The Book of Bill: Alex Hirsch's 2024 adult-audience Bill Cipher novel

The Book of Bill is a 2024 novel written by Alex Hirsch and published by Hyperion Avenue Books, Disney's adult imprint. Disney's own catalogue page gives a release date of July 23, 2024, 208 pages, ISBN 9781368092203, and an age range of "Adult." It is the most important development in the Gravity Falls franchise since the series ended, and it is deliberately unlike anything that came before it.

The three things that make it different

It is not a Gravity Falls book by title. It was the first book in the franchise line not to carry "Gravity Falls" in the title. That is a publishing decision with a clear reason behind it, and the reason was stated at announcement: the book is aimed at an older audience than the show ever was.

It is told by the antagonist. The book retells the series from Bill Cipher's perspective, with Bill credited as a co-writer and artist alongside Alex Hirsch. The framing is not a retelling in the ordinary sense; it extends before and after the events of the series, so it functions as a parallel history rather than a recap.

It is sold as an adult title. Disney's own page lists the age range as Adult and carries the line "This book travels to dimensions meant for older readers." Wikipedia's account of the announcement describes it as the first Gravity Falls book intended for an older audience, with dark humour and occult-adjacent material that goes past what a TV-Y7 animated series could carry.

Publication history

Announced: December 2023, reported by Collider on December 15, 2023 and covered by Polygon the same day.
Standard edition: July 23, 2024, 208 pages, ISBN 9781368092203, Hyperion Avenue Books.
Barnes & Noble exclusive: same date, with 16 extra pages of behind-the-scenes production art, ISBN 9781368104807.
Limited Collector's Edition: announced June 18, 2025 and released September 23, 2025, with a glow-in-the-dark slipcase and special extras, ISBN 9781368117845.

Chart performance

The book appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list in July 2024 and remained there for twenty-four weeks, through January 2025. That is a long run for a tie-in, and it is the clearest commercial evidence that the franchise still had an audience a decade after the finale. The publisher's own marketing led with the "instant number-one New York Times bestseller" claim.

Who made it

Hirsch wrote it, and Wikipedia's article lists sixteen credited artists: Aron Bothman, Emmy Cicierega, Lip Comarella, Jonny Crickets, Stephen DeStefano, Goran Gligovic, Andy Gonsalves, Christoph Gromer, Trevor Henderson, Danny Hynes, Alex Konstad, Joe Pitt, Dor Shamir, Gabriel Soares, Jeffrey Thompson, Eduardo Valdes-Hevia, and Ian Worrel. It is classified as an epistolary novel, which fits a book structured around recovered documents, ciphers, and journal pages. Several of those artists worked on the show itself; Emmy Cicierega also wrote Gravity Falls Don't Color This Book! It's Cursed! for Disney Press.

Critical response

Coverage was generally positive and, unusually, focused on the book resolving rather than deferring series questions. Comic Book Resources wrote that it explained some of the show's most important remaining mysteries in an engaging way and added jokes and character detail. Screen Rant described it as revealing new lore about Bill Cipher and Gravity Falls, and as a fourth-wall-breaking installment. It is worth reading those as informed opinions rather than as settled fact, because the series' long-standing answer is that the books and the show share one continuity and the ARG material sits deliberately between them.

How to read it

You can read The Book of Bill without having read Journal 3, but you will lose a great deal. The recommended order is the series, then Journal 3, then Lost Legends, then The Book of Bill. Start with the Bill Cipher explainer if you want the character context first, and use the ciphers guide when you get to the parts that reward it.