by Deb Caletti
First published 2025
Eleanor has spent years watching Hugo Harrison from a distance. The tech genius creates AI inventions that blur reality, but to Eleanor he represents something more personal. Her mother's affair with Hugo years ago makes him her secret father. When Eleanor discovers a nanny position for Hugo's young son, her half-brother, she sees her opportunity. She crafts a false identity and lands the job. Now she lives inside the Harrison family home, surrounded by wealth and ego she's never experienced. She starts dating a boy who works for Hugo. But Eleanor discovers that in a world where image matters more than truth, nothing feels authentic. She uncovers secrets about her father and his newest invention while hiding her own deception. The question becomes whether she can find her real self in a place built on illusions.
Genres: science-fiction, mystery, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Uncanny Valley
Period: 21st-century
416 pages · Hardcover · Labyrinth Road