When ’Wayne (who goes by “D”) is invited to participate in a high-profile Johns Hopkins study on teen health, he jumps at the chance, eager to challenge his dad’s low expectations of him. It doesn’t hurt that his crush, Jane (white, autistic), is also participating. D (Vietnamese and white) is fitted with a wristband, asked to complete daily puzzles and questions on his phone, and given a pill; he is not told what the pill is or how it might affect him. Knowing little about the study’s purpose, D and Jane begin meeting up to discuss their experience; D’s tech-whiz best friend, Kermit (South Asian), sometimes joins. Soon, the three of them wonder: Is something unethical—even sinister—going on here? Is it really a health study? What do the wristbands monitor? What makes D and Jane eligible? Why did a fellow study participant inexplicably drop out of school? Feeling increasingly paranoid, D begins tracking any observable changes in himself. He’s also reeling after receiving an unexpected email from his mom, who abandoned the family years ago and now wants to reconnect. This inventive, suspenseful novel, which incorporates emails, screenshots, footnotes, and other documents, asks important questions about the ethics of medical research in the United States, especially on vulnerable populations. While its open ending may frustrate some, it nonetheless invites speculation and discussion.

A weird and revelatory debut that vividly captures the dislocation of growing up BIPOC and neurodivergent in a country awash in both conspiracy theories and genuine conspiracies.

"The invisible D in my name is my mother’s second most lasting contribution to my life."

‘Wayne Le—known as "Invisible-D 'Wayne" at school—has been invited to participate in a seemingly ordinary, innocuous adolescent health study by a prestigious university. The study has a few nice perks, but most important to ‘Wayne, is the opportunity to give his immigrant father an accomplishment to be proud of—something that's been in short supply since 'Wayne's mother left.

But the study quickly proves to be anything but ordinary and innocuous, and ‘Wayne, his best friend Kermit, and a fellow study participant named Jane (a girl who shall not be manic-pixied) find themselves sucked into an M. C. Escheresque maze of conspiracies that might be entirely in their heads or might truly be a sinister government plot.

A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year