Invisible Son

By Kim Johnson, BS ’01 (ethnic studies), vice provost, Undergraduate Education and Student Success

August 30, 2023

Invisible Son

From the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of This Is My America comes another thriller about a wrongly accused teen desperate to reclaim both his innocence and his first love.

Andre Jackson is determined to reclaim his identity. But returning from juvie doesn’t feel like coming home. His Portland, Oregon, neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying, and COVID-19 shuts down school before he can return. And Andre’s suspicions about his arrest for a crime he didn’t commit even taint his friendships. It’s as if his whole life has been erased.

The one thing Andre is counting on is his relationship with the Whitaker kids—especially his longtime crush, Sierra. But Sierra’s brother Eric is missing, and the facts don’t add up as their adoptive parents fight to keep up the act that their racially diverse family is picture-perfect. If Andre can find Eric, he just might uncover the truth about his own arrest. But in a world where power is held by a few and Andre is nearly invisible, searching for the truth is a dangerous game.

Penguin Random House, 2023