Good in a Room: A Novel

In this brilliant debut novel from an acclaimed Chinese-American screenwriter and director, a woman must work with a man from her past and grapple with the tragedy that binds them together, even as generational loyalties keep them apart.

Thirteen years after her younger sister’s death, Helen Zhang is doing alright. Better than alright, if you don’t look too closely. She’s the bestselling author of a young adult series that’s being adapted into a TV show, and she’s scored a coveted spot in the writers' room. Never mind that she’s used to storytelling in solitude and is convinced she’ll be revealed as an imposter any minute. Or that she only jumped at the opportunity to move to LA to avoid her writer’s block. Helen has a few months to figure things out, in a fresh-start city where she knows exactly no one. No one, except…

Grant Shephard hasn’t seen Helen since high school, when their lives were tied together forever by the car wreck that killed her sister. He’s done everything in his power to move on, and while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s universally well liked around town as a screenwriter who can be counted on to deliver both on the page and in a writers room. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but working as the showrunner’s right-hand man will open doors to developing his own projects.
Grant’s presence comes as an unwelcome surprise to Helen, and he’s exactly as she remembers him–charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she has never been. Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers, too—brilliant, closed off, and undeniably beautiful. The more time they spend together, the more undeniable the pull between them becomes. 

But working together is fraught and sometimes messy, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven him, have no idea Grant is in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. For these two very different writers, the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—just might lie in holding on to each other in the present.