Chinese American Danny just got a full scholarship to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. His immigrant parents are thrilled for him, as is his popular best friend, Harry, with whom Danny is secretly in love. Harry’s girlfriend Regina is happy for Danny, too, although things have been weird between them ever since their friend Sandra died by suicide a year ago. Danny feels guilty about Sandra, as they’d had a falling out before her death. When Danny finds a box of documents and letters at home that puzzle him, and his parents won’t answer his questions, he takes things into his own hands, uncovering a story about his family, and the older sister he’s always been told died before he was born, that is initially shocking, then oddly comforting. This quiet, emotionally intense novel in Danny’s observant first-person voice integrates two seemingly disparate storylines: the one-year aftermath of Sandra’s suicide, which reveals the intense pressure she felt as a high-achieving student, and Danny’s family story. Danny’s friendships are integral to both, and it is these relationships, and Danny’s searching, tender heart, that tie the two threads together. (Age 13 and older)

"Picture me madly in love with this moving, tender, unapologetically honest book." —Becky Albertalli, #1 best-selling author of Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father's closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Bay Area family, he realizes there's much more to his family's past than he ever imagined.

Danny has been an artist for as long as he can remember and it seems his path is set, with a scholarship to RISD and his family's blessing to pursue the career he's always dreamed of. Still, contemplating a future without his best friend, Harry Wong, by his side makes Danny feel a panic he can barely put into words. Harry's and Danny's lives are deeply intertwined and as they approach the one-year anniversary of a tragedy that shook their friend group to its core, Danny can't stop asking himself if Harry is truly in love with his girlfriend, Regina Chan.

When Danny digs deeper into his parents' past, he uncovers a secret that disturbs the foundations of his family history and the carefully constructed facade his parents have maintained begins to crumble. With everything he loves in danger of being stripped away, Danny must face the ghosts of the past in order to build a future that belongs to him in this complex, lyrical novel.