Where to Start with David Kreizman
For readers looking to dive into David Kreizman's written work, the path is relatively straightforward but highly unique. Unlike traditional novelists who build massive multi-book fantasy series, Kreizman's career is rooted in serialized, character-driven drama. He has written one major standalone young adult novel and co-authored a published script book for his award-winning podcast series. In addition, his audio dramas have been adapted into novels by other authors under his creative guidance. The best way to start depends entirely on whether you prefer immersive contemporary YA fiction or fast-paced sci-fi mystery scripts.
The Standalone Masterpiece: The Year They Fell (2019)
If you want a traditional reading experience, your starting point is unquestionably The Year They Fell, published by Macmillan in July 2019. This emotional contemporary young adult novel showcases Kreizman's talent for handling multiple perspectives, deep interpersonal drama, and high-stakes emotional cliffhangers—skills he honed during his years in daytime television.
The novel follows five high school seniors: Josie, Jack, Archie, Harrison, and Dayana. Although they were inseparable as young children in preschool, they drifted apart as they grew up, split by social hierarchies and typical high school divides. However, their lives are shattered and forced back together when their parents—who remained close friends—are all killed in a single, devastating plane crash. Suddenly orphaned and left with a mountain of grief, secrets, and unanswered questions, the five teens must learn to navigate their new reality together.
Kreizman explores heavy and complex themes in this work, including grief, trauma, mental health, and the transition into adulthood, all while weaving in mystery elements regarding the circumstances of the crash and their parents' pasts. It is written in alternating viewpoints, making it a fast-paced, emotionally resonant read that is perfect for fans of character-driven contemporary YA.
The Script Book: The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel
For fans of audio drama, script-writing, and classroom read-alouds, Kreizman's other major written publication is The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel: Season One, published in March 2019. Co-written with Chris Tarry and Jenny Turner Hall, this book contains the official recording scripts for the first season of the wildly popular, Peabody Award-winning podcast.
This release is particularly popular in educational environments and among young writers. It allows readers to see the exact structure, dialogue formatting, and audio cues that built the mystery of Mars Patel and his friends as they search for their missing classmates. Reading the scripts offers a behind-the-scenes look at how serialized audio storytelling is constructed from the page up.
Understanding the Mars Patel Book Series (By Sheela Chari)
An important point of clarification for readers looking for the Mars Patel books is that the middle-grade novelizations are not written by David Kreizman himself. Instead, they are written by author Sheela Chari, based on the original audio series created by Kreizman and his Gen-Z Media co-founders. If you want to read the story in a traditional novel format, you should follow this order:
- Book 1: The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel (2020) – Adapts the first season, following Mars Patel as he investigates the mysterious disappearance of his friends Aurora and Oliver.
- Book 2: The Interplanetary Expedition of Mars Patel (2021) – Adapts the second season, taking the mystery to a mysterious school run by an enigmatic tech billionaire.
- Book 3: The Extradimensional Reappearance of Mars Patel (2022) – Concludes the trilogy with high-stakes sci-fi adventures across dimensions.
Kreizman's role in this trilogy is that of the original creator, showrunner, and executive producer, meaning his creative DNA is embedded in every chapter, even though Chari penned the prose adaptions.
The GZM Audio Universe: Six Minutes
Another major pillar of Kreizman's creative portfolio is the mega-hit podcast Six Minutes. Serving as showrunner and head writer, Kreizman helped shape the story of Holiday, a girl pulled from the water with no memory of her past and mysterious superpowers. Unlike Mars Patel, Six Minutes has not received a formal traditional novelization series. However, the scripts and transcripts are widely used in classrooms and are accessible online through Gen-Z Media's educational outreach platforms. For listeners who want to "read" along, accessing the episode transcripts in release order is the recommended method to experience the story's dense, fast-moving plot.
From Daytime Television to YA Prose: The Kreizman Pacing
Understanding Kreizman’s professional background is key to appreciating his written work. Born in 1974 in New Jersey, he spent over a decade working as a head writer and co-head writer for iconic daytime soap operas, including Guiding Light (where he won a Daytime Emmy in 2007), As the World Turns, and All My Children. He even spent a year as a head writer for WWE, crafting dramatic storylines for Monday Night Raw.
This intensive background in daily, serialized drama directly translates into his books and podcasts. In both The Year They Fell and the Mars Patel scripts, readers will notice short, punchy chapters, frequent perspective shifts, and constant, minor cliffhangers. He writes with a focus on high emotional stakes and snappy dialogue, making his written work incredibly easy to read and difficult to put down.
Summary of Written Works by Publication Date
If you want to read David Kreizman's direct written contributions in the order they were published, the sequence is:
- The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel: Season One (Scripts) (March 2019) – Co-authored with Chris Tarry and Jenny Turner Hall.
- The Year They Fell (July 2019) – Stanadalone contemporary young adult novel.