This Moth Saw Brightness

Description: High schooler 'Wayne and his best friend Kermit participate in a university health study that turns out to be riddled with conspiracies pointing to a sinister government plot.

Review Quotes: A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection

★ "This funny, insightful debut about mental illness, identity, and a person's capacity to change packs a surprising emotional punch. Bold stylistic choices--wry footnotes, the inclusion of documents referenced in the story, a brief interjection by the author--add an interactive element to D's humorous and self-deprecating first-person narration. Superb."--Kirkus, starred review

★ "The true conspiracy theories are the friends we made along the way--or are they?... This debut is an engaging read while also having great potential to spark conversations about information literacy with the implications of its deeply unsettling ending."--Booklist, starred review

★ "A remarkable debut novel which delves into both adolescent struggles and mental health."--SLJ, starred review

"Vacharat's debut is a standout work of speculative fiction and a foreboding social satire about unethical governing and the corrosive values of Big Tech."--The Horn Book

"Vacharat's debut YA novel is a compelling dissection of humanity's 'impulse to treat people...like they are the property of whoever's in power.'... An enigmatic, entertaining experience."--Shelf Awareness

"A.A. Vacharat is a bold and strange new YA voice, with shades of A.S. King. This Moth Saw Brightness defies description; at once sweeping and specific, full of huge ideas and beautifully honest relationships, this is a debut from a fascinating new writer. I can't wait to see what she does next."--Joy McCullough, New York Times bestselling author of Blood Water Paint and Everything Is Poison

"Utilizing cheeky footnotes and fourth-wall-breaking asides, and deploying shocking twists and turns, Vacharat delivers a propulsive and unnerving debut."--PW