Last year, David Yoon’s Frankly in Lovewas the subject of a bidding war among publishers enchanted with the inventor’s debut young adult novel. Happily for the Los Angeles-based author, history repeated itself this week.
Yoon’s novel Version Zero, a thriller aimed at adults, sold to publisher Putnam in a six-figure deal, Publishers Weekly reports.
Yoon’s agent, Josh Getzler, said the book is “the first great millennial thriller,” and compared it, somewhat incredibly, to a mix between The Fault in Our Starsauthor John Green and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (your ex-boyfriend’s favorite novel). The book tells the story of three young people who go to war with tech companies engaged in unsavory practices.
Frankly in Love caused a stir in young-adult circles when it was published last month, drawing positive reviews from critics and landing on the New York Times bestseller list. It was optioned for a movie a year before it hit bookstore shelves.
The book, which follows a nerdy Korean American high school senior whose parents disapprove of him dating white girls, won praise for its sensitive handling of racial issues.
“It never really occurred to me until I wrote this book that I've been calling myself Korean American my whole life,” Yoon said in an interview with NPR. “There's always this qualification that I am Korean first and American second. Whereas, you know, the white majority in this country, they don't have to deal with that kind of thing. They just call themselves Americans.”
Kirkus called the book “a spectacular debut” and “a deeply moving account of love in its many forms.”
There’s no release date as of yet for Version Zero.
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
