My Flawless Life

After a hit-and-run involving her father decimates the family’s finances and plummets her social standing, pragmatic 17-year-old Chinese and white Hana Yang Lerner becomes her prestigious private Washington, D.C. high school’s fixer: “I restored reputations, I suffocated rumors. I kept secrets from spilling, and if they’d already spilled, I cleaned them up.” While she spends her days sweeping up her classmates’ messes, she’s haunted by a secret of her own: the hit-and-run accident for which her father took the blame, leading to his resignation from his position as Virginia’s Democratic senator, was actually her fault. She’s soon hired by an anonymous entity to uncover a scandal regarding her former best friend, Cuban American Luce Herrera. As she investigates Luce’s suspicious activity surrounding an education nonprofit, the truth about the crash threatens to unravel any sense of stability that Hana has gained. Things get even more convoluted when her job intersects with another former best friend, Chinese American James Li, and his own investigation, prompting them to team up. Woon (If You, Then Me) crafts a meticulously plotted mystery entrenched in high-society scandal and high school drama and peopled by complex, ever-evolving protagonists. It’s a blistering commentary on privilege and wealth. Ages 13–up. Agent: Ted Malawer, Upstart Crow Literary. (Feb.)