyHiHaejin and turns the events into a later true-crime series. Harold, after helping Hae-jin produce that series and later leaving her, frames the novel as his own attempt to give a truer public account.